Korean War Micronauts

[redleg]

Ok so I finally got the aircraft on the deck and I'm calling it done. I got Banshees and Panthers and that will have to do! The next one will (I hope) better. Here is the USS Valley Forge in 1951:

[Hoth_902]

I have two words for you Redleg, Re-spect. Seriously well done on the final product. The aircraft really make the model stand out. You definetly need to do more carriers.

[Beagle]

Very nicely done Red, the more Micronauts the merrier! Korean War stuff is an underrepresented subject.

[Brigade Commander]

I guess I am going to have to support your carrier with some guns. You need some serious firepower around that well done ship of yours.

Time to do some research. See if I can find the correct ships, and models, that would have been in the Valley Forge's Task Force.

[redleg]

Thanks guys! Ans hell yes Bde Cdr! Let me know what you dig up on the escorts - I have no idea what was in a Korean War task force......yet

[Brigade Commander]

Thanks guys! Ans hell yes Bde Cdr! Let me know what you dig up on the escorts - I have no idea what was in a Korean War task force......yet

I will start with DANFS. In the history of the ship it may list the Task Force number of at least one of its wartime deployments. Someone built a website that lists the USN Task Forces by number and will give you the ships assigned each time that number was used. I stumbled across it before and am sure I can find it again. We will get there!

[Brigade Commander]

Thanks guys! Ans hell yes Bde Cdr! Let me know what you dig up on the escorts - I have no idea what was in a Korean War task force......yet

I will start with DANFS. In the history of the ship it may list the Task Force number of at least one of its wartime deployments. Someone built a website that lists the USN Task Forces by number and will give you the ships assigned each time that number was used. I stumbled across it before and am sure I can find it again. We will get there!

Update: Air group was equipped with AD-4 Skyraiders (14), F4U-4B Corsairs (28) and F9F-2 Panthers (30). There were fourteen additional aircraft (mostly AD-4's) in various support configurations. It was under Task Force 77 during its important support of UN forces at the Chinese Intervention.

TASK FORCE 77. STRIKING FORCE. VICE ADMIRAL Arthur. D. STRUBLE, USN
Task Group 77.1. Support Group. Captain Edward L. Woodyard, USN.
Rochester (CA-124)
(Fleet Flagship) 1 Heavy Cruiser.

Task Group 77.2. Screening Group. Captain Charles W. Parker, USN
Destroyer Division 31 [ less Keyes and Hollister plus Radford and Fletcher]:
Shelton (DD-790), Eversole (DD-789), Radford (DD-446), Fletcher (DD-445) 4 Destroyers
Destroyer Division 32:
Maddox (DD-731), Samuel L. Moore (DD-747), Brush (DD-745), Taussig (DD-746) 4 Destroyer

Task Group 77.4. Carrier Group. Rear Admiral John. M. Hoskins.
Valley Forge (CV-45) (Flagship) 1 Carrier

[redleg]

Thanks Jim! That's some great intel! I'm a little worried that the Valley Forge did not have any Banshees aboard in 1951 though. I remember seeing Banshees on the ship in my grandfather's cruise book, so I'm wondering if I got the wrong ear. I did another cruise in Korea on a different ship and maybe I got them mixed up. But tis is great info - I may need to try to get the escorts too!

On a promising non-modeling note - I spoke to an ex-relative last night and I may be able to get my hands on my grandfather's cruise books. That would be really cool. He did 4 deployments - 2 during the Korean War (one was the Valley Forge and I'm not sure about the other), the USS Philippine Sea (I think in 1957), and he was a plank owner on the Kitty Hawk in 1961. That will provide me with lots of modeling inspiration!

[7.62]

Wow.... Mike that is one impressive looking carrier. The decals and the aircraft make it.
Great job.

[redleg]

Thanks Mick! The decals are awesome. I will be using them on all of my historical ships!

[Flight Deck Decals]

Nicely done!

[redleg]

I finally took possession of my grandfather’s US Navy cruise books today and they are amazing! These things are way bigger than I remember from my childhood and full of incredible photos and information! It turns out that I had the timeline wrong though – I thought he deployed to Korea aboard the Valley Forge in 1951, but he was on the Valley Forge for the 1952-1953 deployment. In 1951 he deployed to Korea aboard the Essx. Fortunately, I don’t think the air wing was different enough to warrant a rework of my Valley Forge model.

I will be ordering another carrier for the 1951 Essx and I’ll do the escorts. I’ll have to get non-GHQ carriers for his last 2 deployments aboard the Philippine Sea and the Kittyhawk.





A couple of pics from the Valley Forge book:

[chrisswim]

Redleg, great looking carrier. Awesome!!
Really neat on the cruise books. That must be really neat to see that.

[Brigade Commander]

Redleg,
I am seriously jealous! What a great resource. And a spectacular piece of family history.

[redleg]

Hey guys, I need some more help! I'm trying to figure out which destroyer models I need to model Task Force 77 during 1953 and I'm finding info for three different classes of destroyer. It looks to me like there were Gearing class, Fletcher class, and Sumner class destroyers serving in the USN at that time. Is that legit? Were there 3 different classes of ship in the destroyer divisions at that time?

If so, will the WW2 destroyers of those classes work for the Korean War? The pics I find of them look the same in WW2 and Korea, but I'm not a Navy guy.

Thanks for your help!