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2 Jan 1945 BATDIV 7 with VO-7 Iowa - 1xOS2U-3 & 1xOS2N-1 New Jersey - 1xOS2U-3 BATDIV 10 with VO-10 Missouri - ? Wisconsin - 1xOS2N-1 & 2xOS2U-3 28 July 1945 BATDIV 7 Iowa - 3xSC-1 New Jersey - 3xSC-1 BATDIV 9 Missouri - 3xSC-1 Wisconsin - 1xOS2N-1 & 1xOS2U-3 The OS2N-1 was the Naval Aircraft Factory produced version of the Curtiss built OS2U-3. Information taken from the official USN aircraft location reports produced weekly. You can dig into them in more depth here (you need to scan well down the .pdfs to find the floatplane allocations) https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/world-war-ii/location-of-us-naval-aircraft-world-war-ii/1945.html

This photo of V6741 clearly shows it was fitted with an arrester hook when this photo was taken in 1943.

Re the retention of the quad 0.5" v 20mm Oerlikon, in 1942 production was only beginning to catch up with demand. Britain looked at the 1934 Oerlikon in 1937 and rejected it, suggesting various improvements to the Swiss company. Prototypes of a modified weapon were produced in early 1939 and large orders were placed for Swiss produced guns. Deliveries were only beginning in 1940 when the Germans invaded France cutting off supplies. It is thought that only 100 had been fitted in RN ships by Nov 1940. In 1940 Britain also secured a licence to produce the weapon and a full set of drawings. But "considerable difficulties" were experienced in wartime Britain setting up a factory at Ruislip to manufacture them. Labour and machine tools were both issues. So it was autumn 1941 before British produced guns started to become available. The battleship Duke of York reportedly got some of the first when she completed in late 1941. So at that point the priority was to get them onto newly constructed ships first, with older vessels having to wait their turn. Adding just two Oerlikons just to the existing 0.5" outfits on destroyers was better than nothing. On the other hand the P class destroyers only began to complete in Dec 1941. The situation in the USA was not much different. Official approval to acquire the weapon only came in Nov 1940. The first were produced in June 1941 but only 379 were produced, but not all necessarily fitted, by the time of Pearl Harbor. I came across an official USN document dated Aug 1941 showing the allocation of the first 80 or 100 guns. These were to go largely to shore training bases and gunnery training ships and then troop transports then under conversion. It was 1942 before production really ramped up, allowing fitting in USN ships in ever increasing numbers from Spring onwards. Until then the USN the ships had to make do with quad 1.1" and single 0.5" for their light AA armament. Same thing with the 40mm Bofors in the USA. The first twin mount wasn't produced until Jan 1942 and the first quad in April. The first seagoing quad went to the gunnery training ship Wyoming in June and the first twin to the new destroyer Coglan in July. Demand for these weapons wasn't being fully met until 1944.

There is a bit of confusion about which ship was where and when amongst my sources. Best I can tell Bramham, Ledbury & Wilton at least were certainly part of the escort for WS21 when it left Britain at 0500 on the 30 July 1942. Lamerton also seems to have been allocated but was involved in a collision on 31st July and went for repair at Liverpool until Sept. One source suggests that Keppel was a replacement for Lamerton because of this. Ledbury went to rescue the crew of a Sunderland shot down by friendly fire when it emerged suddenly from fog during this escort operation. Bramham & Wilton remained with the convoy until the evening of 2nd August when it was east of the Azores. At that point they left to go to Gibraltar to refuel. It was quite common for the escorts for the highly important WS troop convoys to have escort changes once they got beyond the lattitude of the Gibraltar / Azores as the U-boat threat reduced. Escorts would go to Gib & then join northbound convoys, often with new ships joining for the run down to Freetown. Escorts for Pedestal, from battleships to corvettes and auxiliares, were drawn from the Home Fleet, Londonderry Special Escort Force, Force H and the Eastern Fleet as well as escort forces based at home, Gibraltar & Freetown. It was a mammoth operation and one that despite all the books that have been published on the subject, the complexity of which is still not fully appreciated. Most only pick up the story from the point that they all came together west of Gibraltar to rehearse as part of Operation Berserk before they entered the Med. That is despite planning having begun immediately after the failure of the Harpoon convoy from Gibraltar & the Vigorous convoy from Alexandria in mid-June 1942. The tanker Ohio for example was handed over to Britain on 25th June. Best one I've found so far is "Operation Pedestal. The Story of Convoy WS21S in August 1942" by Brian James Crabb.

The designations get confusing with these early Libs. In production order:- LB-30A - 6 YB-24. Serials AM258-263 (delivered Jan-May 1941). All used as transports. LB-30B - 20 B-24A. Serials AM910-929 (19 delivered April-Aug 1941. AM927 crashed before delivery and became a USAAF C-87). 11 became Liberator GR.I for CC. Remainder used for training and as transports. Both the LB-30A & LB-30B had the short nose. LB-30 - 165 aircraft ordered by Brish & French in 1940. Reduced to 139 when US gave up the above YB-24 & B-24A. Serials allocated AL503-641 + FP685 - a replacement for AL503 lost before delivery. Long / standard B-24 nose. Deliveries began Aug 1941 with 64 delivered before PH. USAAF acquired the remaining 75 immediately after PH, releasing 23 back to the RAF between April & July 1942. These became Liberator II in operational service.

Of the 87 LB-30s eventually delivered to the RAF only 9 went to Coastal Command for conversion as Liberator GR.II initially. 120 squadron was the main user of that Mark between Dec 1941 and Dec 1942. A 10th aircraft, AL507, following its delivery in March 1942 was converted, having been retained initially in the USA for trials and then by the USAAF. It was returned to the USA in June 1942 for trials use by MIT in the development of the centimetric SCR-517 radar set. It was the only GR.II to be fitted with a "Dumbo" nose radome. It came back to Britain in Oct 1942 for trials and was subsequently used by 224 squadron as 'Z' from Nov 1942 to July 1943 before being passed to 59 squadron as '1:Z' until Oct 1943. The 1941 conversions for CC and their 120 squadron codes were:- AL513 OH-K, AL519 OH-S, AL524 OH-T, AL542 OH-D AL553 OH-G AL557 OH- (code unknown) AL558 OH-OH-V AL559 OH-R AL560 OH-Y Photos of CC GR.II seem to be very rare. I can only trace AL507 with its "Dumbo" nose. I don't have the Wingleader book, so don't know if it would be of any help with this mark or not. It was late 1942 before centimetric radars began to enter service with CC. Of the other 77 LB-30 delivered to the RAF, 24 started life in the RAF as unarmed transports or training aircraft. Transports received nose and tail fairings for use with the Return Ferry Service. The remaining 53 became bombers. Except for the very first aircraft, AL503 which crashed before delivery, the Boulton Paul turrets were fitted on arrival in Britain, usually by Scottish Aviation Limited at Prestwick, Scotland. However there was a small batch of 5 aircraft that were delivered direct from Bolling Field, Washington DC to the MIddle East by USAAF crews, with one crashing en route. These left the USA in late Nov 1941, before Pearl Harbor, and arrived in Egypt in the first half of Dec for use by 108 squadron. These didn't receive the BP turrets. Instead they were given open, hand held gun positions in the waist & tail. These aircraft were AL530, AL566, AL569 (crashed en route), AL574, & AL577. https://rommelsriposte.com/2012/03/26/the-first-b-24-liberators-in-the-desert/ AL530/Q - https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205208832

Firstly, the 5th Emergency Rescue Squadron USAAF based at Halesworth in England received several B-17G equipped with the US A1 airborne lifeboat in March 1945 and flew 16 sorties wih them before the war ended. It first used the airborne lifeboat to rescue 6 crewmen of a downed aircraft off the coast of Denmark in April 1945, in very heavy weather (25ft waves and 60mph winds) that saw the RAF fail on 4 attempts. It also operated P-47 and OA-10A aircraft. See Detail & Scale B-17 Vol 2. Approx 130 aircraft converted. The equipment fit on these converted B-17G / B-17H varied over time. Initially the full armament was carried. Then the Bendix undernose turret was replaced with a search radar, and then the ball turret was removed and finally the top turret. This all before the end of WW2. After VJ Day all the armament was removed. This book has a photo of a B-17H with all three turrets in place (no serial visible). Given the Lancaster in the background, this may well have been taken in England. Another photo is of a 6th ERS B-17H-105-BO 43-39266 "Pretty Baby" on Okinawa in July 1945 this time with the Bendix nose turret replaced with the H2X radar but still with the top turret (Ball turret location obscured by undercarriage) . Yet another of the 6th ERS B-17H-95-DL 44-83802 "Pacific Tramp" retains the upper and ball turrets but has the nose radar.

The overall Night Sunderland was Mk.III JM673. The aircraft history notes - Taken on charge 4 March 1943 and stored in reserve at Pembroke Dock. Delivered to 230 squadron 1 May 1943 as (NM-P). Painted black as personal aircraft of CO Wing Cdr D Bednall and known as "Black Peter". Missing during a patrol in bad weather 28 Nov 1944 - possibly hit by cyclone. During this period 230 spent most of its time at Dar-es-Salaam, before moving to Koggala in Ceylon in Feb 1944. The book "Ocean Sentinel" has a photo of her (coded P) in SEAC markings. It certainly appears overall Night with no visible demarcation on the fuselage. The upper surfaces are however faded but that was only to be expected given the strong sunlight in that region. There is an accompanying colour illustration depicting it in overall Night. AIUI this aircraft had been undertaking night operations over the Bay of Bengal. Given that only one aircraft seems to have been involved, it may have been an experiment of some sort. It certainly seems to have been a well known about airframe.

AFAIK the CC Halifax squadrons never received Leigh Lights. The RAF Narrative says they had developed a flare dropping from "high" altitude (height unspecified) that allowed them to attack surfaced U-boats and later shipping successfully at night. The clues to the camouflage I believe lie in the change of role for these squadrons. In June 1944 both 58 & 502 were part of 19 Group Coastal Command based at St Davids in Wales and both were considered anti U-boat squadrons. In Sept 1944, with the U-boat bases in France effectively eliminated, CC began to migrate its squadrons north to intercept U-boats entering the Atlantic from Norway. 58 moved up to Stornoway at the end of Aug followed by 502 in mid-Sept then coming under the Command of 18 Group. Initially they remained anti U-boat squadrons, but with increasing numbers of schnorkelling U-boats their flare technique to attack them on the surface was rendered pretty much useless. So in late mid-Oct 1944 the role of these two squadrons changed from anti U-boat to anti-shipping, with their operational area being the southern Norwegian coast, Kattegat & Skaggerak. As German shipping became more vulnerable to attack in these areas it changed tactics, moving from safe anchorage / harbour to safe anchorage / harbour by night and laying up by day. While CC Strike Wings from Banff and Dallachy attacked them by day in their "safe" havens, the Halifaxes of 58 & 502 sought them out under cover of darkness along with any escort vessels supporting the arrival / departure of U-boats from Norwegian bases. That drove the need to change the underside camouflage on their aircraft. But they were still operating over water so I can see no need to change their top sides. They still had to transit from Stornoway in the Western Isles of Scotland to / from the Norwegian coast. ISTR that the earliest of their aircraft with black undersides were GR.II (and GR.V) which they continued to use until March 1945 when the GR.III arrived. Given that there was usually a fair list of modifications required to aircraft allocated to CC squadrons via MUs, a repaint from BC colours would seem entirely logical.

The origins of night intruder missions goes back to Fighter Command in late 1940. You can read about that in the relevant RAF Narrative here:- https://www.raf.mod.uk/what-we-do/our-history/air-historical-branch/second-world-war-campaign-narratives/air-defence-of-great-britain-vol-iv-the-beginning-of-the-fighter-offensive-1940-1941/ Part 6 begins at page 232 of the .pdf file linked above.

The two Halifax squadrons in Coastal Command, 58 & 502, received Mark III in March 1945 while still based at Stornoway. By then their role was anti-shipping rather than anti-submarine with a lot of operations being flown at night. IIRC some of the aircraft wore black undersides. https://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RAF/58_wwII.html https://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RAF/502_wwII.html

I think you are confusing a total for the Pacific (40 BG Very Heavy) for a total scheduled to join the 8th AF on Okinawa. This is the link I think you are looking for - JCS 1455 dated 9 Aug 1945. https://web.archive.org/web/20200229051535/http://www.alternatewars.com/WW2/WW2_Documents/JCS/JCS_1455.htm Note, by that point the plan was to send only 40 Very Heavy (B-29) Bomber Groups to the Pacific, 20 (509th CG isn't included) with 20th AF operating from the Marianas plus another 20 with 8th AF operating from Okinawa, which represented a reduction from the 48 BG previously proposed. The first of the latter (346th BG 316 BW) began arriving in early Aug 1945 with the full strength to be achieved by March 1946 in time for Operation Coronet, planned for 1 March 1946. The previous planning document had been JCS 521/12 and para 13 of JCS 1455 noted this about the reductions:- "13. J.C.S. 521/12 allocated five B-17 groups for deployment to the Pacific. Contemplated revisions of this paper planned to increase this deployment to seven B-17 groups, four to become operational in the theater February 1946 and three in March 1946. After reexamination of their program the Army Air Forces concluded that a greater weight of bombs could be placed on targets with less effort by a slight augmentation of the B-29 unit equipment aircraft in the Ryukyus. J.C.S. 521/12 also planned a deployment of 48 very heavy bomber (VHB) groups with an ultimate build-up to a unit equipment level of 2,304 aircraft. The Army Air Forces consider that only very heavy bomber groups that can be operational prior to the launching of CORONET should be activated. The Army Air Forces therefore propose to alter J.C.S. 521/12 to change five B-17 groups from deployment to the Pacific to demobilization and to modify their VHB program to a total of 40 B-29 groups with a unit "equipment of 1,360 aircraft. All B-29 units are scheduled to be operational before CORONET." Note the B-32 then just arriving in the Pacific with the 312th BG was only considered a Heavy Bomber. I've not come across anything regarding the markings of the 8th AF B-29s, either actual or proposed.

418 and 605 transferred from ADGB to 2nd TAF in Nov 1944.

The FB.VI used by 23 and 515 squadrons in 100 Group for Bomber Support from mid-1944 were equipped with the AN/APS-4 ASH radar set in the nose in place of the 4x0.303MG. https://www.ordinarycrew.co.uk/night-hunt You need to scroll a fair way down the page to the "intruder" section.

The 318th FG converted from the P-47D to the P-38 in Nov 1944 and then to the P-47N in April 1945 while based on Saipan in the Marianas. On 30 April 1945 it moved up to Ie Shima, a little island off the NW coast of Okinawa. (Edit - its operations while based on Ie Shima were mostly up the island chain and over Kyushu, the southermost of the four main Japanese Home Islands). The only P-47N equipped FG that was based on Iwo Jima in WW2 was the 414th FG. Part of it went direct there while the remainder went to Guam on escort carriers arriving in early July 1945. The Guam element flew its frst missions against Truk on 13 July and eventually joined the element on Iwo Jima. The first mission flown from Iwo Jima was on 29 July and was against a radar station on Chichi Jima. Chichi Jima is to the north of Iwo Jima and closer to Japan.