DONE: F4F-4 Wildcat "13", VF-3, W. N. Leonard, USS Yorktown, Battle of Midway, GB

[R Leonard]

No, none of b/n 5244 as white 13 except the already posted 80-G-312016. We were not aware of that one until the early 1980’s when it turned up in John Lundstrom’s and Bob Cressman’s research for their respective works.

Typical VF-3 F4F-4s immediately prior to the Midway deployment can be found at
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/i...000/g66154.jpg
which shows b/n 5171 - white 1 - which was Jimmie Thach’s assigned plane and at
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/i...000/g61533.jpg
which shows (L-R) b/n 5167 - white 5 - and 5149 - white 10.

This is a shot of Tom Cheek’s wrecked b/n 5143 - white 16 - on Yorktown’s hangar deck after his barrier crash. A good shot for placement of side numbers and the VF-3 insignia (centered on that six-sided access panel just forward and below the windscreen on both sides of the plane).
http://www.internetmodeler.com/2002/...k-CheekF4F.jpg

MaritimeQuest - USS Hornet CV-8 Page 13
shows three of shots of the wounded Ens Dan Sheedy landing his shot-up b/n 5239 - white 24 - aboard USS Hornet upon his return from the morning strike escort mission, a landing incident in which his guns fired and resulted in the deaths and wounding of several crewmen.

Same thing happened somewhat later when Ens Bill Barnes came aboard Hornet in b/n 5167 - white 5 - but no one got hurt in that incident. This is a nice clean shot of white 5 showing markings -
http://www.maritimequest.com/warship...from%20cv5.jpg.
The website says this is Ens Horace Bass in white 5, but, no, it was Bill Barnes

There is an obvious discrepancy between assigned aircraft and aircraft the VF-3 pilots actually flew in the battle. That is simply because one took what was spotted on the flight deck. Thach, for example, flew white 23 in his morning strike escort mission and then, later, as the Japanese torpedo attack came in took off in “his” white 1. Counting that flight, there were only four pilots who actually flew their nominally assigned aircraft. The other three were Leonard in white 13 and Mach.Tom Barnes in b/n 5142 - white 17, and Ens Horace Bass (ah ha!) in b/n 5050 - white 22.

Rich

[Lucky13]

Thank you very much fro your help Rich! Really look forward to build this Wildcat!

[109ROAMING]

Beaut choice Jan!

[Njaco]

Lucky, check this site out. I think the guy does a pretty decent job....

Air Groups on CV-5 USS Yorktown

[R Leonard]

Originally Posted by Njaco

Lucky, check this site out. I think the guy does a pretty decent job...

Except the site developer doesn't seem to know that VF-5 was replaced by VF-42 in June 1941 and that VF-42 remained Yorktown's fitron in all of the ship's actions through Coral Sea. VF-42 was replaced by VF-3 at the end of May 1942 for the Midway deployment.

He also seems to have missed VT-5 being replaced by VT-3 and VS-5 being replaced by VB-3 for the Midway deployment. He also needs to work on his squadron complement numbers just a bit.

I can't figure out why he heads up his sections with "Commander Enterprise Air Group", either.

And I wonder why he couldn't come up with a VB-5 squadron insignia; he found VS-5 and that one tends to be a little more obscure. Not to mention there's no VF-42 insignia . . . oh, that's right, he doesn't mention VF-42.

No, I'd be leery of this site.

Of course you need to always remember that I suffer from an extreme form, probably terminal, of USS Yorktown CV-5 pickiness coupled with incurable Midway-itus.

Regards,

Rich

[Lucke.stz]

Wow ! Great build !

[Lucky13]

Originally Posted by R Leonard

Except the site developer doesn't seem to know that VF-5 was replaced by VF-42 in June 1941 and that VF-42 remained Yorktown's fitron in all of the ship's actions through Coral Sea. VF-42 was replaced by VF-3 at the end of May 1942 for the Midway deployment.

He also seems to have missed VT-5 being replaced by VT-3 and VS-5 being replaced by VB-3 for the Midway deployment. He also needs to work on his squadron complement numbers just a bit.

I can't figure out why he heads up his sections with "Commander Enterprise Air Group", either.

And I wonder why he couldn't come up with a VB-5 squadron insignia; he found VS-5 and that one tends to be a little more obscure. Not to mention there's no VF-42 insignia . . . oh, that's right, he doesn't mention VF-42.

No, I'd be leery of this site.

Of course you need to always remember that I suffer from an extreme form, probably terminal, of USS Yorktown CV-5 pickiness coupled with incurable Midway-itus.

Regards,

Rich

Suffer from the same condition as me then Rich? Yorktownitus Obsessioniticus I think that it was called anyway, from that she was built until that she was sunk in '42. Have the same problem with Yorktown CV-10 and Coral Sea CV-43....

Am I right to believe that "Swede" Vejtasa's Dauntless should have "meatball" national markings while your dads Wildcat lacked the red dots in the star?
Thanks for your help, very appreciated it is!

[Wayne Little]

Great info and pics Rich!....thanks for sharing!

[Lucky13]

Agree Wayne. Priceless to use one word! Once again, thank you very much Rich!

[R Leonard]

Originally Posted by Lucky13

Suffer from the same condition as me then Rich? Yorktownitus Obsessioniticus I think that it was called anyway, from that she was built until that she was sunk in '42. Have the same problem with Yorktown CV-10 and Coral Sea CV-43....

Am I right to believe that "Swede" Vejtasa's Dauntless should have "meatball" national markings while your dads Wildcat lacked the red dots in the star?
Thanks for your help, very appreciated it is!

Yorktownitus Obsessioniticus, yeah, the official name of the dreaded malady. And there is no cure.

Around my house, growing up, when one said “Yorktown” that meant CV-5. If you wanted to talk about the Essex class carrier of the same name, you said “CV-10”. And no one ever, ever mentioned the later CG by the same name except for “ . . . a cruiser, for God’s sake, what have we come to.”

Swede Vejtasa left Yorktown and VS-5 while all were at Tongatabu sorting things out and effecting interim repairs after the Battle of the Coral Sea. He, along with Jim Flatley (VF-42) and Fritz Faulkner (VS-5) rode back to the west coast with the Lexington survivors. His SBD would have, indeed, had the national insignia with red disks during the period of the actual Coral Sea battle, and don’t forget the 13 alternating red & white stripes on the rudders. All those red disks and stripe tails though went away in mid-May.

Here’s trivia. When Lexington went back to Pearl Harbor after the Lae-Salamaua raid, Jimmie Thach’s VF-3 “sold” three or four (I’m not bothering to look it up) of its F4F-3’s to VF-42 to replace their losses from ditches due engine failures caused by clogged fuel lines. My father was one of the VF-42 pilots who went over to Lexington to ferry the planes back to Yorktown. His suffered a balky engine on the way back to Yorktown and, though he landed safely aboard, all wondered if these contributions were really such a good deal. Anyway, the F4Fs they got from Lexington served in the squadron through Coral Sea and the trip back to Pearl. They could always be readily identified because the original VF-42 F4F-3s had the regulation 13 alternating rudder stripes. The F4F-3s from Lexington had nine alternating stripes. Once the stripes went away in mid-May, they were all plain vanilla and you could no longer tell original complement from Lexington add-ons without a scorecard.

The only period photo I have of a VF-42 F4F-3 was taken in mid-February 1942 and shows only the front of the airplane as the subject of the photo was the squadron’s pilots - all gaggled together in front of said F4F-3 - not the airplane.

Glad I contribute a bit.

Regards,

Rich

[Njaco]

Thanks Rich, I know nothing about the PTO and what was on the site seemed to match the sparse info I had for the SBD units. But as the mantra goes about the net...be wary!

[Airframes]

Great background info Rich. It's a real education for me, as I haven't really studied anything about the PTO, so thanks a lot for the introduction to the subject!

[Lucky13]

Believe me Rich, your contribution is more than welcome and tremendously appreciated, to say the least!

Thank You!

Edit: I'll have to start reffering to Yorktown CV-5 as Yorktown, the CV-10 as CV-10 etc then....

[Lucky13]

Been looking at the Yellow Wings decals for this one and Eduards "Zoom" set for the cockpit, just slowly and gently get into the etch "scene"...

[Lucky13]

Here's the link to Robert Ballard's Midway page at National Geographic. Check out the links for USS Yorktown CV-5 photos and video at the bottom at Midway.... Midway @ nationalgeographic.com