I don't have a lot on the New Mexicos, but perhaps some of this will be helpful.
- I only track back to 1926 (when turret markings first appear to have been introduced). At that time, all three ships were assigned to BatDiv Four, with New Mexico as flag. The ships' aircraft were assigned to VO-2/VO-2B, drawing aircraft numbers (apparently) in the range 2-O-10 through 2-O-18.
- On 1 July 1928 the aircraft were reassinged to VO-4B, drawing numbers 4-O-1 through 4-O-9. (4-O-10 through -12 were assigned to California's aircraft while that ship sailed with the division.
- The only turret markings noted in this period were four stripes on New Mexico (red-white-blue-yellow) marking that ship as the division flag. In 1928 aircraft tails were a very dark color that appeared black, but this is not yet confirmed by written documents.
- On 1 April 1931, BatDiv Four became BatDiv Two, with all three New Mexicos transferring. At the same time, the aircraft were reassinged to VO-2B.
- Sometime between April and July 1933, BatDiv Two was inactivated; the three New Mexicos moved to BatDiv Three, and their aircraft went to VO-3B. Around this time the True Blue tail color was first assigned to the squadron's aircraft, though this made little difference at first - all three ships were undergoing modernization.
- In 1935, all three ships appear to have painted turrets 1, 2, and 4 True Blue, using the aircraft squadron color to distinguish the division. Individual ships were identified by hull numbers painted atop Turret 2. I haven't found enough photos to document how long this markings anomaly was in use.
- In July 1937, VO-3B was redesignated VO-3 when the Navy dropped the assingment suffixes. Note that those suffixes described the unit assignment of the squadron, not the type of ship the squadron sailed on. The "B" suffix was used by aircraft assigned to Battle Fleet/Battle Force; the "S" went to Scouting Fleet/Scouting Force; and the "A" went to Asiatic Fleet. (There were other letters, but they don't relate to this discussion.)
- In August 1937, the US Fleet introduced the fleet-wide turret markings. In BatDiv Three, Turret 2 (and later, Turret 1 also) was True Blue, like their aircraft tails. Turret 4 was the same as the aircraft section color seen on the nose and on the overwing chevron. The flagship was red, Mississippi was white, and the third ship was True Blue. New Mexico may have still been flagship in August 1937 when the new markings were introduced, but sometime in August or September Idaho became flagship and New Mexico became the division's third ship.
There are still a lot of details to plug in, particularly dates and aircraft assignments, but hopefully this will be a good start.
Cheers,
Dana
|