TBDude wrote:
For anyone with a Facebook account, the
R/V Petrel team just posted approximately 20 minutes (in two parts) of raw video showing the entwined wreckage of
Lexington Devastators T-4 and T-9 ...
Part 1
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1698367180198756&id=1510752248960251Part 2
https://www.facebook.com/rvpetrel/videos/1698356403533167/Sorry to anyone who's left out. I looked for non FB links without success. Maybe they will repost this footage to YouTube or Allen's personal web page later.
I'll post screenshots later... most interesting revelation is that T-4 received a replacement port flap still in it's original prewar aluminum lacquer finish, likely due to AA damage from the Shoho mission per someone on Petrel's page who knew Walt Nelson, the radioman aboard T-4. Nelson noted they were hit by AA on that mission and that the deck crew had the damage patched in about a half hour; I would imagine it wouldn't take too long to swap out a damaged flap and pop on a few aluminum patches. Also, it was interesting to see that Harley Talkington (NAP) was apparently more gentle with his throttle in T-9 than Robert Farrington in T-4; neither man was able to get a hit on Shokaku on 8 May, but if you look at the exhaust streaks on both aircraft, you can tell that Farrington was really pouring on the coals to get away from the Japanese fighter cover, owing to the much denser black exhaust streak. Conversely, T-9's exhaust streak looks much lighter... either Harley leaned out the mixture better, or he didn't have the same problems as Farrington on the trip back to Lex.
Man, I still can't believe we can even have that kind of conversation about aircraft which went down 76 years ago... I will never stop being amazed by this.
Lynn
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