Flight Deck: WWII US Navy Carrier Operation, 1940-1945

An aircraft carrier's flight deck has often been described as choreo­graphed chaos and one of the most dangerous places to work. United States Navy flight and deck crews had their hands full just trying to stay alive during World War Two. This was due to bad weather, rain slicked decks, turning propellers, highly volatile aviation fuel, bombs, rockets, and out of control aircraft landing on the flight deck. Add to those ele­ments enemy bombs, strafing aircraft, and the dreaded kamikaze ("divine wind;' Japanese suicide attackers) and it is a wonder that any­one on the flight deck made it home alive; many crewmen did not sur­vive. This photo monograph illustrates their story. Carrier aviation humbly began on 10 November 1910. when aviation pioneer Eugene Ely flew his Curtiss D-IV pusher biplane off a flight deck constructed on the cruiser USS BIRMINGHAM (CL-2) in the fall of 1910. After making a successful landing at Norfolk. Virginia. Ely immediately began trying to convince the USN to let him attempt to land his small aircraft onto the deck of a ship. A far seeing person in the Navy gave the go ahead and a flight deck 32 feet (9.8 m) wide and 130 feet (39.6 m) long was constructed on the armored cruiser USS PENN­SYLVANIA (ACR-4). Twenty-two ropes with sandbags attached at each end would assist in arresting the Curtiss. which was equipped with three pairs of hooks to catch the ropes. On 18 January 1911, swooping in low over San Francisco Bay, Ely approached and made an arrested landing on the converted armored cruiser. Carrier aviation had come closer to reality.

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