Grumman F4F Wildcat

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It's interesting how the typist refers to the Allies as the "United Nations", not the first time I've seen this term used in wartime correspondence, but intriguing, nonetheless.
 
XBe02Drvr said:
According to Capt Slagle, on the -3 the gear operating crank was on the left side and operated with the pilot's throttle hand. The -4 had an emergency gear operating crank on the right for when the electric/hydraulic system failed.
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F4F-3 Cockpit, gear handle on the right.

Lewis AIr Legends F4F-3,
 
I have mentioned in another thread a comment I read in a book in the 1950s about how one could tell if a USN pilot flew F4Fs by the way he wore his watch. He had it on the edge of his wrist because, if he wore it with the face on the outside of his wrist, it was scratched on the on the crank wheel when retracting the L/G, if he wore it on the inside of his wrist, he scratched it on the seat frame cranking. If one watches the "Dogfight" video series, look for the piece about Jefferson DeBlanc. In telling of his combat, he says the Zeke pilot shot the watch off of his wrist, and he touches the edge of his wrist just where F4F pilots wore it.
 
While looking over F4F photos, I found a remarkable sequence of photos depicting a failed take-off from the escort carrier USS CORE (CVE-13). The pilot, Julius Brownstien, dictated in detail what is happening in all 9 of the pictures, from take-off attempt to climbing out of a rapidly sinking Wildcat. Apparently, his take-off signal was mistimed during rough seas and the carrier's bow was heading down a trough when he started forward causing a loss of lift. An excellent read can be found at:
F4F Wildcat – History, at Random
3B093D4E-EB93-472C-9A34-DC72BC142B6B.jpeg
 
I had originally intended to post this interesting picture, when I discovered the story above, but I think this is worth giving the eyeball.. Imagine making this climb while the ship is steaming forward and the waves are lifting it…

BDF44745-2707-4FBA-9BFF-EAFEA80EABE9.jpeg
 
XBe02Drvr said:
Buffnut, are you seeing the same picture I am; one plane pulled apart from the rest on a carrier deck, wearing a pre-1943 color scheme, with the deck apes standing around getting their change of shift briefing? Sure looks to me like an early Pratt 1830 powered F4F, with its mid wing, fuselage mounted "pop-out"(hand cranked, BTW) landing gear, and its four wing mounted guns. (Don't be fooled by the outboard port on th starboard wing; it's a light.)
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What XBe said. The airplane marked 6F16 is most definitely a Wildcat. Reminds me that you could get in a pretty decent cyber food fight on Facebook with all the people who insisted Wildcats were Hellcats and vice Versagofigger!
 
BlackSheep said:
Here are a couple of photos that always interested me…
View attachment 693891

This was described as gun test firing on USS Ranger prior to Operation Torch… I always wondered if and how they test fired guns while on deck.

This next pic is captioned USS Hornet on route to Japan, during Doolittle Raid. I was always under the impression that the Hornet didn't have access to her fighters with the bombers aboard. Also of note from the same article this picture came from, the author states that Doolittle and another officer made test take-offs from the Hornet, to prove it could be done. I'd always heard the first take-offs were for the actual mission. Anyone ever heard of this?


View attachment 693892
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Note this image taken during the voyage - if needed they would catapult off, and ditch alongside a destroyer.

Text for photo:
NS020833e
Most of Hornet's Air Group (made up of 30 F4F-4 Wildcats from VF-8, 12 SBD-3 Dauntlesses from VB-8, 12 SBD-3's from VS-8, and 10 TBD-1 Devastators from VT-8) was carried down in the hangar, but five Wildcats were kept up on deck in case they were needed in an emergency.
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5 VF-8 Wildcats were kept on deck in case of emergency.jpg
 
GreenKnight121 said:
Note this image taken during the voyage - if needed they would catapult off, and ditch alongside a destroyer.

Text for photo:


View attachment 694478
Click to expand...
Thanks for the additional info on the pic. After reviewing these pics and more, I think a great disservice was done when the deck personnel were not commended for keeping that floating airstrip somewhat usable on the way to target. Reminds me of one of those little puzzles where one square is missing and you move the others to create a picture…
 
nuuumannn said:
It's interesting how the typist refers to the Allies as the "United Nations", not the first time I've seen this term used in wartime correspondence, but intriguing, nonetheless.
Click to expand...
Wiki said:
The first specific step towards the establishment of the United Nations was the Inter-Allied conference that led to the Declaration of St James's Palace on 12 June 1941.[14][15] By August 1941, American president Franklin Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill had drafted the Atlantic Charter to define goals for the post-war world. At the subsequent meeting of the Inter-Allied Council in London on 24 September 1941, the eight governments in exile of countries under Axis occupation, together with the Soviet Union and representatives of the Free French Forces, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth by Britain and United States.[16][17]

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met at the White House in December 1941 for the Arcadia Conference. Roosevelt, considered a founder of the UN,[18][19] coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries. Churchill accepted it, noting its use by Lord Byron. [20][21] The text of the Declaration by United Nations was drafted on 29 December 1941, by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins. It incorporated Soviet suggestions but included no role for France. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, which Stalin approved after Roosevelt insisted.[22][23]

Roosevelt's idea of the "Four Powers", referring to the four major Allied countries, the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Republic of China, emerged in the Declaration by United Nations.[24] On New Year's Day 1942, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Maxim Litvinov, of the USSR, and T. V. Soong, of China, signed the "Declaration by United Nations",[25] and the next day the representatives of twenty-two other nations added their signatures. During the war, "the United Nations" became the official term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis powers.[26]

The October 1943 Moscow Conference resulted in the Moscow Declarations, including the Four Power Declaration on General Security which aimed for the creation "at the earliest possible date of a general international organization". This was the first public announcement that a new international organization was being contemplated to replace the League of Nations. The Tehran Conference followed shortly afterwards at which Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met and discussed the idea of a post-war international organization.

The new international organization was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the Allied Big Four at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference from 21 September to 7 October 1944. They agreed on proposals for the aims, structure and functioning of the new international organization.[27][28][29] It took the conference at Yalta in February 1945, and further negotiations with Moscow, before all the issues were resolved.
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The story of that discussion between Roosevelt and Churchill.
Wordorigins.org
 
special ed said:
I have mentioned in another thread a comment I read in a book in the 1950s about how one could tell if a USN pilot flew F4Fs by the way he wore his watch. He had it on the edge of his wrist because, if he wore it with the face on the outside of his wrist, it was scratched on the on the crank wheel when retracting the L/G, if he wore it on the inside of his wrist, he scratched it on the seat frame cranking. If one watches the "Dogfight" video series, look for the piece about Jefferson DeBlanc. In telling of his combat, he says the Zeke pilot shot the watch off of his wrist, and he touches the edge of his wrist just where F4F pilots wore it.
Click to expand...

Watches and gear cranks are only a problem in an F4F if one wears his watch on the right wrist. Like most righties, I've always worn my watch on the left wrist with face on the inside of the wrist. That's the way my father, a career naval aviator and an F4F driver, wore his, so, an early influence. I asked him once, probably about the time of my first wristwatch why he wore it that way when most everyone else I saw wore the face on the outside of the wrist. He said something along the lines of flying an airplane or even driving a car it was easier to glance down at the inside of the wrist without moving the hand from whatever it was doing and turning the wrist over. Works for me.
 
R Leonard said:
ALL F4Fs and FMs had hand cranked landing gear, no electric, no hydraulic, nothing but Mk I right arm turning a chain drive. Period. Full Stop.
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Well, then the FM2 that visited our local airport back in the mid 80s must have been a one-off or a civil STC mod. While I was fueling his plane, I joked about the landing gear crank, and he said that it was for emergency extension only, and normal operation was electrically controlled hydraulic.
He had a cool little passenger compartment installed in the aft fuselage with blue tinted windows disguised in the horizontal bars of the national insignia. Musta raised hell with the CG.
 
XBe02Drvr said:
Well, then the FM2 that visited our local airport back in the mid 80s must have been a one-off or a civil STC mod. While I was fueling his plane, I joked about the landing gear crank, and he said that it was for emergency extension only, and normal operation was electrically controlled hydraulic.
He had a cool little passenger compartment installed in the aft fuselage with blue tinted windows disguised in the horizontal bars of the national insignia. Musta raised hell with the CG.
Click to expand...

Really doesn't matter what some fellow told you at the local airfield. Either
a- he was pulling your leg, or
b- some sort of post manufactured, post service, modification.

In squadron, USN, active service, if you wanted the landing gear up or down, 28 turns on the crank, one way or the other, was the only option. See below, if the FM was any improvement over the F4F such improvements were most certainly not in the landing gear operation.

AN 01-190FB-1 Pilot's Handbook of Flight Operating Instructions – Navy Model FM-2 British Model Wildcat VI Airplanes –

Note item #10
00 rt side FM-2 Cockpit.png


And operating from page 15
00 FM-2 gear instructions.png
 
R Leonard said:
Really doesn't matter what some fellow told you at the local airfield. Either
a- he was pulling your leg, or
b- some sort of post manufactured, post service, modification.

In squadron, USN, active service, if you wanted the landing gear up or down, 28 turns on the crank, one way or the other, was the only option. See below, if the FM was any improvement over the F4F such improvements were most certainly not in the landing gear operation.

AN 01-190FB-1 Pilot's Handbook of Flight Operating Instructions – Navy Model FM-2 British Model Wildcat VI Airplanes –

Note item #10
View attachment 695047

And operating from page 15
View attachment 695048
Click to expand...
Well, there it is in black and white. Thanks for that. That plane was clearly far from stock, with its well upholstered passenger compartment, modern com/nav equipment (including ILS), autopilot, and truly ferocious strobe light anticollision system. I'm guessing the landing gear was probably modded as well.
His R1820 rattled and clattered like they all do, however. Some things never change.
 
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