| USS Quincy (CA-71) 2 Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes warming up on the cruiser’s fantail prior to catapult launching, probably at the time of the Invasion of Southern France. Note barrels of Quincy’s after 8-inch (203 millimeter) guns in the foreground, hangar hatch cover and twin aircraft cranes at the ship’s stern. When the Allies carried out Operations Husky and Avalanche (landings in Sicily and the Gulf of Salerno, respectively) in 1943, Curtiss SOC-3 and SOC-3A and Naval Aircraft Factory SON-1 Seagulls from VCS-8 spotted the fall of shot from the cruisers’ 8-inch (203 millimeter) guns. German Messerschmitt Bf-109s savaged the vulnerable scout planes; however, and Hewitt noted that North American P-51 Mustangs “performed brilliantly as spotters with negligible losses.” Naval officers, principally from VCS-8, correspondingly emphasized spotting by high performance aircraft and trained naval aviators to fly missions in Mustangs and Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, though Quincy faced the Operation Dragoon landings with a pair of embarked OS2U-3 Kingfishers of VCS-10. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1920.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.38 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 5525 x 3758 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Navy |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 15, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Baie de Cavalaire |
| State or Province | Saint-Tropez |
| Country | France |
| Archive | Naval History and Heritage Command |
| Record Number | 80-G-K-1948 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database