Picture of the day. (2 Viewers)

[Greg Boeser]

Hope the ball turret-gunner was seated next to the engineer!

Assembly ship, so war weary and disarmed. They were used to assist in formation assembly after take off. Once the unit was formed, the assembly ship would return to base.

 

[Frog]

Hope the ball turret-gunner was seated next to the engineer!

As a general rule, assembly ships had only a limited crew for flying and navigation, hence no gunner as the ship returned to base after formation completed..
However, as exception to the rule, according to Wiki, there were instances when Spotted Ass Ape flew to Germany with the 458th formation.

 

[MiTasol]

I take it those are lights or strobes or flare dischargers to assist other pilots in locating the aircraft in the middle of the I

 

[Airframes]

Yes.

 

[cammerjeff]

80 years ago 3-11-1945 the USS Randolph CV-15 under repair at Ulithi Atollwith the Vulcan class repair ship USS Jason (ARH-1) alongside. Damaged caused by a Yokosuka P1Y Ginga "Frances" kamikaze attack.
The ship was able to resume operations just 16 days later.
source kamikaze hole Randolph (CV-15) 13 March 1945 80-G-344531

 

[Gnomey]

Good shots!

 

[syscom3]

Curtiss A-12 Shrike

 

[syscom3]

"The skipper wants to talk to you".

An SB2C that nosed over while landing on USS Shangri-La (CV-38), 13 March 1945

 

[MiTasol]

Durn it - someone invented those curved blades way back then. I guess they worked as poorly as most of the more modern versions.