CHAPTER 17
FEBRUARY 11, -- MARCH 10, 1945 --
TRANSPORTATION TO NAS AGANA, GUAM |
The Linguyan operation had been completed and the fleet
was returning to the Ulithi anchorage. We were put on the USS
Barnes, CVE -20, for transportation to Ulithi where we would,
at last, relieve VC-76. on board the USS Petrof Bay, CVE-80.
We arrived at Ulithi anchorage only to find that the Petrof Bay
and VC-76 had left the day before for the Iwo Jima operation.
We had missed again. Since we could not get aboard the Petrof
Bay we stayed aboard the Barnes and traveled on to NAS Agana
on the island of Guam.
We were to remain at Agana for three weeks at the end of which
time the Petrof Bay returned to Guam and we relieved VC-76. During
our time at Agana we continued the usual training routines and
spent a couple of days on the USS Thetis Bay, CVE-90, where we
made a few more practice landings. Practice landings are like
practice parachute jumps, each one is the real thing, it's either
successful or it isn't. The idea of practice landings is to develop
your technique so that under less ideal combat conditions things
might be a little less "hairy".
5000th landing party aboard USS Petrof Bay |
For composite squadrons aboard CVE's we had only FM2s to
fly. On Guam there was a shortage of FMs so we had to do our
flying in F6Fs and F4Us. I had quite a bit of experience in the
F6F and none in the F4U so here was my chance to check out in
this fancy, good looking, inverted gull winged plane that was
considered one of the best fighter planes in the world. One morning
Al Godfrey and I each checked out an F4U and after taking a few
minutes to check out the cockpit and familiarize ourselves with
the controls and instruments, we climbed in, started the engines
and taxied to the end |
of the runway. We both pulled on to the runway with me on Godfrey's
wing. Mistake number one. We should not have taken off in formation.
The usual procedure for a formation take-off is for the lead
pilot to hold his plane on the runway until the wing man is airborne.
This we did but Al did not look back to see if I was airborne
and did not speed up his plane. I was holding my plane back at
a dangerously slow air speed and concentrating intently on holding
my position on Al's plane when I glanced out the opposite side
of my plane only to find that the right wing was only about six
inches from the ground. Scared the hell out of me. I poured the
throttle to my plane and left Al literally sitting on the runway.
I have to say that I was shocked to feel the tremendous burst
of power that two thousand horse power engine kicked forth.
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After we rendezvoused, we climbed to about 15,000 feet
where we were pounced upon from above by a couple of F6Fs. A
dog fight ensued and I found myself in a tail chase with one
of the F6Fs. I also found, that an F4U was no match with the
F6F in turns. I kept drawing my plane tighter and tighter, the
next thing I knew the plane snapped on it's back and I found
myself hurtling for the ocean in a spin. I rolled the |
Chance-Vought F4U Corsair |
plane upright and pulled hard back on the stick and in an instant
I was on my back again in a high speed stall. This time I rolled
out and very gently eased back on the stick . The plane came
out of it's dive screaming. I don't think I ever traveled so
fast, as a matter of fact I know I hadn't. Anyhow, that was the
end of the dog fight. Al and I rendezvoused again and returned
to the field. Since NAS Agana strip is located on a hill top
about 500 feet above an army air force field, we were required
to make right hand landing patterns. I followed Al in and as
I leveled out over the end of the runway I held the plane about
15 feet in the air until it stalled. Like any other plane it
should have settled down to the runway. It didn't! It stalled
and the right wing dropped causing the plane to land on the right
wheel, bounced, came down on the left wheel, bounced, came down
on the right wheel. Finally I got the plane down and was home
free. That was as much of the F4U as I wanted or needed.
A strange thing happened that afternoon. Another flyer, not from
our squadron, checked out an F4U, maybe the same one I had been
flying, and took off down the runway. He had apparently forgotten
to set the trim tabs on the elevators and because of the power
of this plane, it shot almost straight up in the air. The last
that was seen of the pilot, he was trying to crawl out of the
plane as it stalled, turned on it's back and plunged into one
of the maintenance hangers.
Grumman F6F Hellcat |
I had another situation occur a day or so later when I
was flying wing on Bugs Dunagan. We were flying FM-2s and practicing
the Thatch weave against two others of our group. They came down
on us from an over head run. We pulled straight up so quickly
and with such force that the plexi-glass in the cockpit canopy
popped out of it's frame right into the cockpit with me. Gave
me quite a start as it took a couple of seconds to figuring out
what had happened. |
Now that I had flown all three navy fighter planes I feel qualified
in comparing them. The F4U was considered to be faster than the
F6F but not by much if anything. Both were faster by far than
the FM-2 but the FM-2 was considerably more maneuverable than
either of the others. I believe, if given the choice of flying
one of them in combat I would choose the F6F. But flying from
a carrier I would prefer the FM-2. An example of how dependable
an FM-2 was is a situation that occurred to Walt Glista on board
the USS Shamrock Bay. His FM-2 was sitting on the catapult under
full power waiting for the launch mechanism to be fired when
the metal ring that holds the anchor on the tail end of the plane
broke. The plane in this position is about 70 feet from the leading
edge of the flight deck. Without the assistance of the catapult
Glista flew that plane off the deck, and literally held it in
the air. It's tail wheel was dragging in the water before gathering
enough speed to climb. No other combat plane in the world could
have accomplished that.
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