As per usual with the Vikings, note that this is reduced to 33%. Click on the profile to see it on Photobucket where you can click again and see it at 100%. I've also submitted this to the
Clear Your Workbench GB and the
Asiarama GB at the What If forums.
Finally, we're getting around to the USN Vikings at the Battle of Midway. The first profile depicts an aircraft from the only dive-bomber squadron from the
Yorktown or
Enterprise to not participate in the sinking of any of the four Japanese carriers. Not only this, but it was the only true
Yorktown squadron on board the ship in what would be its most famous (and final) battle. This was "Scouting" Five (V"S"-5). Why the quotation marks? Well, that wasn't even the squadron's actual designation.
To explain all this, we need to look at the squadrons that were typically found on US fleet carriers at the start of WWII. You would have one squadron of fighters, two squadrons of dive bombers, and one squadron of torpedo bombers--four squadrons in total. These squadrons all shared the same number, and this number corresponded to the carrier's hull number. So, for instance, the
USS Enterprise (CV-5) had four squadrons: Fighting Six (VF-6), Scouting Six (VS-6), Bombing Six (VB-6), and Torpedo Six (VT-6). So, what's so unusual? The
Yorktown had VF-5, VS-5, VB-5, and VT-5, right? Well, yes...and no. At the Battle of Coral Sea, it had all four of these squadrons and they did very well, but the
Yorktown was damaged in the battle and its squadrons likewise suffered serious losses. As a result, when it returned to Pearl for repairs after the Battle of Coral Sea, only VB-5 remained on the carrier. Well, now it was missing three squadrons. Where was the US Navy going to find three trained, fully equipped carrier squadrons just lying around with nothing to do? Well, right there at Pearl.
Sorry, more explanation is needed here. When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7th, 1941, the United States had seven carriers:
USS Lexington,
Saratoga,
Ranger,
Yorktown,
Enterprise,
Wasp, and
Hornet (CV-2 through -8, respectively). Of these, the
Ranger and the
Wasp would spend the first few months of the war in the Atlantic and the newly commissioned
Hornet was still training up and getting ready for the Doolittle Raid in April. Its air group would see its first major action at Midway (and an inauspicious start it would be!). That just left the
Lexington,
Saratoga,
Yorktown, and
Enterprise. Well, as we well know, the
Lexington and
Yorktown would participate in the world's first major carrier vs. carrier action at Coral Sea where the
Lexington was lost. The
Enterprise was raiding Japanese outposts throughout the Pacific and also escorted the
Hornet during the Doolittle Raid. Well, what about the
Saratoga? Unfortunately, the
Saratoga was a bit of an unlucky ship. Every time she got ready to take the battle to the Japanese, she would get torpedoed by a Japanese submarine (or otherwise damaged) and have to return to the US for repairs. As a result, she didn't participate in many of the major US carrier battles of the early war. Having been torpedoed by the
I-6 on 11 January, 1942, she limped back to Pearl where she unloaded VF-3, VB-3, and VT-3. She retained VS-3 as protection for the voyage back to the West Coast. So, from January to May, these squadrons sat at Pearl waiting for something to do. That "something" pulled into port on 27 May, 1942, when the
Yorktown sailed into Pearl for repairs.
When the
Yorktown set sail from Pearl on 30 May, she did so with VF-3, VB-3, and VT-3 from the
Saratoga plus VB-5 from the
Yorktown. So, where did "VS-5" come from? Well, as mentioned earlier US carriers were only used to have one squadron of each type on board a carrier at that point in the war--Fighting, Scouting, Bombing, and Torpedo. To avoid confusion from having two "Bombing" squadrons,
Yorktown's own VB-5 was temporarily redesignated "VS-5", or "Scouting Five". Since the Scouting and Bombing squadrons used the same aircraft, had the same basic training, and could be used almost interchangeably as the situation required, a redesignation was all that was needed.
So, why didn't "Scouting" Five not participate in the attacks on the four Japanese carriers that so defined the Battle of Midway? Fletcher decided to hold them in reserve during the strikes, much to the consternation of the aircrew of "Scouting" Five. A number of VS-5's aircraft were lost when
Yorktown was hit and sunk, but a number of them made it to the
Enterprise to carry on the fight, along with aircraft from
Yorktown's other squadrons (those "borrowed" from
Saratoga). In fact, due to fuel shortage, a number of aircraft from
Hornet also landed on the
Enterprise on the night of 5 June. As a result, the
Enterprise had a truly composite air wing on the morning of 6 June with aircraft from the
Saratoga (CV-3),
Yorktown (CV-5),
Enterprise (CV-6), and
Hornet (CV-8). When the Japanese light cruisers
Mikuma and
Mogami were attacked on 6 June, "Scouting" Five finally got their chance to exact revenge for the loss of
Yorktown, sinking
Mikuma and heavily damaging
Mogami.
All of
Yorktown's squadrons would participate in the Battle of Midway and their combat actions along with the sinking of the
Yorktown would account for the loss of many aircraft and aircrew, including those of the
Saratoga squadrons. The tragic irony in all of this, however, was that the recently repaired
Saratoga would pull into Pearl Harbor on 6 June, 1942, only to find that only a week earlier its squadrons had left on the
Yorktown for Midway and the
Saratoga had arrived only days too late to participate in what was certainly one of the most important carrier battles in naval history.
Cheers,
Logan