USS Ranger air wing camo scheme during and prior to Op. Leader, September/October 1943

[Buckeye30]

Chris. AN-1-9 (1 March 1943|) ordered wing insignia of 30"-60", the size nearest to 9/10 fixed chord, and fuselage 20"-50" nearest to 3/4 of fuselage depth. However some early F4Fs ( and F6Fs in VF5 / 9 ) retained the earlier 24" fuselage as per Bu.AER.001085 ( 5 Jan. 1942). They can be seen in some training units stateside, the wing insignia matching instead of the specified wide chord.
The visible TBFs are in 4-colour unusually with ID numbers at the wing root. Some were still in 2-colour when RANGER arrived in Iceland later (you can see the wavy underside division).
The SBDs were -5s which should have been in 4-colours, some LEADER photos show this eg. nos. 22, 19, 5. Some of the ones on deck may be in the earlier scheme as they have large underwing insignia minus bars.
This is a typical mix of markings etc. for 1943 ; Navy preferred the Blue-Gray / Light Gray for Europe ie. Atlantic rather than the blues; there would be no urgency to re-paint operational aircraft even had there been time. After RANGER returned to the East coast to train crews later the insignia was no doubt up-dated .
Air Group 4 for LEADER comprised
VF-4 (27 F4Fs), VT-4 (18 TBFs) and VB-4 ( 27 SBDs). RANGER's Air Group normally was 36 fighter, 36 bomber and 4 utility ( no provision for torpedo, but these were added for LEADER which may account for the differences in camouflage etc.).
Nick