CV-8 Hornet Aircraft?

stikpusher

I find it interesting how the newest and least experienced Carrier Air Group got those two aircraft types first.

Logistics, probably?  Hornet had just completed her shakedown, when we were attacked, while the other carriers were all on forward deployment (except Saratoga, I think, which was in Bremerton?)  When the TBFs were available, it was probably fastest to fit out the VT-8 detachment with the new planes.  They just missed the ship as she departed for Midway.  It's interesting to think how they might have fared, had Waldron had the time to put the most experienced crews in them and applied his training.

Of course, I could be talking out my Arsch, speculating like this.

I don't think you're totally talking from the rear - the Navy had weekly reports for the locations and numbers of aircraft for most of the war (first one I've seen started in February of 1942). The April 7 1942 report lists VT-8 as only having four TBF-1 with a note "in progress of re-equipping." The week after that they are listed with 9 TBD-1 with the note "14 TBF-1 at Norfolk fly west coast when ready" below. That doesn't change until the May 14 report that states "17 TBF-1 Enroute West Coast" and then "21 TBF-1 arrived Alameda," the week after. The June 4 report has those aircraft at NAS Pearl Harbor (Ford Island) and 13 TBD-1s aboard the ship - the next report lists no TBDs and 31 TBF-1s at Pearl Harbor. It was rather sobering and gloomy when I first went through those reports.....

So it would appear to me that someone up the chain was expecting those aircraft on that carrier before the time of the battle.

Looking at Hornet, she spent until late march 1942 in US waters or in transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific, so, yes it would have been easier to get the newest aircraft aboard her first from a logistical standpoint. But even if the TBFs had reached Hornet, even with those in VT-8, had all other things remained the same, the unescorted TBFs would likely have been annihilated by Kido Butai's Zeros just the same, just as the Midway Detachment was.

Tracy, I can imagine that looking at those status reports would be sobering. Attrition rates in WWII were frightening indeed. Then one adds in meat grinder battles such as Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz, and the Guadalcanal Campaign as a whole for that time period.