Aircraft Carrier Flight Deck Operations: Honoring the LSO's of WWII

LSO Using Signal Flag. Photo: Frank Scherschel/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. January 01, 1942


As I plow my way through Hugh Ambrose's new book titled The Pacific, I am reminded again just how daunting and exhilerating the US Naval aircraft carrier operations in World War II truly were. I have long been an admirer of military aviators, and at one time would have greatly relished the opportunity to test my own mettle in the cockpit of a roaring jet.

But, WWII was a profoundly different war from the ones that preceded it. Our boys were sent to the front lines using technology and equipment that was largely untested in battle. Hell, the instructors were teaching military principles that had only been in place for a very short time. Carrier aviators must have had serious balls of steel. Dropping a several ton screaming piece of metal onto a rolling carrier deck at a fast clip is pure insanity. Can you even imagine your first time? I've asked many a veteran aviator at air shows how they did it at such a young age, and their response is usually along the lines of, "because we had to". Well damn.

Just as foreign a position were the men assigned to flag duty; the Landing Signal Officers (LSO). These seamen had an even larger responsibility to the fleet. Land the aviators. All of them. And wave them in safely. Here's honoring these forgotten heroes of WWII.


A plane handler signals to the pilot of a Grumman F6F Hellcat to "Lock the tailwheel," aboard the USS Tulagi off the coast of southern France. Photo: Wayne Miller © CORBIS. August 1944.


Activities on USS Lexington, CVA-16, during military action. Plane director brings F6F down flight deck after landing. June 1943.


A U.S. Navy fighter takes off from the deck of an aircraft carrier during the invasion of North Africa. © Horace Bristol/CORBIS. Photo: Horace Bristol. Circa 1942.


Lt. John Clark, USN, LSO gives pilot signal to lift one wing as he brings in plane for landing on USS Lexington in South Pacific. December 1943.


A TBD from Torpedo Eight, T-5, taxiing up the flight deck of CV-8. Circa May 15, 1942. Via.

LSO night ops; or he could be auditioning for Cirque du Soleil.


This fine chap could either be directing several tons of fast moving steel onto a shifting carrier deck, or modeling Ralph Lauren's Fall line.


Lt. in new suit made of chemically treated cloth, on flight deck of USS Charger. September 6, 1944.


Signal flags aboard the USS Hancock. December 20, 1944.


LCDR John C. Waldron, Torpedo Eight's Commanding Officer, and Horace F. Dobbs, CRMP on the flight deck of the USS Hornet in the Coral Sea. Via.


Aircraft carrier signal man. The blurry dude in the forefront looks like a fashion time-traveler.

The Battle of Midway (1942): Color Documentary

A color documentary short that portrays the decisive battle of Midway. The naval/air confrontation between the carrier forces of Japan and the U.S. is considered to be the turning point of World War II in the Pacific. Directed by John Ford.

Despite the freakish Betty White-sounding narration, this is probably the coolest documentary I have seen in ages. And it is 68 years old. Do yourself a favor. Watch. Listen. Learn.

Fliegender Bleistift: "The Flying Pencil"

Dornier 17s on Patrol in Poland. Bundesarchiv, Bild. Spieth. Summer 1940.


Chalk this one up to amazing finds. Literally.

“At 1142 hours, 264 Squadron was ordered to take off and patrol Dover, to intercept enemy bombers.”

The report neatly summarizes the encounter, listing six enemy Dornier 17 bombers and one Me-109 fighter destroyed, to three Defiants lost on the British side. The details state that one Do-17 was “…damaged. Broke formation—smoking from both engines.” It is believed that this is the airplane that made a forced landing in an area of the English Channel called Goodwin Sands at low tide, shortly before 2 p.m. that afternoon. Read the original combat report.

A sonar side-scan image of a Dornier 17 that has been on the bottom of the English Channel for 70 years. Courtesy: RAF Museum.

Read the rest of the article on the EAA Website.

VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945

Too cool. I had to repost. Found here.

Ice Pilots

"Ice Pilots NWT is a 13-episode real-life docu-series about an unorthodox airline in the Canadian North. Yellowknife-based Buffalo Airways flies WWII-era propeller planes – big old aircraft built by "Rosie the Riveter" that have remained virtually unchanged over the years. Rookie pilots defy bone-chilling temperatures to fly cargo and passengers through blizzards, breakdowns and transatlantic journeys. It's an impossible job in a merciless place."

I've always wanted to visit the Great White North.

Buffalo Airways is the only commercial airline in the world that still ferries passengers in the Douglas DC-3; THE plane that revolutionized air travel.

The US version of the History Channel has some great television programming, but man, I'd trade Canada Ice Road Truckers and Deadliest Catch for Ice Pilots any day.

Eject

These photos are incredible. Thankfully the pilot is still alive.

Pilot Capt. Brian Bews ejects as his a CF-18 fighter jet plummets to the ground during a practice flight at the Lethbridge County Airport on Friday, July 23 for the weekend airshow in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. "He is alive and we believe right now that his injuries are non-life-threatening," Canadian Forces Capt. Nicole Meszaros told CBC News.

It's Not All About The Machine

Royal Air Force Pilot based in India during World War II

The goggles on this chap protected his face from everything the Nazis could throw at a pilot during the big daddy of all World Wars.

So why not choose the same goggles to protect my own eyes for when I ride my very British motorbike? Exactly.

My Halycon Mark 8s just arrived in the mail today, and boy, are they something else. I need to come up with a photo as kick ass as the one below.

Ed Pole-Tudor, london, 1999. Photo: Ben Part B

From the Vault

The BBC world news agency has reported that they have recovered several rare movie reels from a basement storage facility in London. Two of the films were recorded by RAF field agents sometime during World War II, but were deemed classified by the military and confined to the archival research administration.

Previously thought to have been lost in a fire in 1955, the discovery came as a surprise to agency officials. Tony Meecham, Director of Historical References at BBC, has stated that "This is a truly amazing discovery. We are now working to preserve the master reels to prevent further corrosion to the film."

We are the first news outlet that has been granted permission to air the footage and we bring it to you live here today.

This first clip you will see is of a North American P-51 Mustang on startup. Believed to be filmed at Duxford Aerodrome sometime in 1944.



This next video was taken at the Audembert Luftwaffe airbase in France. This airfield near Calais was very close to the English Channel at its narrowest point, and its distance from England after takeoff is less than thirty miles. It had its heydey during the Battle of Britain, but it remained a viable German facility until after the Normandy invasion in 1944. It primarily served BF109 squadrons, but other sorties also flew out of this field from time to time. The following clip was taken in 1942, and shows an attack by RAF Spitfire fighters from the 34th detachment based at Cornwall.

Special thanks go out to our friends at the I made all of this up news agency. Any likenesses to above persons mentioned are purely coincidental, and frankly, just plain weird.

Keep 'Em Flying

The amazing story of the Dottie Mae from recovery to restoration. Follow along and help contribute to this great cause: www.alliedfighters.com.

One Should Never Overlook an Opportunity to Witness the Great Flying Machine in Action