Airwing information Links

[Tracy White]

A special shout-out to One-Oh-Four for suggesting this section.

I've been working on an expanded list of airgroups in USN Service in WWII. That section, still very early in development, is at
http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/Airgroups/
For more modern USN lists I recommend the following site:
http://www.gonavy.jp/

Post suggestions for similar resources here!

[Cliffy B]

This page is very useful for WWII carrier airwings, as well ship based floatplanes, and land based aircraft. It covers from Feb 2, 1942 up to 7 Sept 1945.

http://www.history.navy.mil/a-record/ww ... loc-ac.htm

Each one is a weekly report in PDF format and is normally around 50 pages. They are scanned copies of the original type written reports. It is all you ever wanted to know and a whole lot more!

Enjoy,

-Mike

[Tracy White]

That's where I've been pulling the majority of my information from. They vary in length and quality, there are periods where they only report the mission/squadron type ("36 VF" as opposed to "18 F6F, 18 F4U"), and there are missing periods, but it's a great place to start if you don't mind tedium!

[Cliffy B]

I know what you mean Tracy. The simple fact that someone scanned all of those reports and made them available online is a treasure in and of itself. I thought I had found the Holy Grail when I stumbled upon the link

Also, if you want a print resource for USN Airwings, grab a copy of Stefan Terzibaschitsch's US Aircraft carriers. There is a list in the back starting with Langley and running up through the first few Nimitz-Class ships. Book was printed in the early to mid 1980's so no recent stuff. I'm not sure about the accuracy but its another source.

[Capt652]

Here is a link that might be useful,
http://www.vbf-85.com/

Timm

[Haijun watcher]

For those interested in British Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm squadrons, including squadrons from the RCN and RAN, post-war:

Fleet Air Arm Archive site

RCN squadrons, including Canadian-manned RN squadrons

RAN squadrons, including Australian-manned RN squadrons

New Zealand-manned RN squadrons

Post-war Indian and South African units also included, if I can recall correctly.

[MFH]

Here's a link to Carrier Air Group Four (CVG-4) in WW II.

The corresponding books are pretty good, too.

[steeplecab]

When I first started researching aircraft assignments for the post-Korea Essex class carriers, I did find some resources for piecing together air group information and aircraft losses during the late '60s and early '70s deployments.

The gonavy site mentioned earlier has a lot of info specific to carrier air wings
http://www.gonavy.jp/AirWingsf.html
Following "Carrier Deployments" leads to individual pages with aircraft deployments for each cruise, including specific aircraft lost and dates.

Essex Class Aircraft Carrier Data - This has data for the class from launching to scrapping or decommissioning of the Essex class.
http://www.steelnavy.com/essex_data.htm
It does give aircraft history for the ships, but starts over after ships modernizations, so skim to the end to see the later assignments.

This site gives specific information on individual air wings and squadrons.
http://www.seaforces.org/usnair/first.htm
It seems to be similar to the gonavy site, but searching from the air wing first instead of the ship deployments. I used it extensively for information on CVA 19 USS Hancock's aircraft during the South China Sea deployments during the Vietnam war.

Another resource I found somewhat helpful for Vietnam deployments was the book Where We Were in Vietnam, 1945-75 by Michael Kelley (ISBN 978-1-55571-625-7). I recommend finding a used version or getting a copy for research through inter-library loan, as it's a very large, expensive book if you're just interested in ship deployments. It doesn't mention specific aircraft.

Using multiple sources helps to clarify and ct as a cross check for other sites.

[boogie25]

A useful wings vs. US aircraft carrier site: http://wings-aviation.ch/