Wasp Air Group.....July 1942

[Jerry Phillips]

CV-7 Wasp Air Group....01 July 1942

VF-71 30 F4F-4's
VS-71 15 SBD-3's
VS-72 15 SBD-3's
VT-7 10 TBF-1's
Utility Unit 1 J2F-5

CWAG flew one of the VT-7 TBF-1's

Kinda intersting that the Wasp retained a J2F-5 Duck as late as mid 1942. This was Wasp's airgroup entering the Guadalcanal Campaign. Lot of aircraft for a small hull!

Jerry

[fred_sirois]

Hello Jerry,

I posted this on the other site, but I wanted to cover all the bases.

I plan to model a 1/48 scale SBD-3 Dauntless in the markings of VS-71 or VS-72 from the USS WASP, CV-7, during the Guadalcanal campaign. I have purchased the Accurate Miniatures kit of the SBD-3, Coral Sea markings (black box).

The issue I am having is that the AM kit has the single 0.30 caliber flexible gun in the rear seat. Information that I have gathered seems to indicate that the WASP SBD-3�s had twin 0.30�s.

The question is this: what would be the easiest and/or cheapest way to put the correct configuration of the twin 0.30�s in the rear seat of the AM SBD-3 kit?

Thank you in advance.

[Charybdis]

According to J D Brown's Carrier Operations in WW2:

WASP's Air Group for Operation:WATCHTOWER on 7th August, 1942:

CVG-7 Lt Commander Wallace M Beakley - 1 TBF-1

VF-71 - 29 F4F-4
VS-71 - 15 SBD-3
VS-72 - 15 SBD-3
VT-7 - 9 TBF-1

[IP2SWA]

From Atlantic and Pacific Fleet Organization dated 8 Aug 42:
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Also have a snapshot of CinCLant War Diary from Jun after Wasp's return from duty with the Home Fleet, but it's too big to attach. Working on it.

[Charybdis]

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing. Hoping to see the war diary from Jun!

[Tracy White]

For what it is worth, from the more-or-less weekly "Location of U.S. Naval Aircraft" reports: