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Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Sun Apr 15, 2012 11:19 am

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Mon Apr 16, 2012 6:02 am

Thanks for posting the pictures, Mark. Always love to see ready room shots.

Any idea where the wing ended up?

Mac

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Mon Apr 16, 2012 11:29 am

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:56 am, edited 2 times in total.

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Mon Apr 16, 2012 11:57 am

Here's a rare shot of the deck of the USS Franklin in October 1944. Notice the rockets being attached and also notice that VF-13 had a mix of tri-color schemes mixed with all solid schemes on the Hellcats. Hard to find photos of the Franklin's VF-13 activities during the war.

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Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:33 pm

And this was the Franklin's (Edit: Bunker Hill's) deck a few months later in March 1945. :( Most of those planes lost are Corsairs

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With a lot of lives lost :(

Image
Last edited by Mark Allen M on Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:45 pm

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Mon Apr 16, 2012 11:40 pm

I believe the one picture of the flight deck damage is Bunker Hill from May 1945 and not Franklin. No planes on Franklin's deck survived the conflagaration, while a handful of Helldivers, as in this picture, did escape damage on Bunker Hill at the extreme rear of the deck. I'm not sure about the casualty photo, but I also believe that is Bunker Hill as well.

Wartime photos of activities aboard Franklin are rare as literally thousands of images and their accompanying negatives were all destroyed in the March 19th, 1945 attack.

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Tue Apr 17, 2012 2:31 am

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:15 am

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Tue Apr 17, 2012 12:32 pm

It would be interesting to know the specific changes in carrier design this incident influenced. Thanks for sharing your Dad's photos!

Tom P.

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Tue Apr 17, 2012 1:26 pm

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Wed Apr 18, 2012 10:15 am

My Uncle wold have enjoyed that report on the Franklin as he was in the mess hall that day. Thank you for sharing it...

Lynn

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Wed Apr 18, 2012 11:05 pm

wendovertom wrote:It would be interesting to know the specific changes in carrier design this incident influenced. Thanks for sharing your Dad's photos!

Tom P.


There is a pretty good book on the Franklin "Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin in World War II" by Joseph Springer. He details a lot of the changes that were made to carrier design as a result of the Franklin's experience. Off the top of my head, I know some of them were relocation of the ready rooms and CIC from the gallery to closer to the island and replacing the single ventilation trunk which allowed smoke to get into otherwise undamaged compartments. A lot of the changes incorporated in the SCB-27 and SCB-125 modernization programs for Essex class carriers were also a result of what was learned from Franklin.

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Sun Apr 22, 2012 10:07 pm

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

Re: The day Dad missed the grim reaper

Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:23 am

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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