Lost in the Fog of War and Peace.

[oldcrowcv63]

Sometimes, in war or peacetime, a naval aviator may become a little disoriented and momentarily lose his or her bearings.

If one makes the mistake of misidentifying one's home plate. Bad things are sure to happen, whether at the mercy of friend or foe:

If a USN plane lands unintentionally on a USN carrier to which he is not assigned, the aircraft and the pilot are in for some serious graffiti-artwork and hazing. If the pilot lands on an enemy carrier its actually not nearly so bad. They simply shoot you.

This almost happened on the evening of May 7, 1942, during the Battle of the Coral Sea when Japanese carrier based aircraft were on a mission to attack nearby enemy (USN) carriers got a bit disoriented and inadvertently entered the landing pattern of the USS Yorktown. The Captain issued the 18th century order, " All Hands, prepare to repel boarders!" I suspect he drew his cutlass too. US AA fire gave notice to the Japanese airmen that they were over the wrong ship.

 

[Old Wizard]

 

[rochie]

Eric winkle Brown was doing landing trials with an early seafire and landed safetly but was annoyed there was no bat man or any one on deck at all.

Then he realised he'd landed on an anchored ship not the one he was supposed to have landed on that was under way and expecting him !

 

[stona]

Navigation led to several aircraft ending up in the wrong place. The old 'flying on a reciprocal bearing' mistake accounted for a few, certainly Armin Faber who delivered a nice Fw 190 to the British. A Spitfire from No. 521 Squadron landed at St Trond when it should have been performing a meteorological reconnaissance flight over Northern Ireland, probably as the result of a similar mistake. Another Spitfire landed at a German occupied airfield (maybe Schipol) by mistake when the pilot was on a navigation exercise! That, Alanis Morissette, really is ironic
Cheers
Steve

 

[GregP]

Can't quite recall everything, but I seem to remember a time an Allied plane landed at a German airfield by mistake and the pilot realized his mistake when he saw Germans running up to his plane, gunned it and managed to get away unscathed. I bet he had to change his shorts and I bet some Germans got a real dressing down from an airfield commander for letting one that had landed get away.

 

[Elmas]

In 1943 a P38 was nicely presented to Regia Aeronautica when an American Pilot landed to the Capoterra air base, a few miles far from where I live...

 

[herman1rg]

This is a good subject, looking forward to more pictures and stories.

 

[oldcrowcv63]

Nice photo Elmas!

Seeing a luckless Naval Aviator's graffiti adorned aircraft about to return to home plate after a sojourn on a companion flat-top approaches the hilarious.

Question, How come the Internet doesn't have any more modern examples of this tradition?
I don't know the answer. Could the answer be one of the following? :

1. Carriers are now few enough in number that they normally no longer operate in pairs so the opportunities for cross deck mistakes is reduced.

2. Political correctness has eliminated the practice. No Carrier Air Group Commander wants one of his aircraft to be aesthetically destroyed accompanied by the costly need to repaint.

3. USN Navigation systems (Including CV Landing systems) have become so good and so sophisticated that the error no longer happens.

4. modern USN Pilots never make such mistakes because they are just too darned awesome.

5. All of the above.

Seeing an otherwise familiar opponent's aircraft in enemy garb seems to me to be just weird. I vote for more of the weird.... but, in the meantime:

 

[Peter Gunn]

If you want to see a pack of Allied planes in Luftwaffe livery:

LuftArchiv.de - Das Archiv der Deutschen Luftwaffe

on the left in the hard to see navigation click on "Beuteflugzeuge" and they are listed not only by country but my manufacturer. Enjoy.

 

[nuuumannn]

This is what the French did to a Harrier that overnighted at an Armee de l'Air base:

http://www.mirage4fs.com/images/gerard/Harrier/Harrier-12.jpg

From here (scroll down a bit):

Mirage Aircraft for Flight Simulator

 

[Token]

Seeing a luckless Naval Aviator's graffiti adorned aircraft about to return to home plate after a sojourn on a companion flat-top approaches the hilarious.

I would vote strongly for modern nav systems, larger deck numbers, and the fact that it is very uncommon for multiple carriers of the same series to steam together today.

By the way, the last picture in your group, jrHZyVS.jpg, an F2H-2N, is a fake. The undoctored version of that image is here http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com/bansheepics/123309.jpg

T!

 

[bobbysocks]

this is funny...I never knew they did such a thing...tho do totally understand it...lol

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff guys!