Gentlemen,
Several authors praised the smartness of the strike launch timing of Yorktown at Midway: Launch the VS/VBs first, as the need most time to gain altitude and reach target. Bring up, spot and launch VTs next. While they assemble, spot the fighters and launch them with a bit of a delay, as those are the fastest planes. This way, the full strike force will meet and assemble en route or better close to target. Supposedly Yorktown was the only one of the three carriers at Midway to have figured out the positive aspects of such a scheme. The other two would launch VFs and VS/VBs, let them assemble and circle the ship to wait for the VTs to launch (burning precious fuel while circling), and then leave together for the target area.
However, reading the Yorktown action report for the Coral Sea:
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/sh ... Coral.htmlapparently the more 'conventional' sequence must have been used: On May 8, '42 Yorktown launched its first strike consisting of a total of 39 planes in a matter of 15 minutes. In such a short time span, am I correct to assume that the full strike must have been spotted on deck, with the fighters up front, scouts/bombers behind, and the VTs at the very end of the flight deck?
Can somebody please confirm that? Would anybody have a listing of which planes participated in this strike?
Surprisingly little is being released about Coral Sea as compared to what have been published here about Midway....
Thanks and Best regards from Germany,
Stefan Krakow