This one is still a work in progress. Lucky for me it's slow at work and they don't mind me working on this while there so I had 8 hours yesterday and more today to play with this. Some weathering and light scratches seemed to have disappeared in these screen shots last night. It's probably the angle of lighting but I'll play with that.
VMF-512 was another Squad that was supposed to be part of "Operation Crossbow" in Northern France then switched to a carrier based squad in the Pacific. They joined Marine Carrier Group 2 (MCVG-2) on the USS Gilbert Island with VMTB-413 and departed April 12,1945. They arrived off the coast of Okinawa, Japan on 21 May. During the Battle of Okinawa VMF-512 aircraft blasted and strafed concrete dugouts, troop concentrations, ammunition and fuel dumps on Okinawa from 24–31 May. In the following days they helped neutralize outlying Japanese airfields and installations, including the Sakishima Islands with repeated bomb and rocket attacks. May 31, 1945 the squad collected it's only kill, a Ki-46 Dinah. Later in June, the USS Gilbert Islands departed for Leyte, in the Philippines. Soon thereafter they sailed to support operations in Borneo.
During the Battle of Balikpapan VMF-512 provided close air support for the Australian 7th Division. The squadron remained carrier based and at the end of World War II was operating at sea near Tokyo. As part of the post-war drawdown of forces, VMF-512 was decommissioned on 10 March 1946.
As for the markings the position of the solid block of white at the rear of the fuselage and solid bar on the wing designate it part of Carrier Division 27. The double white bands indicate the carrier in the 2nd slot, which was the USS Gilbert Islands. These markings came into effect for the Escort Carriers (CVE) divisions only when the Fast Carriers switched from the "G" symbols to the Letter Codes.
Just for Reference.
Slot 1: Single white band
Slot 2: Double white band
Slot 3: Single yellow band
Slot 4: Double yellow band
Slot 5: Single white angled band
Slot 6: Double white angled band
512 f4u a by
whitemanLS1, on Flickr
512 f4u b by
whitemanLS1, on Flickr
