Black Sheep Squadron TV show: Fictional Vella La Cava island

RichNagel

RichNagel

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A little something that I thought was interesting. I've recently been watching the old TV show "Black Sheep Squadron" (that's name of the show for the second season, the first season of the show was called "Baa Baa Black Sheep"). You might know that in the show their home base was a fictional island called "Vella La Cava", and that HQ was located at a fictional island called "Espritos Marcos".

Anyhow, I took some pics of the maps that were used in some of the TV show's scenes. One pic is from Season 1 Episode 1 "Flying Misfits" (the first part of the pilot episode that originally aired on 9-21-1976), and the second pic is from Season 1 Episode 17 "Devil In The Slot" (originally aired on 01-25-1977). Interesting that they moved these fictional places around a bit.

P.S. If you can Google a real-world map of the area, you can see what the real names of these places are. (EDIT) Link to Google Maps of the area -> https://www.google.com/maps/@-8.1627184,157.4073908,9z .

P.P.S. In the second pic I had to take two pics of the scene and splice them together... they panned the camera across the map LOL.

Anyways, I thought this was interesting :)


Black_Sheep_Squadron_-_S1E01_Flying_Misfits_-_09-21-1976.jpg Black_Sheep_Squadron_-_S1E17_Devil_In_The_Slot_-_01-25-1977.jpg
 
Roxane-21 said:
These maps show NDBs. Did NDBs already exist back in 1942/1943?
Click to expand...

I think that they did, but I'm not sure if many of the WW2 aircraft were equipped with the gauge. BTW, that being said, there are real-world beacons there today for navigation (i.e. GIZO 328kHz).
 
In reality, VMF-214, under Greg "Pappy" Boyington, was first located at Turtle Bay Airfield on Espirito Santo, New Hebrides and then moved to Munda on Vella LaVella.

I guess on the TV show, the names were change to "protect the innocent" a la Dragnet. "Just the facts, mam, just the facts". :wavey:
 
Roxane-21 said:
These maps show NDBs. Did NDBs already exist back in 1942/1943?
Click to expand...

Hi Roxane,

The Zeppelin airships and Staaken bombers utilised the forerunner to the NDB in World War One. If you have the CFS2 version of Stuart Green's beautiful Staaken R.VI, Martin Klein has produced an authentic Telefunken radio direction finding receiver which can be tuned into NDB frequencies. The German ground stations were at Cleves and Tondern.

After WW1 broadcast stations were used for radio direction finding. Dedicated beacons for aircraft came in during the 1930s and WW2. These became more sophisticated because of the need for bombers to pinpoint the target. A problem with NDBs and broadcast stations was the ability of the enemy to tune into them.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_direction_finder

Cheers,
Kevin
 
Me too!

A month or two ago I got the compete Black Sheep series & movie, and have been watching them lately.

The REAL Gregory H. 'Pappy' Boyington (1912-1988) appears in a few episodes!

He also served as the Technical Advisor for the show.


Once upon a time .... when I was noob CFS2'er ... I found someone had done a Blacksheep base way back in 2001.
Placed on a island called Barakoma.

I'm pretty sure it came from a now 'lost' CFS2 site.
I've looked around and haven't found it anywhere.

I never wrote any missions for it but found it GREAT for QC :applause:
There are also some VMF-214 F4U skins available here & @ SimV ... for anyone who wants to fly with Pappy & the Blacksheep.

If anyone is interested:

It was originally uploaded by Doug Todd aka golfshaper in Dec. 2001
 

Attachments

  • Barakoma Blacksheep Base.rar
    334.4 KB · Views: 11
@Dirtman, I've really got hooked on the series, I really wish that there was more than just two seasons. I can't believe that I missed this great show back when it was on the air. I've been DVRing the episodes from HANDITV on DirectTV, but they have a REALLY SCREWY way of airing the episodes... some out of order, some with the wrong info.

Anyhow, that being said, I just watched the two part pilot movie last night. Hehe, "ace10_usn.mis" that comes with CFS2. From the stock CFS2 mission:

On October 17, 1943, USMC ace Gregory "Pappy" Boyington led his "Black Sheep" squadron on a sweep over the Japanese airbase at Kahili, near the southern end of Bougainville. They approached at high altitude in a "V" formation, like unescorted dive-bombers. When 60 Zeros rose to meet them (some sources say 40), the Black Sheep claimed 20 shot down (some sources put the total at 12 or 14); Boyington claimed three. Now you will fly Boyington's mission. Head north from Munda to Bougainville, approaching Kahili at high altitude. When the Japanese fighters rise to meet you, knock 'em down! Your mission will end in the air when (1) you complete all your mission goals. (2) You leave the combat area.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... that sounds familiar. Yep... from part two of the TV series pilot :)

BTW, thanks for the old scenery upload, Dirtman! :)
 
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RichNagel said:
I think that they did, but I'm not sure if many of the WW2 aircraft were equipped with the gauge. BTW, that being said, there are real-world beacons there today for navigation (i.e. GIZO 328kHz).
Click to expand...

kdriver said:
Hi Roxane,

The Zeppelin airships and Staaken bombers utilised the forerunner to the NDB in World War One. If you have the CFS2 version of Stuart Green's beautiful Staaken R.VI, Martin Klein has produced an authentic Telefunken radio direction finding receiver which can be tuned into NDB frequencies. The German ground stations were at Cleves and Tondern.

After WW1 broadcast stations were used for radio direction finding. Dedicated beacons for aircraft came in during the 1930s and WW2. These became more sophisticated because of the need for bombers to pinpoint the target. A problem with NDBs and broadcast stations was the ability of the enemy to tune into them.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_direction_finder

Cheers,
Kevin
Click to expand...

Thank you. :encouragement:
 
GhostPony made four and Joe Hinson made one historical mission with the Black Sheep wiping out a large number of Japanese aircraft over Kahili in October 1943. I can't remember from where I got those missions.

Mathew Scott made an entire campaign which is at Flightsim. Vella Lavella is included.
 
Roxane-21 said:
These maps show NDBs. Did NDBs already exist back in 1942/1943?
Click to expand...

Don't know if NDB/ADF was used, but land bases had the ability. Ships could, but usually operated in radio silence. Their radar (also a RF signal) was always active though. Those circular antennas you see on some aircraft are RF directional finding antennas, so I would say yes, ADF was used to some degree during WW2 for nav purposes.
 
A little ACE mission edit

Just for fun, a little editing of the stock "ace10_usn" mission ("Aces--Boyington's Mission"): "Recon" photos, no mission end after the mission goal of three kills (all of the low skilled and low aggression enemies can easily be wiped out between you and the other friendlies), TV show characters and cast CFS2 pilot names, added clouds and visibility layers, optionally land at Vila after completing mission.

View attachment Baa_Baa_Black_Sheep_Mission.zip
 
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I picked up a gem in a box of books put out on the street tonight - "The Black Sheep - The Definitive Account of Marine Fighting Squadron 214 in World War II" by Bruce Gamble.

It's over 500 pages with numerous photographs.
 
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