Monday, April 4, 2011

Carrier Air Group Nine, Introduction

I've been able to scan more pages from the book. Some were done out-of-order based on a comment on the previous post from artist Scott Nelson who was looking for information about the markings for an Avenger attached to the Yorktown for a project he's working on depicting the events of April 7, 1945. While I sent pages along to Scott, I'll not post them here until I "get to them" in page order. I'll do my best to post the pages as they appear with the book open. These are the next four pages.

First is a chronology for Carrier Air Group Nine from the commissioning on March 1, 1942 through to the return to San Francisco on July 6, 1945 with the carriers Yorktown and Lexington on the opposite page.



Next, "The Score". Ships sunk, probably sunk, damaged. Planes destroyed, probably destroyed, damaged, both airborne and on the ground. Sorties by squadron. Personnel lost. Aircraft lost. Operations.



Lieutenant Commander Herbert N. Houck replaced Commander Philip H. Torrey, Jr.

Lieutenant Commander Houck passed away at the age of 86 on February 24, 2002, in Cape Coral, Florida. According to the article, he flew Hellcats. My grandfather doesn't mention April 7, 1945 in his combat diary, but I wonder if he was involved. Surely, he knew Houck. Would that I had been able to talk to Grandpa about his time in the Navy...

2 comments:

Romantic Heretic said...

Thanks for this. A nice piece of history rarely seen.

Miss Ladybug said...

You're most welcome. I'm glad my parents ran across it and that I have the means to share it.