Jeff,
I really can't tell what digit is after the 7. I see two nearly readable PBY's. 7X-P-4 and 6. X may be a 1 vice a 3 which would jive with the PATWING-7 War History chronology.
.
Chris
Does this video help with the PBY-5 identification?
Jeff, the ship with the OS2U-2 is POKOMOKE (AV-9), flag for PATWING-8 but temporarily with PATWING-7. PATWING-8 was forming and by late Oct only VP-81 and 82 had any aircraft. Good views of PRAIRIE (AD-15) flag for the Support Force, TF-4, and ALBERMARLE (AV-5), flag for PATWING-7. It has to be after 15 Oct which is when TEXAS arrived. NEW YORK was also based out of Argentia during Oct as well. PBY-5 in video might be from VP-73 as they had dets there, at Quonset, and Hvalfjordur. VP-74 also had dets up there but had PBM-1s. Then again, could be any of PATWING-7s PBY-5s, can't make any nose numbers.
Yeah, now just image the majority of the Atlantic Fleet using these interim formulas to follow the March 22nd directive. Then in July it all changes again. CinCLant orders all ships to wear MS-12. But yet again, the new color, 5-S wasn't available yet so the ships were allowed to use 5-D to substitute for 5-S. If you look at the video I shared with you again, the majority of the ships in that video are wearing MS-12 with 5-D hulls. The one exception is the ship that has the Kingfisher aboard. That ship is in "true" MS-12 with 5-S on her hull.
Jeff, that is some fantastic legwork! And it all makes sense based upon Stark's instruction of 18 Mar 41 recalling most of the fleet to continental ports to strip ship and "prepare for war." Curious which ships recalled were not camouflaged by 10 April. I would assume those retained in the Caribbean and Canal Zone wouldn't have had the supplies or opportunity. Great video by the way.
Sure.
Here is the specific order to have her or her sister painted into Modified MS-2 dated march 22, 1941. Texas was the ship selected.
As you can see by this directive, the proper mixture for 5-D, 5-O, nor 5-L paint was available yet so they came up with an interim solution.
This interim paint solution was the three mixtures that Texas used to transition into Modified MS-2.
This first photo taken shortly after the orders gives us a glimpse of what THAT version of 5-O looked like. You can see it on the lower portion of the crane post, the lower portion of the control tower and on the officers gigs.
These next photos show her shortly after she arrived at NNY. You can see where the 5-O paint ended on the conning tower and transitioned into Standard Navy Gray #5.
This next shot is a cropped pic from USS Relief showing the hull of Texas in tradition from 5-D into 5-H paint.
Once her refit was complete in October, she found herself in Newfoundland wearing MS-13.
Here is video of her there.
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/catalina-seaplane-skims-water-passing-military-ships-and-news-footage/1131165696
That's good gouge. Any pics you can share?
Hi Chris,
There are a couple of very interesting storylines to me about this photograph. First concerning Texas, when she arrived at NNY for her refit on August 3rd, she was wearing the very experimental modified MS-2 camouflage which was 5-D on her hull, 5-O on her upperworks up to 2’ above her #2 turret, everything above that was supposed to be 5-L but her already painted Standard Navy Gray #5 was substituted for 5-L.
Upon completion of her refit, she left NNY wearing MS-13, overall 5-H haze gray camouflage. A couple of months later she would receive her 1st version on MS-12 modified camo.
The second interesting storyline about this photo to me is the ship in the center of the pic. That is USS Chaumont AP-5. Milton Hurst would board her just after this photo was taken and he would sail her to Pearl Harbor. He would arrive at Pearl the day before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving day, Milton Hurst would report back aboard the ship he left at the beginning of April, ‘41 for aviation schooling. Upon arrival at Pearl Harbor, Milton commented that the ship was no longer overall light gray like he left her, she was now dark gray with light gray tops. The ship that Milton was reporting back to was USS Arizona.
Looks like Ms.2 or Ms.12 after the Sep revision. TEXAS was at NYd Norfolk 3 Aug-7 Oct 1941.
Black and white videos can create some questions.
So here is a list of the paint schemes that the Texas BB-35 used.
Standard Navy Gray #5 1928-1941
Modified Measure 12 1942-1943
Measure 22 1943 -1944
Measure 31a-8b 1944-1945
Measure 21 1945-1948.
After 1948 the Texas became a state museum.
Hope this is of help.
I'm looking for some input. I'm building my trumpeter Texas, according to my research, during WWII she was painted in measure 21, navy blue overall and deck blue on horizontal surfaces (decks), but all the youtube videos I have seen of her she is a lighter gray above the boot topping?? videos are B&W of course, but the hull and upper super structure did not appear to be dark at all? anyway, any suggestions would be good I am going to cross my fingers and get the pontos detail up set for it, hope it works out ok
Responses