JSR ae aa PN A Nem eee ty OMS PU a rele) a ale) ces f anFLYING 4 TECHNOLOGY Sukhol S07 Harrier Yetim Gordon and Dmitriy Komissarey Tim MeLetiand £50.00 203457 £48.00 37203, Russian Air Power Mittary AieraRt Markings 2034 ‘The Bomber Command War Diaies Yelin Gordon and Dmitry Komissarov Howard J Curtis ‘Mortin Misdiobrook and Chis Evert £50.00 403433, £14.99 Aosa7L £24.99 03358 Using lan Allan Plus is easy: contact us by telephone, by post, online or pop into one of our shops. We offer great products, personal service and so much more. ‘of call our mail order Hotline and +44(0)1795 414 975 for Overseas or email nplus@: A specialist mail order service offering thousands of titles from I A ll hundreds of publishers. Birmingham . us 4 H oe Pear Eines Cg eam SE eet Cy Cees Rovccatas Crna netcs ache H Digoee Losey SITET oy Hy atari)‘The Commemorative Air Force owns this beaut ‘Goodyear FG-1 Corsair which Is based at Midane In exas.tuigino Catiaro Aviation scleoviatonciacnes co.uk Pubieher: Ban Savage Convio: Fred "Crash Blechman, James Brown, Ligin Cataro, Nom devi Ket Draycott Doug Mathews, Constance Redgrave, Clive Rowley, Theodore Thomas. Adam Tooby Deseret Chatitte Pearson Reprographics: Jonathan Sohetele Group production editor: Tim Hartley Disional avettsing manoger: Sanda Faber Fieneremorons co.uk ‘Aavertsing soles executive: Jomia Moulson immouendmertons.co.uk isar savage Subscription manager Pau Deacon Newshacie manager Srove O Hora Fohsroamertons.co.uk Marketing manage: Charttte Park ‘Sperkmorions co.uk Shsa7 saesse Production manager: Craig Lam’ Slamb@merons co.uk Operations diester Dan Savage CSmmercal director Nigel Hote Business development diector: Ten Crk Managing direct: Bran Ki Editorial edocs: Aviation Clasios POBox 99 Fomenrto, tines IND 68 Wisba wens aviationclatsies £0 uk ‘ond subserphons 1507 520820 (Gi hour answerphone) Relpaclassemagazines.co.uk Wor classemagazines co.uk jstoymontamortons.co.uk o1sar S242 Dietbtion comas Tavislock Road, West Dayton, Middlesex UB? 70E ha9s 433800 (© 2011 Mortons Meta Group La Allrighs reserved No pat hs pubicaton may be produced ox rans nay DPholocopying, recording. or any information siorage reieval yee ‘wnoul prior permission in wring from Ihe pubisher BN No978-1-906167-082 Having houble nding 2 copy ‘tis magatie? Why tet Just osk your eal newsagent foroserve you 0 60pyFaU-4 of VMF-323,The Death Rattors on board CVE-118 off Korea Curing 1951. Just one of he wonder Images supplied via David G Powers rom the National Museum of Naval Aviation archives, il, the magazine i officially No. 12, the Chance Vought, or Vought, or Goodyear or Brewster, FAU or FG-1 or FSA, Corsair, Almost as maay manufacturers and designationsas the Harrier inthe last, ‘sue, but also lke that sireraf, one immortal name. Itisa very fing aireraft with which to celebrate our anniversary, beinga definite classic, but atthe same time an unusual one rather like Aviation Classics ise The Corsair was. big, heavy aircraft fora fighter, not possessed of the classic good Jooks of a Mustang or Spitfire. This was a big ‘ough bruiser, powerful and mean looking. Tremember first being entranced by the Corsair and its unusual appearance wien I was kid, building the Airfix kt of the erat was noticeably bigger than all my other Second World War aircraft models, and its wings, when finaly glued on, made me ‘question if had tthe right way up It st in ny collection towering above and glowering down atthe lesser types around it, and a fascination was bora that has lasted all my lie. When [came to understand this sireraf I discovered that not only did its tough looks tellthe truth; this machine could take a brutal pounding and stil ge ts pilot home, ‘but the exploits ofthis machine were the stuff of legend. Its pilots earned many nicknames fr the type, but the one I remember most is Ange! of the Marianas, a ‘name coined not by the pilots, but the Marines engaged in bloody and fierce fighting against an implacable enemy across those islands, To the Marines, the ‘were hovering over their shoulders, ready to oliver the close air support that would keep them alive at the drop ofa hat, This ‘two years old with this issue, where he wotks as @ docent. National Musoum of Naval Aviation Team Players nickname I think epitomises the legend of the Corssir better than any other, it was in the right place, atthe right time, in large rumbersand could deliver enormous firepower fora single seat fighter, ‘Strangely, despite 12,571 being built and the Corsair remaining in front line service far longer than any ofits contemporaries it is one ‘ofthe least well known ofthe Second World ‘War fighters Itoperated inthe Atlantic and Pacific, yet few people know that. Perhaps the looks are the reason, oF maybe the relative ‘obscurity ofthe company’ that prodaced this monster ofa machine -it gets overlooked ‘among the other thoroughbred designs. ‘Whatever the reason, thisaicrafl deserves recognition for so many reasons, including the sheer gutsofthe men who flew it in combat. Not justa fighter, the Corsair could lit almost the payload of a B-17in bornbs, making it an incredibly powerful ground attack aircraft Low level ground attack isa very dangerous ‘game, as anyone who has flown those missions will tll you, That the Corsair could doit so wells testament othe pilots, and t0 the aireraf for its abiliy to absorb bale damage. Legend indeed. Tmentioned that Aviation Classe, lke the Corsair, is unusual asa magazine, We only ‘cover one topic in depth per issue unlike all ‘other aviation magazines, making us, lke the Corsair somewhat unique ‘What makes Aviation Clasis realy s the people who work on it. This issue | would like to introduce you to David G Powers, an ex-Army and Naval Aviator who runs his own magazine, Laghook, i the US. ll lying as.a career today, he also works ia his spare time as a docent atthe National ‘Museum of Naval Avision at nearby Pensacola, Florida, A busy man, who has Davie G Powers and his lovely wile Lote celebrating their 10ih ' connivereary in fine tye, Many thanks fo Davie for ail he Invaluable input 2 Aviation Classics. David & Powers found time to be a source of superb material for Aviation Classics. His contributions make this issue something rather special, as they all give the reader views ofthe Corsair from the cockpit on a wide variety of missions, David isa real team player, and is quite rightly co-slitor ofthis issue.’ also ike to mention two other people who have been instrumental in geting me through my fist xyear as editor, and thank them for their good humour and hard work. The firs is Charlotte Pearson, the designer of the magazine, and a beautiful job she makes oft to. Anyone who ke my scribbled input coherent isa miracle worker and her patience and kindness as Ihave thrashed about lost has been gratefully received. The other is Jonathon Schofield, a man who has turned many borderline iniages into minor works of art with his Photoshop skills Thanks to both Given the quality people around me, Lam very proud to be a member ofthis team, y) All best, Tim PS. See, told you T would sit cheer up after Sy my HarrierCN ane iE) Gis nograph eer so toy | » uA ; \Mea ay the Vough 0 tell the whole story of the In 1916, he graduated from Washington [An obviously staged shot, but one showing development ofthe Corsair, with a BSc in engineering, and applied for the what the Corsaits best remembered for In firseyou have to tell the story civil service examinations in mechanical ‘many people's eyes - provicing very close fone remarkable man, Rex ‘engineering. These he passed with fying Ar support fo the Marines as they fought Buren Beisel colours, and was offered a job in the US ‘hele way aoross the Pacific islands The son ofa miner, Beisel grew up living Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair National Museum of Naval Aviation with his family ia teat near @coal mine in which in 1921 became apart of the Bureau of Cumberland, Washington. On movinginto Aeronautics. Ifyou have ever wondered their first house, the H-yearold Beisel where the BuNo or BuAerNo designation developed carpentry skills fixing up the ‘came from in US Navy aireraft serial place, and began working as local numbers, itis short for Bureau of handyman, repairing the buildings of others. Aeronautics Number. By age 16 he was working in the mine, ill managed to keep earning $8.25 a day, ye his school studies going. He kept working and earning throughout school, so that in 1912 he suovessfully applied to attend the University of Weshington, supported by his father with @ little money they both had saved, University student Beisel was no different from schoolboy Beisel, he kept working at the ‘nine inthe summers, and had a number of other winter jobs,[Beisel started asa draughtsman, earning what - atthe time was the litte known art ‘of aeronautical engineering, bya process of trial and error. His ingenuity and common sense approach saw him promoted to ‘aeronautical mechanical engineerin September 1918, after which he made intensive studies of aerodynamies and hydrodynamics, designing flying and floats for seaplanes, His success inthis field led to another promotion in 1919, when he became one ofthe first certified aeronautical engineers in the United States in November 191. Tn March 1921, Beisel was given the jab of project engineer on the TS1, the US Navy's first fighter design intended for shipboard use. He developed four of these aft into racing airerat for the 1922 Curtiss Marine Trophy Race, working closely with the Naval Aireraft Factory (NAF) at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ‘This attracted the attention of Glenn Curtiss who, in 1923, asked Beisel to design Pulitzer Trophy racing aircraft for the US Navy and Army. The Pulitzer race was the first national ar race inthe US, sponsored by the newspaper publisher Ralph Puliter, and was the forerunner of the National Air Races. Ta the 1925 race, Curtiss faith inthe 31 yearold Beisel was completely vindicated when one of his designs won both first and second place. The winner of the four lap Pulitzer record 248975 mph, was Cyrus Bettis in a Curtiss R3C-1, Not far behind him was Al Williams, in an identical racer, at bulls [An FaU Corsair pletured ready for Iaunch on the fight deck of the raining aleratt camier USS 241.605 mph. Not one to rest on his laurels, Beisel then designed the primary trainer for the USNavy Reserve, the N2C-1 Pledging, followed by the first US dive bomber, the FSC2 Helldiver In 1930, with the great depression exerting its grip, Beisel moved to Spartan Aircraft and designed light and exccutive aireraft, before he was given the job of assistant chief engineer atthe Chance ought division of the United Aircraft Corporation (VAC) in 1981, Chauncey (Chance) Milton Vougit had set up his Sabo (X 81) operating on Lake Michigan. National Museum of Naval Aviation The XF4U1 prototype was a very diferent ‘machine fo the production Corsa Note the postion of the cockpit over the wing, much {urthor fonvard than on production examples sireraft company in June 1917 in New York. After his untimely death in 1990, the Vought factory moved next to that of Pratt and Whitney, in Hartford Connecticut, and established strong ties with the engine ‘manufacturer that were to pay off handsomely for both companies. Tn 1928, inthe face of the great depression and the lack of new orders for sircraf, Boeing, Chance Vought, Stearman, Pratt and Whitaey, Hamilton Standard and Sikorsky amalgamated into the UAC asa survival tactic, but stil traded under their original names, Although this corporation was broken up by antitrust laws ater in the 1930s, it isintoresting tenote that the later three companies stil form part ofthe massive and highly successful United Technologies Group today While working at Vought, aside from designing such aircraft as the XF3U-1 fighter and the SBU-L scout/dive bomber during the 1 elco-uthored a seienifle work on Cowling and Cooling of Radial AirCooled Aircraft Eagines, Not oly did this work bring him much acclaim and several awards, it was to be vital in the development ofthe Corsair’ powerplant allation. In June of 1934, in the light of his work, Beisel was promoted to chief engincer at Chance Vought, and began work on the US ‘Navy's first monoplane scout bomber, the SSB2U Vindicator His next design was tobe hismasterpice, >[ANought FAU Corsair of \VMF-124 Keith Drayeott THE XF4U-1 ‘The US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) hada tradition of issuing requests for proposals (RFPs) for new aieraf that really sirelched the equipment available atthe time. This was deliberate policy which forced Industry to respond with innovation and experimentation, rather than merely update existing designs. In February 1988 the REP for both atwinengine anda single-engine fighter pushed the limits almost to breaking point. For the single-engine fighter the Navy ‘wanted the highest possible speed, but also a stall speed not higher than 70 mph (113. koh). A range of 1000 miles (1610 km) and ‘an armament of four guns was also specified An clite team was selected forthe development as Vought’s design response to this, known as the V-166, Frank Albright was project engineer, Paul Baker was aerodynamics engineer and James Shoemaker was propulsion engineer. The team submited its work to Beise! who thea integrated it into the overall design. In April 198, Vought submited two designs to the US Navy. The frst, called ‘V-168A by Vought ~and Vought A by the Navy was powered by the -1890. The ‘other, the V-658 - or Vought B — was designed around the new Pratt & Whitney 2800 Double Wasp radial engine. This was ‘an 18eylinder, two-row air-cooled radial of 2804 cubie inches (46 litres) producing 1850 hp (1380.6 kw), and was something of a risk asit was brand new and untried, The 2800 would later acquire arepatation for boeing both powerful and very reliable. ‘The power of the engine immediately posed ‘a problem. To turn that enormous power efficiently into thrust required a huge Hamilton ‘Sandard Hydromati throe bladed propellor Bt in (406 metres) in diameter. The problem lyin achieving ground ckarance for the propelior inflight atiude with the tail up, ‘which would seem to require a ong undercarriage. Long undercarriges andthe controlled crash that isa carrer landing do not ini, shorter underearrigges are sturdier, particularly important in that environment. To keep the propellr length, yet havea short undercarriage, resulted in the now familiar inverted gull wing design, the main LUeutenant Commander Joseph C Clifon discusses a fight inthe FaU Corsair with members of Fighting Squadron (VF) 12. 1943.National Museum of Naval Aviation undercarriage: legs being attached a the west point on the wing where i bent upwards, The ‘wing also folded upwards ust outboard ofthis point, for ease of storage on board cramped carrier hangar decks. Beisel chose a circular cross section fuselage that fited the R280) ‘engine, placing the oilcooler and supercharger air intakes in the wing root lading edges. With this circular design, the inverted gull wing attached at exactly 90 degrees tothe fuselage, meaning that no wing fairing was required and making the wing/fuselage joint incredibly aerodynamically efficient. The ceatire design was of all metal construct with the exception of fabric covered outer ‘wing panels aft ofthe spar, elevators and ‘rider. The flaps were partly wood covered ‘with arearward fabric ski, andthe ailerons ‘were made entirely of wood. Use offlsh riveting and the new spot ‘welding techniques to attach the metal skin tothe structural members made the new airraft incredibly slick from an aerodynamic point of view. The then novel rearward retracting undercarriage with its bay doors that enclosed the wheels fully, along with the retractable tailwheel and hook, added to this aerodynamic efficiency. Armament consisted of one 50 cal machine ‘gun in each wing, and two in the upper fuselage. The cockpit was mounted over the rear ofthe wing, which gave a poor forward view in Fanding attitude, but the view tothe ‘ides ofthe nose was considered reasonable. In May 1938, the Bureau of Aeronautics ‘evaluated the proposals from various ‘companies. The Vought B woa the competition with a score of 8.4 0n a scale from 0 to 100, On June 11, 1988, the Navy ordered a prototype based on Rex Beisel's ‘V-168B design, the V-I16A was never built ‘The following year, Vought moved its factory again, to Stratford, Connecticut, merging with the Sikorsky facility already there. Construction of the prototype began in February 1939 with the firs flight made on May 29, 1940, by Lyman A Bullard Jr, Vought’ test pilot. The XF4U was powered bya XR28004 engine, rated at 1805hp. ‘Testing the new type was delayed when project pilot Boone T Guyton ran out of fuel during the fith test flight and made an emergency landing on a golf course. The ‘XPAU- was badly damaged, but was repaired. Five months after its firs flight, on October 1,—s “s eet aU. number 9 of VMF-213, CAVG9, National Musoum of Naval Aviation the prototype flew the 45 miles (73 km) between Siratford and Hartford, Connecticut fata speed of 405 mph (651.8 kmh), becoming the frst production airraft to exceed 400 mph in level fight. The US Navy was impressed with the performance ofthe Corsair and, on June 20, 1941, ordered 585 copies. This was not to say there were not problems with the new fighter. ‘The slow spin recovery required some re writing ofthe original specification, aad both the ailerons and elevator trim tabs needed some changes in design. Most troubling was the stall. As it approached stall speed the imbalanced airflow over the wings from the ‘enormous propellor caused the port wing to drop frst, which ina carrier landing - made ideally at the stall~ would cause catastrophe This was eventually solved by a small picee of wedge shaped wood! Atached tothe leading ledge ofthe starboard wing, it broke the Airflow at certain angles of attack and caused both wings to stall at the same time, evenly. ‘As production ofthe first FaU-1s tooled up, ‘umber ofother changes were made which were to alter the appearance of the new fighter dramatically Modifications were tobe part ofthe Corsair story throughout its if. More than 850 major engineering changes were mae to the zircra and by the end of Corsair production, in 1952, there were 16 separate models, the most important of which are described here. Tn addition to Vought, the Corsair was also to be built under Ticence by the Goodyear Aireraft Company and the Brewster ‘Aeronautical Corporation THE F4U-1 Experience gained from air combat over Europe caused the US Navy to require changes ofthe Corsair ‘More armour vas fite forthe pilot and oil tank, and the armament was changed to six 50 Cal machine guns, three in each wing. This in firepower was vital in modern air ‘combat, but fiting the guns in the wing left no room forthe eading edge fuel tanks. To maintain an adequate fuel capacity, an addtional fuel tank had tobe installed in the This had to be close tothe centre of fuselage — een here warming up for fight from the fight deck of USS Copahee (CHVE-12) View of the FaU Corsair Skipper’s Orchid, flown by Lieutenant Colonel thomas € Colt Jr, USMCR, National Museum of Navat Avi ‘They didn't aiways ty on and oft Lighters barges and smaller carriers were used fo deliver Corsair fo combat units and back again. Hre,an FaU-1A Corsair unloaded off the USS Bismarck Sea (CV.95) off Muga Beach, Calfomia. National Museum of Naval Aviation ‘gravity, so meant thatthe cockpit had to move aft. The 237 gallon (897 lire) selfsealing fuel tank pushed the cockpit three fet (91m) closer to the tail, One 2 gallon (235 litre) non- selfsealing auxiliary fuel cell was also installed in each wing leading edge, just outboard of the ‘runs. The forward view over the engine was further degraded by this change Rear ward visibility was improved by fitting clear panels behind the canopy in cutouts inthe rear fuselage decking. Various other detail changes followed, inchuding larger ailerons, a modified tllwhecl and 2 jettsonable cockpit eanopy The engine fitted tothe production aireraft was the R28008 of 2000hp with a mechanical two-stage, two-speed supercharger. One effet of all these changes vas to increase the gross weight ofthe Corsair by 33381 (1514kg). The frst production FAU-1 made its first flight on June 25, 1942, and the frst aircraft was delivered to the US Navy on July 31 Service acceptance trials began, and quickly the Corsair was found to be much too difficult to land on a carrier deck. The pilot had difficulty seeing the deck othe landing signals officer (LSO), because he was sitting so far aft of the engine. On landing, the F4U-1 had sluggish controls and insufficient directional stability at low airspeed. It also was proae to “bounce” because of the sit undercarriage oleo legs. Carrier qualification trials on the escort cartier USS Sangamon Bay, on September 25, 1942, meant the Navy rejected the aircraft for carrier use, and released the type to the US Marine Corps to replace the FAF Wildeat fighters then in service. Marine Fighter Squadron VMP-124, beeame the frst ‘squadron to take FAU-1 Corsairs into combat when they were decksted operational on December 28, 1942. The Squadron flew its first mission off Guadaleanal on February 1, 1943, and within six months every Marine Corps fighter squadron in the South Pacific was flying the Corsair. Prodittion had kicked into high gear, by August 1944 1000 Corsairs had been delivered. Inall, 5559 FAU-s were built inelding 2010 FG-1s built by Goodyear and 732 F3A1s built by Brewster, FG-1 was the designation given to Goodycarbuit examples and the FAA gave the FAUAI the name Corsair Mik. (Chance Vought PAU Cormac 11Interestingly, Vought also built single FAU-1 two-seat trainer, for whi official interest, so the project was dropped. The FAUcL was also delivered t Britain and New Zealand, where their experience of he aircraft was quite different and affected the way the aircraft was operated and developed inthe U The use ofthe Corsair by these two countries is covered in depth in later articles in this magazine, but itis worth noting that he Fleet Air Arm (FAA) finally worked out how to land Corsairs on its carriers, and was the first to operate the type successfully from ships. Instead ofthe normal circuit followed by a final approach, the technique was to turn downwind, then make a slow, continuous ‘curving approach which aligned the Corsair with the deck only at the last second before the aircraft touched dowa, This method allowed the pilot to keep the LS0 in view right up tothe moment the plane was over the fantail where the LSO gave the sign to either “cut” or go around. ‘The FAA also cured the problem of oil and hydraulic uid smearing the windshield by simply wiring shut the two cowl laps at the top ofthe engine. The joints of the forward fuselage fuel tank were also sealed with tape, giving the distinctive whit outlined shape visible in so many pietures. Other small and simple alte allof which were inco porated into the BuNo. 49763 was one of the prototype Fal-4X aicrat used for als ofthe type by the US Navy. National Musoum of Naval Aviation production line and led the US Navy to try landing the FAU on carriers again in 1944 this time with great success THE F4U-1A PAULA was not an official designation, bout came into use postwar to differentiate later production FAU-1s from the early The later aireraf had a number model ‘of major modifications including anew. taller and wider clearview canopy with ‘only two frames, along with a simplified clear view windsereen, From the 759th aireraft on the production Tine, the tailwheel strat was lengthened and! cockpit seat raised Tin (180 mm) which, with the wid attempt to cure some of the visibility er canopy top seetion, was an problems associated withthe long nose. The rearview windows were deleted as unnecessary. These Corsairs were the first “carrier capable” variant and introduced the 6in (150 men) stall ti the gun portson the starboard wing leading ge to give the type a wings level sta mprovementsto the just outboard of Fighter Squadron 214s Vought FAU-48 Coreairs being loaded on board the USS Badosng Strat (CVE-1é) in San Diego, asi prepares for transit‘The Royal Navy operated Corsairs aboard carriers ealy inthe types! lovelopment, Here, « Corsair of 778 Squadton. the Service Tals Unit {or the type, gets arbome under the watchful ye ofthe rials fea. Foot Air Arm Museum undercarriage oleo struts which eliminated bouncing on landing. FAU-1s supplied to the USMC lacked arrester hooks and the til wheels were changed to a smaller diameter solid rubber type. An experimental R28008W engine with water injection was ited on one ofthe late PAU-IAs fr trials. After satisfactory results, production sicraf after the 1550th built were fited withthe new engine, which provided a short term increase of 200hp (185.5W) known as war emergency power. This version of the Corsair was the first to be able to carry adrop tank on a centreline pylon under the fuselage and Zin rocket projectiles under the wings. With drop tanks Fited, the fighter had a maximum ferry range ‘of ust over 1500 miles (2400 ken). Again, the Goodyear-built aircraft had their own designation of FG-1A. In British service, the craft type was modified by taking Sin (200mm) offeach wingtip to enable itt ft in British aircraft carsier hangar decks, These aircraft were called the Corsair Mk I THE F3A-1 ‘This was the designation for the Brewster built PAU-1, and worth mentioning on its own asit represents the only real aifure in the Corsair story. 732 were built before Brewster was forced out of business by industrial action, mismanagement as well a other politcal and eriminal factors with the US Government stepping in and closing the factory on June 30 1944 Poor production techniques and a disastrous lack of quality control meant that ‘The Corsais of VMF 213 on Mundi Aion 1944 National Museum of Naval Aviation AU: Corsair of he US Marine Corps on Espiitu Sano in March 1944, This afold became home to Royal New Zealand Air Force Corsairs later inthe wat.National Museum of Naval Aviation A fight of heavily armed Vought FaU-48.Corsars lor VF-54 tax for fakeot ftom the USS Valley Forge (C45) ~ the Happy Valley - October 1950. The S”on the vertical fall surfaces indicated Canter Air Group 5 (CVG-5), and was caried on ail the group's airrat. National Musoum of Naval Aviation these aircraft were limited for maximum speed and prohibited from aerobatics after several lost their wings in flight ‘These failures were traced to poor quality wing bolt and locking ftings. None ofthe Brewster-built Corsairs reached frontline units. Ia the FAA, these thankully rare aft were given the name Corsair Mk IL Sadly, this model ofthe Corsair was to ‘generate horror stories that tainted the reputation of the rest ofthe production aireraftunfsely THE F4U-1B Also known on the Goodyear production Tine as the FG-1B, this again wasa model ‘of Corsair that did aot offically exist. It ‘was unofficially applied at factory level to those aircraft being modified for service with the FAA. THE F4U-1C Only 200 ofthis specialised ground attack version were built between July and November 1944 alongside the FAU-1D. ‘The prototype FAU-IC, BuNo 50277, first slow in August 1943 and was armed with four 20mm (0.79in) M2 cannons with 231 rounds per gun of ammunition. The FAU-IC was introduced to combat during 1945, most ‘notably inthe Okinawa campaign, Aviators preferred the standard armament cof six.50 cal (12.7mem) machine guns since they were already more than powerful enough to destroy most Japanese aircraft, and had more ammunition and a higher rate offire. The weight ofthe Hispano cannon and their ammunition affected the fight performance, especially its agility, bt the cannon were found to be powerful weapons inthe ground attack role. > Chance Vought PAU Conair 18,[AVought FaU.4 Corsi, BuNO.97201, of VME 12,The Checkermoarcers.Kelth Drayeot? THE F4U-1D All the FAU-ADs were fitted withthe R2800- '8W engine as standard, which boosted the ‘maximum speed from 417mph(571 kmh) to 425mph (684 krnh). “The rocket armament was increased to four under each wing for ground attack missions, double the load ofthe earlier aireraft. Two drop tanks could now be caried ‘on new pylons under the inner wings, extending the range sil further. Uae the FAU-IC which was produced ia parallel, the -ID kept the standard wing samament of six 50 cal (12.7mm) machine guns. The clear-view style "Malcolm Hood” canopy was adopted as standard equipment forthe 1D model, and all ater FAU production aircraft. The Goodyear production aircraft were known as the FG-D. A small number of photoreconnaissance versions ofthe F4U-1 were produced with a special mount in the rear fuselage for a K-21 ‘camera and were known asthe FAU-IP {An FaU.4 Corsair of VE.24 is stuck down to the hangar on the side elevator of the USS Philippine Sea (CV.47) n 1981 National Museum of Naval Aviation r _ oa ‘ The climate n Korea could be extremely ‘cold. a8 evinced by this deck shot of FaU-SP Corsairs of VC-61 aboard the USS Philippine Sea (CV.47) off Korea in the winter ot 1950- S51. National Museum of Naval Aviation F4U-48 Corsairs of VMF312,The Checkerboarers aboard USS Siely (CV8-118), National Musoum of Naval Aviation THE F4U-2 ‘The US Navy's Naval Airraft Factory produced 32 examples ofthis conversion of the FAU-1 Corsair into a carrierborae aight fighter. It was armed with five 50 cal (12.7onm) machine guns as the outer, starboard gun was deleted to make room for the Airborne Intercept (Al) radar set ina ‘radome mounted outboard on the starboard wing. Two more aircraft were modified in the field by VME(N)532, a frontline night fighter unit. Flame dampers were fitted tothe exhaust stacks to reduce glare, and a radio ‘Tne pace of deck operations was fast and a FaU-4 Corsair of VE-SS lands and taxis forwore altimeter and an autopilot were installed. The F4U2 equipped VMF(N)-582, VEN)-75 and VE(N)-101. Early operations of VF(N)75 in New Georgia revealed considerable problems ‘with the operating procedures, but on the night of November I Lt, O'Neill shot down & G4M bomber. VF(N)-101 was created by detaching part of VF(N)75 in January 1944, lias the frst carrier-based night fighter unit ofthe US Navy, and the first carrier based Corsair Squadron No accidents occurred, which helped to clear the Corsa for carrier operations. conor the USS Estex (CV9). Already an AEW Sryraicer i on short fale beh i. National Museum of Naval AviationThe decks could get very crowded, hete rocket armed F4US Corsalrs of VF-13 prepare for a strke from the USS Franklin Roosevelt (CVA-42) in the summer of 1953. National Museum of Naval Aviation HE XF4U-3 ‘The FAU3 was a proposed version ofthe Corsair with a turbo-supercharged XR {6 engine. The 1000A turbo-supercharger was expected to maintain the full engine power of 2000p up to 40,0004 (12.200). A lange duct under the fuselage housed the turbosupercharger and identified the type The frst XFIUS flew on April 2, 1944 and three were built. A single Goodyear built PG-1A was converted to FG-3 before the programmed was cancelled. Twelve more FG3s were completed, but were only lowa on development trialsto tes the Corsair's performance with a variety of engines, THE F4U-4 ‘This was the last variant to see action during the Second World War when deliveries tothe US Navy besan on October 31, 1944 fully ‘equipping all the US Navy Corsair Squadrons four months before the end of hostilities. I was fited with the 2100 hp (1600 kW) duat-stage-supercharged -1SW engine, which, when the water/alcohol mixture injection system was used, boost the power to 2450hp (18001 required the addi the nose, The 62 gallon 234 lire) unarmoured wing fuel tanks were removed for better manoeuvrability a the expense ‘of maximum range. The propeller was changed toa four blade type all of which increased the maximum speed to 448 mph (721 kmh) and climb rate to over 3800 f/min (1180 m/min) as opposed to the 2900 f/min (884 m/min) of the FAU-1A, ‘The service ceiling also increased sigoificaatly from 37,0004 (11,008) to 41,000 feet (12,000 m. The engine on ofan air scoop under “Hog” asit was known retained the orignal armament and ad allthe extenal ad capabilities of the FAU-ID. The windscreen now lt bulle-esistant glass to avoid optical warping, a change from the curved Plexiglas windscreens withthe internal pate glass of the earlier Co The seat was now armoured and the instrument pane! improved, Production included 2050 F4U-4s with six 50 guns, 297 FAU-4Bs or FAU-4Cs with four 20mm cannon, a single FAU-AN night fighter conversion and aiae FAU-4P reconn: ‘modifications, The last one was delivered in August 1947 and plansto produce the F4U-4 by Goodiyearas the FG-4 were abandoned. The FAU4 was also used i the Korean war. Here the type served mainly asa fighter bomber, nevertheless one pilot, Capt J Polmar of VMASL2, was credited with shooting down a MiG-15. > Cortaits ato used land bases in Korea. Hore ‘on FaU4 of VMF-323 The Death Rates is seen taxying out atK-1 at Pusan, Korea.THE F4U-5 ‘The frst postwar model, the FAU-5, was basically similar tothe FU ‘The air scoop under the engine cowling was removed, and replaced by two small scoops incorporated inthe lower side ofthe cowling, Also, the outer wing panels were now flly covered with metal Other improvements ineluded automatic blower controls, cow! flaps, intercooler doors and oil cooler forthe engine, spring tabs for the elevators and rudder, a modernised cockpit, completely retractable tal wheel, and heated cannon bays and pitot head, ‘The armament consisted of four 20mm ‘cannon, asin the F4UAB. The engine was the 2550hp (2130KW) RZAOOSLE, with a variable speed tworstage supercharger. The engine installation introduced a lowering of the 'A deck eye view of a bombladen F4U stke ftom VF44 launching fom USS Boxer (CV-21) in July thrusiline by 2.75 degrees, which improved 1953. National Museum of Naval Aviation stabilty and forward view. The first XFWUS flew on April, 1946, Aight fighter version ‘was.also developed, the FAUSN. The radar was again, asin the FAU2, installed on the outer starboard wing, The radome was different in shape, however, due to the iting ofthe improved AN/APSS and later AN/APS19A radar set. The AN/APS- radar had a range of A ‘km aginst airerat and 37km against ships. Production included 223 F4U-5s, 214 FAUSNs ‘and 30 F4USP reconnaissance models. In addition 101 “wintersed” FAU-SNLs wore built, with de-eing boots for service inthe bitter Winters of Korea, Production continued until October 1951, and in the late 1950 the US delivered a small number of FAU5s and FAU: An FaU-4 Conta of VF-63 lance back aoa the USS Philippine Sea (CV-A7) in 1951 SNsto the Argentine Navy, as willbe discussed National Musoum of Naval Aviation in alate article within this magazine. J the cold weather cid make for some | stunning photographs, as this AUS? | Corsairof Ve-s1 demonstates over | Nationa! Museum of Naval AviationTHE AU-1 eAUA version ofthe 2 dedicated low-level attack PAU, The XAU-L was created by converting a FAU-SNL, and intially the ‘contracts issued for its development referred toitas the PAU. It was powered by a RZS0O-SSWA with a single-stage superchanger and water injection that delivered 2800hp at sea level. The air scoops were again removed from the engine covling. The AU-1 was given more armour for the pilot and the engine. Four 20mm ‘cannon with 231 rounds each were installed in the wings. The number of outer wing racks for weapons was increased from eight to 10 Performance had, of course, declined with allthis adlitional weight andthe handling had suffered even more. The AU-A was described as unpleasant to fly~ the only Corsair variant that is said of and the maximum speed was a mere 238mph (383kph). The AUcI was produced solely forthe US Marines during the height of the Korean War. Deliveries began in January 1952 and a total of 111 were supplied during the year, THE F4U-7 ‘The entire production run of the FAUT was tailored specifically for the Aeronavale ofthe French Navy. It was based on the FAUB with a redesigned cockpit and an upward extension ofthe rear fuselage decking sting the pilot ‘even higher than on previous models, The ‘engine was the R290D1SW and the Aeronavale received 94 FAU7saswellasa few AU-Is used previously by the US Marine Corps French Corsairs fought in Indochina, Algeria, and the Suez onllict, as wll be ‘covered ina later article, The last were retired in 1964, The final one was delivered ‘on January 31,1953 was also the last Corsair AAVought FaU-SN Corsi BuNo, 127196, of VMF-212. Keith Draycott = pe a weil 4 AA busy te forthe fag officer guicing the citcrat down fo land on USS Boxer (CV-21) In 1952, ‘An Fal-4 Corsair of F-64's just trapping, while two more tights are visible overhead National Museum of Naval Aviation ever built of the 12,571 examples that rolled offthe production lines THE F2G SUPER CORSAIR In closing this section ofthe magazine, mention must be made ofthe Goodyear-built F2G. The F2G-1 and F2G-2 were significantly Aiffereat sirrat, fitted withthe massive Pratt ‘& Whitney R-£200 Wasp Major row 28- cylinder "corneob” radial engine and teardrop canopy. They were intended as a specialised high speed interceptor agninst kamikaze attacks. The Wasp Major could deliver 3000hp (2238.8kW) for take-off and 400hp (1791KW) at 13,500 feet (4114.8). Itsmaximum speed was 431mph at 16,6008 4998.7 m). It was armed with four 50 eal, (2.7mm) machine guns with 300 round gun and could carry two 16001b (725.8kg) bombs on wing pylons. The F2G-1 was the land based version, while the F262 was the carrier model, The liffereave between the - and 2 variants was hat the -I featured a manual folding wing. and a 148 (4.3m) propeller, while the F2G2 aireraft had hydraulic operated folding wings, 4138 (tm) propeller and an arrestor hook for Although hundreds were on order by August 1945, only five examples of each were built due to cancellations atthe end of hosilities. While only 10 examples were built, several F2Gs went on to racing success aftr the war, winning the Thompson trophy races in 1947 and 1949, as will be discussed ina later article. U Words: Tim Callaway (Chance Vought PAU Corsair 17cearenrers ew 435 towards the ene of the war. The author 'A group photo ofthe aviatorsLearning to fly the Corsair In the first article supplied by David G Powers, to whom many thanks for his assistance in collating this edition of Aviation Classics, Theodore Thomas, a Marine Corps aviator, remembers the Bent-Wing Bird. vas alatecomer to climbing into the cock Vought Corsair. Thad won my Navy wings asa Marine Second Lieutenant (nd Lt) — ‘at Naval Air Staton (NAS) Pensacola i December 1944, A month later, when I walked out on tothe Tarmac at NAS Jacksonville with my Marine flght-mates to bbegia operational training inthe Corsi, most ofthe aircraft's original continuing, defects ofthat famous fighter plane had long since been correct There would only be the annoyances afforded by training in three different models {the acral: the PAU built by Chance Vought, the FG-1 built FAA built by Brewster, For example, some and some Goodyear and the had electric starters, some cartridge starters ‘There were three or four diferent radios, Instrument panel layouts differed But these were minor annoyances. Then was only one thing I and my flight-mates ~ seven of s~ were certain of. We were determined to learn to fly and fight ¢ Vought Corsair at that ime the best and fastest shipboard fighter plane in the world And we wanted todo it quickly so we coul set in on the last phase ofthe Pacific War, the invasion ofthe Japanese home islands. Actually the Corsair in an oddly tragic way, was responsible for the Navy wings on my blouse that day in Jacksonville. {had canlisted in the Marine Corpsin January Jess than a month after Peael Harbour and during Christmas vacation from my classes at the University of California in Berkeley. wanted to bea pilot, but al that time sualifying as a Naval Aviation Cadet - Thad no thought at al of entering the Army Air ll required two years of college sters. The Corps: had finished only three sem Marine recruiting sergeant in San Bernardiao, California, my home, was assuring: “Once you fish recruit traning, the Marine Corps has lots of special programmes you can apply for. No problem!” 1 did qualify for aviation radio schoo! out of boot camp, and July 1942 found me enrolled in the Radio Materiel School atthe Naval Research Lab in Ws a, DC. Most ofthe former members of my bor ‘camp platoon, incidentally, did get into one of the corps special programmes in August of 10942, It was called ‘Guadaleana’ White in Washington I dated agi who a government job about which she was losemouthed. One eveaing I rather confessed to her my desire to get into fight training, “Write down for me your name, rank and serial aurnber,” she said cheerfully “maybe Lean help.” So did, and promptly forgot about it. A month later I was called into the school ommander's office. Hot dog, I thought, maybe I'm going to flunk out and get transferred to an active unit. “Thomas, I spot an order here for you to report t to the naval hospi a fght physical exam,” sid the skipper wer at Anacostia to take siving me a quizzcal lok, “know anything Tonfessed complete ignorance. had, | remarked, once expressed the desire to ‘become a Marine pilot. But that wasin the recruiting office, The skipper smiled: “Well, ny only job isto turn out the best ra oF the Navy and Marines, technicians [ean But good luck to you. Take the physical, and then get back here to elas.” T passed the physical and was found ihysically qualified and temperamental ‘adapted for duty iavolving the actual control 5 airerat “What happens now?" [asked the skipper He shrugged, indicating thatthe results of my oubt grind around in the ‘administrative machinery ofthe corps fora exam would no while, and in due time would reappear. Ia the meantime, get back to clas I graduated from he school in March 1043 as a staff sergeant with orders to the newly established Marin Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, Here the 3rd Marine Airerat Wing was being organised and readied for Pacific duty. | was the NCO in charge of radio for Marine Fighting Squadron 322 My job was to train my detail of radio technicians to maintain in top operation the radio gear of 16 brand-new FAU-1 Corsirs. And it was here that the famous fighte was to affect my immediate service career The skipper of VMPS22 at that time was Major Pelham 8 Withers USMC, a veteran regula officer and an experienced pilot. > (Chance Vought PAU Conair 19Pea a Late one afternoon I was called into his office. Since Thad recently requested that additional radio techs be assigned to our squadron, [expected that tobe the subject of the vist He had some papers onthe de of him, After setting me ‘At Base’ he continued looking down atthe papers suddenly knew that additional radio techs in front were not going to be the subje Atthat moment, the major cleared his throat. “Set Thomas, Ihave orders here 1 to the Navy Yard, Boston, you wil be discharged fom the Marine Corps and enlisted inthe [Navy V5 programme for Naval Aviator training.” My heart jumped up into my ‘mouth. I griaaed. But then I noticed thatthe ‘msjor was sil looking at the papers. And he ‘wasn't grinning. “However, I cannot approve these orders, because I need radiomen more than I need pilots. So I'm sending the orders back. Tm sorry, sergeant.” Tould not believe what he was saying. 1 oked outa muffled "Yes, Si” and stumbled out of the office. My eyes were almost blinded by a combination ofanger and frustration. had no desire for chow; or sleep or afew beers atthe NCO club. I had avery bad night. The next morning the squadron held aerial gunnery practice. The tow plane took off withthe target following atthe end ofits Right: nc photograph taken on board the USS Bennington (CV.20),n February 1945, Major Herman Hanson ~ commancing officer fof Maxine Fightor Squadton 112 (VME112) ~ sors his ekeot Nee prop vapes! US Navy long cable. Major Withers’ F4U became airborne immediately behind the tow plane se and had to bank sharply to the eft to prevent running into the target. ‘Wrong move. The Corsair ia those days had a vicious left-wing stall charactoristic. Withers plane did let hal-snap rol driving at full Urotle upside down on tothe runway Corsair crashing om its back was always “flamer. Major Withers perished in the fierce ball of the resulting oil gasoline fir Thad be sta the crash that rmoraing. By aternoon | didn’t know what to think when Iwas called again to the skipper's . But this time, it was the exccutiv now acting CO, Ist Lt Dick Valentine ‘who was rocently back from his first combat tour in the South Pacific. He griaaed at m xd me my ordersand wished me lick. your gear together, ser So left the nextday with light heart, tempered with sadness for the accidental death of good Marine. And oh yes, wth a tip of my cap forthe gel in Washington DC iad made this rip possi MEETING THE CORSAIR ; Marna ache Why tate to ochaly mec ei corti We were seve More 2 Dick Gillmor and Chaclie Stevens. Two of ‘rowley and Gillmor ~ were newly married and had their wives on the base. We had met the day before at the Superintendent of Aviation Training’s (SAT) weleome session. The SAT, a humourless, grumpy licutenant commander, had reminded us that the United States Government was‘entrusting to our inexperienced hands an Airplane that cost it $50,000 ~ $25,000 for the airframe and $25,000 forthe engine ~and we had better take good care oft. Taking care of ‘ourselves was silly secondary! We had also mot our instructor, and we really licked out on him. Lieutenant Junior Grade Gene Myers, USNR, had recently returned to the states from Pacific carrier duty. He had just been awarded a Navy Cross for shooting down fve Zeros within 20 minutes during the Bate of Leyte Gulf. With his Grumman P6F Helleat ot of ammunition, ‘almost out of fuel, and so ful of bullet holes it whistled ‘Anchors Aweigh, Gene barely made it back aboard his carrier, the USS Princeton (CVL23),Fiteen minutes late, the order ‘Abandon Ship’ rang out, and ‘everybody went over the side. A single bomb froma Japanese dive bomber had ended Princeton's short but gallant career. "The two immediate facts about the Corsair apparent tous that morning were (1) it was.a single-seat airplane with no place for an instructor's reassuring presence and (2) how the hell do you see over that 154 nose jutting. skyward out infront ofthe cockpit? We knew About the frst fact ofcourse, but having that -xreal, ent winged monster looming high in front of us confirmed it and thrilled us, Only ‘one pilot was going to climb up and fly that beauty and it was you. Nobody else ‘The answer to the second fact was easy You simply don't see aver the nose of a Corsair on takeoffs and landings. This was where the ‘peripheral vision’ of your pilot's 20-20 eyesight would eome in, Once inthe air, asthe SAT might have putt, your sunsight could see over the nose, and that's all that mattered A few hours’ concentrated study of the instruction manual, day's cockpit checkout and our fight was ready for Familarsation Hop 1. But before that, Gene Myers gave us cach an exacting run-through ofthe takeoff checkeoff ist This included a walk around the airplane, with physial movement ofthe ailerons, elevators and rudder and an energetic pulldown ofthe wingtips (the G-l mode's we were to fly had folding wings) Also noting the ‘obvious, such as making sure the airspeed indicator inlet tube had its caver off, Ditto ~ and very important ~ forthe relief tube. the wallcaround was satisfactory, you signed form handed to you by the enlisted plane captain, signifying tha you accepted the aieraf for fight. The same form had the plane captains signature, which afiemed that Pees Seen es enn eer Peters} oer Cree ed ents peered once ee Caer emmy Cen) peer erates ty Cee as tne eer eee oot the engine had been run up and checked out that morning and that the fue tank had been topped off Then you adjusted your parachute and lfejacket harnesses, climbed into the cockpit followed by the plane captain who helped you lock your safety belt and shoulder ‘straps before jumping back down, You then ‘set the mixture coatrol to ‘Auto Rich, the propeller RPM lever in ‘Low Pitch, the rudder bo “Two o'lock’and the elevator tb to 10 o'clock’ A failure to make these tab settings could result atthe very leat, in an ‘embarrassing takeoff performance in font of the SAT, who spent most ofhis day watching ‘students take off and land. At worst, you could ‘imply crash oa takeofl Most embarrassing [Next you closed the cow laps and oil intercooler flaps. You then made sure, by > (Chance Vought PAU Cormac 21looking out at each side ofthe wing, to check hat the wing locking bolts~ huge, stainless steel rods ~ showed in the Yocked” position under their plexiglas covers. You checked your altimeter setting - Jacksonville ai station was regarded as sea level. Finally, you moved the sick around and visually checked the aileron and rudder response. If everything was okay, only then could you give athumbs upto the plane captain signifying you were ready to start the engine Gene Myers emphasised to us thatthe procedures ofthe cheelvofflist should never ‘be memorised, but should be gone over from apiece of paper in front of you. Of course this had been drilled into us from the start of our flight training. But Myers correctly pointed ut thatthe Vought Corsair was nota training plane, but a high performance fighter with a inimum tolerance for plot error. T took my first flight in an FG=1D on February 25, 195, The throat grabbing pation, the exiting thunder of the great 000 horsepower Pratt & Whitney twinrow ‘Wasp engine the surge of power a and 42 inches of mercury manifold pressure palling me up and over the runway and into the blue of the Jacksonville sk: Absolutely uoforgettable! But then Thad to attend tothe pull up of he landing gear. On those FG-1D models, the gear operating lever was down ~and I ‘mean down ~ on the lower leftside of the cockpit. When you reached for ityour head dropped down below the cockpit fairing and you were momentarily blind fying. Any ‘uncertain fumbling with the lever resulted in anosedown pitching ofthe airraft to the ‘watching eyes of instructors and the SAT - ton the ground. It was the mark ofthe novice ‘and itonly happened to me on that first flight, since Iwas subsequently determined to 270Kkpm A fine study of @ Vought FaU:SN a postwar model of the Corsai.Note the radar pod on the Fight wing. he F4U-SNL was vitually the same citcraft, but optimised for cold weather operations. US Navy correct for it on later flights. got the gear up, eased back on the stick to bring the nose back up, slid the plexiglas cockpit eanopy forward and latched aad Iwas airborne aad climbing out to the practice area. What a day. Telimbed to akitude, practised turns and banks and straightand-level, getting the fel ‘ofthe aircraft It was nota good idea to practise spins inthe Corsa. In fa, squadron doctrine forbade it, But I did shallow dives and pullups, seeing how ‘uickly I could retura to siraght-and-evel Over an hour passed quickly, then [returned to the field, called for landing instructions, levelled off st S00ft on the dowawind leg of the active runway, sid back the canopy, dropped the gear and the wing flaps and radioed the tower,"“Gear down and locked." ‘Tower okayed, I throttled back and started iy left turn to begin my approach to the end ofthe runway During al this, our sod traning in ‘ait: first landings preparatory to carrer flying, made the landing approach easy. But when I turned final, levelled the wings over th centre line ofthe runway and eased back on the stick to slow my airspeed, that long aose rose up in front of me and uncertainty took ‘over. I glanced frantically from side to side 10 _get a sense of direction and depth over the nwa [hit taibfirst alright, but I bounced ~ and bounced ~ and bounced! But to echo the old saying that a good landing is any one you can walk away from, when I got back to the ready room I found out that everyone ‘else had bounced to. Gene Myers admitted that landing bounce was a Corsair characteristic. He was mildly critical at irs, but after several days of bounces he announced rule one, which applied to the students in his fight. or every ‘observed bounce in any of our landings, the [A Navy Corsair pilot gets the signal to launch. This aterat = BuNo 62994 - Is an FAU-49 of 4C, at Indicated by the four 20mm cannon in the wings. This [photo was taken just after he end of the war. US Navy‘A Goodyearbult FG-1 after is 1979 restoration in the museum at he Marine Corps A Station Guanitce, gina. Note early Corsa had no. ‘chin scoops. Den Linn Collection bouncer would pay $5 cash to Gene, the money to go into a‘Party Fundfor the day we successfully completed operational training. We all agreed In March we began tactical traning. Bach ofus took turns lying wing on Gene Myers in atwoplane section. After we felt comfortable ‘with that, Gene had the entire flight rendezvous a altitude in two four-plane divisions the classic Navy and Marine Corps fighter formation. We then begaa taking offia ‘wro-plae sections, then four plane divisions Iwas about that time that accidents began to happen. Not only in our fight, but also in others, since most of Jacksonville's operations invoWed Corsair training. | was feeling rather cocky after @ couple of days of tight tactical fying and one morning forgot to read over my checkcoff list. failed to set the mixture control to"Auto-Rich’ and my engine quit cold just ater Thad become airborne and reached dowa to pullup the ‘gear: 1 dropped down to the runway. I was lucky. Ifmy engine had run fora few seconds more, 1'd have landed in the barracks building just off the end of the eunway. Instead, I had enough runway left fora nervous landing in which I bounced hard and blewa tyre. [applied brakes and came to a sop after lurching nto a runway light I switched off the ignition, then saw the mixture control lever. [quickly moved it to “Auto-Rich’ just as the crash truck sereamed toa stop beside the plane. The SAT was first ‘out, bounding up onto my wing, sticking his head into the cockpit and staring directly at the throttle quadrant. He did not first look at me and ask if was okay. “Did you take offin autoean, lieutenant?" he asked staring into my eyes. held up both palms, shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. [knew damned well thatthe SAT could tell the difference in engine take-off sound between lean and rich. After a couple of seconds, the SAT shook his head and jumped dowa. So it ‘was. lite white lie, and I certainty had learned my lesson, with minimal damage to the aircraft and myselL My friend Ed White, who wasin a different fight from ours, wasn't quite as lucky as was. His engine quit when his Corsair was well airborne and headed! out to the training area. His basic training in ‘Small, Field Procedures’ stood him in good stead, and he bellied into lightly wooded farm field, Scattering tree limbs and aireraft parts behind him, he came to a lurching stop not far from a farmhouse. A young woman at the house had seen him erash and ran out to help. She climbed up on the wing and leaned ‘over the side ofthe cockpit, Eas later ‘comment was: “She wasa pretty gal and ‘when she Teaned over me, her louse was ‘open. When I took off my helmet and looked up at her, started to get excited, so I figured Iwas okay!" Another buddy of ours had to belly his Corsair dead-stck into a broad, shallow pond just ofthe end of one ofthe runways, He maintained his sense of humour, however. While the crash crew was making arrangementsto drag him and his. ‘ofthe wate, he got his raft and Mae West out of his parachute harness, inflated them and gotinto the water. He got his fishing rod and bait out ofthe kit, tossed the shark repellent raft out cout on the water and posed for a great picture wen the public affairs photographer arrived. ‘The SAT was ot amused, But there was nether humour nor pretty airs when our flightmate Chuck Crowley crashed later that month, We had flown 8 tough twornd-ehalf hour tactical fight and hhad broken up forthe landing approach. Chuck was second inthe pattern and I was right behind him, As! started my tara into finalit looked to me that Chuck was following ‘unusually close behind Andy Anderson, the flight eader, who had just touched down. A second later Iwas horrified to see Chuck. bank lef, snap upside down and dive into the runway with 2 ball of smoke and flame ‘mushrooming over him. My God, [thought itwas Major Withers all over again. The tower closed the field immediately. L pulled up into aclimb along the right edge of the runway radioing the flight mates behind tojoin up on me ata parking attude until we ‘got landing instructions, We all thought (Chuck was a goner. ‘Alter landing and hurrying ito the ready room, we got better news. Gene Myers had watched our approach he called it his ‘bounce-watch’~ and just ater the crash occurred he had jumped on one ofthe crash trucks. Arthe fire two husky crewmen had to physically restrain Gene from plunging into the smoke and flame to try to help Chuck. A seaman 2nd on the crew grabbed afir-bottle and got tothe plane in time to pull Chuck's lunconscious body from the remains of the cockpit and get him to the ambulance. That ‘seaman would later receive the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his heroic action. > Chance Vought PAU Conair 28,Iwas then up tous to visit Chuck's young, wife inthe officer quarters area and impart the sad news, None of us was very good at this. Gillmor's wife accompanied us and she ‘was a great help. Atr a period of tears anda period of comforting, we all went to the infirmary where Chuck now lay in bed with thick bandages around his head. He looked at us, his eyes twinkling. “You oughta see the other guy,” he grinned. The day got alot beter for us ll. But 2nd Le Charles Crowley was through flying, He went hhome on a medical discharge later that ‘month with a silver plate in his head AERIAL GUNNERY Weal approached the guanery syllabus with the feoling Thisis the real stuf’. Our frst gunnery hops took place on March 8, 1945. ‘The FG-s were equipped with two 50-aliber ‘machine guns firing forward, one in each wing. They were bore-sighted to converge 1000f ahead ofthe airplane."The gunsight was electronic. When turned on, it projected aared bull's eye pattern up in front of the pilot's eyes on a plexiglas plate mounted ata 45" angle atop the cockpit fairing. There were ro crosshairs. Instead, a small circle inthe centre ofthe bull'seye could be adjusted to conform tothe wingspan of the enemy plane as seen at 1000R In our caso, the conformed to the 38f wingspan ofthe “Mitsubishi Zero By this time, we each had about 25 hours of Corsair ght time in our logbooks. By the fend of March, we would add 32 more hours, all gunnery time, Out of 8 hopsin March, 20 would be gunnery hops. Aerial gunnery a that time was the art of deflection shooting. Our ground-school work included many hours of skeet shooting on the base range to prepare our eyes and Iwigger fingers forthe sense ofthe shot. Our acral target was.a 20ft by 4t pane] made of tough steel grid-wire painted white and attached atthe end ofa L008 cable towed by ‘Corsair. We took turns being the tow pilot On a gunnery hop, each plot's bullets were |AYought Fau.48 - BUNo 97501.US Navy A prototype Vought Fal Corsal on the ramp at Naval Al Station Patuxent River, Maryland, Cctea 1945, Note the chin scoop. Don Linn Collection painted a diferent colour, which would show upon the target. IFyou happened to hit it. Not an easy target to bit, we were to find out Deflection shooting was accomplished with the high-side gunnery run. The fight leader would position the division about 1500 above the altitude ofthe tow, slightly ahead and to the right oft. You could do it from the left, too, but we did it mostly from the Fight. Afler making sure everyone had turned on his gun switches, and then turned ‘on his master armament switch, the flight leader peeled off into a diving left tura, then rolled right to bring his airplane above and slightly ahead ofthe target. From there on it was a matter of e-ordination with stick and ‘zunsight. A two-second burst, then aroll- ‘away tothe left and a climb back to altitude, very fifth bullet was a tracer, so the pilot ‘could track his fire. ll the fight members followed, thea joined up above the tow to do itagain Alter we got into the routine and began showing some hits, Gene took usup one afternoon and led us through 30 successive high side runs, We ran out of ammo halivay through, but we continued to make the runs. As we allollapsed into the ready room chairs after returning to base, Gene grinned atusand said: "Nowe you have a fir idea of how you'l feel after a combat hop.” FUN STUFF By this time we had enough time logged to feel litle cocky. We weren't bouncing much ‘on landings. We wasted no time on ou join ups and our wing positions were tight and true. We hadn't had any taxi accidents, 2 traditional happening inthe Corsair, ‘especially around Jacksonville's busy line shacks which could not be seen over the nose of a taxiing aircraft Most of us were pretty quiet at breakfast time, but Wally Catheart was always fllof jokes and commentary. This could be irritating to those of us sill waking up. So the rest of us agreed on alte joke. One morning, while we diverted Wally's attention in the ready room, one of us sipped out and twisted the relief tube on Wally’ aircrat soit pointed forward, It was long hop. Wally needed the tube and was not amused to have the air blowing up instead of down, ‘Afew days later on a tactics hop, Andy Anderson and I eased up on cither side of Wally and positioned our aireraft so we wore right off his wingtips. The ar was unusually smooth that day and we inched in so that our ‘wingtips were just under his wingtips. Then we began tappiag him, Wally was nervously looking from side to side and we could see his mouth moving in shouts of probably uuncomplimentary remarks, We kept it up for4 few minutes more and then moved back into formation. Gene Myers, incidentally, was not on this particular hop. He woulda’ have approved. But Wally was quieter at breakfast aftr that. Wellinto the month of March 1945, we were astounded to hear Charlie Stephens announce his forthcoming, marriage to 8 Jacksonville giel he had only receatly met. ‘After meeting her and her family, however, ‘we fully approved. We even went so far as to purchase dress whites forthe oocasion Luckily, Charlie did not insist on dress blues with swords, which would have been prohibitively expensive, even with our flight pay. Iwasa great wedding and I think it was the only time I wore the dress whites during ‘my time in the corps. We had found out where Stephens and his wife planned to spend their wedding night =a house in Jacksonville Beach owned by her family. 0600 hours the next morning we took off, flew the short distance to the beach peeled offand buzzed the house just over the rooftop. Charlie held that against us fora Tong time, because we had interrupted some very private goings-on. Gene Myers had approved our flight with reservations, because it was llega, ater alto fy below 500M over a town or ety: And we were below S0ft But no one turned usin FIGHTER COMBAT ‘This part of the syllabus was the most fun, even if it wasnt the most realistic. We simply took turas dogfighting first Gene Myers then each other. I got an inital boost from my first fight with Gene. He coulda shake me offhis ti. Later in the ready room review, he congratulated me, but he made some pointed ‘comments. “IfT been fying a Zero,” said Gene, Ti have turned back into you, and if you didn't expect it, Td have gotten off a burst into you before you could respond.” twas the frst ime Gene had made aay reference to his owa combat experience, We brought up his citation for shooting down five Zerosin te Philippine Sea, He shook his head. “Two things about that, guys. First, they were rookie pilots. Even then, they managed to puta lt of bulletholes in my plane. Second, they tried to dive away fom me. A Zero simply can't outrun & Corsair. Never could, fm not saying they're all rookies out there now. After all as far as we know, the Zera pilot who shot down Greg. Boyington last year is still out there.” He paused, then said: "Remember two things not to do with a Corsair. One, don't get into.a spin. Two, never try to dogfight a Zero He stopped to let his remarks snk i, then let us go with a final remark: "You guys are doing fine. fm proud of you al.” And he bought usa round of drinksat the O-elub that weekend, NIGHT FLYING ‘Our flight schedules for April 1945 sil had some gunnery, but also included bombing and rocket-iring. And night fying, This was ‘an exeiting phase for me. [loved it, Like all of us, was surprised to learn that I could fly @ tighter wing position at night than [could in daytime. Gene explained it as due to the smoother sr at that time of year and the offshore climate. But the simple fact of darkness sharpened all our senses, The horizon, so well defined during the day, blended at night into the blackness ofthe sea, especialy when the moon had set. You had to guard, too, against a peculiar aberration of night vision depth perception, ‘which could transform a light on the surface ofthe sea from a boat ora dock, for ‘example - into the white rudder light ofan aircraft. On more than one occasion at Florida naval ar facilites, a flight leader ‘malking this fatal optical error had le his entire section or division into watery death, But the spectacular beauty of a thunderhead forming over the moonlit surface ofthe sea was. sight to behold Again, wateh the depth perception. By the end of April 1945, each of us had averaged about 118 flight hours inthe Corsair. With the exception of my hard landing, and Chuck Crowley's bad erash, ou flight was accidentfrce. We had so far avoided another unpleasant Corsair characteristic, the rupture of the hydraulic accumulator (mechanics considered the Corsair to bea hydraulic nightmare). This Alevice was mounted back under the instrument panel. When its seal filed, shower of hydrauli fluid would soak the entire cockpit including the pilot. Since hydraulic pressure was needed to get the ‘gear down, an emergeney ‘blow-down’ system could foree the gear down and, hopefully, locked. Ift did not lock, the pilot had to bely and. ‘We spoke the radio language of the Fighter Director Code as if we'd been born to it Instead of calling the tower for takeoff instructions fora fight of four fighter airerat, you said: "Bingo Base, this is Bingo One~ Zero. Four chicks for Scramble. Over.” Instead of calling your fight-mates with the message: "Let's climb out ona heading of ‘TwoFourZero-degrees to an alitude of 0K, where we will cicle and avait the tow plane, we sai: “Vector Two-FourZero to Angels Bight. Orbit and wait for the tow”. We were simply the best, There was one more test of ou abilities (One more measurement before we could expect orders to aircrat, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, as qualified Corsair pilots. First, we would Start with Field Carrier Landing Practice, then we would have to successfully make 1f day landings aboard an actual aireraft carrer at sea FIELD CARRIER LANDING PRACTICE (FCLP) Wi had taken for grand, during our carer fight traning a NAS Pensacola that Marine Corps fighter planes would rarely serve aboard carriers. We didnot know tat cartier inthe war the Navy had checked out Corsairs aboard carriers and had declared them unfit for carrying because of thr poor landing visit, their bad bounce characteristic an their eftwing sal > ‘Gear down, taps down, hook down a Corti ‘coming in to land on ‘he carrer US Navytendency at low approach speeds. So Marine Corsair squadrons would be land-based for most ofthe Pacific Wa But what I didnot know, until ead historical publications long after the Second World War ended, was that Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner's huge amphibious force that landed on Okinawa had four Marine Corsair squadrons based at sea, These units lew from the carriers Bennington (CV.20) and Bunker Hill (CV-17), plus the escort carriers Skok Bay (CVE) ‘and Breton (CVE2%). The Marines payed 2 seat part in ar support operations during. the landings and afterwards in the defence against kamikaze attacks. Four more CVES, allMarine, were even then being prepared to support the invasion ofthe Japanese home islands, scheduled for November 1, 1945 Fortunately, they weren't needed, but May 1945, when we started FCLP. cartier (qualification for Marine fighter pilots rated a high priority NAS Jacksonville had prepared an isolated runway for FCLP by painting on tthe outline of aCVE carrier deck, Landing Signal Officers (LSOs) were supplied, In late Apel 1945 we began our traning flight, the object of which was to foreibly imprint in our eyes, minds, and muscles, a proper carrier landing approach. The procedure went: gear down, 30° of flap, 65-70 knots airspeed, a smooth lft ‘urn, lining up withthe deck centrefine and levelling your wings, eyes onthe LSO, peripheral vision on the runway outline. Ifthe ESO gave you a cut, you chopped the throtle, immediately put your eft hand up on the coving edge and landed. The left hand off the throttle was most important. In an actual cartier landing, with the tilhook catching the arresting wire, the plane would come toa sudden and jarring stop. A eft hand sill on throttle would push forward and the airplane ‘would try to take off. An embarrassing and damaging result, ‘We spent several hours on FCLP and our flight did well There was one mare step. A single arresting wire was stretched across the carrier outline and we had to catch it ‘This was important training to give us the actual fel ofthe hard, jarring stop. A couple of hours of this, and we were deemed ready for the carrier. All of us had realy been ready Jong ago! THE CARRIER The carrier assigned to us was the USS GGuaadaleanal (CVE-60), at this ime based at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, not far from Jacksonville Beach. The Guadalcanal, with ‘Composite Squadron 8 on board, had its own claim to fame asthe only carrer to capture an enemy submarine at sea, in this ease the German U'505, Iwas taken off the Atlantic coast in 1944, So we were doubly excited to ‘qualify aboard this famous ship. Several flights, including ours, would be i this next Cree retreat Coy (Over he last week of June 1948 and the frst week of July 1948, the Marine Corps called back its active reserve fighting squadron for an intense two weeks of training at Merine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina.It was the largest assembly of Corsais and Corsair plots ‘noe the Second Werld Wa-The author cass, Our instructors would wish us well, but would not accompany us to the ship. We'd be ‘on our own. I was especially proud to be one ‘of eight pilots selected to ferry the Corsairs ‘ut to the carrer for our classes to use We were solemnly advised by some of the ‘crew chiefs thatthe Jacksonville Assembly & Repair (A & R) Shop traditionally picked out the aircralt which were the worst maintenance headaches to despatch to the carrier, knowing that few of them woul ‘come back. This was not reassuring, but we felt confident that we could handle any aircraft given to us. We ferry pilots met inthe students ready room early on May 4, 1945, nervous but eager to get in the air and out to the carrer. Buta phone message from the tower disappointed us all The Guadaleanal, ‘that moment about 30 miles ofthe coast was having a couple of problems associated with the qualifing of elass of Curtiss SB2C standing sith trom the left.The author Helldiver dive bomber pilots. There would be delay while they tied to get enough wind fcross the deck to start the days light ‘operations. Luckily, we turned up two decks ‘ofeardsand spent the day plying bridge Next day we played bridge all morning, went tothe mess for lunch and got a welcome callin mid-afternoon, Guadalcanal's Might deck was cleared, there was plenty of wind and she could take us aboard, We ‘whooped out tothe flight line, stowed our ‘overnight daflles ia the Corsair's tiny, so called luggage compartments, serambled our chicks, formed up and headed out on a dead- reckoning vector fr the carrier. Once airborne, nervousness left us Weather was dark and overcast and the sir was bumpy. But we had the supreme confidence of our training. Within minutes we sighted the cartier and its accompanying plane quard ship, a destroyer escort. God,that deck looked tiny down there on an empty ‘ocean! From the carriers bridge a signal light blinked ‘Dah:DitDab-Ditor the Morse cod for the letter'C. It stood for ‘Charlie’ - okay to recover aircraft, We were cleared to land. I had to chuckle on seeing the signal light. All the hours we spent in ground school learning Navy blinker and I recognise one letter. But it was an important letter | was number four in the landing patter, ‘You can bet we went over ou landing chee offlist very carefully, Canopy locked open, ‘gear down aad locked, tailhook down, 30” of flap. The frst two aircraft got cuts and landed successfully. Nearing the carrier Lnoticed it had about a 5" rol. Just another spice forthe action. [began my approach. My approach was perfec, if say so myselt But as | neared the final, I noticed that I was realy too close to the aireratt in front of me. I turned into the centreline of the flight deck and levelled my wings, The LSO gave me a wave ott Tfirewalled the throttle and roared over the flight deck in aclimb back to the landing pattera, Damn, I thought. I couldn't have made a beter approach, Awaveolf was mandatory, Acut was ‘optional. Ifthe LSO gave you a cut, but you weren't comfortable about landing, you could lake your own wave-off But, ao matter how ‘comfortable you felt in your final approach, wave-off meant you go around again. All my nervousness returned. had to get aboard. But my next two approaches got waves The second one was so low that the LSO dived iat his safety net It became apparent to me that I was now the last plane to land. It was getting dark, but the air was setting ess bumpy. [came around again, Easy, Thomas, easy. Let's get back to CLP Smooth lef turn. After all, the earier is stecring straight into the wind, Line up on the centre of the deck. The LSO is your focus ‘of tention, Watch his paddles. Don’t get too slow. See, he’s giving you the slow signal with his paddles. Come on, come on. More throtl. Steady on, steady on. THE CUT! op the throttle, hand up to the cowl edge, stick back, flop down on the deck. Catch the wire, You're down, Thomas. The deck crewmembers are running up to push you bck. You cut the ignition. You're aboard. You ‘ean uncouple your safety and shoulder belts, ‘and climb out and down to the fight dec. You can chow down in the wardroom, And suddenly you are hungry as hel, Inthe wardroom, [saw the LSO, a Navy Lieutenant. He looked at me. extended my hand, "Hi, si” Ioffered, “Tm sorry that | put You iato the safety act He grinned. “Well, tha’s what its fo, Lieutenant” He shook my hand and added: "You did allright. You got aboard.” After chow I found my quarters and collapsed for the night Next day wasal fy-time, From 0700 hours to 1700 Guadalcanal’ ight deck was active. There was plenty of wind deck and the swells had subsided, I made The Corsa could cany a wide variety of ordnance. Hore,an ordinanceman on board the camier Philippine Sea (CV 47) readies 100!b bombs on the wing of a Fava Corsa, National Museum of Naval Aviation seven more landings with no trouble. Out of the eight Corsairs we had ferried aboard the day before, only five remained flyable at secure of fight operations. Reasons were cevideat. Besides the aircraf’s wellknown landing gear bounce characteristic, the Corsair’ tailhook also bounced. If you made an exira-hard landing the hook could bounce across three of four wires without catching ‘one. The deck crew would have previously raised the primary barrie, a fence of four cables stretching across the light deck, The ft would charge into the barrier, which effectively stopped its forward motion but bent its propeller and stopped the engine Result ~an airplane out of commission until serviced ashore. Two of our airraft hit the barriers tha day, andthe thied demonstrated, forall to see from the island bridge, why you should put your hand on the cowling just after chopping the throttle on acut. The pilot ofthe third plane didnt do that. His irraft reared upward like wild stallion ater catching the wire He chopped his throttle atthe top of the rearing "The Corsair fell heavily down on the deck, Its fuselage buckled in a halfdoubl-U just afte the cockpit. The sight prompted one of us ‘watching oa the bridge to comment: “That airplane hit the fight deck ike a turd from a tall cow.” One more plane assigned to A&R a + » JALIFIED! PUSH “ER BACK AND CHANGE PILOTS!” That weleome message began to boom out of the flight officer's bridge station about mid ‘morning on the next day. It meaat Ht ‘successful landings. It sounded for me in late afternoon. 2nd Lt Joe Cannon, an acquaintance of mine from another flight, was the next pilot waiting for my airplane. It was-a hot day and the engines were fying hot. I had noticed that my cylinder head {temperature was running higher than normal ‘but I didn think much about it. had made ‘my Mth landing and as far as Twas concerned, Iwas through flying for that day. sinned at Joe, gave him a thumbs "Good luck” and headed below. yelled ‘Cots had been set out inthe passageway ‘near the ready room. [collapsed on one and ‘went to sleep instantly I was awakened by ‘someone shaking my shoulder, rather rudely Thought. Hooked up atan angry Joe Cannon standing beside the cot in dripping ‘wet flight gear. “Were you tryin’ to kill me Thomas?” growled Joc, "You should have grounded that plane for high cylinder head emperature!™ T got wide-awake and listened to Joe's ‘sory. Apparently his engine had quit on the first approzch, the plane hitting the water in the carriee’s wake. Actually the poor guy > (Chance Vought PAU Corsair 27hhad almost drowned when his let foot caught in the large opening ofthe Corsairs rudder Drake pedal. He was under water when he finaly extracted his foot, unlatched his safety belt and straps inflated his Mac West and lurched up othe surface in time for the destroyer escort plane guard to pick him up. Joe and I were not especially close friends, and he wasnt going to let me forget about the eylinder head temperature, | did apologise profusely and admitted I should hhave reported the high temperature to the plane captain, So it was scratch another Corsair fromm the availablity list. ‘When Guadaleanal docked in Mayport the ext day, only one ofthe eight aircraft we had ferried from Jax was sill yable. But the operation was over and we could cal ‘ourselves trained Corsair pilots ~ ready for anything. Gene Myers was proud of us. He took us out toa fancy restaurant in Ponte Vedra, Florida, for our "bounce-money’ dinner and we had a fun time loved every minute of our brief but intense tour of carrier duty. The noisy, bustling life of the fight deck. The boom of the flight officers loudspeaker, Stand clear of propellers. Stat engines: The coughing thunder of the great engines with their clouds of smoke and smell of hiactane ion gasoline and engine ol. The hoarse ofthe barrier crewmen. And the evening, when the fight deck was secured and the message came from the loudspeakers: ‘Now stand by to darken ship. The smoking lamp is out on all sweatherdecks. IfT had a chance for earrier flight duty, [was ready AFTER JAX Twas ordered to the Marine Corps Ai Station EI Toro, California, and by the endo The Corsair could also carry powerful Sinch High Velocity Alrcratt Rocke, here fed fo @ Vought FaU-88.The squadron - Marine Fighter ‘Squacion 214 (VMF-214) - was deployed aboard the escort carrer USS Siely (CVE-118), cited fall 1950, National Museum of Naval Aviation May 1945, Lwas flying Corsairs for VMP-471. We trained heavily in bombing and rocket firing, showing the emphasis that ‘would come ~ close ai support work. One day I took an FGA up to 20,0008 over Laguna Beach and pushed itto over 400 knots true air speed straight and level. had always heard that the aieraft was the World’ fastest shipboard fighter and now I believed it On July the Replacement Depot at Mirus, California, awaiting orders to ‘aay beyond the seas Hot dog, Iwas going to make it. ‘group of us played bridge daily. On August 2, 1945, we commenced a week's feld training 0 called "Combat Conditioning’ ~ at narby Camp Pendleton. On August 6 after returning to our tent from breakfast a portable radi informed us that an ‘Atomic? bomb, with the equivalent of 21,000 tons of TNT, hadl been dropped by an Air Force B-29 (on Hiroshima, Japan. Next day another one was dropped on Nagasaki We were stunned at the news, We talked it over with mixed felings of disappointment and disbelieé Of course, we concluded, the , 1945, | was transferred to war was effectively orer and our terrific training as fighter pilots would come to nought (Korea, of course, was ot even imagined at that time). EPILOGUE Yes, the war was over, ut he replacement pipeline tothe Western Pacific bubbled on, (Our group sailed irom San Diego later that rmonth on a Liberty ship bound for Okinawa, On September 2, 1945, Ttook my fest ght in an FAU-4 with VMF-212, fying from Awase airstrip, The 4 model had 200 more horsepower than the FG-ID, a big fourbladed propeller, better supercharging, more armour, six.S0-calibres firing from the wings, auxiliary fuel tanks and water injection to get even more power from the big Wasp engine For the next five months we ist flew surveillance patrols over Jap fortified islands Tike Amami-O-Shima and Miyako Jima, 0 make sure the former enemy was obeying the rules, Then we flew routine training hops to keep busy. In late November 1945, Lt Col John Hl King of 3nd Wing staff got the chance to ead our squattron on a routine training flight to Yokosuka, Japan. What a treat. We spent three days at the former Naval air base there, which by that time was restored ‘enough to give us first-class lodgings and ‘good food and drink. We took a quick rip into Tokyo and found it desolate, blasted city: There were Japanese soldiers and civilians wandering aimlessly about and General MacArthur's military police keeping. everybody well disciplined, In February 1945, we loaded our Corsairs aboard a CVE and sailed for San Diego. From there, most of us reported to NAS Terminal Island, California. Some pilots went back to civilian life from there, I signed on for two months’ active duty with Naval Air Ferry Squadron 3, operating out of NAS San Pedro, California. We spent our time ferrying rebuilt PGADs from the A & R shops on North Island to Naval Reserve bases the Midwest. These ‘Bent-Wings would be flown by the ‘Weekend Warriors’ of Marine Corps andl Navy Reserve squadrons. Later, ltoo was to ly these Corsair, at bases in Akron and Columbus, Ohio, Twas released from active duty at Terminal Island on July 4, 1946, with 335 Cormic hours ta my loghonle. I was the end ofthe greatest experience of my youn ie. Words: Theodore ThomasFINEST HOUR ART: CE RIog CCM Com Euan ec ROU Tin A ce OVATE eS RO oer aoe cre SSR SSS ace eee ee Cee ee eco ea aerophile in your life. To order your limited edition Aviation Classics prints, complete the form on the OS et oO LU AO LEER SCORE A EBLUL CLERC TO you can order your prints online at www.finesthourart.com/aviationclassics F4U CORSAIRSOTHER PRINTS AVAILABLE FROM AVIATION CLASSICS & FINEST HOUR ART F4U CORSAIRS IRAQI FREEDOM FLEEING HAWKSFINEST HOUR ART" F86 SABRE 60 FIS AEROBATIC TEAM TO THE RESCUE DE HAVILLAND MOSQUITO JAIL BREAKERS HIDE & SEEK ur Art, PO Box 265, Winsford, Cheshire, CW7 SFL www.The los squa Reenter Seam Tn y one of the most tragic, and heroic, even his truetife story of tragedy and heroism took place in early 1944 ‘The war in the Pacific was raging An entire Marine fighter ‘squadron, in preparation fr its first combat, with 24 brand new single-seat Vought FAU-IA Corssirs, was ordered to ferry its planes over 700 miles over the open Pacific Ocean to a new base, Twenty-two of the 24 planes were los in the worst Marine aviation disaster in history ‘One pilot didnot take off. One pilot completed the light. One pit crashed on the ‘beach of tiny island and almost was freed to ‘marry a native maiden. One pilot with engine failure crashed into the ocean, and another parachuted into the ocean to try to save him. Several planes and pilots were never found, Fifteen Corsairs stayed together, erashed into the ocean and all ut one pilt were rescued ater three days. Six pilots perished. ‘Add sharks, a hurricane,and a rescue seaplane that was hit by a large wave that caused ito leak and break offone ofits two engines, and you havea story that proves life and death ~can be stranger than ition This sa story of man at his best under duress. It shows the heroism and also the breathtaking experiences that we can al relate to in our worst nightmares. But on that ‘one fateful day, it dd happen. For those involved, it was a nightmare come true. And, ‘once again, as from the beginning of time, ‘man’s limits and ingenuity were tested to the ‘maximum, Many men responded brilliantly = although with various degrees of success. OVERVIEW Allied forcesin the Pacific had just completed Operation Galvanic ~ November 10,10 December 10, 1943 — which involved the recovery of several islands inthe Gilbert chain, Next onthe Allied planners’ itinerary ‘wasa movement to the north west into the Marshall Islands. Specifically, Operation Flintlock involved the occupation of Majuro ‘and Kwajalein atolls with the follow-on Operation Catchpole concentrating on the capture of Baiwetok atoll, ‘Aiter occupation ofthe Marshall, further long range plans called for turn to the west ‘and dhe taking ofthe Caroline Islands, whieh Hooked up tothe bri, anc at fl ake off power = just imagine the sound Ts is @ ought FaU.1 assigned to VMF~422.The image is dated January 24, 1944,Although not nnoled in the caption on the back of the photo, the squadron and the date woul Inclicate thatthe ship most ikely the USS Kalinin Bay (CVE-68), nd the airra is part fof the squadron’ off fo Hawkins Fle Terawe, National Museum of Naval Aviation dron eee ee LO ee ce eT SUR Tose R Cn inchuded the major Japanese base at Truk. Then a sight tura tothe north west would put the Marianas Islands, including Guam, Saipan and Tinian within easier reach for Allied forces. Ater that, taking ether the Philipines ‘or mainland Japan would be next on the agenda, For now, however, Operation Flintlock was set to goin motion on January 31, 1944, Rear Admiral John H Hoover wasn ‘command of al land based sirpower inthe area, including Navy and Marine Corps, 28 well as US Army units. During Operation Galvanic, Hoover based his command at Funai in the Elie chain ofislands, which were situated to ‘the south ofthe Gilberts. With most ofthe Gilberts secure, he moved north to Tarawa, an essential move ast paced his frees over 700 milescloserto the Marshalls, During this time frame, many ofthe carriers had been removed from the area for upkeep and overhaul and Hoovers land-based aircraft ~ essentially Army medium and heary bomb squadrons ~ ‘assumed much of the aerial preparation for Operation Flintlock. Enter into Hoover's ‘command a squadron designated Marine Fighter Squadron 422 (VMF-422).> itOne el Re Eee an eerie ty re ee eed Ce a oe Perea en ee esses set et ee Cae Naval Aviation Cad aren eee tater re era eee) eee ered ea ee es Pe eee ee nd eae cst cal Loney on epee eet eer es) eee eens Pee et ee Cry THE SQUADRON Marine Fighter Squadron ‘established at San Diego, California on January 1, 1943, and was originally equipped with Grumman FAP Wildcats, Withia afew weeks of commissioning, the squadron was ‘moved north to Santa Barbara, It was here that VMF422 transitioned tothe Vought FAU- 1 Corsair, In October 1943, the squadron was ‘embarked aboard the USS Bunker Hill (CV 17), moved to Pearl Harbour, Hawai, and almost immediately transferred to Midway Isfand. In December 1943, VMF-422 was transferred back to Hawai, preparatory to deployment to the South Pacific. With a ‘complement of 24 factory fresh FAU-LA Corsairs, VMF-422 loaded aboard the equally new escort carrier USS Kalinin Bay (CVE-68) and departed Hawaii on January 17, 1944 On January 24, 1944, VMF-422 catapulted off Kalinin Bay's tiny fight deck and landed at Hawkins Field on the Tarawa Atol,Actaly located on the smaller islet of Betio, Hawkins Field named after a Marine Corps oficer that had died during the eapture of Tarawa — was one of several captured Japanese srficlds scattered around the Tarawa atoll VMMF-122 was composed mostly of new plots and ‘commanded by Major John MeLaughlin, himself in his first squadron command. THE MISSION Marine General Lewis G Merst, who worked as the commander, search an patrol group under Admiral Hoover, was planning to provid strong a support forthe upcoming invasion of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands. This would involve the use of several Marine Corsair fighter squadrons including VMF-422, to be used for round support ofthe Marine iavesion force Rather than have this squadron used during the Army preparations of some Gilbert Islands, Merrit wanted VMP-422 temporarily moved away, to Funafuti, Orders were forall 24 Corssirs to leave Hawkins Field and fly on aa heading of 154 degrees for 460 miles to the island of Nanomea, land and refuel, and then fly ona heading of 144 degrees for 245 miles to Funafuti. Athough the fight could have ‘gone direely to Funafuti without refuelling, i fuel was conserved during cruise fight, it was considered wiser to refuel. Some pilots and some engines use more fuel than others Since this was to be along over water light With virtually no navigational sds, the Corsairs would have normaly followed a anger escort aircraft to provide navigation to these small jslands ia the vast Pacific However, despite vigorous requests by MeLaughin, General Merrit denied the use ofan escort, and VMF-422 was oa its own,(Some sources indicate that perhaps Major MeLaughtlia actually never made the request) Although this flight was not going. through an active combat area, each plane's six 50calibre guns were loaded with ammunition. Earle weather reports indicated acceptable weather enroute, so on January 25, 1944, 23 Corsair led by Major MeLaugilia proceeded in loose formation on the fight to Bunafuti. A later weather report, published just prior to takeoff, indicated poorer conditions along the route of fight Apparently, MeLaughlin did not see this report. One Corsair, Bob Scot's, did not join the flight, siace the engine refused to start, apparently due toa faulty starter. TYPHOON All was wel fr the first two hours ~ until what Jooked like an unpredieted huge towering, ‘thunderstorm appeared ahead. Although the squaciron tried to stay together, they could neither climb above nor go around this thunderstorm, which later was determined to be an unreported typhoon, Most ofthe planes could not see eae other in the pouring Fai, ‘which along with the turbulent sir, made formation fying almost impossible. The planes disbursed, some trying to climb above storm, others going below the storm and flying just above the raging ocean with its mountainous waves. Its ikely that two ofthe planes that were never found had a miéair colision inthe black clouds, As Joha Lincoln, one ofthe surviving pilots, stated: "You can't sce more than 10 foot on the side and nothing atallon the front, Water is pouring ike fire hoses. You don't know if you're right side up or upside down, at 200 oF 7000 fect, and there are 22 sh into,” ‘other planes up there to After about 15 terrifying minutes, most of the planes emerged from the worst pat ofthe ‘Sorm and reformed ~ but with no idea where they were, During the storm the gyro instruments tumbled and the magnetic ‘compasses spun lke tops, so the pilots were disoriented. They had no idea which direction to fly to their intended refuelling stop at Nanomea. Suddenly, fr ao apparent reason, the commanding officer, Major McLaughlin, ‘made a radical turn, No radio contact. Another pilot ried to follow him and establish visual contact, but the major made another sharp turn and disappeared, never tobe seen agai, LAUSEN DOWN ‘The remaining planes tried to stay together. ‘Then Chris Lausen's engine began missing, ‘and he decided to ditch his plane. Itlanded into a 40-foot wave and disappeared completely, but amazingly Lausen appeared js inflated Mac West Iie jacket and waved to orbiting Robert Lehnert. ‘When Lehnert saw that Lausen di not have a rail, he decided to continue to orbit ‘the position so that Lausen could be located. bby some means of rescue, Lehnert orbited for three hours, and when he saw he was unaing out of fuel, and the waves were 100 lange fr ditching, he baled out with his raft to save Lausen! He got into his raft with great ificuly, but was never abe to find Lausen, JAKE WILSON During this ime, Jake Wilson had strayed away from the group, and was on his own. Just as he was running out of fuel, he found himseIfover a tay occupied island and made awheelsup landing on the beach. During the landing he hit his head on the gunsight and Dlacked out, > Chance Vought PAU Comair 35,When Wilson regained consciousness he found that local natives had performed some first aid ~ bandaging him up like a mummy. The natives give him hundreds of coconuts, dozen chickens, a pig and a big party every aight. After three days of visi from neighbouring. natives, and being treated like a god, he was informed that the next night the party was for his betrothal to anative maiden of his choice. That night, not favouring any of the maidens, Wilson feigned sickness to avoid marriage, and was given a stay until the next night. Fortunately, a reconnaissance plane had spotted his crashed Corsair onthe beach, anda US destroyer showed up the next day justin time to save him from this undesied ceremony. FIFTEEN TOGETHER Although 15 ofthe squacron’s Corsairs made it through the storm, they were hopelessly Tost ‘over the vast Pacife. Alter losing Major McLaughlin, the senior Captain, Rex Jeans, took the lead, His intention wasto keep the group together, and for each plane to ditch near teach other as they individually ran out of fel The frst to run out of fuel and ditch was Bill Acrygg, then Ted Thurneau - although Acrygg did not survive the later rescue. The reniaining 13, one by one, ditched, inflated thei rafts (except for one), found each other, hheld hands, and somchow survived for three days and nights. They were in the ocean tossed with storms and 30-to 40oot waves ‘and no food. They were accompanied the entire time by three large sharks that rubbed thei sharp fins against the bottom of the survivors thia rubber foursfoot rafts, PBY TO THE RESCUE Finally, on the third evening, ust before dark, ‘Consolidated PBY.SA Catalina, flown by enlisted pilot George Davidson, spotted the 13 survivors banded together in the rough sea He radioed the position for any nearby surface ship to provide a rescue, butt was obvious ‘hat night was falling, and these survivors had already beea inthe Water three days, {Arather common sight in the Pacific Theat. at least later inthe war = Vought FaU Corsa - this one belonging fo the ath Marine Alr Wing ~a bunch of hasty assembled buildings and plenty ‘of piroed sto! planking (PSF). National Musoum of Naval Aviation Despite the hazard of 2001 waves = the sea state had eased a bt - Davidson made a smooth landing between waves. Things did not go well fr long a8 large wave hit the Catalin, literally tore of the starboard ‘engine, and popped dozens of rivets causing, the amphibian to begin to leak. Duc tothe suring seas, the PBY crew had great difficulty in boarding the survivors. Eight were brought aboard until the darkness and the waves caused the remaining five to drift out of sight. Wit only ‘one engine and the high waves making taxiing very difficult, Davidson searched for hours until he finally found the lost five, an ‘got them aboard, Now the problem was thatthe PBY was beginning to sink. After being picked up, all those that could helped bail water out ofthe seaplane, which coulda’ take off and was taking on water from splitrivets inthe hull ‘They kept the plane afloat untila destroyer arrived the next morning and boarded them all. Taking the PBY in tow to ty to salvage the destroyer finally had to cut the PBY loose asit simply sank! ‘The destroyer had previously recovered Lehnert, and Ted Thurneau was amazingy reseued a day later In total, 16 ofthe original 24 VMF-422 pilots survived and most were reorganised to ly combat missions. INTHE END John McLaughlin, Chris Lausen, Bill Acryis, ‘Tommy Thompson, and John Rogers were lost during or after the storm. Tiger Moran found aa island, but was killed when he hit the tall section during bale out. ‘Only Joh Hansen somehow made itto Bunafut, without evea refuelling at Nanumes He still had 80 gallons of fucl in his tanks. And Bob Scott was left on Tarawa, That left 16 survivors ofthe original 24 VMF-422 pilots, OF {hat 16, a this is writen, only Ken Gunderson, Tex Watson, Robert Lehnert, Joha Hansen, and George Davidson, the PBY pilot are sill with us today ee THE LOST SQUADRON AVIATORS ‘The six who wore lost (in alphabetical order) Bill Acrygge Phe wealthy son of an affluent business family, he was regular guy with the squairon. He was the first run out of fuel and go into the ocean, and was never found, Chris Lausen: Asa boy he loved to ly 80 much he would work on planes just so he could go for arte. A Chicago native he played volleyball and swam with his squadron buddy, Ken Gunderson. Major John McLaughlin: A good guy. A Naval Academy graduate, who had been a ‘general's ide, He was a rookie on his very first command. Tiger Moran: A small guy and a musician, Certainly no tiger. Moran was weak swimmer, which may have contributed to his death, but more than likely he died from a broken neck. He probably hit his head on the tail when he baled out John Rogers: Grew up in the South. Although a Guadaleanal veteran, he wasa good guy but he was nota particularly accomplished pilot. Tommy Thompson: A good, reliable plot who just loved to fly. He never came out of the torn And those who survived the fight Ga alphabetical order Jules Flood: Tall and so handsome, he could have been a movie star with his looks and the charisma of Errol Flynn Ken Gunderson: A Midwesterner from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he joined the cadet programme. His basketball and football experience helped him during the ordeal and asa policeman later in Los Angeles. He was married two weeks before shipping out and still asa receipt from the Hotel Del Coronado and a copy ofthe survival list, John Hansen A Plorida boy all the wa from childhood through University of Florida tothe present. An avid tennis player, the courts ia Vietnam were named Hansen Couris in his honour. Also ss professional tennis referee, has gone to war with Joba MeBaroe, Awarded as the only pilot to make itthrough the storm to FunafutiFour ecly mode! Vought FaU Corsaits with the dstinetve "biddcage’ canopy ina formation break National Museum of Naval Aviation Charles $ Hughes: An Oklahoma boy who told it ike it was, to many’s chagrin, He served at Midway and Guadalcanal. Aight aeronautical engineer, he went on to work for Boeing and others. Rex Jeans: A fine man, respected by al. A Guadalcanal veteran who took over the squaudron in midmission, kept it together and generally orchestrated its survival of the frdeal A fine plot who many credit with saving their lives, Robert C Lehnert: This lowersmiddle class kid irom Queens won the Navy-Marine medal of honour for his attempt to squadron-mate Lausea, who was no particular friend. As the others few off, he parachuted into the raging sca with a life raft in an attempt to rescue Lausen, Inspired by Eddie Richenbacher's ordeal ‘of survival for weeks on the ocean with ‘others, which he had recently read about in Life magazine, and calling upon lessons learned as.a Boy Scout, Lehnert was unfazed ‘even though he was all alone in the sea. He went on to become a Federal District Altorney ia Colorado, John Lincoln: A true Boston character Certainly one ofthe ines plots ofthe group, Went on to become a highly decorated test pilot. One time, on Midway Island, he was placed under house arrest for 10 days fr “orrowing’ jeep and crashing i, although they sill alowed him to go snorkelling. He still resides on the lake in Norton, Massachusetts where his relatives have ved for over 200 years. ‘Sterling ‘Shoe’ Price: The inner- Mark ‘Breeze’ Syrkin: A New York boy who played baseball at Ohio State was nicknamed after a pilot aumed Brecey MeLaughlia from a Forties“B' movie. Of Russian descent, he ‘grew up poor in Long Island, When he was six years old in New York, as he sat on his father's shouldersin the 1927 ickertape parade for Charles Lindbergh, he vowed to become a pilot. After being rescued, he went fon to meet and fly some missions with Lindbergh —his inspiration, Ted Thurneaut: The hard luck kid who went through two disasters. After surviving four daysalone at sea, on his ery next mission his aircraft's wing folded and he was killed Don Walker: A funny, bright Pennsyivanian who led several ofthe guys in a rendition of It Ain't Gonna Rain No More, No Morein 20s00t seas, His motto was *l bring the plane 10 feet from the ground, and then ison its own.” > eer es coe ene een ean) Eee er ere ener eae ee ee eee Cater aetna) er ecny een eedRoyce Tex’ Watson: He was the nay man ofthe group. An East Texan with a droll sense of humour, he asked Syrkin for his autograph ashe paddled up inthe middle of the typhoon. Also, many say the finest pilot they ever saw. While flying inthe storm, Tex Watson's plane had a fire, but he turned off his radio, cracked open the canopy, and the smoke disappeared, so he stuck with it Chick Whelen: This faieskinned Boston Irishman nearly drowned as his plane carried im under the 20fo0t waves. He was totally naked after barely escaping his light suit, only to be tossed and beaten so badly by the rough sea that he was psychologically unable to fly over water again. He accounted himself fas. ground soldier and Inter became a bascball scout fr the Phillies RK Wilson: A Springfield, Ilinois boy who was a fine pilot and a good guy. He and Tex Watson dated the same girl in Santa Barbara, Walter ‘Jake’ Wilson: [ake was a Mississippi magnolia, a southern boy who Decame a fighter after afew drinks. A trombone player with perfect pitch, he had the wildest story in the disaster. AND THE NAVY GUY IN HIS PBY ‘George Davidson: This soft-spoken Southern gentleman with the twinkle in his eye came to the rescue by landing his PBY inthe tumultuous sea. Only through his skilful manoouvring and tenacity were he and his crew able to find all 13 and bring them aboard safely. He now livesin Florida, less than three miles from John Hansen, AFTERMATH Writer/director/producer John Coleman terviewed survivors of the VME-122 mmission and put together an excellent video titled: VMP-422 - The Last Squadron Coleman says: “The Lost Squadron is one ofthe last great untold stories of the Second World War It isa story of man’s struggle and aobility ia the face of tervfving circumstances, The disaster was caused by a general’ refusalto allow an escort plane for ‘navigational purposes, Mother Nature, and a combination of various circumstances all coming into play at once. |ANough! F4U-4 Corsair of VMF-422 ft the fime of the stricken deployment. Kelth Draycott ‘rare colour shot of @ Vought FaU Corea running up fe fll power for fake off rom the arrow wooden deck of @ US areratt carer. The test ofthe fight, engines running but wings sil folded, wai heir turn Behind. Space was at @ premium on the smal National Museum of Naval Aviation The USS Kalinin Bay (CVE48) was a relatively new vessel when VMF-422 embarked aboard for tho transi from Pea fo Tarawa, She was commissioned on November 27,1943, and was later stricken tom the Navy's list on June 5, 1946. National Musoum of Naval Aviation “Just as one's life experiences have taught us that we all make mistakes, Commander McLaughlin isnot judged as. bad guy or the architect ofthe disaster Merely a good guy who made a mistake ~ that may’ or may not have sopped the disaster —and, unfortunatoly, paid the ulinate price with his own Iie, “The humanity and heroism under fre that demonstrate what all humans are capable ofifchallenged isthe story. tsa celebration ‘of human spirit‘The parachute jump by a pilot, in this storm to save his squadror-mate isthe action ofa hero. The sory oftheir ordeal in the ocean for nearly three days, chased by sharks, isthe stuff movies are made about The rescue by a Navy PBY pilot in 15-to 20 foot waves with an engine breaking off isthe stufflegends are made of “Tewas the worst of times terrifying, random, and unfit It was war hoevible and awful, utit was the best years oftheir lives, For the squadron-mates of VMP-422, the friendships that developed out of the ‘ragedies and challenges lasted a lifetime.” Words: Fred BleckmanC A tale of.two OFSadlrs Norm DeWitt has had a lifelong fascination with the F4U, expressed in his attempt to buy the aircraft outside the Tucson Inn in his freshman year at the University of Arizona. He not only found out what happened to this aircraft, but chanced upon another FaU with an even more remarkable story, while researching a Harrier story for the last issue of Aviation Classics. That second story led to a highly decorated US Marine Corps Corsair pilot and baseball legend, Jerry Coleman. THETUCSON INN CORSAIR Asa freshman architecture student at the University of Arizona i the fall of 1971, it was time to explore the town. Chuck Berry was playing at local bar, so hopped into the GTO and went cruising Tucson's Miracle Mile to catch the show. Ia front ofthe Tucson Inn, mounted upon two steel columns was a dark blue Vought F4U Corsair ‘The next day | stopped by the hotelto ‘enquire about a possible purcha ime that the Pima Air Museum had expressed ‘an interest in the plane as well, Needless to saat the age of 17, ambition far outweighed finances. The university would doubtless frown upon my request to keep fighter siecrat in the dormitory parking lt, 80 I soon accepted the sad reality that I wasn't coming home to San Diego fom college with this Corsair Asitturned out, the Pima Aie Museum, ‘working in conjunction withthe Marine League in Tucsoa, had been tying to purchase that srcrft and the hotel display was fandraser. James Stemi isthe present cursor of the Pima Air and Space Museum, He said"The museurm andthe Marine Corps League had ‘come up wit this scheme to try and buy this Corse fom the same guy that you were trying to bay it from, The deal worked out was that they painted itand arranged for it to be putat the Tueson Ianto convince people to buy this plane forthe museum. The owmer wanted 18,000 dolls fort and they only raised about 3000. By about 1975 they had given up. The plane was taken down and moved away.”[ee een ese The Tueson Inn Corsair wes one oftwo ‘examples that were for sale from the same ‘owner. James said, “The Marines bought or trated something surplus for the planes” Both aireraft are currently restored and on display at American museums. The Tueson Tan plane with the painted number 97349 ison Alispay a the National Naval Aviation “Museum in Pensacola, Ford. The other Corsair with painted serial number 97142 is on Joan tothe Pima Air and Space Museum, who restored that aircraft and put iton display. As with so many warbirds, there were issues withthe serial numbers, “The plane was repainted and put on display’ at the hotel with the number 97349 painted on it. The only problem is that it apparently wasn't 97349, it was in fact 97142 Idon't know when the identities of the two airplanes got switched, but somebordy put the data plate from 97349 into 97142, leaving 97349 without a data plate, Ce ety ‘To not entirely sure when they figured ‘out what had happened, or how they figured ‘out that the data plate had been swapped. One ‘of my predecessors wrote down a paragraph description of. Back n the 1960s and 70s they were swapping data plates let and right. [suspect that they were considering restoring it (he one receiving the data plate 97349) to fly and without a data plate, they couldn't. The farines seem to have decided to accept it and let the planes swap identities. Since the Marines callour plane 97142, we had to paint itthat way under the terms of our loan, In 1075, there was a flyin at Montgomery Field in San Diogo, with the Corsairs used to film the new television series about the former Flying Tiger plot Greg Boyingtoa's famous Second World War squadron of unassigned or misfit pilots that flew the Vought FAU in the South Pacific. VMF-214 was known as the Black Sheep, and although the unit was only ‘he dry climate of he Tucron ragion of Arzana hat ong been known for is ability to preserve acrat.as evinced by the remarkable Internal condition of 97349, the ser ship othe Tucson Inn Corsi seen here with ts comlings removed. Pi 1 Air & Space Museum arte eee eet ere in existence forfour months before being disbanded ater Boyington (26 kills) was shot down and captured, its exploits stood the test oftime, Public awareness ofthe Corsair being the plane ofthe Black Sheep Squadron exploded and the closest was to get to Corsair ownership again wasa copy ofthe book Baa Bsa Black Sheep, signed for me years Inter by Colonel Boyington. FINAL SCORE Pima Air & Space Museum ~1 Corsair National Naval Aviation Museum ~ 1 Cors Norm DeWitt ~ 1 booke ‘THE HURRICANE KATRINA CORSAIR Atthe San Diego Airand Space Museum ‘workshop, there is currently a Corsair “undergoing restoration. Bob Parker is in charge ofthe three year restoration. “This airplane was manufactured in Dallas Texas ‘during 1962 for the French, and was delivered in 1953. t was a-7 model, which ‘was built off the 5, The 5 was the last airplane made for sir to air combat by US. forces. They made the-6, which wasonly for ‘ground support, later ealed the AU forthe ‘art ofa new series which carried 5000 more pounds of lin armour. The whole bottom is in armour all around the cockpit is ¥in armour, as they expected a lot of small arms fire to be shot at it. > 97349 during resotration, with paint shipped and winge removed, Pima Air & Space Museum Chance Vought PAU Conair dt“The French wanted a pursuit plane so ‘mae the 7 which was the lst one designed for high i raft. [thad the Min armour, as the French also used it for ground support in Algeria, Sucx, and Indonesia until the mig-1960 It was on Joan/lease tothe French so they had to give itback when they finished with it The US Navy painted it in Marine Corps colours and put it on pedestal infront of Pensacola Air Station in about 1965, “By thistime, i didn't have the 7 nose, so they pried a nose on there from an AU or a it sat there for at least another year wnt it was ready to fll apart, the corr Dad. They shipped i off tothe museum in Mobile, Alabama, where they painted ita beautiful colour, and by this time I guaran ou the only thing holding this airplane together was the paint.” Having fully embodied he concept of shoveling lipstick on toa pig, the end result was sill very attractive pig that wa ton display atthe aireraft pavilion at Battleship Memorial Park, in Mobile Bay, Alabama, near the Battleship USS Alabama, Catastrophe arrived when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf coast Although the majority of the media coverage was centred upon New Orleans, the mos intense part of the Hurricane impacted the Mississippi and iline. Bob: “Tt wasnt the wind eee er lee era) Ce eee eet rer Musoum at Pensacola: National Naval Aviation Mus ‘Tho fly restored sist that did the damage, it was the sea surg "The hangar was right on the Gull” ‘The storm surge slammed through the sirerat displ, pushing the Corsair into th building's steel cokumas, and then buried it in “The sea surge picked up eversthing that was in the hangar and shoved iton top of our irplane the it with sale wate seaweed and mud. Nobody did any corrosion control oni, and it sat fr three years before itcame here. They were going to part tout, \whea someone in their wisdom said to give it lrratt fo the Tucson inn fn elsplay outside the Pima Alr& Space Museum ral, painted a 97142 but actually 97349, ima Alr & Space Museum tows (the San Diego Air & Space Museum). When we gotit, it was literally parts piled into ages all he aps bent, and that's how we ot this sip “The first thing we did was to break itinto the tail section, the engine, the cockpit section, and the two wings. We sav everything we could save. Ifwe could pound itout, we'd make a form of what we though it hould look lke, and pounded it back out untilit broke, and then it was welded and again untiit broke... and you do that pounds ee eee ee eed ee en teas Ree eed ey Cm ear eee eee ee eee eee ee Cen eednea nan seen apie wrote F4U-4 BU#97849 ACC#985.86 ‘Tne Tucon Inn Corsair was intaly on dsplay outside at Pensacola restored as 97349, but ‘actually 97142, Natlonal Naval Aviation Musoum ‘over and over again until you get the shape back. They've been working on the wings now for close to three years. We made a rack for the back of the airplane so we could do the restoration like a rotisserie, working on al sides ofit. We are supposed to have it done and in the museum by January 2012. Ifwe were going to fly it, you'd be looking at alot more. It would have been faster for us to just replace every part ofthis airplane, but we saved everything we could save.” ‘The engine was also seriously damage by corrosion inthe Katrina disaster. “They literally took it down to the last bol, and bul it just like brandnew motor. We've got one guy who hasot done anything forthe last year and half, except make everything forthe cockpit Knobs, panel everything... the side arm panels with all the switches, somebody had cut those off witha saw and they were just gone ‘The til structure presented a challenge. We took off the shia, pt the ribs back in place, put the skin back, and then we're done. we went to put ton the airplane and it Aida’ fit, I-as tin too narrow vs. the ‘opening inthe fuselage. We did some ae, Post Hurricane Katina, he engine was removed for restoration fo begin. Norm dW research and found that when this was bu it was covered in a material called ‘Metalite' lesalmost like balsawood, and is in thie with pieces of aluminum on either side and ‘that's what they covered it with. There was the Yeinch. The last museum bondo' it or something, I don't know how they ever attached it there was that gap. We couldn't do that so we remade ribs patterned off the originals, but Yin bigger and then recovered them with the skin soit was exactly the size ‘was supposed to be." That bonded balsa core \W/ aluminum skin or ‘Metal’ was also used by Vought in the construction of the XF5-U Flying Pancake and the later XF6U Pirate, Vought’s first jet aircraft. That formerly experimental composite skin had found its ‘way on to production Corsairs. ‘There were also variations as to sir intake ‘and fuel tank location, Bb explains: “With the airintake mechanism in the wings, there ‘was no longer room for uel inthe wings like some of the earlier versions had. Thats one fof the reasons thatthe cockpit is back so fr, is because between the engine and cockpit is fone huge fue tank. “We thought our airplane was number 120359, we had no history. So, we started looking it up on line, and itjust didat make ‘sense it said we had an AU-1 and we knew ‘wasn’t an AUG it was a-7. When we took the plane apart, [found thatthe number was 138704, When [looked up 133704 T found the history of our aiplane... and I lso found, another airplane in France, with 133704 painted on that silane. We think the French didn't have a-7 to show in their museums or touse because they had to give them all back tothe US. Itappears they got a hold of a5, and took the front of our airplane. There isan extra litle piece on the cow that denotes 4-7. They probably took that nose, and our ‘number, when they returned the sirplane.” Is itdifficutt to get tall the numbers to complete an identity switeh? “The only way to fret to it is to take the airplane apart.” Creating an international incident wasn't atthe top of everyone's wish list, and since the ‘rea’ serial number of the Hurricane Katrina Corsair wes now in use by another airplane, it was decided to pursue a diferent angle. When our plane is inished, i's going, tocarry 129858, Jerry Coleman's airplane. we are doing hissiplane." > (Chance Vought PAU Comair 48The tangled remaine of many alert heaped fon the exFrench Aeronavale Corea in the foftermaath of Hunicane Katina, Norm eleWitt Tho damage fo the Corsair was extensive, as ‘evinced In this photograph ater the engine ‘wae removed. Norm de Witt JERRY COLEMAN White at Lowell High School in San Francisco, Jerry Coleman dreamed of playing alongside San Francisco's greatest balplyer, Joe DiMaxgio ofthe New York Yankees After a few yearsin the Yankees farm system, by 1949 Jerry had his first Major League game, starting at second base forthe Yankees on Opening Day. He played forthe NY Yankees his entire Major League carver, which spanned from 1949-1957, He was adefensive wizard and contact hiter, playing inthe 1980 AllStar same, and wasalso was the MVP of the 1950 World Series with two game winning hits Coleman passed on an earlier opportunity to start his professional baseball carcer as Lt ol Coleman flew Marine dive bombers inthe Second World War He again took two ) Jerry Coleman delayed his entry into ‘Major League Baseball fo serve in the Marine Corps as a pilot in he Second World War Jeny Goleman Collection Bits a ‘The Corsair as she Is now in the San Diego Air and Space Museum workshop under the care ‘ofa team headed by Bob Parker Norm deWitt additional years away from baseball 0 fly the Corsair AU-L with the US Marinesin the Korean War. He remains the only Major League baseball player to have seen combat in two wars, Flying 120 missions in total, Jerry twice received the Distinguished Flying Cross ‘As this Corsair is a San Diego restoration, ‘and given tho serial number situation, makes perfect sense to honour Jeery Coleman, Other than his one year as manager ‘ofthe San Diego Padres baseball club (1980), he has been a broadeast announcer forthe team the pas 40 seasons. Ironically Coleman's AU-I's serial number was one digit away from the number originally painted on to the Hurricane Katrina Corsair whea returaed from the French ~ 129358 vs. 129659, Coleman is among the few that can give 8 first person account ofthe strengths and ‘weaknesses ofthe various Marine dive bombers from both wars. “The Douglas Dauntless wasa better plane for what it did than the Corsair was. Iwasa dive bombing plane with diving flaps, if you got ofFtarget oing dovin, you could come back very easily vthout missing a beat. The Corsair with its 3000 pounds of bombs, if you got offtarget you're done. The speed was such that you couldn’ controlit. The Corsair was a great durable aircraft, but for dive borabing | would sve it ess than 1008, From a dive bomber standpoint the Dauntless was a spectacular plane for accuracy, but it only carried a 1000 pound bomb and it was very slow” The thvee year restoration is proceeding beauty the Corsair wil be painted as Jerry Coleman's aera, 129358. Norm deWitt‘Bud, Bob, Art and Jeny of VMSB 341 {during the Philippines Campaign (01 1945, Jerry Coleman Coll Inset: The badge of VMSB 341, with whom Jerry flow the Douglas Dauntiass dive bomber. Jomry Coleman Collection The sitting duck for Japanese fighter aircraft so whatever defensive strategies that could be used were developed, “We had a rear gunner and that's why we always went three ata time to get a ‘convergence of firepower if something came from behind. ‘The replacement dive bomber fo the Douglas Dauntless was the Curtiss Hellver, not anyone's first choice. Coleman: “It had those very effective brakes. On a doesnt make any difference 2s your hook got hold of the thing, and you stopped. On lad, you hit those brakes lke Idi the first time... almost went over the op. It was a very good plane inthe ar, but it was big and bulky. It had it much greater speed ‘and carried twice the bomb load of the Douglas. The Dauntless had two S0-alibre machine guns up front that shotthrough the prop, and you couldn’ knock anything, ‘outwith those. knew a couple of ‘guys who came home with holes in their prop.” The firepower and syne! between machine guns.and propeller obviously vases than optimal on the Dauntless. “Those issues were rectified onthe Helldver “vhad four 20mm eangon up front. Iremember hearing that one Helldiver sunk light ship of 1950 Wor Series Champions in caebraton om let icbrcton From ef igh. Alle Reynolds Bobby own, Jow Diogo. Cane Wooing and World Stes MVP Joy Coleman, Jem Solem Conecton, the Japanese Navy with those four 20. it had firepower” Although the Helldver would never make anyone's list of favourites, Coleman keeps special place atthe bottom for the TBF Avenger “Ofcourse the worst plane ever put together was the TBE I dda ave to ly ‘one, thank God. It had about 16Omph speed, slow with no firepower upfront. Iryou could get a torpedo off, you might do some damage ‘That was the plane where they knocked out the entire torpedo squadron 8 over at Midway ‘When Iwas ia the Solomons, they used that plane to fly into Guadalcanal o pick up ‘equipment and stuf..thats al. They never used itasan atta plane by that pin.” Des these challenges, there were sill many Americans that were assigned to the Avenger Torpedo squadrons, President George Bush (senior) was an Avenger pilot and the actor aul Newman was a rear turret gunner: The Corse’ potential asa ground attack or dive bomber was something Uhat was realized during the Second World Wa ‘Charles Lindberg was there duting the Second World War and said, 'you know, i we put bombs on this plane, it could be ‘quite a plane.’ We put 3500 pounds of bombs fn the thing, and this when the B-17 only ried 4500 pounds, and that wasa four engine plane!” Charles Lindberg was an engineering consultant for Chance Vough and was in the South Pacific teaching M aviators how to take offin their FAUs while ‘equipped with a massive bomb load. It wasn’t long before Lindberg was lying in combat ‘missions himself, taking part in attacks against Rabaul. > Chance Vought PAU Comair 45Jetty cbs ino the cockpit of his VMA323 Vought ALLI Corsa. Jorry Coleman Collection ‘The Corsair may have been able to carry this bomb load, but the end result was fr fom an ideal dive bomber. "I'l never forgive Charles Lindberg for trying to make a dive ‘bomber out ofa Corsair Ifyou find yourself om the wrong angle, youve gota real problem getting back on track. found itto bbe great plane in the air..minus the bomb Joad. It was as good as any plane ever put together, from the standpoiat of handling ia the air a8. pursuit fighter [twas 0 tremendous plane durability-vise. It could {ake a shot, hold on and do okay. The Japanese planes, you hit'em once, and they are done.” said Coleman. Jerry earned his two Distinguished Flying Crosses during the Second World War. “Lyras only 19 when I went overseas. We did alot of things that you might call courageous... ater 30 oF 40 missions they" give youa DFC for surviving as much as anything else. I got them in the Solomons andthe Philippines. Tem not sure for what 1 got the DFCs, but one time Iwas the only guy that saw a B-25 go down. a PBI we called them. T told the ght leader. flew his wing. that I saw a light down there, and asked ifhe wanted me to checkit out, [ound them before the Japanese did, they were in enemy territory those crashed behind enemy lines, it was high stakes indeed as American airmen were often beheaded by the Japanese if captured. “T saved the lives of those eight ‘guy in that PBJ. They gave me acase of beer, but I didn't drink beer. Frankly, I never drank much, period. Alot of people in combat ‘would take their orange juice and put booze Jetty Coleman and Yankee Hall of Fame shortstop Phi Rzuto shake hands on Jery Coleman Day in 1952 ater Jenry announced his fetum fo active “IWAS ONLY 19 WHEN I WENT OVERSEAS. WE DID A LOT OF THINGS THAT YOU MIGHT CALL COURAGEOUS.. AFTER 30 OR 40 MISSIONS 2 THEY'D GIVEYOU A DFC FOR ‘SURVIVING AS MUCH AS ANYTHING ELSE.” uly fo serve in Korea. Jenry Coleman Collection init Iiasted great, bt all ofa sudden you {ell on your nose. One time in Manila, somebody said ‘Hey, there’s some good pre war rum over here.'T didn't know what inthe hell ‘rum’ was. I got so sick, [was sical the way back" So much for the popular image of hhard-drinking American baseball players and Marines in the 1940s, ne time in New Guinea, my buddies ‘male me call the urses' quarters to see if could get them some dates for New Yeats Eve, So, this gal tells me that she doesn't have a date. I should hhave been smart. Ifyou don't have a date by 6 o'clock on New Year's Eve, there's not much going for you, ight? I got stuek.” Flora erry putsit “twice his age, 2." This was the only date that year, so he named his Dauntless afer her ~ Florabelle. Jerry: “Another time, remember we took about two days off and ‘went to Manila to chase girs. When I was young I loved to chase girls, but I never ‘caught aay of them.” ‘Afier the end ofthe war Jerry Coleman resumed his professional bascballearcer, first called up tothe Yankees in late 1948; he became a starter in 1949, Paying with the likes of DiMagazo, and Yogi Berra, this was an era when the Yankees were a baseball dynasty, winning the World Series every year from 194953. ‘With the outbreak of the Korean War, there was an immediate demand for experienced pilots and Jerry got the call. § Diego native Ted Willams, arguably the greatest hitter ofthe past 7D years and 19, Times an AllStar for the Boston Red Sox, also veas called to active duty. Although his Second World War service had been asa fight instructor teaching pilotsto fly the F4U Corsair, Willams was o fly the Grumman FOF Panther etn Korea, For much of his deployment withthe Marines in Korea, Ted Williams was wingman to John Glenn, later to e first American to orbit the earth, and a US Senator from Ohio for 25 years [At Yankee Stadium, the house that (Babe) Ruth built, they had Jerry Coleman day and the team held a ceremonyJem offen few this Corsa Jemy Coleman Collection Jerry in the cockpit of a VMA323 In Korea the Corsair units operated most in the ground aftack role. Here a uly loaded Fl la ell Corsair of VMA923 cartes three 1000Ib bombs. Jerry Coleman Collection honouring Jerry ashe prepared once a to leave for war. Coleman was assigned to fly the AUS Corsair. Korean War AU-1 Corsairs weren't bil for high combat, with diferent engine s and armour protection. Jerry: “Whereas the first Falls that had the two stage supercharging would get up to 40,0008, mine would go to roughly 2-28,0000, Jerry didn't pay much attention to most of the technical specifications. *T haven't the faintest idea; I just got in and took off They'd ask me if Td drained the Guggenheim switch, Apparently it was something you had to drain to get the exhaust fumes out from the flight before. I wasn'ta very ood mechanic, they said ‘that's your mission, takeoff. and | did” Did Jerry find himself facing any ofthe new Mig jt fighters in Korea? “I old those suys, leave me alone’ Gaughs). Actually there were very few jets that came into South Korea inthe time that Iwas there. Most of the suff like our PSs were up around the Yala riverin the North.” > (Chance Vought PAU Conair 47‘What about firepower? Coleman: “The first Corsairs had sx 50s upfront, and the ‘ones [flew in Korea four 20s they carried napalm, they carried rockets, they carried everything. And we did everything with it, strafing, covering the troops. In Korea you had to be careful, s 50 yards here or here, you could hit Your own guys. For aceuracy the Dauintloss was by far superion, but the Corsair was.a durable, marvellous plane that had far mor ‘There were challenges to taking offin a Corsa. Jerty: I you didn't have enough right rudder forward the prop would turn you over. (One ofthe problems they had on the carriers was th if you were slow while coming in and had to take a quick wave, with full power ‘The damage fo WS after ith been recovered fiom the 1unway, Jerry Coleman Cell Wis-8 was the Corsair hat nec klle Jerry in ‘takeoff accident. deny Coleman Collection fy that thing would just turn the plane over, the prop was 89 powerful. you di the right foot forward, you'd turn tothe lef. Itneeded a lot fright rudder to get off the ‘ground. I think the British finally solved the problems of 4a using them on carriors. Ta the Second World Was, Jerry had his own plane (Florabelle) and while in ‘mount was Willy Sugar 8. Back to baseball wih the 1954 ‘Yankees. Jerry Coleman Collection Korea hisusu Coleman's closest brush with catastrophe ceame on takeoff with WSS, when he had huge erash while taking off witha full 3000, pound bomb load. His engine had stopped halfway down the short runway. “Stopped cold. It was only a 50008 runway and you needed that much to take off with 3040 degree aps. The next thing [thought was ve got to get rid of these bombs. If tis thing bburas it will Blow up the base and me with it” “The bombs haa litle propellers and they had to rotate so many revolutions before it armed the bomb, s0[ wasnt concerned about the bombs bl them burning. have hit the til wheel and flipped me up uatil my prop caught, and it was.a age prop 1 might add. I was upside down with my arms Pinned to my sides and kneesin my cars. The strap on my helmet was supposed to collapse with acertain amount of pressure, butt never collapsed so just went out. The next thing | remember was some guy pulling me out, talking to mo.” Soon after the rash, Jerry was on a bombing mission deep in North Kores, He and his close friend Max Harper in their Corsirs were diving onto the target when itll went horribly wrong. “My roommate blew up 100 yards font of me in Korea. [chased him down and saw that he didnt get out. Ther were planes cecing on the left and right and ing up, Iwas concerned about think one ofthe bombs.they asked ifsomeone needed help. [told them, no ehance and thatsit War isa crappy place. You've got to remember though... ying ‘was aclean war, isa different war. You aren't standing next to somebody who gets hit.” Captain Jerry Coleman never trusted the Corsair again after his huge runway crash, and that combined soon after with witnessing the loss of his friend, resulted in stress related hyperventilation, depth perception issues, and stomach probloms. He was grounded in May 1853, eventually discharged in time to return to the New York Yankees for their victory in the 1953 World Series, in which Coleman was unable to playa significant role, Jerry Coleman hal been on three straight World Series winning Yankce teams from 1849.51 when the call had come to report for duty in May of 1952. At that point i the 1952 season, his batting average was 405, For the 1854 season, he was to hit 217,and Jerry ‘wast the same balllayer that had again ‘zone off to war to serve his county By 1956, Coleman's medical issues had improved tothe point that his last two seasons with the Yankees prodi and 268 batting average, again winning the World Series in 1956, However, Jerry Coleman had lost what should have been his most productive seasons, 1952-5, from his service in Korea and the tol the experience had taken on him. In his autobiography, Coleman sums up the situation. "I vas never really that good again on the ball eld [eft a lot somewhere, somehow, in Korea." Retiring from the game after the 1957 season, Jerry Coleman soon became o the most recognisable announcers inthe business. After afew yearsas.a baseball, announcer for CBS, he became the ‘announcer for the NY Yankees from 1953-60, Now at 85, Jerry isa member of both the National Radio Hall of Fame, and National Baseball Hall of Fame. His description for stellar play has become a trademark. “Oh Doctor! You can hang. star on that baby” sillrings out across the airwaves. Despite all the success atthe highest levels in baseball and broadeasting, Jerry doeset put ether at the top in his personal list of importance. “It was being in the Marine Corps, I'm more proud ofthat than anything that happened to me. Ifyou'te a Yankee ballplayer, that’s not bad, as the New York Yankees isthe number one baseball team inthe world But, this to me is what its all about” Jerry points to the dus jacket of his book where it states: “There are only two important things in life: the people who you love and love you, and your country." Jerry Coleman ~ an AllStar in every way. Words: Norm deWitt of ete ae etme er ee eas eee ee eat ese eke ee een eer) ee ee os et ees eeeCorsairs Clive Rowley tells the story of the F4U Corsair in service with the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, and of the men who flew them. | In very humid conations a Corsair of 757 Squadton takes of orn HMS . ~ | Battier 1944, Fleet Ale Arm Museumtthe onset ofthe Second World War the British Royal Navy's leet Air Arm consisted of 20, squadrons witha mere 232 sircraft Inthe early part ofthe ‘war, the Royal Navy's fighter aircraft requirements were met by cumbersome two- scat designs, such asthe Blackburn Skua and the Fairey Fulmar, onthe assumption thatthe ‘only opposition that would be met would be long range bombers or fying bats, Whea actual operation, particulary inthe Mediterranean, proved this to bea false assumption, the Royal Navy hurriedly adopted higher performance single-seat fighter aircraft such as the Hawker Sea-Hurricane and the ess robust Supermarine Seafire, both modified, hooked versions of land-based RAP fighters, However, neither of these types had sufficient range to operate at any great distance from a earrer task force During the early war years the Royal Navy acquired some batches of American airerat built for other countries, suchas France, Belgium and Greeee, which did not reach intended buyers due to the German advances in Europe. Most notably, the Grumman PAF Martlt ‘Wildcat entered Fleet Air Arm (FAA) service this way, and a Martlet from ‘840 Naval Air Squadron was the first US fighter in British service to shoot down a German aireraft, on December 25, 1940. ‘The implementation ofthe Lend-Lease programme, approved by the US Congress fon March 11, 1941, allowed the FAA to address its equipment shortages by acquiring and operating large numbers of ‘American aircraft under the scheme, Among the aircraft acquired by the FAA inthis way wore the Brewster Buffalo, farther deliveries of Grumman Wildeats and the later Helle. Under the Lend-Lease agreement, from June 1943 the FAA started to receive Chance Vought F4U Corsair, both the FAU-1 and the FAU-1A variants, which were re-designated Corsair Mk I and Corsair Mk TI in Royal Navy service. The Corsair wasa very welcome ‘addition to the FAA inventory, asit was 2 high performance aircraft withthe range needed for cartier operations; with drop tanks fitted, the fighter had a ferry range of jst over 1500 miles (2400km). It wasalso a very robust and versatile desiga, able to conduct ground attack missions and anti- shipping strikes, as wellas being a capable aircombat aircraft for fighter escort and air ‘superiority missions. ‘On June 1, 1943, No 1890 Naval Air ‘Squadlron was formed at Quonset US Naval Air Station, Rhode Island, as the first Royal [Navy unit to receive the Corsair, Working under US Navy (USN) supervision, the RN personnel familiarised themselves with the Corsair, conducted carrier landing trials and then embarked 10 Corsair MicIis on the escort carrier HMS Slinger in October 1943, for passage to the UK. Seven more Fleet Air ‘Arm (FAA) Corsair squadrons became ‘operational in this manner during 1943, citer at NAS Quonset or NAS Brunswick. By the time the Second World War ended, total of 19 FAA Corsair squadrons had been raised. Eventually, the Royal Navy received a total of 2012 Corsairs: 95 FAU-Is (designated Corsair 1), 510 F4U-1As (Corsa I) from Chance Vought production, 430 Brewster produced F8A-1Ds (Corsair Il) and 977 Goodyear produced FGDs (Corsair IV). If the war had continued into 1946, FAU-4Bs were allocated for the Fleet Air Arm, but these were never delivered. >Ce eee eet ee en eee a ee a ee eatery eee ee eee eee Ce) ren badly reducing und thatthe ld stall and drop without warning ifthe airspeed aborted landing) the p00A aoe ae p=: [Not surprisingly, with such dangerous stalling characteristes, plots tended to land well above stalling speed. The airerat's large wing then caused it to “float’in the final stages of landing and therefore made it more Aiffcult to trap the arrester wires on the deck. Ifplots landed the Corsair firmly on ‘An engineeting earn rom 1843 Squadron prepare fo remove the engine ftom a Corsoit ‘aboard HMS Arbiter The aoratt has opparent barrier colsion damage visible on the owing and propelo. Fleet Ale Arm Museum oe the deck, it tended to bounce, as the underearriage oleo struts had bad rebound characteristics, and this could also cause the hook to miss the wires. The aieraft also tended to swing on touchdown. These problems were exacerbated by the poor forward visibility over the aircraft's long nose from is aft set cockpit. This made carrier landings, using the US Navy's standard pattern, hazardous for newly tained pilot. ‘As far as the USN was sic ‘concerned, the Corsair was not fit for carrer use until the PU) varios problems were shed, especially the wingdrop atthe stalland the deck bounce. As QPERATIO result, Corstie deployment yyy aboard US carriers was to be delayed until late 1944. Al ‘The Royal Navy, though, needed the FAU asia carier- capable fighter and put the Corsair into carrier operations almost immediately, well ahead of the US Navy. The British found the aireraft’s carrer landing characteristics just as problematic, suffering a number of fatal crashes, one of them killing the firs commanding officer of 1830 Squadron, Cir Brian Fides, but it bit the bullet’ and did it anyway. The FAA Corsair pilots found thatthe visibility problem could be overcome from the Corsair's cockpit by approaching, the carrior in a medium left-hand turn, allowing the pilot to keep the carrier's deck and the Deck Landing Control Officer (DLCO) ia view over the dip inthe gull shaped port wing. This technique would later ‘Corais rom HMS Formidable form up to finke he German batteship Tpit, having lounched about 90 mils from the Norwegian coast. Fleet Air Atm Museum bbe adopted by the US Navy and Marines for cartier use of the F4U. However, itis probably easier to describe than to do, when you remember that the touel-down point the pilots were siming at was moving forwards at arate of knots, and any delay in initiating the turn would inevitably result in a profonged Sraghtin element ofthe approach to lind. Modifications to the Corsair to overcome limited hangar deck height in several classes of Royal Navy aircraft carriers also had a secondary beneficial effet on the Allbut the T intial deliveries of FAA Corsairs had eight inches 20ers) clipped from the tis to permit storage in the British carrier hangar decks, This change in wingspan brought about the benefit of improving the sink rate, reducing the FA's propensity for loating” in the final stages of Janding ~the clipped wings improved the roll rate. The Royal Navy also developed a ‘number of other modifications that made carrier landings more practicable. The original Corsair Mic I birdcage’ eockp anopy was replaced with the bulged Malcolm Hood, which allowed the pilot's seat tobe raised by seven inches (189mm), giving the pilot botter visibility over the long nose. ‘The problem of oon the windscreea from the cow! flaps was solved by wiring the top flaps shut, diverting the oil and hydraulic fluid around the sides of the fuselage. > (Chance Vought PAU Conair 58The Corsair iis of he 47 Naval Fighter Wing recy for launch aboard HMS Victorious off Okinawan May 1945, The leader of the ng, Ueutenant Colonel Ronnie Hay. in the lead citcraft, JT456, Fleet Alr Arm Museum Sa Meanwhile, the aircraft manufacturer Chance Vought, addressed several ofthe design issues. The temporary solution adopted by the RN of wing the top cow! laps shut was universally accepted and the top cow! flaps were later replaced with a fixed panel. ‘The potentially lethal taling characteristics were solved withthe addition fof small, si inch (150mm) lon stall strip fitted tothe leading edge ofthe outer starboard wing, ust inboard ofthe gun ports, to make both wings stall simultancoush: Another small but useful modifcs longer talwheel strut, which improved the pilot's view over the areraf's ose. The undercarriage bounce took more time to solve ‘but eventually a ‘bleed valve incorporated in the legs allowed the hydraulic pressure to be released gradually as the aircraft landed, “The Royal Navy had quickly proved that the Corsair Mi IT could be operated with reasonable success even from small escort ccariers, There were, however, still problems with operating the big fighter from cartier decks, including excessive wear ofthe arrester wires due to the weight of the Corsair and the understandable tendency of the pilots to stay well above the stalling speed. LANDING THE BEAST With the difficulties of landing the Corsair on carrier deck in mind, its interesting to note the story of Lt Cdr Dick Bigyy’ Bigg Wither DSC and Bar, the first commanding officer of No 1841 Naval Air Squadron, which formed at Brunswick, Maine, US, a March 1944. Aged 26, ‘Bigay’ was given command oftwe dozen pilots, most of them fresh out of fying school, ‘A Corsair Mk J7533,120/P of No 1834 Squadron tom HMS Viclorous near the Sckshima Islancs ln Februcry 1945.8y now. Amanican-tyie national markings hac been adopted fo clearly identty Aliod alert The ater is being flown by Leutenant Waly Knight. Fleet Ale Atm Museury aswell as some 150 grounderew fitters, riggers and armourers Some of his young pilots, on ist acquaintance with the PAU, ‘thought the Corsair wasa “ferocious ooking aircraft” One plot ater sad: “Tm not ashamed to admit it. That night made a will” ‘Through tricks of fate, when Bigg-Wither took command of 1841 Squadron, he had not made a single deck landing ~a fact he was cearefil to conceal fom his pits, assuring them that it would be: "A piece of cake.” Asit happened, his flying skill and undoubted determination meant that he experienced no particular difficulty with the new art. ‘The commanding officer of 1837 Squadron, Lt Ca Richard Pridham-Wippell, who had taken over the squadron ater the previous CO had been killed in aa accident, also had no previous experience ofcarrir deck landings. He described his ist ever fight in an F4U Corsair from Quonset in his memoirs: "on the third day, although the wind was stil at 20 knots, it was straight down the runway. I decided to have a go. I went of or two hours, setting the fee of the airerat and exploring: the local area. The aircraft was very ight Iaterally but rather heavy on the elevators and Tried afew stalls at a safe height. Sure ‘enough, the port wing dropped sharply, but in other respects I found it quite pleasant to fy. made quite a good landing which, I gathered later, was watched by most ofthe squadron. He also deseribed his first carrer deck landings “The great day, January 13, arrived ‘and Ted the firs three srcraft out tothe USS Charger, Kanga Wiley and Jimmy Page being my Wingmen, The ship appeared asa tiny speckin the middle of Chesapeake Bay and 1 remember thinking "Ye Gods, hw the hellam 1 going to put this thing down on Brighton Pier?” However, [followed the dil, Doug MacQueen (the deck landing contro officer) gawe afew corrective signals, and I eaught an arrester wire‘A Corsair |of 1895 Naval Ar — ‘Squadron. Keith Drayoot? — Thwee Cortai IVs of 1846 Naval A Squadron ‘over Table Mountain near Cape Town, South Antica in January 1946, Fleet Alr Arm Museum with a great sigh of reli The aircraft was pushed backto the sten ofthe flight deck while [id my takeoffehecks. On the second attempt, Iwas offline so Doug gave the weveoft signal tried ain, okay that time, followed by HMS Colossus docked in Cape Town In January 1946 for a hwo-ancesnalf month reff, 1846 another two suovessfullandiags Then Icirced Squadron Corsair IVs tow exercises from a temporary base at WingSeld, ouside Cape Town. the ship while Kanga and Jimmy did theirown Hore, KD696/111 fos over Cape Town. Named Yangtse Nancy. the aircraft carried @ head and and we returned to Norfoletogether. What surprised me was how smooth the sensation was when one caught a wire. There was n0 jerk —it was more as though a very strong man caught you by the jacket when running and pulled you back geatly but femly. What a relief. After 652 hours fying in three years [ had made my first four deck landings and had not scratched my paint” ‘The business of landing the Corsair on a carrier deck never Became something to be taken for granted though, a8 evidenced by the experiences of 1845 NAS during pre- deployment deck landing taining on KMS Slinger on January 4, 1945. Early inthe training session a Corsair failed to ‘trap the wires and crashed into the barrier. Then disaster struck when Corsair KD546, own by Sub Lt GA Anderson RCN, dropped its port wing on landing, slewed to por, collapsing the undercarriage leg, and crashed into the deck landing control officer's platform, killing the DLCO, 2-yea old Sub Lt Fran Ure RNVR Indeed, fatal dock landing accidents became almost an accepted hazard of wartime carrier operations and many pilots and other Navy personnel were In May 1944, Corsair ls of he 6 Naval Fighter Wing made a formation fypast at Royal Navel killedin such incidents. > Ar tation Columb, Ceylon, led by Maj Ronnie Hay. Fleet Ale Arm Museum shoulders potrat of an Aslan woman on the other se of the nose. Fleet Alr Arm Museum (Chance Vought PAU Comair 55Sera he Rae ee een ees pert tetas One particularly tragic ease occurred board HMS Mlustrious on March 11, 1944, ‘when a Corsair of 1838 Squadron, flown by Sub Lt Alaa Vickers, crashed on the carrce’s deck while returning from a sweep over the Bay of Bengal. The wrecked aircraft came to rest withthe engine on the fight deck and the talon top ofa pom-pom gun, with high cetane petro pouring fom i. Without hesitation, Sub Lt G McHardy, a Corsair pilot with 1830 Squadron, who lad himself only just landed, and sick berth attendant IT Griffiths, ‘who wasa member ofa party detailed for ‘medical duties on the flight deck, rushed to rescue Viekors from hs stricken airerat as petro streamed out oft, although both were ‘wel aware ofthe extreme risks tat they were taking. Tragically the aircraft caught fire and exploded while they were attempting to release the pilot. Vickers (the pilot) and Griffiths (@he sie berth attendant) were killed instantly “MeHlaty died of his wounds the following day. Griffitsand MeHardy were both posthumously awarded the Albert Medal, for ‘A Corsair IV, KD626/125 of 1850 Naval Air eed Se ete Ty gallantry in attempting to save life at sea The first operational use ofthe Corsair by the Royal Navy was in Europe, during the important and strategically successful series of attacks in April July and August 1944 on the German batleship Tipit, which was bing up ina supposedly impregnable anchorage in KaaFjord northern Norway. The first and most successful ofthese attacks, codenamed Operation Tungsten, was carried out in the ‘early hours of April 3, 194, afer Enigma ‘decrypts revealed tothe British that Tipit was scheduled to depart fr sa trials that day. HMS Furious and HMS Vietorous had sailed from Scapa Flow, in company with a povwerfl force of batleships and escort rriersincluding HMS Emperor, Searcher, Fencer,and Pursue. From 120 miles of the Norwegian coas, the carriers lainched 42 dive-bombers and 80 fightersin the largest sir strike yet undertaken by the Fleet Air Arm, “The main strike force was made up of Fairey Barracuda div-bombers and the fighter cover was provided by Helleats, Wildcats and the Corsairs of the 47th Naval Fighter Wing (1834 ‘and 1896 Squadrons), under the command of Romane ee eee ere eat Sete) Lt Car FRA Turnbull, DSC RN from HMS ictrious. This was the first ever combat ‘operation by FAU Corsirs from a carier. The Tinpitz was hit by 15 bornbs and badly crippled, and although not sunk, was incapable of putting to sa for several months during the crucial Normandy D-Day invasion period. Although no aerial opposition from the Luftwaffe was met onthe raid, the attacking PAA crews faced a daunting barrage of flak. Amazingly, only one Barracuda was lost to antiaircraft fire on this operation, Subsequently forthe next several weeks, the Corsars from HMS Victorious savaged German shipping offthe Norwegian coast, and Turnbull was mentioned in dispatches, Tn June 1944, engine failuce forced him to ditch his Corsair the sea, and he was picked up by the destrayer Nubian, Further air strikes against the Tirpitz, Operation Goodwood FY, followed in July and August 1944, with fighter cover provided by the Corsairs of 1811 and 1842 Squadrons {fom HMS Formidable. A total of nae RN aireraft were lost on these missions, Inchuding several Corsairs. The CO of 1841 ‘Squadron fates the wire on landing aboard HMS Vengeance in eatly 1945. Fleet Air Arm Museum‘A mixed formation of a Corsa anc lie'on @ training fight over Mane in November 1944, Fleet Alt Arm Museum NAS, Bigg Wither, wos awarded the DSC for his leadership on these operations. During this period, the flet was threatened by UsBoat wolf packs. On July 18,1944, a Barracuda I, lown by the Leader of No Torpedo Bombing Reconnaissance Naval Air Wing, Lt Cdr Baker-Falkner DSO DSC, a Canadian serving with the Royal Navy, was launched on the firs anti-submarine patrol. Corsair of 1841 Squadron, lowa by the senior pilot, Sub Lt HS Mattholie, escorted the Barracuda. ‘Tragically, the weather worsened and Baker-Falkner’s Barracuda and the Corsair failed o find the fleet on the return and became separated Baker-Falkner and his Barracuda crew were lost at sea, Sub Lt Matthole crash-landed his Corsair, IT404, in afield near Bod, Norway: The aircraft was ‘captured more oF les intact by the Germans ‘and Mattholie was takea asa prisoner of war, Sub Lt Matthoie's successor as senior pilot in 1841 Squadron was Lt Robert Hampton Gray RCNVR, whose name would come to the notice ofthe public, with honour, ater in the war: During these European combat ‘operations the Corsair pilots never got the chance to test the aircraft against German Luftwaffe fighters. A confrontation between the FAU Corsi and the FW-190 would have made for an interesting contest. After early European ventures, the Royal Navy Corsairs spent most ofthe rest of the war ia the Indian and Pacific Oceans fighting the Japanese, asthe Navy returned to the Far East theatre of operations in strength In Europe, the FAA Corsair had originally fought in a camouflage scheme witha dark slate grey extra dark sea grey disruptive pattern on the topsides and ‘Sky’ undersides, but now were painted overall dark blue. Those operating in the Pact theatre also acquired a specialised British insignia ~a modified blue-white roundel with ‘white ‘bars'on both sides -to looke more ike the US than the Japanese Einomaru insignia to prevent ‘riendlyire’ incidents, SOUTH EAST ASIA OPERATIONS The frst operational sortie inthe Indian Ocean was flown on April 19,1945. Subsequently, Corsairs from the British Pacific Flet took part in a several major air raids in South East Asia agains Japanese targetsin Burma and Sumatra, bexinning with Operation Coekpit,an attack on enemy shore installations at Sabang, Sumatra In December 1944 and January 1945, the RN Corsairs took part in Operation Meridian, 4 series of attacks on the two oll refineries at Songei Gerong and Pade on Palembang, Indonesia, These were vitally important installations in the Japanese war effort, as the Sumatran oilfields provided 75% of Japan's aviation fuel. This was one ofthe Flet Air ‘Arm's largest operations involving 56 Corsairs and 45 Grumman Avengers from Victorious and HMS Mlustrious. The Corsairs from Illustrious were part of the 15th Naval Fighter Wing, which was commanded by the highly decorated RN pilot, Lt Cd Mike Tritton DSC and two Bars. > [Another view of he tee Corsair Vs of 1846 Naval air Squadron over Table Mountain. The second aircratt, KD750/117, caries a nose cart of« sombrero wearing. guntoting, cartoon rootter Fleet Alr Atm Museum Tis viow of he hangar deck of HMS lustrous shows why the wingtips of Bish Corsars wore clipped. The height of the hangar decks Was ony 171 din. Fleet Air Arm Museum Chance Vought PAU Conair 57Earlir inthe war, Mike Triton had played «significant part in readying the Pal Corsair for service at sea with involvement inthe early deck landing trials. He had previously been awarded the DSC for general operations inthe Mediterranean, fying Paiey Fulmars from HMS Furious and from Malta, He became the first CO of 1834 Naval Air Squadron after its formation with Corssirs and then took command of 1830 Squadron in 1943 (after its first CO was killed ina deck landing accident) embarking with the Squadron in MS Ihustrious and leading fighter seeps in the Bay of Bengal. He took command of the 15th Naval Fighter Wing in April 1944 after the death in a flying accident of the previous Wing Leader, fighter ace Lt Cr Diekie Cork DSO DSC (who had flown Hurricanes withthe RAF during the Battle of Briain). Tritt fed the Ilustrious Corsairs on a ‘numberof attacks on Japanese-held shore installations al Sabang and at Sourbaya, during, hich they shot down four enemy aircraft “These were the first combat successes by carrier based Corsair, even though the type thay then been in service with the US Navy sand Marine Corps for 17 months, For his part in these actions, Tritton wasawarded the fist bar to his DSC. Tritton next led his Corsair Wing into aetion during the Palembang raids and was subsequently awarded the second bar to his DSC. The crow Ines the sidos of HMS Glory, flanking the Corsats of 1831 Naval Alr Squacton in 1946. Fleet Air Arm Musoum ‘The frst strike ofthe Palembang raids, on January 24 1945, was a complete success, ‘although not without losses, Heavy damage was inflicted on the refinery at Pladjoe, reducing output by a half. The attack on the refinery at Soengi Gerong on January 29 ‘encountered strong opposition from Japanese ‘Corsair | of 732 Naval Air Squadron the Corscit Operational Training Unit Note the late mocet ’itdeage’ canopy with the Bulge to Gecomodate the rear view miror.Fleet Alt Arm Museum A Corsair blue fish. leet Air Atm Museum _ = as | 38479 8H2-@, of 718 Naval A Squadron at Batlyhaldert in 1948. This citcraft Is unusual os itis pointed inthe US Navy three tone fighters, and heavy antiaircraft fire, butit veas pressed home so accurately that production was stopped for two months. At least 11 enemy’ aircraft were shot down, and more than 30 destroyed on the ground. A report on Operation Meridian from the Flag Officer Commanding Aircraft Carriers, British Pacific Fleet, dated February 10, 1945, detailed the actions ofthe Fighter ‘Ramrod’ Sweep over Enemy Airfields by 12 Corsair from HMS Illustrious and 12 from HMS Vietorious. This dry report in official language gives a tantalising glimpse of the human exploits and tragedies which unfolded during that day: “The fighter sweep passed the main strike ‘on its outward journey and surprised the ‘enemy on Lembak airfield, By the time this sweep had arrived atthe Palembang and ‘Talangbetoetoe airfields the enemy was more ‘on the alert and flak atthe later afields was ‘uch more intense and accurate, The Ramrod sweep achieved its objec and, by destroying 4 aircraft on the ground and damaging numerous others, effectively crippled the enemy’s fighter defences. The ‘enemy's air raid warning appears to have 11639 Squacion Conas thing off HMS tlusrous. Fleet Ale Arm Musourn== ‘A Corsair lot 731 Squadron at Easthaven in 1945, Fleet Ait Arm Museum been given at about the time the main strike crossed the const. The striking force was aot intercepted by enemy fighters un within 15 miles of the target. A number of ‘enemy fighters, probably about 20, attempted to atack the force from this time onwards, ‘These were driven off by the fighter escort. The fighter escort reported fairly sitf enemy ‘opposition and claimed 13 single and twin engined fighters destroyed, with six probable, Japanese broadcasts later admitted the loss of 14 fighters. Six Corsairs, one Holleat and two Avengers failed to return. It is known that at least two members of the crews made safe landings and may have be taken prisoner. In addition, one Corsair pi and one Seatire pilot had to bale out over the fleet, Both were picked up uninjured.” “The air coordinator ~ the overall leader ~ for the eaids was 28 year-old Lt Col RC ‘Ronnie’ Hay DSO DSC and Bar RM, the only Royal Marine fighter ace of the war. He had Corsair of 1830 Squadron aboard HS tstious. Fleet Ale Arm Musoum joined the Royal Marines prior to the Second World War and then served asa pilot with the Fleet Air Arm. In 1940 he joined 801 Naval Air Squadron lying the two-seat Blackburn Skua from HMS Ark Royal during the Norwegian Campaign, claiming his first aerial victory, aginst a Heinkel bomber, on his first operational tight. He took part in operations covering the ‘evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from the Dunkirk beaches, and flew with 808 ‘Squadron on the Fairey Fulmar, during the Battle of Britain. He then joined the carrer ‘Ack Royal and saw aetion on the Malta convoys and the attack on the German battleship Bismarck. After surviving the sinking of Are Royal in November 1941, he was avarded a DSC for his actions inthe Meaiterrancan, Aspell ashore as a fying instructor was followed by command of 809 Squadron aboard the carrier HMS Victorious during the Torch landings ia North Avia, Ia CCorsaits of 791 Squacton in 194 Fleet Air Arm Museum Corsair! JS887 was used on guido board tals Con November 10, 1945. Fleet Alr Arm Museum 1944 Hay rejoined Victorious asthe leader of 47th Naval Fighter Wing, The wing's first operation was against the Nicobar Islands in October 1944. Ronnie Hay then became the British Pacific Fleet's new air coordinator for missions of up to 100 aircraft, in December 1944 he was promoted acting Lieutenant-Cotonel ‘As the air coordinator for aids, he led a special light of Corsars from Vietoriows and his R/T callsign was “Father”. He received a DSO for his role in leading the attacks on the Palembang oll refineries in January 1945. ‘The official report on the operation stated “Lwish to mention to you in this dispatch the name of Major RC Hay, DSC, Royal Marines, who, as ai coordinator controlled the approach and withdrawal ofthe striking ry able manner, obtained a able photographs, and found time also to shoot dowa three enemy aircraft with his own guns.” > ingBetween March and June 1045, four British aircraft carriers atacked the Sakashima Islands, atthe southera tip of Japan, under Operetion eer ia mpport ofthe Americ operations against Okinawa. The fleet had the task of neutralising ries onthe isands of the Sakishima Gunto, between Formosa (Taiwan) and Okinawa o prevent the Japanese staging aircraft reinforcements through them, Lt Car Bigay’ Bigg: Wither was still he CO of 1841 NAS aboard HMS Formidable. Big Wither and his squadron were badly shaken ‘when, on the first day of these operations, the CO of Formidable’s other Corsair squadron (1812) was shot down by Japanese gunners ater making a fatal second passat an siefcld on the island of Ishigali, Thereafter, ‘Bigay’ enforced strict ving discipline, keeping his sections of four aireattin tight formation, and ‘making only one run over the target ata time ‘The raids went on for 62 days and Lt Col Hay was airborne almost daly as air coordinator, reconsoiting airfields before strikes, ‘observing strike execution and doing his share of strafing, as wel as filing comprehensive reportson each day's work. Hay’s final total score was 13 confirmed kills. He was awarded his second DSC for his sorvice leading these attacks. (Oa May 4, Sub Lt Don Sheppard a Canadian pil from Toronto, serving with the Royal Navy, became the only FAA Corsair ‘ace, when his seore rose to five enemy aircraft downed. Don Sheppard was on the strength of 1836 Squadron, aboard HMS. Vietorious, and his fifth kill was against Japanese Navy ‘Judy’ (Asahi DAY Suisei, ‘which he chased for 20 miles at 20,0008. When he opened fire the enemy sireraft blew upin his face. He was going so fast that he flew through the flames ofthe exploding aircraft, burning the elevators and tal of his Corsair Sheppard had previously shot down two Oscars (Nakajima Ki3) inthe East Indies trikes on January 4, 145. He scored akillon a Tojo fighter (Nakajima Ki4) on January 24 and shared two kills on January 29, Five days later ~ May 9 ~ his carrier the ‘Victorious survived two kamikaze hits in one day, but remained fully operational Tn July 1945 the British Pacific Fleet took an honoured place on the right ofthe ine of the huge US Third Flet, under Admiral Halsey, to participate inthe final attacks on Japan. On July 17, 1945, a Ramod!of Corsairs from Formidable and Fiteles from mplacable allacked airfields at Sends, Masuda and Matsushima, about 250 miles north of Tokyo. Corsair J7108 of 787 Squadron Naval Alera Fighter Dection Unit at RAF Wittering In 1943 Fleet Ale Arm Museum ‘A.Corsar il of 759 Squadron over RNAS Yooulton, being flowin by Sub LUsutanant Parker RN in September 1945. Fleet Air Arm Museum “These thus became the first British sireraft to ‘overly the Japanese home islands Later inthe day, another Ramrod led by 1834 Squadron's CO, Lt Car J G Baldwin DSC, took off from ‘Victorious and flew across Honshu to hit ‘targets on the Japanese west coast. This was a period of intensive operation, during whieh the Corsi pilots were each fying more than seven hoursa day, ranging widely ver Japan to attack ships harbours, aifieks and rong stock. Tnctitably there were casualties, Bigg- Withers 1841 Squadron, for example, los. ight pilots, CORSAIR VC (On August, 1945, the day when the socond atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and ‘only days before the war ended, Corsair fom HMS Formidable attacked ships in Onagawa harbour on the northeast coast of Japan. The captain of Formidable had asked his Corsair pilots to: “Take iteasy" as he believed the end ‘ofthe war was probably only days away, and unaecessary loss of lives should be avoided. ‘A few miautes alter Sam, Lt Robert ‘lammy’ Hampton Gray, the “happy go lucky" Canadian senior pilot on 1841 Squadron, fed seven other Corsairs off the carriers deck on the second ‘Ramrod’ ofthe day. Gray was leading the first four-aircraft section in Corsair IV,KDE58, which bore the code numbers SUIS. The other four Corsairs were led by his deputy, Sub Lt MacKinnon. Each Cor carrying a pie of 5001 bombs, i addition to 4 fulljoad of0.5 machine gun ammunition, On arrival a the intended objective, a Japanese airfield, Gray realised thatthe target had been ded by other Allied aireraft and was already seriously damaged. Seeing no point in wasting: bombs onan already crippled airfield, he lected to attack shipping that he had spotted cen route in Onagawa Bay. Diving from 10,0004 and approaching from inland, tying to use the cover of the hills surrounding the inlet, Gray led the Corsairs down to very low level to attack the ships, planning to exit the bay towards the ‘open sea. As the Corstirs flashed over the hills and into the harbour at mph, a holocaust of antiaircraft fire blossomedCorsai IV bull by Goodyear os fon FG-10 restored to is original ‘colours by tho team under Davia ‘Monts Fleet Ai arm Museum ‘round and in front ofthem from dozens of ‘uns sited on the hills and from the naval vessels. anchor. Disregarding the hail of fire, Gray pressed home his attack at less than 408. He was hit and his airraft set on fire, but he released his bombs against the Japanese destroyer Amakusa, scoring a direct hit. Atleast one bomb penetrated the ship's engine room and triggered a massive explosion in the aft ammunition magazine. ‘The Amakusa sank in minutes. Sub Lt John Blade, who was part of MacKinnon’s section, dropped his bombs and emerged from the smoke and turmoil to see « Corsa to his right, ‘Hammy’ Gray’, erupt in flames from its port wing root, jerk intoa steep starboard bank, thea with its wings ablaze rol onto its back’ and plunge at full power into the water. Gray was killed outright. On the R/T someone said: “There goes Hammy.” Taking wildly through the fla, the remaining seven Corsairs re-formed under MacKingoa’s leadership and then launched another attack on other targets the bay, until their bombs and cannon ammunition ‘were exhausted, On return tothe carrier, John Blade was forced to belly-Jand his Corsair asthe hydraulics had been ruptured he escaped injury and the rest landed safely Robert ‘Hammy’ Gray's record of splendid leadership and personal example led to the posthumous award of Canada’s last Victoria Cross ofthe war. He became one of only two members ofthe Royal Navy's Feet Air Arm to win the VC and was the final Canadian ‘casualty ofthe Second World Wat. The war nded six days later. The citation for “Hammy” Gray's VC, first published in the London Gazette on November 9, 1945, reads: “The King has been graciously pleased to approve the award ofthe Vietoria Cross for valour tothe fate Temporary Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, RCNVR, for great valour in leading an attack on a Japanese destroyer in Onagawa Wan on August 9, 1945, Inthe face offre from shore batteries and a heavy concentration of fire from some five ‘warships Lieutenant Gray pressed home his attack, flying very low in order to ensure ‘Corsair 1v, KO244/135:x, of 1842 Naval Ar Squacton rem HMS Formiciable. As can be seen ‘fom the wooden deck t's pictured here on boar an American caries, in this case the USS Shangt-a, in 1945. Natlonal Museum of Naval Aviation success, and, although he was hit and his aircraft wasin flames, he obtained atleast one direct hit, sinking the destroyer. Lieutenant uy has consistently shown a briliant fighting spirit and most inspiring leadership.” ‘The next day 184L lost yet another pilot. “lewas avery sad end to the war for us" Bigg Wither said. He was awarded a bar to his DSC and tok the squadron home to Britain, where it was disbanded in October 1945 With the waratan end in the Far East, the Royal Navy's Flet Air Arm combat employment of the F4U Corsair also came to an end on VJ Day, August 15, 1945. In all, out of I8carrier-based FAA Corsair squadrons, ight saw combat, fying intensive ground attack/interdiction operations and claiming 475 aircraft shot down, Under the terms of the Lend-Lease agreement, the aireraft nad either to be paid for orto be returned to the US. Asthe UK did not have the means to pay for them, the Royal Navy Corsairs were pushed overboard into the sea in Moreton Bay off Brisbane, Australia; asad end for ‘such magnificent machines that had played an important part inthe overall vietory. ll Words: Clive Rowley Li Robert Hamm Hampton Gray, who won the VC with 1841 Naval Air Squacron. Fleet Al Arr Museum Chance Vought PAU Conair 81= DEATH RATTLERSF4U-4 Vought Corsair-WS18 of VMF-323 Captai . Hallquist Bae R‘Once the farget towing aircraft was safely afbome, the rest ofthe fight the shooters, would form up before ‘commencing gunnery runs. Here, a formation of FaU-is of V-74 ore pictured in November 1982. ‘National Museum of Naval Aviation —_, Towing an aerial gunnery target with a Corsair In this third article supplied by David G Powers, Fred Blechman describes one of the lesser known roles undertaken by Corsair pilots, that of target tug for gunnery practice. As with any activity involving guns and live ammunition, this was not without its dangers... didn ike to doit. They thought i was boring and that it could be dangerous I Yoluateered for it whenever the opportunity came up. What was it? Piloting a Vought FAUS Corsair while towing ‘an aerial gunnery target. Why wast boring? Because it tok forever to get to the aerial funncry practice attude. And why wasit “Then why would I volunteer todo this? ‘When [joined the Navy Fighter Squadron 14 (VF-14) Tophatters in September 1950, | was ‘nugget with my brand aew pilot'Wings ‘of Gol’, having just completed Navy flight training. [had trained inthe earlier version AU, and now was flying the faster, nore powerful, more advanced version of the Corsair. Iwas gung-ho, stil filed with the ‘enthusiasm of fying. was also very young The Corsair FAU-5 was the type that Fred was fying target towing missions in. This an FaU5 of ven though we were based in Jacksorwlle, Florida it was expected that we would be called to duty in the Korean police action that had started a fow months earlier We were expected tobe combat ready, and were constantly training in bombing, rocketry and gunnery. When scheduled for aerial qunnery practice, a squadron pilot would tow a target banner with one of our squadron Corsairs you've ever been in the military, know there are rules~and more rules. Even though we were fighter pilots, the Second ‘World War was over, and some of the previous latitude allowed to pilots had now become more restrictive, Flathatting’ (ying low over populated areas) or ‘hot dogging (erobatics around the sigport) for example could get you grounded, We weren't even allowed to make ‘hot take-offs- sudden drastic climbs. Bu, ifyou were towing a target banner, you had to make a steep climbing take-off Why? To keep from dragging the target on the ground and clear any structures in the take-off path. Not only that, uti you were flying the tow plane, you got to watch the Corsairs make their gunnery runs from the best seat in the house although you could be shot down by accident, as I'l explainAgain, I was young and innocent, so when the opportunity arose, [volunteered to tow the target. I'd like to say that I recall every detail of those towing fights, but whea T decided to write this story, I realised some of the details had faded inthe last 95 years, 501 asked for help. T contacted Jim Morin, who retired asa rear admiral, AG Wellons, who retired as 2 captain and Randy Moore, who retired as a ‘commander ~ three ofthe plots I lew with in \VE-14~ and asked for their recollections about some towing flight specifies. What was the climbing speed and rate of climb? How high did we go before leveling offand how long did it take? What was our towing speed? How was the banner connected to the Corsair and how wast released? ‘Their responses varied in details, but have averaged their recollections with mine for the following description of one of my particularly exciting towing fights. twas one ‘of those typical sunny Florida late mornings, mostly clear skies with cotton cumulus clouds floating around, some with showers underneath. Iwas scheduled to tow a ‘gunnery banner up to 15,000 feet over the Aulantic off the coast of Jacksonville from Naval Air Station Cecil Field, where our Air Group One was based. [lined in a Corsair, cranked it up, and taxied out tothe active runway, tothe let ofthe centreline, and at the end of the tow cable. Already lad out about 300 fet infront and ‘on my right was the 4-footong flat banner A the front ofthe foursfoot-wide banner was a heavy metal bar, and atthe end ofthe banner ‘on the side closest to me was.a weight to keep the bar vertical in fight. One ofthe squadron crew members hooked the end of the cable to a tow hook under the tal ofthe Corsair, and yanked on ito be sure itwas secure. With cksarance from the control ower for tow takeoff, Iapplied full bake pressure by depressing the tops ofthe rudder pedals and pulled the joystick all the way back to hold {An excellent ilustration showing the ime view ftom the cockpit ofthe Corsair nose up as ‘an FAU.4 of VMF312 practices carrer landings. National Museum of Naval Aviation ‘the tail down. With fll lps and the prop set, to fll rpm, advanced the throttle to 44 Inches of manifold pressure ~ about all could use before the tail would try to ‘come up. The Corsair leaped forward as released the brakes and advanced the throttle to full power. ILtook a few seconds for the F4U5 automatic power unit to bring the manifold pressure to about 4 inches ~ full power without water jection ~ asthe Corsair increased speed. [relaxed the stick: for a sight nose-down position to allow: ‘maximum acceleration, ‘As passed the banner on my right, had about another 30 fet to go before I would be dragging the banner on the ground— which could bend the baaner front metal bar and eause erratic banner fluttering inthe air. ‘As my alrspeed increased to about 110 knots, The Corsair fowing the target would fy a maximum performance take oft the kind of “hot dogging’ lowned upon by oficialdom, but popular with a certain type of pilot. Here Can FaU.A8 of VMF-323 accelerates cown the runway. National Musoum of Naval Aviation | pulled back on the stick and put the Corsair into a seep 30 degree climb, carefully watehing the airspeed indicator ast dropped toward 80 knots, where I shoved the stick forward to prevent stalling. Hopefully, Tad yanked the banner offthe srround before it dragged. Now with the banner unfurled and vertical, which I could see in my three cockpit rear-view mirrors, ‘maintained a shallow climb and full power tuntilT reached a climbing speed of 140 knots ata rate of climb of about 500 feet per minute reduced power to maintain that rate of climb with the high drag and weight of the banner and cable was pulling. With my fong Corsair nove in a climbing attitude, Icouldn't see straight ahead; to my rear, outboard of the banner, was a Corsair from our squadron acting asa safety plot and escort, > Chance Vought PAU Comair 65About 15 minutes after [took off the other squadron Corsairs on this gunnery practice light took offto rendezvous inthe gunnery area off the coast at 15,000 feet. I levelled offand flew a constant heading at 160 knots, as the other Corsairs climbed bout 2000 feet above me. They paralleled my path, forming into aright step-down echelon about 15 degreesto the right of my nose. One by one, about five seconds apart, they peeled off to the left in a tight diving turn ‘This was fascinating to watch — just like in the movies. The Corsairs each flew in a pursuit curve, swinging around the back and ‘below the banner, the pilot judging the proper deflection lead, and firing his four 20 rnilimeter cannons atthe target. For scoring its, the nose of each 20 milimeter shellin each plane was pinted a different colour, so that when ~and fit hitthe banner, it eft a coloured hole that would identify which pilot hhad made the hit However, target fixation could result in the tow plane geting hit! While firing atthe ‘banner ifthe pilot got below and directly ‘behind it is bullets could are upward and hit the tow plane. This has been known to happen. “Target fixation could also cause the plot ofthe firing Corse to actually hit the banner with his airplane. Ouch! And there have been occasions ‘when the tow line was shot apart, releasing the ‘banner to dive 15,000 fet into the ocean. Anyhow, watching the Corsair make their firing runs and then reforming above, ahead onthe lef, and making gunnery runs from there, was ike watching an air show ~and | had a grandstand seat. They alternated cach run from a perch to port ar starboard — left or right for you fandlubbers nally, with my fuel runaing low, [turned bback to Cecil Field to drop the banner and land. Butas approached the sirpor,I found ‘large cloud over the far end of the duty runway, with pouring rain underneath. With little fuel, and no nearby alternate airport, 1 had to drop the banner before I could land! descended to 800 feet and flew above the runway, Just before [entered the rainstorm, pulled the tow ine release handle in the cockpit; no sooner did the tow line and banner drop away, than I found myselfin instrument concitions, Maintaining my altitude, made a gradual lft turn to the downwind heading and soon broke out ofthe rain. The runvray ‘was on my lef with the upwind end in the clear, [made a standard landing approsch, Janded, and as was rolling down the runway, went right back into the rain. Weird! With greatly reduced visibility ia this downpour [had to be careful otto run off the side ofthe runway The Corsair with its Jong-aose and tail wheel, required constant Sturning to see ahead wen taxiing, and in this pouring rain I could hardly even see the sides of the runway, I made it back to tie down okay, and I don't recall ever having to Jand in a heavy rainstorm again, With the excuse to make a hot take-off to void dragging the banner oa the runway, and to get. prime seat to watch this minkairshow, looked forward to other baazer towing flights. ml Words: Fred ‘Crash’ Blechman The modem equivalent.and a sneak | preview of the nex! Issue of Aviation Classics An F140 Tomeat of V2 Yokes ef rom tne USS Constttion towing 1DU'320/8 oerial banner tow target in 2001.tThe banner ie not thet fern fo those towed by Corsars 50 years Caller ands raed 1800 feet betind tne towing aircraft, US.Navy ‘The view over the nose of an F4l/-4 Corsair of VMF-223 in tight, showing the pllos eye view ‘over the long nose. Nationall Museum of Naval AviationThe Lone Star Fight Museums F4US Isin me colours ot VC3,a night Ightor unit inthe Korean Wer. Luigine Caliaro.Cee eed oat ey Pee eer a ty ieee Cone cid The Corsair was extensively developed during its long career, but not all the improvements were of benefit to the pilots, as Fred ‘Crash’ Blechman recalls in another of the articles supplied by David G Powers. hat a eat has nine es, Imust be pat feline, oF | would not have survived my tour of duty with Fighter Squadron 14 (VF-14) in the carly 1950s. In particular, February 13 1951, would have ended itall for me Thad completed 21 months of fight tnsining when learned my Naval Aviator wings and Ensign bars on August 23, 1960, In early September I reported to VF-14, then stationed at Naval Air Sation Cecil Field, outside Jacksonville, Florida, Although, lke all red blooded American heroes, I had requested West Coast duty (since the Korean fracas had just begun), the Navy in its infinite wisdom, sent me instead tothe East Coast of Florida. The commanding officer was Lieutenant Commander Robert C Coats, now a retired captain living in Jacksonville. Skipper Coats took me wader his wing, since I was the 24 pilots in VF-M were seasoned Naval Aviators, several having been called back to setive flying duty from the Naval Reserve after serving in the Second World War The squadron airerat was the latest model Chance-Vought Corsair, the FAUS, his was ajazzed-up version of the F4U-4 inverted gulkwing fighter Ihad flown in advanced training, and in which I had made six carrier landings before qualiving for my wings. The fact that the Corsair had caraed the nickname of Ensign Eliminator was not exactly consoling. My first FAUS fight was on September 20, 1950. By ths time I had become acquainted with some of the techao-whige Junior pilot in the squadron ~and remained ‘0 for overa year — until Ensign Gene Hendrix joined the squadron, Most of the ‘ddlions that had beea designed into the F#U5, 1 mean, do you really need a cigar lighter, padded arm and leg ress, electric {rim tabs, computer-ontroled engine boost, gyro gunsight, automatic cow! Maps, and such? Aside from adding considerable ‘weight and complexity to this sirora ‘some ofthese improvements’ turned out tobe real potential killers ~ as you'l see ~ some were just plan annoying. The squadron was scheduled for 8 Mediterranean cruise in early 1951 aboard the USS Wright (CVL-49), alight carrer Since the squadron had only recently received the new FAU'5s, Skipper Coats main task was to get us all carrier qualified in the F4U5. This meant many Field xrier Landing Practice (FCLP) fights to nearby field that was marked out like a carrier deck, and using a Landing Signal Officer (LS0) to bring usin for touch-and 0's Although the ‘deck’ wasn't moving, it Soft above the water, either ~it was Flold Carer Landing Practice (FCLP) at Con outing feld (OL associated with Noval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Florida, Push out your 90 - signals the Landing Signal Officer (1$0) as a Corsair takes a wave-of July 1950. Fred Blechmanat ground level, This meaat fying very low and very slow just above stalling speed, usually over marshy ground with bumpy air. In many ways, FCLPs are ‘more challenging than actual cartier landings. My logbook shows exactly 109 FCLPs during the three months preceding that cruise ‘The squadron flew to Norfolk in late December and carrier qualified, both individually and asa squadron, by each pilot making six F4US landings aboard the newly commissioned USS Oriskany (CV-34), Which was on its shakedown cruise off the Virginia coast (ue sireraft were loaded by crane aboard the USS Wright, and we let port on Janvary 10, 1951, headed for Gibraltar. We only flew three dayson the 1D-lay trip to the Mediterranean, Alter Gibraltar, we made the ports of Oran in Algeria, Augusta in Sicily, and Naples and Palermo in Italy. Oa Sunday, February 11, we eft Palermo and headed for Suda Bay on the Greek island of Crete. We few on February 12 and 13. The first flight, on February 12, was uneventful. The second, on February 15, was almost my ks ‘The weather was bad on February 13, «as we were cruising through the fonian Sea. Our intended mission was to practice dive bombing a small island target off the west coast of Greece. The Greek government was very co-operative, ‘especially since our next port was on Crete. Meteorology assured Primary Fly (PriFly) thatthe weather over the target was perfect, and thatthe overcast above uuswas only afew thousand fet thick. Looking from the fight deck, it seemed like the world was coming to an end. The low stratus clouds seemed only a few hundred fet ofthe deck, with fingers of clouds reaching down to touch the water: Scud clouds slid by, and there were ‘obvious rain showers in several directions. Four planes were scheduled for this flight ~one division. The flight leader was Lieutenant Commander Felix Craddock, This photo was taken a tow days bbofore the author few thie aroraft ‘on is tn carrer landing In @ Corsair - July 1950. Fred Blechman the squadron executive officer, with Ensiga Merle A Rice as his wingman. Leading the second section was Lieutenant Junior Grade ‘Doc Mossburg with me fying his wing. The flight deck was heavily spotted with sirraft, so we were ‘each launched in turn from the Wright's two hydraulic catapaits. This was before the days ofthe slant deck carriers with four powerful steam catapults and 11008 decks, ‘The entire deck ofthe Saipan-Class Wright was only 6008 long. When my turn came, unfolded my wings a8 [taxied for ward, following the * landings. July 1980. Fred aaa RN aS ee PIN aM Tai ee aaa a) Pee a asa ECU Nien tess UT Una Ce) 2 ae ‘NavCad Blechman at OLF Bronson Field near Pensacola. during the final stage of Corsa taining ~ carer flight deck crew's hand signals. When | tightening my seat belt and shoulder harness reached the catapult area, [dropped full aps I set the trim tabs slightly nose-up, right wing and checked my wing-ock indicators. Aer ‘Midshipman Jack Eckstein (ef) and Free Blechman Ger he auifor® sikh and quoting tanaing in & Corsa aboard the USS Wright (CVL49), Eckstein \Nould go on fo ratre ar a coplain. Fred Blechman down, and right rudder, to counter the lefetuening torque of the giant four bladed prop at full power. The propeller control was set to maximum rpm as | checked the engine instruments, Imade sure my G-suit was plugged in, especially important since we were hheaded! out fora dive bombing mission, Talso made sure my oxygen low indicator was working. While I as doingthis, adeck crewman hooked up the catapalt shuttle to pull agains the ‘bride’, a steel cable that attached toa hook under each wing. Althe rear ofthe plane another erewman, tached a small steel ring to the deck and a short cable that grabbed a hook behind my tailwheel. This holdback ring’ was precision manufactured to restrain the Corsair at ull engine power, but breakeapart when the catapult shuttle added its force. These ‘sometimes parted prematurely, eading toa‘cold shot ~off the bow with too litle speed to stay airborne, Splash! Also, sometimes the bridle would snap partway down the deck during the catapult shot, throwing the aireratt off the side ofthe deck into the water. Nice things o contemplate while waiting for the signal to pour onthe coal. (Chance Vought PAU Comair 69The wheel brakes, aplied by pressing the top of the rudder pedals, were no longer required once hooked upto the catapult and restrained by the holdback ring. Infact, you certainly don't want to apply the brakes while being catapulted! Therefore, the standard procedure was to drop your feet off the rudder pedals so your heels were on the deck, and your toes atthe base ofthe pedals Tid this. Finally, the catapult officer gave me the windup band signal to goto fal throtle As advanced the throtle to the stop, [ checked the engine instruments. It took only ‘afew seconds for confirmation that the engine had powered up and sounded right, and that the instruments read normally. The Corsair's almost 2000 horsepower was straining against the small holdback ring, waiting for the fore ofthe catapult shut pulling against the bride to snap the ing and set me free. Tsaluted the pul officer to lt him know [was ready, and threw my head back aginst the cockpit headrest in anticipation of the launch jolt [glanced out ofthe corner of iy eye to see when the catapult officer Aropped his arm. That was the signal for the catapult operator to pressabig red button to fire the catapult. The catapult officer watched the geatle pitching motion ofthe ship to make sure he was not going to fire me off with the ship's bow aimed atthe water, and atthe right ‘moment he dropped his arm. Wham! ‘When the catapult fired, the holdback ring ruptured, just asit was designed to do, and the aircraft lurched forward, completely out of my control for about three seconds. I immediately felta sharp pain above my eft ankle, but was to occupied to find out why. Off the end ofthe deck at barely Dying speed, I was heading for the water. The dama Two images of the carrer qualification ‘action aboard the USS Wight - August 1950. Hero, the shicon! foun himsolt {0 high and toe fer aft,and thus recelvad a wave-ft ted Blechman APU (automatic power unit), an FAU-S innovation, was supposed to cut in ‘and add about 10iaches ‘of manifold pressure = ‘enouigh power to re airborne. Ithad not ‘engaged. The electro mechanical APU used various sensors to Took at the air pressure and temperature, engine RPM ‘and manifold pressure ‘op pitch, and who- Iknoveswhatelse to determine when to add the extra power boost ‘This had replaced the ‘manually operated supereharger in the 4 Corsair, and was ‘completely automatic with no manual override, Avggh! Tauickly retracted ny wheels [twas bad ‘enough to hit the water in aradiatengine sireraft (which usually dug in and flipped the sireraft), but going in wheels down was even more likely to fip her Het the flsps full down and milked the nose up carefull. The fight deck was only a little over Soft above the water, but the slight drop had increased nny airspeed. Just then, about 208 above the surface ofthe water, the APU eat in. Whew! Tut the nose in climb, slowly raised the flaps, and adjusted the power settings and trim tabs to neutralise the controls, Hooked ahead to see Doc Mossburg’s Corsair disappear into the low clouds, No other plane was in sight, since the first two planes ‘already started up through the overcast ‘My ankle was sill hurting. Looking dowa I found the cause, The heavy metal rudder pedalsin the 5 Corsair were designed with soft padding on their back, but were normally held upright with springs. A pilot on along. flight could pull the top of the rudder pedals toward him and stick his legs through the pedal supports to rest his thighs. ‘The let pedal apparently had a busted spring. Ithad flipped back, from the force ofthe launch, and the metal part had slammed ‘against the top of my foot. Not disabling, but certainly distracting, Tatent on catching up with Doe for a sappy rendezvous on his wing, kept peering through the windshield fr sight of him, I didnt realise that had also flown into this grey overcast and should have been The author standin front cof his Vought Fa, now & ‘momber of Fighter ‘Squacion 14 (UF-14) ~ the ‘ophattors, Fed Blechman flying on instruments. Somehow the overcast appeared to be above me, and it seemed like T could see for some distance ahead. I was ‘expecting to spot Doc’ plane any second I felt like I wasina perfectly normal climb, and ina Corsair with a huge nose projecting over 15 in font of you, you don't see the horizon in aclimb ifyou'e looking straight ahead, Thad been fying in this stony climb' for several miautes when I suddenly realised the ‘engine sounded strange ~ ike it was ranning faster than normal. Also, the wind noise in the cockpit sounded like was flying much faster than ina climb, I glanced atthe instruments. If my hair could have stood up under my hardhat helmet, i would have! My artificial horizon showed that | wasin a nose down left tura, My altimeter was winding down furiously. My rate of climb indicator vwas way in the negative. My turn and bank indicator was almost pegged tothe lft, with the ballin the centre ~ anicely balanced tura, My airspeed indicator showed over 220, kknots~ 130 was normal climbing speed, The tachometer showed the engine rpm at over 2000 with 2550 normal fora climb. No {question about it~1 was in the welFknown “graveyard spiral’ a classical case of vertigo. Thad hesitated much longer, Lwouldn’ be writing this today, over 40 years later: I was dificult to ignore my conventional senses and suddenly have to shift mentally into believing a bunch of instruments that seemed to be lying to me. Ihad heard a lot about igo in training, and had even experiencedThe author - shortly bofore he passod away - was always proud he could sti Tin is old leather fight jacket. Fred Blechman The author as @ lleutenant junior grade ~ 1952 Fred (Fe a ai ae Ua Ce tel Tei) BONER CREM ee eae PUR aaa Ck Le DRAIN ad mild cases in Link Trainers, but never like Here, a good lancing this. knew that if followed the instinctive Fred Blechman action of pulling up the nose I would only lighten the turn. The frst o ‘cain the instruments and level the ofbusiness Tadvanced power aad went into a climb this time on instrume through the overcast re ee ced up in sent Jft rendez. igwherel was} ; This was not my only ‘close calf, On other : flights there were other incidents. 1 ha loose oxygen mask and almost lew offo q the horizon in a 30,000 euph an oil ine pulling out ofa dive bombing run and had to make a earrer landing wi overed with oil, On one flight a pen on landing and [almost burned out the = ‘ ‘engine. Then there was that night landing hore my brakes locked. Ml Words: Fred ‘Crash’ Bleckman somes (Chance Vought PAU Cormac 71c ane ES6T 21D Wlod SSN + ZEE MINA J OT UW Hessi0y 3yBN0A gP-NFA SLOG-VWIOd aH,Carrier crash! In another article supplied by David G Powers, Fred Blechman describes the day he made his last flight in an F4U-5 Corsair, although at the time he did not know that this was the case. The dangers of flying large powerful aircraft from small carriers are perfectly illustrated by this honest account. ‘thas been said thatthe most dangerous time ina pilot's carcer is ‘when he has about 600 fying hours. Prior to that time he's very careful and deliberate, Aer about 600 hours flight ime he tends to be more relaxed ~ and sometimes getsa bit careless had 6662 hours of fight time, with 454.6 hours in Vought FAU Corsairs, when Tcrashed on the deck of an escort cartier! Iwasa bright, clear dawn in the Caribbean fon November 7, 1951, when eight of us in Fighter Squadron 14 (VF-14) were shot~they called it catapulted ~ fom the escort carrier USS Kula Gulf (CVE-108). Our FAUS Corsairs ‘wore part of an annual training exercise called "LANTFLEX’ (AtLANTie FLeet EXercise), We were the Red Squadron, fying Combat ‘ir Patrot (CAP) to protect our small task force from any Blue Squadron (enemy) raids, [Nothing special happened. We just few aroun in large, lazy circle in loose formation ‘over the endless sparkling water, some distance from the earrse and its support ‘vessels, I was fying F4U5 ~ Navy Bureau The authors Vought F4U-5 Corsair bounces cand begins © ty up the fight deck of ne “Joop caior USS Kula Gull (CVE-T08) - November 7.1951... The author Number 122158, Squadron Side Number 405. ‘iter over two hours of oceasional vectoring by the carrier Combat Information Centre (CIC), we headed back to home, fying in right echelon past the starboard side ‘ofthe carrier's island as we peeled offo port, setting our landing interval. We landed in ‘urn without incident, and headed for the ready room. The Accy-Ducey ~ Backgammon to landlubbers ~ and card games eame out, ‘and we relaxed. Iwas not scheduled for any other fights that day, after our early launch and relatively long 2.6-hour flight. Iewas ate morning when things changed suddenly. Our radar had spotted asnooper, apparently a Blue patrol plane approaching our ships “Pilots, man your planes!” was ealled for those scheduled on sandy. Although I was not scheduled to ly, our fight deck was dot spotted for the unexpected launch, so I weat upon deck incase Iwas needed to taxi a plane toanew position on deck. Itsoon became apparent that some of our planes would have to be moved. Ielimbed into the same number 406 Thad flown earlier, just expecting to taxi around the Might deck as directed during this respoting of aircraft. 1 hhad my regular flight gear~ a hardhat, G-suit and parachute, standard procedure in case of ‘standby launch ~ but no plotting board, and no briefing. ‘This as to be a fourplane searetrand {destroy mission. Three ofthem got of fine, but the fourth had engine trouble. ll planes were being catapulted since the wind over the short ‘deck was not sufficient fora safe deck launch — not that cat shots were al that safe! They took the sputtering dud Corstir off the port catapult, put me on, hooked up the shuttle and cable, and shot me into the gathering clouds Equipped with an extra gestank, we were off fora three-hour search fight. turned out to be along, boring, very tiring light. The flight leader, to make things ‘more interesting, put us in tall chase ~ and I was the last plane inthis whipping tails the leader performed mild aerobatics. The idea ‘was to stay in position behind the plane head of you, Following was relatively essy if you were in one of the up-front postions inthis tail chase, but got progressively more difficult fyou were further back inthe stack. [ wasin postion number four, the end ofthe tall, and was using lots of throtl, rudder, levator and sileron movement, trying to slay in positon. This wasn't as bad as being in the number eight position ina tailchase, asT had been a number of times, but it was ‘eruelling nevertheless. ‘The FAUS5, the heaviest in the Corsair series, did not have boosted controls, and didnt need them for normal fight. But it took alot of physical effort to horse it around the sy. Also, we had gone up above the cloud layer, and the sun was beating throug the bubble canopy. Combined with the natural high humidity of the Caribbean, the inside of that bird was hot and sticky. [recall popping the canopy backa few inches several times to try to cool off Finally, after three hours, we were called back to land. There had been another unscheduled launch while we were airborne so now the deck had been respotted again for our recovery. These were sil the days of straight-deck cartier, whea reshulfling of planes on deck was acommon and necessary procedure between launches and recoveries. We spotted Kula Gulf, steaming ahead of its bubbling, churning wake, surrounded by several smaller support vessels and their smaller, shorter white tails contra against the shimmering sea. A rescue helicopter, always aloft during air operations, hovered nearby. [As we approached the landing pattern ia right echelon formation, fying upwind along the starboard side ofthe carrier for the breakoff I reflected about how well [had ‘An FaU-4 Corsa of VMF-323, lands aboard the USS Sicily (CVEA18), off he coast of Korea 111951.Tris wa the sister ship 10 CVE-108 and perfectly ilustates the namow consnes of the ‘eteort camer deck. The author the wheels are back down on the deck ~ now is ime fo get the fal down so the anesting hook can snag a wie...he author ‘been doing. { mentally patted myself on the back for my good ordnance scores, and, although there had been a rash of accidents on this cruise, my slate was clean. Landing an F4U-5 on a small escort carrier was inherently marginal. Escort carriers ~ CVE ~ with flight deck under 4500 feet long, were small compared to the larger 800-and 1000footight - CVL—and battle - CV carrier decks. Escort carriers nad fewer arresting wires eight, eompared to 11 for CVLs and 13 for CVs, as! recall~ and their top-heavy decks.on small hulls hnad a much greater tendency to pitch, yaw and roll, even in Tight seas. Every landing was a challenge. ‘As [pected offto the left and set my interval for the downwind leg, ooked forward togetting down, L was very tired and sweaty. Getting back on deck, into a shower, and then sscking out ~ that's what was planning. T dropped my wheels, flaps and hook on the downwind lg, throttled back to lose some altitude, and used the ship and its wake to judge ‘yy abeam position, direction and alte, The ‘ship was steaming upwind, and I was fying downwind, sit tok no time at all before it ‘was time to turn left onto the base leg. > ‘Chance Vought FAU Consaie 75[pulled back on the thratte, slowly Aropping altitude on the base leg by referts to where the horizon cut the bridge, finaly setling at the approach altitude and :maintaining just enough power to hold the nose-up attitude at about 90 knots hanging on the prop. [put the left nose ofthe Corsair on the afl starboard deck for an intercept course and hold itthere. As the ship moved forward at about 20 knots, I pulled the Corsair around to the left, watching the Landing Signal Officer (USO) for paddle instructions. ‘There was no luxury of any siaificant straightaway in landing on those old staight- deck carriers when you were lying a Jong-nose Corsair in a nose-up atitude. You just couldnt see ahead of you~ only off to the side, We essentially pyloned counterclockwise around the LSO in order to ‘keep him in sight at his port fantail location, As got close in, I pulled the nose left toward the ship’scentreline. This was, effected by the wind over the deck, which was never straight down the deck, but about 15-degrees to port so the turbulence from the ship's stacks and bridge did not appear inthe flight path of the landing planes. This made fora very Wicky last few seconds. A tis slow speed, just afew knots above stalling, it tok a lot of right rudder, even though in aleft turn, And you dida’t dare add power quickly ~ even ifyou thought you had fo~since the 2100horsepower engine turning the Loot diameter, fourbladed prop, would make the aircraft roll uncontrollably to the left~the dreaded torque roll It took alot of bark sick, considerable porter, and almost all my right rudder to Jhang in there. As L approached the ramp in a {he hook cough! the las wie - Number 8 on thie coir - but the bomer cables loom ahead, ‘The auth left ura, the LSO's paddles and my own perceplion was that I was drifting to the right ofthe deck centretie. Too much right rudder. eros-controlled abit and slipped to the left just as approached the ramp, levelled my wings, and got a mandatory ‘ut. “Ab, home atlas,” [thought as relaxed, dropped the nose, and pulled back to drop the tail 30 my hook would catch an early wire. But Trelaxed too soon! Perhaps I was more tired ‘han I realised and didnt pull back soon ‘enough, or perhaps the deck lurched up that time, Whatever the reason, my wheels hit the deck and bounced. Iwas fying over the arresting wires, til up, and drifting tothe lef? Theard the crash horn blare just as | popped the stick forward to get back oa deck, and then quickly pulled back to get my arresting hook down. caught the number ight wire ~ but on this ship, with a heavy Corsair, the arresting cable pulled out just {enough forthe prop to catch the uplifted barrier cable sirike two prop blades! EPILOGUE ‘The above story turned out to be my last light in a Corsair. Since my brief encounter with the barricade was actully considered an accident, Ihad to report tothe light surgeon fora quick physical. It was during this checkup that he discovered an astigmatism in my eyes and I was temporarily grounded. L was soon told that I would never fy fighters again but could possibly transfer to transport aieraftI did stay in the Navy for several more months but decided not to take the transition to transport sircraft. i Words: Fred ‘Crash’ Beckman ‘20ps- the arresting wire pulled ‘Out far enough for wo Blades of the prop to engage the barrier ‘cables, Note the barat Cables just below the bent prop. The authorMISSING A BACK ISSUE? Fear not, we've got a few left for you to complete your collection of the Aviation Classics series, but remember, when they're gone, they're gone, so get your order in soon! Order today: www.classicissues.com or call 01507 529529. — LXUE aS Sta fal i) nae a, Bat rm ISSUE Boeing B47 ISSUE 10 ISSUE 13, mosqurTo HARRIER 268 om ome oe« Night MISSIONS - over North Korea In the last of the articles supplied by David G Powers, Corsair Night Fighter pilot James Brown describes his dangerous experiences flying night missions during the Korean War and how the pilots coped despite the stresses, some of which were nothing to do with enemy action. arrier operations in a combat ne, even under a clear blue sky, mn De avery stressful proposition. Add tothe equation the dark ofnight, awful weather, ‘questioning chain of command, not to mention an enemy that is trying to shoot you down, and you have a situation that has pushed many aviators very close to that ragged edge STRESS AND THE COMBAT PILOT High Fligt isa poem beloved by aviators of allnations, Pilot Officer Magee, an American serving withthe Royal Canadian Air Force in England, wrote itin August or September 10941 and sent it to his parents, Shortly aflerwards, on December 11 1941, his Spitfire coded with another over England ‘ad he was killed. He was 18. pilot of any aircraft experiences siress, whether they are flying for recreation, their occupation, or in ‘combat. Most aviators of any country, whether they are civilian or military, control and adjust to stressful situations. Howe ‘tres is always there and the Angel of Death alway’ rides along on every light. Sil all of them profess to love or enjoy this evocation ion with its stress, Stress may come in many forms and for many different reasons, During the First World War, those soldiers who endured horrible combat and finally broke under the ‘rain were termed shell-shocked’. Others ‘who had experienced similar or worse horrors apparently suffered no visible il effects This pattern was repeated in the ‘Second World War, Korea and Vietnam as ‘wel sin all wars throughout history. For those, the terminology of ‘combat fatigue’ as wells the later PTSD, or posttraumatic stress disorder, has m ent levels, times ofonset and recovery: While full recovery is considered common, ther tobe evidence that the scars fro severe stress do remain indefinitely. > (Chance Vought PAU Conair 79ees reer etonre at particular individ ee are or by the birth af a baby ee Ee the bss orguinof empl Cee er eed the absence of stress itcan and does k pe ee ene controled. Yet, without i our bodies could not ee function. Therefore, some sess is essential eek he for our well being Some individuals tolerate it Ce need better than others do at different ime Pe LTE Mens circumstances and at diferent levels. The key Naval Aviation va productive life appearsto at a gor stressis caused death ofalovedone, Cee Toa) oer ete ete eto es er amt eer te eer 31) ~ine Borne Dickoralflornatively the} or Wine chor lcremon = eee eee Ermer erunney {the wordsused and whether a ‘ombat ‘ment, or surprisin’y, depe # wellwe adapt and control ion to the stress we are subjected to. tof us operate well and productively under the level of stress we regularly endure high degr tinues over along period can build t become overwhelming. What appears irrational becomesrational, and what appears abnormal becomes normal. The following illustrates such an event thats true and personal. Korea The Winter War.OPERATIONS OVER KOREA OFFICIAL —US Navy strike report — December 12, 1952 LCDR Stachel, Lt Brown, Went to China border up 14 (a railroad and highway ~ dirt road -north from Songiin, Ssangp'o-dong, north west) and saw afew trucks Two trucks were considered damaged but mts too hi to press low attacks in valleys. In Kila area later a possible rail ‘cut was made with a 500, 2608,’The marshaling yard at Hyesangin was bombed with unobserved results. All long rt ls Tights warned the trucks to black out ‘This sa copy ofthe actual strike report upon debriefing when we returned at night to the aircraft carrier after this apparently uneventful mission. What actually happened was considerably different. The Navy never officially found out the true story, although the fight surgeon aboard the USS Oriskany and its carrier air group commander were suspicious that there was an untold story duc to what happened as we landed aboard the sireraft carrer at night. ‘Task Force 77's (TF77) positon was midway between Japan and Korea. The third World war was expected to start a any minute, which meant TF77 was the first ine ‘of defence. It was composed of three Essex: class attack sirerat carriers: the USS Essex (CVA9), the USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA- 31), andthe USS Oriskany (CVA) all capable of launching nuclear weapons, plus the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63). The warships were steering in their normal diamond formation, They were surrounded, as usual, by a protective ring of fast destroyers and cruisers. What was unseen, and waiting in readiness forthe start of the “third world war, were American submarines deep below, while jet fighters above were ready tobe launched at frst light Iwas Naval aviator assigned to Composite Squadron 3 (VC3) ~ Team George. ‘VCS was a lange aight fighter squadron based at Naval Air Station Moffett Field, in California, The squadron rarely deployed asa whole unt, but would instead send smaller detachments of aircraft and personnel to various earviers throughout the fleot. Our detachment ~ Team George ~ consisted of myself and four other aviators, four sircra, and a cadre of enlisted maintainers. Our officerdircharge was Liewtenant Commander George Stachel. We were temporarily part of Carrier Air Group 102 (CVG-102), then deployed on the USS Oriskany. Our aircraft was the Vought FAUSN Corsair the ‘N designation meaning it was equipped with radar and was optimised for night operations. Since there was virally ao enemy aircraft ‘operating at night, we were tasked with night, low level strafing and bombing missions. > Pee eee ety Peer nner Preteen eee Ree) ee PE ee) eee reer. Seed Re rc ey Chae coer es Pee en Le pee ee) ete Se cee) et ee tee)Otfcors and enlisted men of VC-3'de-shess'in Japan dung @ biel port cai over the Christmas season, 1952. The author stands with his elbow on fellow aviator Nerm Groves’ head. Team George's offcarin-charge (OIC) Lt Car George Stashel who the author tied to shoot relaxes against the far wall James Brown Our four aircraft were armed and ready to become airborne as darkness fell. As night fighters our mission was to attack targets in North Korea. All were ready difficulty. However, the delay caused by uncoupling and removal ofthe plane with the oil eak plus the rescue of the pilot and re- rigging ofthe catapult by the and eager for warifRssi8or wT HIG MISSION HAD “<2! bi alos gone China made an aggressive rove, The weather this cold ‘ver the side into the water, STARTED OUT allowed my plane's wing night wasmnormal for thatime BADLY WE WERE _l2kierin to bocome frozen ‘of yearn the Sea of Japan, This essential pin locked the Visibility was so poor thatit’ — EXHAUSTED BYTHE wings when they were required all these ships to keep their position by radar CONTINUOUS, "ed Fiat in tout darkness, and after repeated ‘We would be catapulted off the HIGHLY STRESSFUL unsuccessful attempts to lock catsirinfo these instrument MISSIONS AND. insane hander ‘conditions. There was no singer climbed out on the horizon to keep us oriented. NONE OF USHAD wing, which extended beyond Tnumediately ater we Were BEEN ABLETO REST!” ** fixitdeck, out over the catapulted off the deck ofthe carrier, as the heavily loaded planes retracted thei landing gear, we would ‘commence a slaw climb towards the target. ‘This after dark mission had started out badly, We were exhausted by the continuous, highly stressful missions and none of us had been able to rest. Four planes were scheduled to fy on this sortie but one had ruptured an oilline as it went to fll power, before the catapult launch. Another ha the catapult cable break. This cable is attached to the aircraft itself and when it failed, the airplane didnot have enough speed to fy. The pilot jammed on his brakes, which caused his tyres to blow out. With the heavy this broke off one of his wheels causing his plane to turn sideways as he skidded to the forward edge ofthe deck. Miraculously, hae was able to stop itjust inches before falling over the side into the se The planes that they were to fly had been stored on the warm hangar deck located below the fight deck. The ist, flown by Lt Cie Stachel, had been launched with no water some 50 fect below it, ‘Then, he jumped up and down ‘oni unl the ice was broken, The wing locking bolt finally si into place. In the meantime, the first plane wasn the ai, wth ‘full bomb load, and was orbiting the aircraft burning much needed fuel, its pilot fuming with anger over the dela STRESS AND SEPARATION ‘The previous night mission for us had been extremely difficult. This one was supposed two be easier. As aight fighter pilots we had been together in cramped quarters aboard the carrier for months. During these months of high stress night attacks, we were effectively isolated from the other squadron pilots due tothe location of our quarters in the ship. These spaces were situated deep below the waterline so that we could sleep during the day While there had been a few deaths of pilots in some of the other squadrons aboard the carrier, there had been ao deaths yet in ‘our specialised night unit. There had been a‘A Corsa FaU-SN of VC-3 on board the USS Vey Forge (CVA-5),n San Diego harbour on November 18,1952, National Museum of Naval Aviation few bad landings with minor damage when we had attempted to land in darkness oa the pitching deck, However, all of our planes had suffered hits by ground fire, antiaircraft bursts, or both. The stress was beginning to manifest itsell Personal comments and arguments were magnified to the extent that ‘we were not speaking to or associating wit the others except in ther official capacity. ‘The feeling that ‘my time is up” had begun to permeate some of our thinking, which resulted in us beginning to take undue risks, and we became less boisterous tothe point of Withdrawal, We found ourselves ignoring known ant-aircraf traps of the enemy while pressing our attacks lower to the ground to ‘obtain greater destruction. Shrapnel hits from own bombs and bullet holes in our planes from rifle and machine gun ground fire were occurring increasingly often, Pilot stress had increased tothe extent it would adversely affect the night's mission, ‘The pilots of the other squadrons tended to avoid the night fighters, and none of us were close friends Night fighter units were attached for administrative reasons to a corresponding day fighter squaron, but ‘were not considered part of it. Therefore, we were tolerated but we were outsiders. Not ‘even the medical officers o ar group ‘commander really knew us. During the day. night fighter pilots tried to sleep, Alcohol is prohibited aboard an American warship, however, what was smuggled aboard did not seem to help usfallto sleep any easier. prerererate rst ay ee Ce ee oe Peotone ure Seer eins ee eer {8 Corsair FAUSN of VC-3 Det A, on board USS Boxer (CVA-21), cer fre destioyed in 1952. National Musoum of Naval Aviation ‘A Corsair FAU-SN of VC, aftr the aircraft landed on the wrong caurier and the crews of VC-45 ‘and VC-47 ‘zappedtitin 1951. Natlonal Museum of Naval Aviation. ‘The night fighters would go on missions in pairs, and when they returned would often claim multiple kills of personne! and ‘equipment that was unheard ofa the day squadrons. By the time photo planes were able to verify our claims ~ whe it became daylight the enemy had cleaned up all ace. With nothing to show where they claimed to have attacked but scorched earth the night flyers were rarely believed. This angered and frustrated us even more. Even & bridge that had been destroyed by anight dive bombing attack was often rebut and in operation aftera few hours. The enemy accomplished this with unlimited thousands ofmen and stockpiled materials close by. ‘They could work miracles of construction by rebuilding tin a few hours, > (Chance Vought PAU Comair 88,Much of he enemy's materi moved at ight in Korea because in daylight hours all the trucks, tanks, ail trafic and troops were targets tobe killed. Inthe daytime, Korea was generally quiet, except on the font lines. North Korean trans hid in tunnels trucks ‘were camouflaged and troops were nowhere to bbe seen, except when they ltr attacked. AS there was no air opposition on the eastside of Korea, where the fleet operated, most ofthe losses suffered by the jet squadrons and other aircraft from the carriers were due to ground fire whe supporting American troops in close air support. The night fighters sav just as ‘much ofthe action, but we were becoming bitter because our many claims were Aisbelieved, Increasingly, this frustration was beginning to take its tol since many American deaths wore attributed tothe under reporting of actual destruction by those higher up the chain of command. The following was from a letter T wrote to my father: Ona later mission of January 31,1953, my ‘wingman and Ieaught and attacked 5000 1000 trucks heading south tothe frontlines. As we strafed at headlight level and bombed with fragmentation bombs, they left their Incadlights on and those that were not destroyed or burning, continued. The Navy Aid not believe us. The next time we began to reduee our claims. Finally, on March 2, 195, ithappened again and like the others, we attacked with canon fire and antépersoanel bombs. Many trucks and possibly hundreds of enemy troops were immolated or tora apart by fragmentation bombs, We did not report to the carrier as before. However, as usual, we ‘mentioned it tthe debriefing. Apparent the American troops were attacked by thes thousands of surviving enemy troops and senior commanderson the ground wanted to know why they had not been reported, When awakened by an armed Marine and escorted in my pajamas tothe admirals cabin to explain, [told him that no one believed us ‘when we had reported this twice before and ‘twas aot appareatly important to report it After a world-class dressing down by the ‘admiral the order was given to not disregard ight fighter reports. Promptly, we became leven more isolated, One senior officer called ime aside ater the admiral had ao doubt reprimanded him for thie disbelief of our reports. He warned: "Don't try to win the war all by yourself Brown.” I had to rena silent with my rage. LIGHTS INTHE DARKNESS ‘Whoosh! My plane was catapulted into the air ‘and a the landing gear retracted, Lt Car Stachel, who had been circling ow over the carrier flew past me so could rapidly join in formation on him. We continued our climb into the low clouds and headed to Korea, $0 miles away. My radar wasn and i the mapping rode so [could identify landfall and avoid known antiaircraft positions ofthe enemy: Our recognition lights were turned off, with the ‘exception ofthe white talight thal we had painted over the lower hall-The purpose of this was o allowa wingman to see and take position on his leader without the enemies on the ground being able to se him. A tiny spot of white ight sa great comfort if all else is black As our two planes approached land, the loud cover dissipated, only to be replaced by haze that eliminated the horizon, Fait stars were merged with fant lights on the ground. ‘The radar remained on as we crossed into North Korea Blam! Blam! Blam! 40-milimetre anti aircraft fire had us bracketed. Radar controlled guns had identified our images as we approached land. Dama! Thad forgotten to turn the radar off, Having previously briefed for this possiblity, we broke our formation right and let, in a diving tura, No big deal I was aot hit. However, [ould not find my leader. The danger was very real in that there was a great possibility of erashing into each other at low shitude... with our lights out ‘Suddenly, I thought I saw the St white taillight moving out to sea from among the other lights on the coast and tried to join up on him. However, he seemed unusually low, and although I reduced power I was, rapidly overtaking him. Iwas sill quickly closing the distance to the light when I realized it was the topmast light of a Navy destroyer. I was about to crash ito a shipia the darkness! A Cottait FAUSN of VCS takes ‘he wite on landing aboard USS Boxer in 1951. National Muzeum of Naval AviationFull power and the shallow dive I was in saved me as I climbed and turned back towards land, As my heavily loaded plane staggered upward at full power, sill was not able to see the other plane nor was he able to see me. [turned on my running lights momentarily a the hope I ‘ould be seen by the other pilot when heavy antéaircraft fire commenced streaking upwards towards me again, Lights and radar were immediately turned off had forgotten them again. As the mission was now effectively aborted because ‘we could not verify our location or ourselves we broke radio silence and decided to proceed independently for targets of ‘opportunity. At our scheduled time, we intended to meet at sea over an unusal finger shaped island, then proceed back to the task force {A Tight of four AU-SN night fighting Corsaies ‘0fVC-3, Det Nan - March 29,1955.This postwar deployment, embarked aboard the USS Princeton (CV.37) - the Sweet P= ‘was the last ime VC-3 would send its ‘venerable Corsair out on detachment. National Musoum of Naval Aviation ‘A Corsair F4U:SNIL restored in the markings of VC:3, named Annie Mo’ and part of the Lone Star Fight Museum. Callare Lugine (Chance Vought PAU Comair 85‘A gaggle of C3 night tghting Corsars, soon over Korea in early 1962. These birds bolong 10 Team How, then assigned to AirTask Group 1 (ATG-1), which was embarked aboard the USS Valley Forge (CVA-5) - the Happy Valley. National Museum of Naval Aviation In the distance I saw a large glow through the haze. As our American task force was ‘operating close tothe Russian border with North Korea, near the Tumea reservoir, thought that maybe it was another enemy troop build-up. When fights on the ground were not extinguished as an sigplane approached, it usually meant that there was a ‘masse roop concentration, North Korean commanders knew night fighters did not have ‘much time to remain on target and would often sacrifice untold numbers of troops, “Holy Mackerel Vladivostok, Russia!” As inconspicuously as possible, I turned ‘out to sea and then headed straight south before turning back to parallel the coast of North Korea. knew the Russians had been ‘tracking me on radar, and that L was going to hhave to answer to our own people, who also would have been tracking me from the aircraft carrier as wel as every other ship ‘and station inthe area, When I broke off the attack, Iam sure many people who were involved breathed a sigh of reliof ‘supplies, trucks, and ammunition “SUDDENLY, | that I had aot started this ‘third Ieee DID NOT SEEM. Sinan ig ome Sooarctamnce: WHETHER .lemevameneoracss sees THEREWERE — worssitycotsoutsnovers rhs wil caon fret TARGETS OF Sovasslyiagto lade. headlight level, killing everything OPPORTUNITY — Suddenly, i! did not seem to. care was exhausted, it made little FOR ME ‘opportunity for me or not. 1 difference. Thousands more ‘OR NOT” jettisoned my six bombs in the sea, troops wore coming behind them, As previously mentioned, night fighter claims of massive destruction of trucks and thousands of troops killed fellon deaf ears because there was litle evidence when the photo planes came over at dan, several hhours ater. However, this time Thad a full Joad of bombs and arnmunition. This time 1 was going to prove we destroyed everything. ‘They were trapped! Approaching the point to begin my dive bombing run, I noticed the aumerous lights were beginning fo show brighter through the clouds and haze below, This indicated a large town rather than a troop buildup. It was not blacked out and no anté-sireraft fire eame up me, Something was strange. broke off my attack to look again, As I got closer, Ieould see more lights through the haze as the town turned into a city with lights on, ships in dry dock, streetlights turned my running lights on bright, nd turned om the radar to find the five finger shaped island aamed Mayang-Do, that | knew was off the coast and north east of Hungnam. There was no antiairraft reported ‘onthe island. I waited for the rendezvous with nny team leader Re-establshing contact with Stachel had headed tothe same island ~and after ‘much difficulty, we were able to join up in our ‘normal two-lane formation and proceed towards the task fore. However, our fuel that remained was much less than planned. We ‘were too far north to divert to an emergency strip in South Korea. This meant that we had to get back to the carrier immediately. As we healed on our projected course tt, Stachel radar failed, 0 the lead was passed tome. My radar seemed normal with the ‘exception that ‘Christmas Tree’ had the ‘wrong identification code showing. he A Corsair FAUSNL restored, Inthe markings of VC-3 in fight. Lugine Caltare ‘Christmas Tree’ isa signal generated by a ship or station, with a special changeable code, that appears asa series of horizontal Tines ona radarscope, which looks somewhat Tike the image ofa small Christmas tree. To home into particular ship or station, the pilot simply points his airplane to that heading and fies until reaching his particular carier ‘The code changes daily and we were brvfed ‘a8 to what it should look like before the mission. Tonight, this particular ‘Christmas ‘Tree’ also indicated that our aircraft carrier was considerably south of where it should be. ‘There was no choice. I turned towards the new location and further leaned out the fuel mixture, Radio calls to the carrier requesting its heading were not answered, ‘The unexpected apparent movement of the taskforce was of concern because we would be required to fly much further with ‘our dwindling fuel. I rationalised that maybe I had misunderstood the briefing. Anyway fit were not our carrier, maybe it was another carrier we could land on. Maybe the wind had suddenly increased and had blown us north. Maybe aaything. This was a goodradar contact, despite the incorreet code, and it represented safety | continued towards the signal with Stacheli as wingman, As we approached within 2 mile ofthe contact, the signal faded out. It might have been a false echo or more likely, Russian submarine attempling to lare us to our death, One minute the signal was strong and clear and the next moment, there was nothing. It was asthe source disappeared under the waves, As [realised what had happened, the Stacheli realised it too and snarled, “Ive got the lead.” He turned us north where the task force was supposed tobe CODES AND OTHER KILLERS We reduced the fuel mixture even further to the point our engine cylinder head temperature gauge was in the red danger zone, Atter what seemed an eternity we were close enough to the task force that radio reception was possible. Stacheli called on his radio fo our carrier. Their code name wes ‘Mother’. Ours was“Childpay’. ‘Mother, this is Childplay One with two request steer. We re low state, Over: This meaat give usa heading tothe carrier, we were in a critical fuel situation and unless we were recovered immediately, would exhaust our fuel and erash into the sea All that could be seen of the task force ‘when we flew over it at 500 feet of altitude were four dim phosphorescent wakes through the haze. These represented larg ships. Destroyer and cruiser wakes could not be seea, The flet was already at aircraft recovery speed and heading into the wind as we approached. However, visibility was s restricted that it was impossible to determine their heading, Again, he called, “Mother, what is your heading? Over The cartier calmly responded, “Childpl One, Mother's heading is shackle; seven four five one; shackle; three shack: three one seven seven. Over” The "Shackle Code’ isa series of numbers that ‘when written down and after consulting a document earvied with your papers, would sive the compass heading to ine up with the ship's course so you could land. Its purpose ‘was to keep this information from aa enemy who may be listening i, such as a Russia or Chinese submarine. They could use this information to easity calculate their target solution to torpedo the ship. So here we were, about to run out of fuel after a long mission in the worst of weather and total darkness, in a cramped cockpit where both airplane under ty ofthe code ‘twas impossible to compl “We are in an emergency, low sate, give sme the goddamn heading,” the team leader shouted into the radio, hands are needed to keep th control, plus the inaccessil book itl The team leader had been ready to take his vows as Jesuit priest when the war started and Thad never heard him use the Lord's ‘name in van. In the crowded and dark cockpit ‘considering the amount of ime we had lft in the air, it was impossible to open the case containing the code book, decipher the code, and determine the heading ofthe carver, which was necessary to land on it, especially at night. Added to this stress was the real possibility of uel exhaustion and cert by crashing into the water in darkness. ‘The answer eame back, “Three one zero three one zero, over!” > Chance Vought PAU Conair 87A close up ofthe exhaust system and nose at on the Lone Star Flight Musoum’ Corsait FAU.SNL Lugine Callaro ‘Stachel lined up withthe ship on the compass heading of S10 degrees, lowered bis Janding gear and flaps, dropped his tail hook and switched on his running lights, and then turned downwind, As his wingman, 1 was supposed to take interval on him and do the same but there was not enough fuel lft in my tanks todo that. Instead, [left my’ ight of dropped my wheels, aps and tail hook and sugkled up in a tight formation. 1 was unseen by the team leader, and prayed he would get a waveofl ‘tthe ISDdegree postion, about 100 fet, cover the water, we both turaed on final approach. At the 4Sdegree positon to the carrier, a lookout using wideangle night binoculars, saw Szehels running ight, and turned on the light iluminating the Landing Signal Officer (LS0). Both planes continued with only the one that showed lights being observed. My plane flew asa ghost rider, blacked out, slowing behind him in position to land fhe actualy did gota wave off. I7he was not waved off and landed did ‘ot have enouigh fuel to go around and would settle into the water beside the carrer. Since ‘my wheels were down | would flip upside down and sink. acheli was too high and fast to catch an arresting hook, He was given a waveof, which isa mandatory order. As the first Corsair passed the LSO, he was surprised to see another approach light bearing down on im from behind the carrier. What he was seeing was my approach ight, whichis a light buried in the wing root ofthe Corsair. It is alwayson when the wheels are down. It “A FEW SECONDS LATER, AS | APPROACHED THE DECK, HE GAVE MEA ‘CUT’ SIGNAL” shows by «dim coloured light, indiating the attitude ofthe airplane, to assis the LSO in ‘evaluating your approach. It shows red ifthe landing plane is low and slow. In that case the signal officer will respond witha ‘come on signal. Green showsif the plan is high and fast which esultsin a ‘slow down’ signal Amber ft sat proper speed and attitude. Although the landing signal officer could not se my plane behind the frst one, he saw the small ight and instantly understood what 1 was doing. A ow seconds later, a8 | approached the deck, he gave me a‘eut signal This signal, to reduce power and attempt to Jand, isa mandatory order. [was ‘going to land aboard and in all probability, would be killed Decause ike Staehel, [was coming in igh and fast as wel, However, was not going into the iey water that night. No wave-offs, ‘At the time, Oriskany straight flight deck, vice the ‘canted deck aircraft carriers that would Inter be introduced to the flet. In addon to the ‘arresting cables that a tail hook catches to sop the sireraty there were three barriers ‘These barriers look ike big ste] fences. They were hydraulic operated and composed ofheavy cables and heavy stee] supports all ‘of which normaly lay flat on the deck. When airplanes were landing, these are raised so that ifthe tail hook breaks off or misses catching a‘wire’ these formidable barriers ‘would stop the landing airplane, often destroying itin the process. Tretarded the throttle and dived for the deck, sill blacked out, with my tall hook ‘groping for acable. The attentive fight deck “The huge and powerful Prat anal Whiney 2600-52 produced! 2850h with watermethianel injection in a Corsair FAU-SNL Lugine Callaro crew saw the dark outline of my Corsa, as ry tall hook engaged the last cable. As the cable ran out, the deck crew dropped the first two ofthe three barriers, The third barrier Was left standing to protect the loaded planes parked forward. As my airplane stopped, it vas so close to thisthird barrier that it skinned the yellow paint off the tips of my spinning propeller. Greally relieved and sil in total darkness, other than the deck erewman signalling me With his red lighted wands this third barrier ‘was dropped and I taxied forward to fold the Wwiags and shut down the engine. My propeller was inches from the other aireraft parked in front of me. There were new Grumman Panther jes, Second World War: Vintage Corsais, and big Douglas AD Skyraiders all being fuelled and armed for the early morning missions. CRASH IN THE DARK - TWICE Tathe meantime, Staheli made a tight circle and made what was to be his las attempt to come aboard, whether he gota waveoffor not. He would either geta‘eut’ or his engine would shut down for lek of fuel and the plane crash into the sea As before he was too high and fast to land. Normally, ne would have been waved offagain and ordered to orbit the carrier until he calmed down, This time though there was no choice but to try to land him. ‘The LSO knowing that he wasin extreme ‘emergency gave the ‘eu signal and watched as the Corsair dived forthe deck, only to float ‘few inches over the eables and erash into the first barrier, which was tora out by its roots. Cables began to wrap around the propeller and cannons. The second barrierwas struck while he was airborne and ittoo was torn out ofthe deck. The third barrier held, and the heavy fighter slammed nose dlown into the deck close behind me and began to bura furiously Inthe crash, one of the barier cables wrapped around and bent his right inboard 20millimetre cannon, which spontancously fired offa round while he was sll aizborne Atthat moment, my plane captain was helping me out ofthe cockpit. The cannon shell whistled past my head and exploded in an attack bomber parked afew inches directly infront of me. The deck Noodlights ofthe carrier ame on immediately to illuminate the scene, as the fre and rescue team raced to the burning plane, and started pulling Stacheli to safely. ‘This was too much! Everything had gone wrong! My reaction was that this was a ‘personal insult and that idiot was tying to kill me! was so enraged that [pulled my Smith an Wesson calibre revolver, that all plots carried, fom its holster, and while sill standing inthe cockpit, turned and pointed it into the lames, with my finger on the trigger. My plane captain, who was a big man, saw what I was attempting to do, grabbed me, shoved me unceremoniously down in the cockpit, and held me there until I calmed down and holstered my gun. Amazingly, Stachel suffered no injuries inthe crash, other than a slightly burned hand, although issirplane was totally destroyed. The heavy steel barriers and cables were repaired. ‘When the cannon fired and the shell ‘exploded inthe attack bomber in ront of my. parked plane the ie from both the crashed Corsair and ship's floodlights illuminated the scene. All ofthe personnel inthe immediate area, including the admiral and his staffon the bridge, had seen my attempt to shoot my tearm. leader while he wasin his burning plane. After debriefing, the medial officer gave me two ‘ounces of medicinal brandy told me to goto bed try to rest and I was not to fly for 24 hours. We did notyet know about nor ‘recognise combat fatigue. ‘That was great with me. was still angry: Allthat nextday and later at dinner inthe ‘wardroom, the team leader made numerous adverse comments about the fight. He also ‘stated that he would not be high and fst ‘when he returned from tonight's mission. Because his Corsair had been destroyed, he took the plane assigned to me. Other than a couple of deats from a close 40-millimetre Anthaircraft burst and some bullet holes that had been repaired, it was waxed, babied and ‘even had my name in gold on the side ofthe cockpit warned him to not serateh it ‘When flight quarters sounded, indicating that the night fighter mission was returning, | leftthe movie that was being shown in the ‘wardroom and climbed to the bridge evel of the cartier’ island to observe the landing aireraf. The weather tonight was calm and clea. One after another the planes landed and taxied out ofthe arresting cables, to be parked forward of the bariers Li CdrStacheli was the x pe eg eee Seat ee ere Ses a a eee the Navy’ fst purpose bull eraiatey er gs eee eee Pepe rere) ee ee ete ney last one to land As he approached for landing his pattern was low and slow instead of high and fat, as ithad been the previous nigh ‘When he reached the LSO and received the ‘cut his plane was too slow and sunk ata rapid rate only to crash into the round offen the rear ofthe fight deck. The til setion broke away ‘and fell into the fantail below while the forward part ofthe airplane, enveloped in flames, sid "upthe deck into the barriers. Again! He was rescued again and there were no injures except to my plan. Itwas totally destroyed “Well goddamn,” shouted, "I should have shot you last aight" > ‘chance Vought PAU Corsair 89g INISHMENT? REW THAT, PARTY! Now both of us were grounded and told to rest, The other three pilotsin VCS Team George flew our missions until afew days Jater when we were flying combat missions ‘again, About that ime aircraft complaints ‘began. Mysterious noises were heard in the engines ol leaks were reported that were not there, Fuel pressure problems were reported that never seemed to be found by the ‘mechanics and finally one ofthe ther team members crashed on deck and destroyed the third of our original four Corsair, We were obviously getting shaky and dangerous. Too many of our airplanes had. ‘been destroyed in landing, while none had been lost in combat. The air group commander and senior medical officer on the ship finally realised the night fighter team was in trouble. Fortunately, Oriskany was ordered to leave the forward area and proceed to Japan for routine rest and relaxation, That i all except the night fighter team. Te was Christmas Eve when we reached Japa, and we were ordered off the ship for fot only rest ata shore base but also to fly Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) hops ‘until the earrier was scheduled to go back on the line with the task force, We were going 10 ‘iss doing all the things that other air group ‘members would do. We were in disgrace. We ‘wore stuck at some air base over Christmas and told to rest, but also ordered to ly FCLPs. Hat Fat chance No one was around to keep an eye on us! Screw the Navy! After two FCLP landings each we taxied in and reported a mechanical problem with our planes that would make them unsafe to fly and left the base to lok fora party. We discovered a Christmas party going on and as ithad free drinks and food, we joined them, We enjoyed ourselves there and at other parties we found until a few days later, we hha to fly back tothe carrer to return to combat missions, We never did sleep very ‘uch aor rest either, Tt worked. We did become relaxed, though with it came some hangovers. But, there was never again across word between tus during the remainder ofthe war eruise However, the end of the story had not yet come, As we continued our aight missions for another three months, we were to learn just hhow close a person could come tothe point of fo return and sil survive, Then the time finally came when we had completed our tour of duty. This was signalled by loudspeakers throughout the ship suddealy announcing, ‘Now hear this, Now hear this" followed immediately bythe ship’ band playing California Here I Come. This was amid chee fom some 3000 mea throughout the USS Oriskany as the ship increased speed and heeled over ina hard turn towards home Impromptu parties broke out all over the About three hours later, the sick bay filing with pilots and aircrew members reporting actual medical complaints. The pins and sickness they complained of wer real and recovery came quickly in most cases. I was aficted with a severe rash that took ‘A close up ofthe powered wing folding and lecking mechanism on a Corso FaU-SNL. Lugine Catiaro weeks to disappear. However, some were more severe and took afew months before they were cleared to ly again. It appears that sometimes when severe siress is suddenly removed, its absence can cause very real sickness. With our tour of duty complete, all five members of VCS Team George returned alive and well tothe United States, We were ‘one of the few night fighter teams that did not lose one or more pilots PHYSICAL EFFECT Then 15 years later, during my retirement physical examination, I requested to have an EKG, the results of which were sent to the Navy Burcau of Medicine. They immediately sent me aletter suggesting I get under the care ofa physician. Upon review ofa current EKG, the cardiologist verified the diagnosis and said those tracings indicated that had had a heart attack, although I denied it “During the time you were in combat, did your chest ever hurt?" he asked. "Well one time it did as I was coming back to the ship aftera particulary rough mission,” I said "Thad an upset stomach. 1 thought it was indigestion.” ‘Tim, you had what alayman would calla silent heart attack. You were just lucky.” feel am a welladjusted person and what happened those many years ago has been long forgotten. Or has i2 To this day | refuse to_hunt, will not go toa 200, own a gua, oF Kill, any living creature. Words: James Brown ‘The eheer tte of he Corsair i¢ evident in this iow of «Corsair FAU-SNL as the wings are folded. This saved a great deal of space on ‘@carier deck or hangar Lugine CallaroInside the Corsair The Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton allowed Aviation Classics full access to its recently restored Goodyear-built FG-1A Corsair, to photograph it inside and out AS we discovered, the aircraft has been taken back to its original paint and markings, revealing a CeCe ae a Sera A eR A Coen ce en Giirerice eae ntti CR Rene oe ere oR Renter Oe CS mnesen Ratton ecole Harvard in the sense of siting above the isin front of you. With the ing init upwards on the ground, the only way to see isthe sense forward at all isto lean out of the cockpit with the canopy back. Even then the leading edge {those rare types that you are quickly ofthe broad wing means you can see 140 fighter. n)tall on its home in,and immediately want tofly. tis triangles to either si e nose, and wheels, or 171 wings folded. appareat the l designed with pilots nothing forward at all. Ta in mind as al © 10 say ving the right of rn the narrow confine til iti quite climb, particularly with a hhand on the sick as much as possible cartier must have been an exercise parachute and in full fying best of times. Rolling about in INTHE COCKPIT A few th at's in the cockpit? Firstly, yo ed into an uemoured bucket type The spacious Cooenome RedgraveJust out of the restoration f workshop, Corsair KD431 basks | In the NAS Yeoviton sunshine. Fost Alr Arm Museum that accommodates your parachut effectively making it your seat custon. There isa large padded leather headrest attached to the bulkhead behind your head. Your feet rest on two foo trays with concave tipper surfaces that fit the heel of your boots These are th ‘only loor space inthe cockpit the bottom of which is open and filled with what loks lke an explosion in a spaghetti factory fuel, oil and hydraulic lines, a8 wells electrical ‘conduits and conn Tn front of these trays are the rudder Pedals, and this being a US areraf these are adjustable for both reach and height. Pressing against the top ofthe each pedal activates the main whee! brake on the same side, allowing both rudder and brake steering on the ground via the pedals. The joystick is ited ‘witha comfortable and large grip. This is ‘mounted surprisingly high inthe cockpit rather lke on the new Sbach 300, giving the pilot good leverage. On the grip isa trigger under the index finger, and bomb and dro tak release buttons wl c pressed by the thumb. On later models, these buttons would also have fred the rockets ref ’A rare photograph of KD431 while she wes i In Fost AirArm service. Fleet Alr Arm Museum Immediately in front of you at eye level is the gunsight. On early Corsairs, this was a type with its own glass, Is the sight reflected directly onto the {the windscreen. To the ‘ofthe gunsight an ‘eybrow" panel on top ofthe main instrument panel which contains the master at switch, the gun switches controling the outer, centre and inner guns aswellas the gun camer and gunsight switches. This Tastone is a three position switch, enabling you to select the mode the gunsight opera as itch itoff To the right, up against Corsair D431 inthe Feet Air Arm Museum as she is cisplayed tocay. Constance Redgrave he bottom ofthe windscreen, is. slider that selects the heater outlet tothe cockpit or to. defrost the windscreen, similar to many cars. To the right of thsi another eyebrow panel hat on early models contained bomb and other weapon or drop tank arming switches, which increased in number to contral rockets another weapons on later models. For the rest of this article, we will describe detail the cockpit ofthe FG-A model, which was fairly representative all Later models had Dut these were m ny detail diferences, rncerned with improvements in avionics, instruments and he addition of such items as the night fighter rar and new weapons The basic control layout typified by the FG-1A remained largely similar despite these changes, but major changes willbe noted. > (Chance Vought PAU Conair 98‘Te ar ofthe left side pone! showing the wing fod contol and im wheels, Constance Redgrave rotary dimmer switch forthe various cockpit and instruments. Below this, on the right sidewall isthe radio selector panel allowing you to select one of four preset frequencies, ‘Adbofthisis the morse key to send radio messagesin morse code, blow which isthe it’s lamp that ean be directed to selectively Mluminate areas ofthe cockpit. Af further si and alongside the sea, isan electrical selector box, for turning on and off such items the IFF, and below thisis the arrester hook control, with three position, up, parking and down, moving the lever from aft to forward. ‘Moving forward from the arrester hook selector is the lefthand side pane! mostly contains clecrical system switches and circuit breakers for such systems as the ‘radio, fuel pump, ptot head heater, ignition and engine starter switches, cockpit and external lighting, master electri and the flap position levers forthe o intercooler and engine cooling laps. Below these panels, on the side of the fuselage on Fleet Air Arm aircrat were a row af holders for Very pistol flare cartridges and a map ‘case but these are non-standard items on Corsairs and may well be local modifications. ‘The lethand side ofthe eockpit contains the rest ofthe major fight controts.On the corner ofthe cockpit framing isa bracket that contains the flap lever, allowing you to lower the flaps in 10 degree increments from flly up 1050 degrees down. Below and aft ofthis the throttle quadrant, containing the throttle, supercharger and mixture leverson the top, and the propellor pitch lever on the back. ‘The throtle lever also has a push to tale switch on the end, to allow the pitt talk on the radio without hands leaving the controls, Below this sa panel of circuit breakers or fuses for the guns, weapons, gun camera, ‘unsight and water boost pump. Inboard of these isthe landing tear and dive brake seletor lever, similar in design and function to ‘car handbrake lever. Immediately behind this isthe fuel tank selector switch to manage the onboard fuel tanks and drop tanks, thea bbchind this and on topof the right hand pane! again are the three trim wheels, These control levator, aileron and rudder trim, and inthe centre ofthe three isan elevator trim position indicator. On later models these mechanical trimmers were replaced with electrically ‘operated trims managed by switches, each with a position indicator. Aft of hese trimmers, there isa similar three positon control to that ofthe tailhook on the other side ofthe cockpit, ‘This is the wing folding control lever, and can be setto fold, stop or spread Other than some minor detail changes, the rest ofthese controls were to remain roughly in the positions described, meaning an early model pilot could leap into an AU-1 or FAUS 1d be a home in a very short ime, > ia ‘An overview ofthe whole | ‘cockpit Feet Air Arm Musoum Leaking along the right side panet with the radio selector box and morse key mounted! Con the cockpit wall. Constance Redgrave The right see ofthe cockpit, Constance Redgrave Looking across the main instrument panel ‘norm the latt,Constanee Redgrave The lft sd of the main panel showing the ‘top actuator Constance Redgrave Chance Vought PAU Conair 95To be quite honest, think the Corsair has fone ofthe best cockpits of any Second World War fighter. I eel very comfortable seated in ‘one, and somehow it seems less intimidating than some other types. Everything is to hand, ‘0 you immediately get the impression that you can concentrate on flying the aircraft, aot ‘be hunting for switches or managing the cockpit. The scan of instruments is natural ‘and gives you the information you need with asingle sweep ofthe eyes. You get the feeling that the cockpit designers were pilots, who understood the difference between Important and niceto-have, “To the outside ofthe aircraft there is ‘much to impress too. Let's start with an overview ofthe airframe. The high nose inverted gull wing and large engine aive the Corseiran air of solid bulk. The airframe isan allmetal design, the fuselage being of completely stressed skin construction I ike the rest ofthe airframe, is somewhat over engineered and as aresult is incredibly strong, fet attested to by the amount of battle damage Corsars could absorb yet stil return safely ‘The wings are metal skinned on the inner sections along with the flaps attached there, the outer folding wing sections are metal skinned on the Ieading edges a far back as the main spar. tof the main spar, the outer wings are fabric skinned over a metal frame. atiern was repeated on the outer flaps, e leading edge being metal covered, the rest in fabri. The tailplane and fin are also ‘metal skinned, The elevators and rudder are fabric skinned, but the ailerons are made of The metal skinned rear fuselage i and faipiane with fabric covered: rudder nd elevators, Constance Redgrave The complete main undercariage leg, Constance Redgrave ‘The cockpits high above the ground, is blown canopy offering superb visibly, except on the ‘ground. Constance Redgrave ‘moulded and shaped plywood for sifness ‘and ease of construction of such a complex shape. Farly monoplane fighters, such as the Hurricane, were initially fitted with fabric covered ailerons. Pilots of these early production aircraft experienced control difficulties and sifening at high speed as the fabric distorted under the high air loads. The inverted gull wing design not only allows a short and strong undercarriage while keeping the large propelior clear of the ground as already discussed, but also hasan interesting ‘serodynamie advantage. The wing joins tothe The ta wheel and arrester hook Constance Redgrave 1 ee circular cross section fuselage at 90 degrees, making fora very clean and efficient junction ‘between the two, reducing drag. ‘The main undercarriage consists of two hydraulic shock struts produced by the Chrysler Corporation, Thisis not unusual, a8 inajor sub assemblies of American Second World War aircraft were constructed by ‘companies all over the United States. The Corsair ailerons were another example of this, produced separately and shipped to the assembly factories ready to be fitted as sireraft rolled down the line The outer wing and tap showing the fabric covered rear half ofthese surfaces a wel as the plywood ailrons. Constance Redgrave The gun bay showing the mounts and ejector chutes, Constance Redgrave‘The aerodynamically clean joint between the fusolago and wing. Constance Redgrave HYDRAULICS ‘The main undercarriage i short and very strong, a good thing in carrierbased aircraft asthe landing shock loads were far higher than those of land-based aircraft. The legs rotate through 90 degrees. they retract, in order that the wheels ie atin the wing bays. The forward undercarriage door was attached tothe leg, the other two main doors lose over the wheel once it had retracted. The talwhce! unit i similarly strong, retracing backwards into a very log, narrow bay in the rear fuselage over which two doors close from either side ‘once the unit is retracted, The bay is long and narrow because the arrester hook for carrier I attached tothe rear of the undercarriage leg- The hook can be raised and lowered independently of the tailwhee to allow for normal landings at airfields, The tailwhee itself has a solid ‘rubber tyre for cartier operations. This was often replaced by a larger inflatable tyre when the aircraft was operating from land bases for long periods, particularly on the later models. Another hydraulic system inthe Corsair ‘wings was the folding system. This raised the outer wings to save space in crowded angars and decks. The wing hinges around a permanent large bot in the top of the main spar, anda second, smaller hinge bolt near the leading edge. A similar large boltin the bottom ofthe sparis hydraulically driven, sliding through a rong point inthe bottom longeron to lock the wing in place for fight. This bolt retracts to release the wing for folding. The joint space also contains the hyairaulially driven mechanical acts for the inner and outer laps, aswell as the control linkages tothe ailerons, fuel lines to the outer tanks and gun arming and fring, connections. On later models, the arming And firing lines forthe outer underwing weapons pylons also had to passthrough this joint, remarkably well engineered and ‘complex space, > ‘The upper shock strut bull by the Chrysler Corporation in the main undercarriage showing tho atiachod forward door. Constance Redgrave The R.2800 in he nose of KDA3) Constance Redgrave Looking up into the cavernous talwheel and looking down the gun tubes in he leading arrester hook bay in the rear fuselage, ledge of the wing. Constance Redgrave Constance Redgrave Inside the wing Joint while the wing is folded, showing Just how complex tis area ls. Dave Morris (Chance Vought PAU Conair 97Mi ii 7 Close up of the Prat & Whitney cast into the Ignition ring. Constance Redgrave “IT WAS WITHOUT DOUBT ay EA a) Natale eat SECOND WORLD WAR, AND. ov i Co via retractable mee ola es oa We masterpiece ofthe Second World War, and RANKS WITH MANY HISTORIANS ALONGSIDE THE rR lea TERMS OF ITS ADAPTABILITY.” ved machining thin cooling \ le 5 of weapons, the FG-IA. ¢ period wore bom or drop tank pylon on the othe the cylinder centeline under the wing. On later inders with raak ee eed Pe ener eres‘he exhaust system on the starboard side ofthe fuselage, also showing the cowl faps and ‘achuators, Constance Redgrave Altogether 125/334 R2800 ofall types we built until produetion ceased in 1960. Iw the first American I8.eyinder radial engine design, and when first introduced in 1859 the Double Wasp, as it was known, was already producing 2000 horsepower (1500kW). This meaat the 2804 cubie inch (46 litre) engine ‘was producing 0.71 horsepower per cubic inch (2.6KW/1),a figure that no other air cooled engine of the day was close most liquid cooled engines could not match Although the engine was to eventually produce 2800 horsepower (2090kW), this was through s imental additions as fan «cooling and high octane fue injection system boosted the power ofthe wartime B (ITSOKW for short periods, but the truth was the engine was fully developed from the first ‘models, limiting its development options, Hower was the sheer efficiency and Under the fuselage aretha fwo hooks that took the catapult straps for ‘carlo launches. Constance Redgrave aU eed Pore ee ee td Coen ne) Cee) eee ta ee eet eee ety much of the Corsai’s career with Cee etre) Cee ka Peder eee raters tee eee) Senneterre ety eaten THE TIME CAPSULE FIGHTER Corsair sai that the Pratt & Whitney engineers realy did get this one right fist time In the Corsair, the use of the R2800 gives ward fuslage a distinctive look, notte mention a very long nose, leading to the not inaccurate nickname of hose nose’. Ismassive power is what gave the Corsair its tremendous. performance and enabled the aircraft to ‘operate with equal success asa fighter and raft Its testament to both -craftand engine thatthe fighter bombers operating inthe Korean War were often carrying three 10000 (453.5kg) boenbs, three-quarters the bomb load ofa BA. ‘The Corsair s without doubt a singular aircraf, unusual in design and immediately recognisable asa result. What is less DAVID MORRIS ee eee by Dave Monts This high performance was to keep it infront ine service long aftr its contemporaries had been retired. By any yardstick, the Corsair is ‘remarkable, aad in many ways unigu classic aircraft. ml Words: Tim Callaway recognised isthe level of engineering genius that produced suel a high performance aircraft at time it was desperately needed, Inside the o ‘Constance Redgrave Chance Vought PAU Conair 99THE CHECKERBOARDERSVN sce Ue F4U-4B Vought Corsair WR5 of VMA-312 + Captain Phillip C. Delong USS Bataan 1951The last of the line The Corsair in French Navy service by David Oliver ‘The 12,571st and very last Corsair to leave the Chance Vought Dallas production line on 1953 was an FAU-7 for the French naval air arm, the Aéronavale. Januar} The only Aéronavole FaU-7 Corsai stil fing its ‘original markings, BuNo 133722 coded 15-22, ‘also wears the Suez stripes worn during ‘Operation Mousquetaie in 1956. Denis Calvert eerie eee ee een Ce te oer) Pee ered onehe FAUT was something of a hybrid variant ofthe Corsair, powered by the 2100hp Pratt & Whitney 2800-181 Double Wasp engine with inlets in the lower lip ofthe cowiing ofthe FAU-4, the downward-sloping engine installation ofthe (U5, and the five stores pylons under each wing of the US Marine Corps AU-1 close support variant, although it lacked that type's heavy armour protection, [twas armed with the FAU-S's four 20mm Mkc6 cannon and could fit an external 400015 Toad of bombs or unguided rockets ‘The XPAU-7 made its maiden fight at Dallas on July 2, 1952, and was followed by 94 production aireraft purchased by the US Navy and passed on to the Aéronavale through the US Mutual Defense Assistance Program (MDAP). The aircraft retained US Navy Bureau Numbers (BuNos) While in French ser Aer the war the French Navy had an urgent requirement for a powerful aireraft to operate from the Freneh Nawy’s fur sircraft cartiers were later transferred to France under the MDAP, the former USS Langley ‘named the La Fayette and the former USS Belleaw Wood named the Bois Belen. Since 1945 the French had been Sighting to regain its control of Indo-China, and bitter fighting bad broken out with China-backed Viet Minh guerrillas. In October 1945, PBY- 5A Catalinas of Fotlle8F based at Agadir in Morooco, became the first Aéronavale unit to be sent to Indo-China whea they landed on Saigon’s Tan-Son-Nhut airfield. They took parti the landing of French troops at Haiphong in March 1946, One of the Catalinas provided transport forthe Viet Minh leader, Ho Chi Minh between Hanoi and Halong Bay where he had an ‘unsatisfactory meeting with “FACED WITHTHE etch sorernorgencra of Indo-China, Admiral Thierry ONGOING INDO- — Arsenliew aboard the cruiser CHINA CONFLICT, ce IN OCTOBER 1952, SEVERAL “zine broke down in AERONAVALE carieeborn ses support BLOTS HAD BEEN eso"! SENTTO NAS nile Bertin French efforts to negotiate ‘compromise with Ho's December 1946, and following the resumption of fighting and ir operations in the Tonkin area the headquarters ofthe French carries that tacqured inthe QO RANA INTHE NY desided to xed an late 1940s. The first was a former Royal Navy USbuitt UNITED STATES TO BETRAINED ONTHE CORSAIR™ ive-vombers of Foil 3 ‘escort cartier, HMS Biter ‘which was returned tothe US Navy in April 1945. She underwent a refit in the United States and was loaned to the French Navy renamed the Dixmude ‘The second was the former HMS Colossus, a Royal Navy light carrier ‘commissioned in 1944, bt which saw no combat service during the Second World War, She served with the British Pacific Fleet in 1945-46, an airraf transport and ‘repatriation ship and in 1946, she was ‘raasferred to the Freach Navy, renamed the Arromanches. Two other former US Navy sircraft cartier to Indo-China, In January 1947, the Dixmude eas of from Towlon with Douglas SBD Dauntless embarked. In March, these aircraft struck targets on the Annam coast before the carrer sailed to the Gulfof Tonkin where its aircraft supported ground forces inthe north of Indo-China, Because of eataput problems, the Dixmude was forced to return to France after only a ‘month on station, The carrier returned to its Southeast Asia station in September 1947 with the Flotille 4F Dauatlesses embarked. She alo cartied containers of Armée de TA Ju52 transport aircraft and Spitires. >