Picture of the day. (64 Viewers)

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SBD-3 Dauntless of Scouting Squadron (VS) 10 flies over the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV 6) prior to recovery aboard the carrier in December 1942. USS Saratoga (CV 3) steams in the background FACB
View attachment 867984
With a bit of liberty, I could picture Yorktown and Lexington.
 
SBD-5 of VB-16 off USS Lexington (CV 16) pictured over Dublon/Eaton Island en route to strike Japanese installations at Truk 1944 FACB
SBD-5 of VB-16 off USS Lexington (CV 16) pictured over Dublon:Eaton Island en route to strike ...png
 
Hi Viking,

The OJ-2 was assigned to Scouting 5, Cruiser Division Two, Battle Force. (VS-5B wore the True Blue tail bands.) At the time (1933-35), CruDiv 2 sailed the lighter Omaha class light cruisers, and could only carry two aircraft per ship section (not the normal three). That made 5-S-5 the section leader for Section 2 on Memphis, with a True Blue cowl, cowl ring, and fuselage stripe.

The O2U-3 was with Scouting Fleet/Force's Light Cruiser Division Five (Cruiser Division Four after April 1931) VS-9S (with white tail bands) from September 1930 through June 1933. As Chester (and the other new "Treaty Cruisers") carried four scout planes, 9-S-8 was the fourth aircraft in Section 2 (rather than the more usual second aircraft in Section 3). Adding to the confusion, the cowl is painted white on the lower half (the normal marking for 9-S-7) instead of having the expected 1-foot-wide white stripe of the fourth aircraft. (The four-plane sections of the Treaty Cruisers required a new nose marking that took some time to develop.)

Here's an earlier 9-S-8 (25 Nov 1931) before the introduction of the vertical white cowl stripe:
O2U-4 - VS-9S - 25 Nov 1931 - USS Wright - 80-G-454222.jpg


Don't worry about the captions provided for some of these images - the photos you're sharing are worth it even without a caption. Thanks for posting!

Cheers,



Dana
 
The caption is all I had to go on. They have thousands of photos, so it could be an error.

I found the explanation.

From 1922 to 1946, VS designated a Scouting Squadron.

On carriers air groups,VS squadrons had the same composition as a VB (bombing squadron) and their mission in practise intechanged. They were officially suppressed in 1945, but in fact since 1943 they had been rebranded as VF, VB etc...

In 1950, VS was reused for the antisubmaine mission.
 
Someone also built a model of it:


01.jpg
 

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