Author Topic: Official Navy documents on WWII carrier air operations  (Read 3286 times)

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Offline AG-51_Fireball

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Official Navy documents on WWII carrier air operations
« on: August 10, 2012, 02:55:41 PM »
I'm always interested in how things that we do in the game were really done historically, particularly carrier air operations. How did they do their landing patterns? How did they rendevous? etc. Since it was not uncommon for a naval aviator to have to operate on a carrier other than his home carrier, you know the procedures had to be highly standardized. And if the procedures were highly standardized, you know they had to be written down in some manual. Every now and then I'll go out and wander the internets looking for this kind of information. I haven't had much luck finding any official navy documents dealing with WWII air operations. But recently I stumbled on this scan of USF 77 - Current Tactical Orders Aircraft Carriers US Fleet:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_c6FlIgz3gLbWRIcFQ1dDV0SzA

USF 77 might be the primary document describing carrier air procedures. This version is March 1941 (prior to Pearl Harbor), so I would bet the procedures changed a lot once the shooting started. It would be great to see a late-war version of this.

Another document I'd really like to get ahold of is USF 74 - Current Tactical Orders and Doctrine US Fleet Aircraft Volume One Carrier Aircraft. I haven't found a copy of the document itself, but I did find a scan of the table of contents:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_c6FlIgz3gLRmdod3k0N2E3dFE

This is also a March 1941 version. I'm sure this changed a lot as the war progressed too. It's possible USF 74 superseded USF 77, I don't know.

If you know about any other docs that describe carrier air operations, let us know!
« Last Edit: August 10, 2012, 03:42:38 PM by AG-51_Fireball »

Offline AG-51_Thud

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Re: Official Navy documents on WWII carrier air operations
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2012, 03:33:23 PM »
Awesome!  I'll keep a watchful eye out for documents.   :thumbsup:

Offline AG-51_Razor

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Re: Official Navy documents on WWII carrier air operations
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2012, 09:27:58 AM »
That's awesome stuff Fireball. It doesn't appear that we are very far off the mark.  :thumbsup:


Any pilot that tells you he's never been lost is either lying or he's never been anywhere.

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Re: Official Navy documents on WWII carrier air operations
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2014, 07:13:50 AM »
Fireball, I know I'm coming late to this party, but this is what I thoroughly enjoy doing.

I'm a member of a site that has alot of really great info.  Now, I've never looked up what you're searching for, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's there.

for example, check out all the war diaries it found when all I typed in was "VT-51" and had the years set to 1942-1945  :thumbsup:
http://www.fold3.com/s.php#query=VT-51&ocr=1&dr_year=m,1942-1945&offset=8&t=750,829,825,494,95,635,448,878

I even found an original copy of the USS San Jacinto CVL-30's Cruise Book!  :cool:
« Last Edit: April 06, 2014, 07:26:00 AM by AG-51R_Badger »