laststandonzombieisland

It happened some 85 years ago this month at Naval Air Station, North Island, San Diego, in June 1940,

The newly commissioned class-leading fast carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5) is seen embarking aircraft and vehicles before sailing for Hawaii.

Note the giant 35-foot-tall “Y” identifier on her island. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives 80-G-651042

Arranged on Yorktown’s flight deck are TBD-1 Devastator torpedo bombers, rare Northrop BT-1s (forerunners of the SBD), SBC-3 Helldiver biplanes, bumble-bee shaped F3F-2/3 biplane fighters, SB2U Vindicator dive bombers, and several floatplanes including Grumman JRFs (G21 Goose) and J2F Ducks, along with six big Sikorsky JRS-1 amphibians arranged on the port side of the island.

Some of these planes were on board for transportation to Ford Island, while others were members of the Yorktown Air Group, CVW-5. The trio of Torpedo Squadron Five (VT-5) TBDs at the aft end of the flight deck are painted in experimental camouflage schemes tested during Fleet Problem XXI.

With the loss of their carrier at Midway, the Yorktown Air Group was disestablished on 7 June 1942.

With 10 JRS-1s of VJ-1 at Pearl Harbor, the one currently at the Smithsonian is the only aircraft they have left over from the attack on 7 December 1941.