Honet Deck Load for the Doolittle Raid (2 Viewers)

[pinehilljoe]

I saw this photo, I do not know if it's real or created. From this photo its hard to imagine the deck load spotting for the take off. Has anyone seen an aerial photo of Hornet with the B-25s spotted ready to take off?

 

[SaparotRob]

I counted 16 planes. Did Hornet depart from San Diego or San Francisco?

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I counted 16 planes. Did Hornet depart from San Diego or San Francisco?

The Bay Area.

 

[SaparotRob]

Didn't look like the San Diego Bridge.

 

[mjfur]

That's the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco) in the photo. I don't believe that is a real photo.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Didn't look like the San Diego Bridge.

Sure it does, sorta.

This picture, however, is a painting. Look on the right-hand side about halfway down this page:

William S. Phillips Archives - Picture This Framing & Gallery

www.picturethisgallery.com

 

[EwenS]

I saw this photo, I do not know if it's real or created. From this photo its hard to imagine the deck load spotting for the take off. Has anyone seen an aerial photo of Hornet with the B-25s spotted ready to take off?

Plenty of photos of her deck on Navsource.

Aircraft Carrier Photo Index: USS HORNET (CV-8)

During the trip to Japan some of her air group found their way to the flight deck at times - F4F forward, SBD aft amongst the B-25. The flight deck was respotted, probably the day before the launch, to move the B-25 as far aft as possible to increase the take off run of the foremost B-25s.

 

[MIflyer]

Note that there originally were supposed to be only 15 B-25's on the raid. The 16th was a "spare" that Doolittle demanded to be loaded along with its two pilots after they followed the rest across the country without authorization. They formed a crew with spare personnel and that was the B-25 that diverted to Russia.

 

[SaparotRob]

I thought "didn't look like the San Diego Bridge." was funny.

 

[special ed]

Plenty of photos of her deck on Navsource.

Aircraft Carrier Photo Index: USS HORNET (CV-8)

During the trip to Japan some of her air group found their way to the flight deck at times - F4F forward, SBD aft amongst the B-25. The flight deck was respotted, probably the day before the launch, to move the B-25 as far aft as possible to increase the take off run of the foremost B-25s.

All B-25s had to taxi forward to a certain point at the island, which was the tightest spot on the deck, for takeoff. All B-25s had the same takeoff run.