pavelnkhv:

October 1943

Deck crew spot-checking Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bombers of bombing squadron VB-12 on the flight deck of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3),

OPERATION SHOESTRING 2

After participating in combined fleet exercises off Espiritu Santo between the 7th and 10th of October 1943, VF-12, now part of

Carrier Air Group 12, departed Espiritu Santo aboard the USS Saratoga (CV-3) on October 31,1943; along with Air Group

23 aboard the USS Princeton (CVL-23), to form backbone of Task

Force 38. Here USS Saratoga is underway off Espiritu Santo in October 1943.

As part of Operation Shoestring 2, Task Force 38 was assigned to raid the Japanese airfields on Buka and Bonis Islands off the northern tip of Bougainville, in order to cover the landings being made at Cape Torokina and Empress Augusta Bay. For the first two days in November 1943, the Saratoga, and Princeton made

vicious assaults on the Buka and Bonis Islands airfields, approaching so close to shore (13 miles south east of the islands (06* 25’ S 154* 53’ E) that the twin fields were almost visible from the ships. (www.vbf-12.com)

(U.S. Navy Photograph, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)

(Colourised by Benjamin Thomas)