Innholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2023 i Flight Journal

IT HAS BEEN 78 YEARS since V-J Day and the end of WW II, yet to many of us it still seems like yesterday because its powerful triumphant and tragic images and stories are pervasive, from Hollywood films and documentaries to books and social media. That War shaped what every nation involved would be from that moment in time forward, and it will always be with us. The deeds of the aerial warriors in their metal machines, who braved the elements and every other type of adversity, have been recounted time and again in the pages of Flight Journal. There is something hypnotic about these men and airplanes, and we can continually see the photos, watch the movies, and read the stories and for some reason never tire of them.…

The Death Rattlers, VMF-323, was destined to become one of the best-known U.S. Marine Corps fighter units of World War II, and the pilots who flew Corsairs for it are justifiably proud of their time. Albert Wells remembers his time with the Rattlers. Death Rattler indoctrination In 1943, I was a 21-year-old green Second Lieutenant when I joined VMF-323 at El Toro as a replacement. The original squadron had gathered earlier at Cherry Point where they began forming a Marine Fighter squadron called the Death Rattlers VMF-323. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any fighters: the early pilots had to learn fighter tactics in SNJ trainers before F4U Corsairs began to trickle in. The Squadron CO was a 23-year-old “boy” Major named George Axtell Jr. Although he was the same age as…

During World War Two and ever since, many stories of the USAAF “Mighty Eighth” Air Force, operating from Britain over Europe, have been made available for public consumption. In comparison, relatively little publicity has been afforded to the “Forgotten Fifteenth” Air Force in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO). The Fifteenth was established as a strategic force on November 1, 1943, from elements of the Twelfth and Ninth Air Forces. At its peak, the Fifteenth was only about half the size of the Eighth Air Force, with 21 bomb groups compared with 41 in the Eighth, and seven fighter groups compared with 15. Consolidated B-24s made up 75 percent of the Fifteenth’s strategic bomber force, with the remainder being Boeing B-17s, while the Eighth’s was nearly 60 percent Boeing B-17s.…

IN NOVEMBER OF 1942, Koga’s Zero had been extensively repaired. A Hamilton Standard propeller exactly like the Zero’s was fitted because the Zero prop was a copy of a Hamilton Standard. Koga’s Zero 21 had the Sakae 12 engine of 940hp. Then, flight-comparison tests were flown between the Zero and the current American fighters. The airplanes in this evaluation all had at least 270hp greater than Koga’s. The Zero 52a that I flew had a 1,130hp Sakae 21 engine. To cancel the temperature or turbulence differences that might happen if tests were done separately, flight tests were flown in formation (up to the point where the planes could keep up with one another). All of the Army Air Corps aircraft were their latest versions. The Navy did not compare the Zero to…

If Hollywood had its way with history, the Supermarine Spitfire with its long slender fuselage and graceful elliptical wing would most likely be portrayed as the lone defender over the White Cliffs of Dover during the Battle of Britain. Although the Spitfire played an important role in beating back the daily Luftwaffe raids, it was the tenacity of the pug-nosed Hawker Hurricanes of the RAF that bore the brunt of aerial combat during England’s darkest days. The Hurricane was slower than the Spit and it took longer to climb to altitude, but once it got there, the stubby little fighter jumped in and out of scrapes like a backstreet brawler. Although the RAF Hurricane had its nose bloodied many times over by the German raiders, it was able to stay…

BY THE TIME I GRADUATED from high school in Oklahoma in 1940 at the ripe old age of 19, I could see that the United States was going to get dragged into a world war. I had grown up in a farming family during the Great Depression and had felt the terrible hardships it caused us firsthand. The effects of the economic devastation continued to linger throughout our state. Finding a good paying job, or any pay, was like trying to find fertile soil in the ravaged Dust Bowl. I tried to join the Army at Fort Sill and asked about becoming a pilot. A lieutenant with a very sharp tongue shot me down right away. “Sonny boy,” he said, “You got to get yourself two years of college first,…

Anyone who grew up in the 1920s and 1930s learned very quickly that “Made in Japan” meant cheap price and poor quality. Almost everything bought in the five-and-dime stores had that tag. It seemed impossible to purchase anything imported from Japan that would not wear out or break after a very short useful life. That fact and the secrecy of the Japanese in the years before WW II regarding their military buildup anesthetized all of us regarding their real might. ONCE THE ZERO STARTED ROLLING ON TAKEOFF, PERFORMANCE WAS IMPRESSIVE … ITS CLIMB SPEED WAS 20 KNOTS BELOW THE HELLCAT, THE ANGLE OF CLIMB WAS STUPENDOUS. The average American believed that in battle, Japanese military forces would crumble as fast as their products had. We were obviously wrong. They overran…

IT HAD TO BE THE MOST HELPLESS FEELING in the world: you’re at 25,000 feet over Europe knowing that your primary function is to drop bombs—or flying escort for the bombers—while being a slow-moving target for some of the world’s finest shooters. However, you have John Browning’s marvelous .50 caliber invention to give some degree of protection. Unfortunately, you’re absolutely helpless against flak. Piloting and gunnery skills play no role in a game where sheer chance makes life and death decisions. For that reason, the Krupp 88 mm Flak 18/36/37 AA cannon could be considered WW II’s ultimate stealth fighter. You never saw it coming. Best estimates are that Axis fighters and flak split the honors for the number of Allied aircraft brought down in the ETO. However, nearly 70%…

Let’s face it, in the movies the good-looking actors and actresses always get the lead roles. And when it comes to airplanes facing the cameras lens, it’s no different. Take for example the classic 1960s movie Battle of Britain that cast the graceful, elliptical-winged Spitfire in the lead role over the White Cliffs of Dover with the pug-nosed Hurricane getting no more than a bit part. That’s why it’s always best to hear how it really was during the war from the horse’s mouth. And in this case, from the pilot who actually flew both of them in combat. Pilot/Officer Charles E. Edmondson, 451st Squadron, RAAF I hopped into the Hurricane and got some last-minute advice from my instructor before I tore across the desert sand. I went up and…

Peter Teichman’s Curtiss P-40M Kittyhawk wears its striking “LuLu Belle” paint scheme. The historic airframe has been in his collection for years. Initially awarded USAAF serial no. 43-5802, it was re-designated 840 to serve out its war with various squadrons of the Royal Canadian Air Force. After being struck off military charge, the Kittyhawk was used as an instructional airframe at Oregon State University in the early 1950s. From there it went to Portland’s Troutdale Airport, eventually being dismantled and placed into storage. Restoration expert Thomas L. Camp of Livermore, California, discovered the airframe in the late 1970s. Finding it to be in remarkably good condition, he returned it to the skies in 1982. Soon dismantled again, 43-5802 crossed the Atlantic when purchased by the Fighter Collection (TFC) at Duxford,…

July 7, 1944 For the USAAF 8th Air Force crews, it was just another mission in the continuing bombing campaign against the industrial heartland of Nazi Germany. For the Luftwaffe fighter pilots, it was another day striving heroically against overwhelming numbers of enemy aircraft to stem a seemingly unstoppable tide of bombing raids against their homeland. Coasting out from England and crossing into the European mainland on the morning of Friday July 7, 1944, was a huge aerial column of USAAF 8th Air Force heavy bombers, almost 100 miles long, consisting of 373 Consolidated B-24 Liberators and 956 Boeing B-17 Fortresses—a total of 1,329 bombers. The fighter escort for this phalanx of bombers totaled 756 long-range fighters—P-38s, P-47s, and P-51s—over 2,000 aircraft in all. What a daunting sight that must…

Many aviation historians have written that when the first Japanese Zero was found in the summer of 1942, the secrets learned from its comparative flights with American fighters dictated the design of the Grumman Hellcat. Historical facts tell a vastly different story. During the first year of WW II, when the Japanese Zero was out-classing Navy Grumman F4F Wildcats and Army Air Corps P-40s, P-38s and P-39s by its agility and numbers, our armed forces wanted a Zero in the worst way to find out its performance and maneuverability secrets. Although Petty Officer Koga was killed when his A6M2 Zero overturned during his emergency, wheels-down landing on Alaska tundra, it took the Navy five weeks to salvage it and another seven weeks to get it to NAS North Island San…

After the war, General “Hap” Arnold, commander of the USAAF, presented the Smithsonian with a collection of U.S. aircraft together with many of the airplanes captured by Watson’s teams. Responsibility for husbanding this vast assembly, stored in an abandoned airplane factory in Chicago on what is now the site of O’Hare Airport, then passed to Paul E. Garber who played a key role in the creation of a National Air Museum. The crisis for the collection came with the Korean War, when the USAF needed the factory and tried to have the aircraft removed. With great diligence, Garber eventually discovered a 21-acre site of woodland at Silver Hill in Maryland was turned over to the Smithsonian in 1952. The captured aircraft remained at this new venue for many years until,…

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