THE AIREDALES OF FIGHTING 16
©
Dale Burrier
Over fifty years ago, the Airedales were fighting the
Imperial Japanese Naval Air Forces in the bloody skies over
the Pacific Ocean. What was an Airedale? Many of you think
of the furry black and tan terrier with the beard and fierce
spirit. Well, you're partly correct!
During the first years of World War II, United States
Naval Aviators were known by many names. "Brown-Shoe-Aviator"
referred to the brown oxfords worn only by the naval
aviators, as the 'regular' naval officers wore black shoes.
Then there were the Airedales.
I have not discovered the origin of this term, however, the use
of 'Airedale' to describe naval aviators, flight crewmen and
later, any flight deck crewmen who were part of carrier
operations, appears as early as 1940.
The "fighting navy" was made up of many different ships,
and the aircraft carrier soon became the most important of
them all. The Japanese knew of their strategic value, as did
the United States. Each carrier ( referred to as the term
"CV"; C= aircraft carrier, V= heavier than air aircraft ) had
several types of squadrons aboard: VF= fighters, VB= bombers,
VT= torpedo bombers, VFN= night fighters, etc.
The squadron this story is about, is 'Fighting Sixteen',
(VF-16), the "Pistol Packin' Airedales". This squadron is the
only one to use the caricature of a pistol-wielding Airedale
as their insignia. The Airedale, by the way, has a bottle of
'XXX' hootch in his back pocket, flying helmet and goggles
askew on his head, tongue sticking out, while motioning with
his finger for some unlucky son of the rising sun to come his
way. PURE Airedale, in my book!
Many of the pilots who served with this squadron earned
their private pilots license under the government's Civilian
Pilot Training (CPT) program. These young men, "college boys",
and others, would enter the United States Navy and attend the
Aviation Cadet Training Program at bases such as Pensacola
Naval Air Station (NAS) in Florida. Typical primary training
consisted of approximately ten hours of instructed flying in
N3N 'Yellow Peril' biplanes, (they were painted yellow to aid
in visibility, and the students were prone to all manner of
accidents...) then the students were expected to solo.
The successful candidates then proceeded on to secondary
training in heavier aircraft. Upon completion of this phase,
the cadets were selected to train in either fighters, torpedo
bombers, dive bombers, patrol aircraft or seaplanes. Many of
the newly graduated pilots reported to Air Group Sixteen, at
Quonset Point Naval Air Station, Providence, R.I., at the end
of 1942.
Air Group Sixteen (AG-16) was the overall formation which
contained Fighting Sixteen (VF-16), Bombing Sixteen (VB-16),
Torpedo Sixteen (VT-16), and later, Night Fighting Sixteen
(VFN-16). Air Group Sixteen was being assembled for training
duty and to prepare to report aboard the USS Lexington. The
Lexington (CV-16) was the sixteenth carrier hull to be laid
down, and the second carrier of World War II to be named Lexington. The first
Lexington had been sunk the previous year
at Coral Sea.
It had been customary experience to keep the same numbers
for air groups on their carriers, and Lexington was one of
the last carriers to do so. Air Group Fourteen would be based
aboard the USS Wasp, CV-14, and the USS Cowpens, CVL-25, had
Air Group Twentyfive, for example. Later in the war, the air
groups would be switched from carrier to carrier, and their
numbers quickly became mixed around.
Many of the Airedales reported aboard Lexington in Boston
in June,1943, along with Admiral Ernest King (of Lorain,Ohio)
and General George Marshall. The Lexington sailed for Norfolk
Naval Yard, where her departure for the Pacific was delayed
by a rupture in fuel storage tanks containing aviation fuel!
After repairing the tanks and rounding up 175,000 gallons of
aviation fuel, the Lexington and the Airedales left Norfolk
in May, 1943, for her shakedown cruise. During this time, the
various squadrons practiced (again: practice, practice) their
carrier operations. Lexington returned to Norfolk in early
June for repairs & departed for the Pacific on July 22, 1943.
"Lady Lex" passed through the Panama Canal on her way to
Pearl Harbour, Honolulu, Hawaii, where the aircrews spent the
next two months training. ( They must have wondered if they'd
ever get into the fray!)
The Airedales left Pearl Harbour in mid-September, headed
for an attack on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Their
first patrols produced no contact with Japanese aircraft. Not
until raids on Wake Island on the fifth and sixth of October,
did they taste their first aerial combat. At that time they
joined up with the carriers Princeton, Belleau Wood, Cowpens,
Independence, Essex and Yorktown to form Task Force 14.
Lexington departed Pearl Harbour on November 10, 1943,
headed for the Marshall Islands. Routine air patrols were
flown every day until strikes were scheduled against Tarawa,
Mili and Makin Island. On Tuesday, November 23, the Airedales
had their first big day.
Lieutenant Commander Paul Buie, skipper of the Airedales,
was leading 11 F6F-3 Hellcats of VF-16 between Makin Island
in the Gilberts and Mili in the Marshalls. The "FDO", fighter
direction officer, directed Buie to about 20 Zekes, the code
name for the famous Mitsubishi A6M3c 'Zero' fighter, and they
hammered the Japanese aircraft from out of the sun. The FDO
called out, "Bogies, three-two-zero, angels twenty. Buster!"
This meant that there were a lot of enemy aircraft on the radar (bogies), at a
direction of three-hundred and twenty degrees true course from their position
(three-two-zero), and at
twenty thousand feet (add 1,000 to angels twenty). The term
"buster" meant that they were really close. (There were a few
other terms used such as "saunter"-no rush, "liner"-same as
a
buster, "bandit"-same as bogie, but having visual contact,
and "gate"-push the throttle past the gate, the stop on the
throttle quadrant, for emergency power.) Buie's favorite
order was, "Go get 'em, Airedales!"
The final tally was 17 enemy aircraft shot down, with 4
probables. Buie scored twice, but Lieutenant (jg) Ralph
Hanks was the top dog on this day. His total was five Zeros
which made him the first "ace" in a Grumman Hellcat, and one
of the first pilots to become "ace-in-a-day". Hanks' running
battle lasted approximately five minutes!
The following day, Buie took the Airedales up again, and
they shot down another 13 enemy aircraft, with 6 probables.
Thirty enemy aircraft, ten probables, and only one Hellcat
lost in two days.
On the return to Pearl Harbour, the Lexington was torpedoed by a Japanese
aircraft late one night. The resultant
explosion tore a 40 X 100 foot long hole in the hull, damaged
the steering gear, and ruptured tanks on the side of the hull
used to contain smoke for laying smoke screens. As great
amounts of smoke poured from the tanks, the crew first
thought the Lexington was seriously damaged. When the smoke
cleared, the true extent of damage was realized, and the Lex
proceeded directly to Pearl Harbour escorted by the cruiser
USS Cleveland.
Repairs to the ship could not be accommodated at Pearl,
so the Lexington was sent to Bremerton Naval Yard, Washington,
and the Airedales had to remain in Hawaii. (Tough life) They
thought that they might get to take short visits home, or go
aboard another carrier to finish their tours.
Things did not work out that way, and they stayed at Pearl
until the end of April, 1944, when the Lexington returned from
Bremerton. On March 1, The Lexington steamed from Pearl Harbour to join up
with Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher's famed Task
Force 58, specifically TF 58.3, under command of Rear Admiral
J. W. Reeves. The Lexington formed the line with the carriers
Enterprise (CV-6), Princeton (CVL-23), and the San Jacinto
(CVL-30, George Bush's ship).
US forces waded ashore on Hollandia, New Guinea, on April
22, 1944, and the carrier air groups began sorties over the
area a few days before. When the Lexington arrived, the enemy
opposition in the air was almost non-existant. Only 30 kills
were claimed for all the air groups, combined. One Airedale,
Lieutenant (jg) Francis Fleming, had 4.5 "kills" since the two
day engagement in the previous November, and he had been itching to achieve
'ace' status for five months. (The 0.5 kill had
been an enemy aircraft shared with another Hellcat pilot.) The
mission on April 22, started out in an empty sky over New Guinea, but Fleming
soon found a twin-engined 'Sally' bomber at
tree-top level and promptly sent it into the jungle, below.
About this time, a well-known ace transferred to the Airedales from VF-6,
(USS Intrepid) which had returned to the US.
Alexander Vraciu had flown with VF-3, and VF-6 as wingman to
the famed Edward 'Butch' O'Hare. He was almost a double 'ace'
with nine aerial victories, four in one day during a raid on
Truk, the previous February. When Vraciu landed aboard Lexington in April,
1944, his Hellcat displayed an "A" gasoline
ration sticker on the windscreen! This ration sticker was
displayed by wartime motorists on their automobile windshields
and allowed them to purchase four gallons of gasoline per week.
Trouble is, the Hellcat carried 250 gallons of fuel internally
and an additional 150 gallons externally in a drop tank... On
April 29, 1944, the air groups flew a second raid on Truk, and
Alex bagged two more 'Zekes', raising his total to eleven.
Note that in mid-February, the Intrepid had been torpedoed
by a Japanese 'Kate' torpedo bomber, and air group six was returned to the
states. Alex requested a transfer to an operational air group, so he could
STAY in combat!
In May, the Lexington returned to Pearl Harbour to make
repairs and prepare for the upcomming campaign in the Marianas. The second
week in June would prove to be pivotal in
the war against the rising sun, as nearly 600 F6F Hellcats
would participate in the 'First Battle of the Philippine Sea'.
This battle in the skies over Guam, Tinian and Saipan would be
the support for the invasion forces of Operation Forager. The
Japanese Naval Air Forces would be virtually eliminated and
the phrase, "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" would be coined
to describe the lopsided victory by the Americans.
The United States Navy was fond of using alphabetical and
numerical designations for it's ships, and the same was true
for it's aircraft. The first letter in a designation for a
particular aircraft stood for the type of use. An "F" meant
'fighter', "PB" was a 'patrol bomber', "SB" was a
'scouting
bomber', "TB" was a 'torpedo bomber', etc. The following
number, if any , was the design number. The following letter was the
manufacturer abbreviation: "F" stood for the
Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, "J" was the North
American Aircraft Corporation, "D" was the Douglas Aircraft
Company, "U" was the Vought-Chance Aircraft Company, etc.
The following numerical designation was the latest modification of that
airframe. An "SBD-5" was the first 'scouting
bomber produced by Douglas and was the fifth modification of
that type. A "PB4Y" was the fourth patrol bomber produced by
Consolidated and was the same as the Army B-24.
The F6F, was the sixth naval fighter design manufactured
by Grumman, and was the brother to the stubby F4F Wildcat.
Holding the line in the Pacific during the first years of the
war, the Wildcat's primary shortcoming was lack of sufficient
range to become an effective offensive weapon. The Hellcat
brought to bear all of the qualities needed to defeat the
Japanese fighters on a consistant basis. The F6F's increase
in range, firepower, armour, speed and visibilty, over the old
Wildcat, gave the Airedales an edge over their Imperial
counterparts.
Towards the end of the first week in June, 1944, the Lady
Lex set sail for Saipan, Tinian and Guam to rejoin Mitscher's
Task Force 58. In preparation for Operation Forager, the invasion of the
islands that make up part of the Marianas, aircraft from the Lexington and
fourteen other carriers attacked
Saipan on June 11 and 12. These attacks were carried through
the next five days, with the invasion landings taking place
on June 15. On that day, the Lexington fought off a fierce
attack by Japanese torpedo planes based on Guam; although she
emerged from the battle unscathed, she was reported sunk by
Japanese propaganda for the third time in her career, earning
the nickname 'The Blue Ghost'.
The Japanese wasted no time in confronting the American
forces, for they considered the Marianas to be their rightful
territory. The Japanese Mobile Fleet was commanded by Vice
Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa, and consisted of nine fast carriers,
five battleships, nine cruisers and twenty-three destroyers.
The Imperial Navy had approximately 450 aircraft of which
roughly half were Zekes, 100 Judy dive bombers, 90 Jill torpedo bombers and
about forty Val and Kate dive bombers. The
vast number of aircraft at Ozawa's disposal was mitigated by
the fact that he had few experienced pilots as a resultant of
substantial losses at Midway.
June 19 began with clear weather, "CAVU", ceiling and visabilty
unlimited, an omen to the good fortune of the Airedales for the next two
days. The Fighter Direction Officer,
"FDO", aboard the Lexington directed fighters from the light
carrier Monterey, to bogeys picked up on task force radar at
about 0530. By 1030, pilots from VF-24 (Belleau Wood) and
VF-15 (Essex) were scrapping with over sixty Japanese Zekes
and numerous Jill torpedo bombers. Shortly, 50 Hellcats from
seven other squadrons joined the fray. The score of the first
fracas was 42 enemy aircraft destroyed, with a loss of 3 Hellcats.
The second attacking force of 110 Zekes, Judys and Jills
was met by VF-15 approximately forty miles out from the task
force at about 1140. Fifteen's 11 Hellcats were joined by 23
VF-16's Airedales, and immediately Commander Paul Buie flew
into the enemy formations at full throttle, leaving Alexander
Vraciu faltering behind with oil streaming out onto his windscreen and an
ailing supercharger. Alex's supercharger would
not switch to 'high blower', and feed more air to his engine
at altitude and therefore increase the aircraft's performance
(i.e., speed), plus, he could hardly see where he was going!
Alex reported the problem to the FDO aboard Lexington, and
with several other poorly performing Hellcats, was ordered to
orbit near the carrier. The six-fighter formation had circled
for twenty-five minutes , when the FDO shouted, "Vector, 265!"
The Airedales screamed to the west at 265 degrees for ten minutes, when the
keen-sighted Vraciu spoted three specks in the
sky ahead. Why was the FDO's directive so urgent? This can't
be the aircraft he sent us out to! Suddenly, Alex saw the
main body of Japanese aircraft, about fifty Zekes, Judys and
Jills. Now, the aircraft are less than twenty-five miles out
and the Airedales had to act fast!
Vraciu racked his Hellcat into a tight left turn and reversed his course,
lining up for a run on a Judy. Sensing a
Hellcat on his left, he slapped the control stick to the right,
and droped the nose down, passing below the enemy aircraft.
Reversing his course again, Alex crept in behind another Judy.
A quick burst from the six, fifty caliber machine guns, each
capable of firing up to 600 rounds of half-inch, high velocity ammunition,
tore the enemy aircraft apart. Alex turned
away from the wreckage, checked his six, (looked to his rear,
the "six o'clock" position, directly behind him) and lined up
on two Judy dive bombers. Another quick burst, and a second
Judy splashed into the sea. Slicing to the left, he quickly lined
up on the third aircraft. Seeing the rear gunner firing at
him, Vraciu returned fire, sending the third Judy into a fatal
dive. Alex called to the FDO, "Too many! I don't think we can
shoot 'em all down!" The running battle has taken Vraciu in
too close to the task force ships and their anti-aircraft fire!
Another Judy dive bomber broke away, and Alex chased after
it. He squeezed the trigger and his fourth Judy disintegrated,
spinning wildly to the right. Vraciu crossed over to three more
Judys on their initial bombing runs, while five-inch cannon shells
flew up from the American ships, below. Alex homed in on the
last Judy and let loose with a withering barrage. The Judy began to
disintegrate, engine pieces shedding backwards over
the bomber. Vraciu lined up on the second Judy in the flight
and as he fired, the Japanese aircraft disappeared in a flash
of light. "Musta hit the bomb.", Vraciu thought. Alex yanked
back on the stick, and pulled out of a screaming dive, blood
draining from his head. By that time, the first Judy in line was
being picked apart by the American anti-aircraft gunners aboard
the ships, below, so Alex leveled-off and left the battleships.
Six Judy dive bombers in eight minutes, with a badly running Hellcat, oil
smearing the canopy, the last two while
flying through "friendly" anti-aircraft fire! Not bad for an
Airedale who learned his trade under 'Butch' O'Hare!
The sky had been cleared of all enemy aircraft, and now
Alex headed back to the Lexington. As he approached the outer perimeter of
ships, jittery anti-aircraft gunners opened-up
on his Hellcat! Is his "IFF" (Identification, Friend or Foe)
radar is working properly? He racked the fighter around to
avoid the fire and headed directly to the Lexington, offering
unprintable epithets over the radio to the shipboard gunners!
Landing aboard the Lexington, Vraciu flashed six fingers
to Admiral Mitscher on the bridge. Upon inspection of the
oil-soaked fighter, deck crews found that Alex had flown the
mission with his unfolded wings partially locked, and the
aviation ordinancemen found that he had only used 360 of the
2400 rounds of fifty caliber ammunition!
By 1200, the Japanese forces had lost 161 aircraft and by
the end of the nineteenth the total was up to 342. The Americans had lost 30
aircraft. The fighting on June 20, 1944
centered around the pursuit of Ozawa's forces and the sinking
of his carrier Hiyo, while damaging the Junyo, Zuikaiku, Chiyoda and the
Ryuho. His carriers, the Shokaku and the Taiho
were sunk on the day before. Aircraft losses for the Japanese
on June 20 were 65, for a grand total of 407. U.S. losses
were 77, mostly due to nighttime carrier landing operational
losses, for a grand total of 127.
The Japanese had suffered irreparable damage to their air
forces, both Naval and island-based Army units. They had not
fully recovered from Midway and the Solomons, and now they
had lost most of the rest of their experienced pilots. The
Airedales fared much better. The 24 pilots of VF-16 tallied
46 enemy aircraft, second only to VF-15 (68.5) aboard Essex.
August, 1944 saw Air Group Nineteen arrive aboard Lexington, and Air Group
Sixteen returned to San Diego, via Pearl
Harbour. They reported aboard the Bon Homme Richard (CV-31)
in March, 1945, for their second tour of duty. This lasted a
few months, until the Navy decided to base night-fighting
units aboard the Richard.
In June, 1945, Air Group Sixteen and the Airedales were
transferred to the carrier Randolph in the Philippines, due to an
unusual incident. The unlucky "Randy" had just been repaired
following a kamakaze strike on her stern, when a pair of Army P-38
pilots decided to 'buzz' the carrier while she was at anchor at Leyte.
One pilot misjudged his approach and crashed into the Randolph's flight
deck. With no replacement carrier available, Air Group Twelve was
returned to the United States.
This accident left the Randolph available for the Airedales!
Now the Airedales were back in the fray, led by Lieutenant Commander
Charles S. Moffett. Since the Japanese had no
air force to speak of, other than the kamakazes, the Hellcats
turned to the ground-attack mode. Joining their brother Hell-
divers, Avengers and Corsairs as 'fighter-bombers', the Airedales sailed to
Japanese waters as part of Task Force 38 on
July 1, 1945. The final two months of the war would be spent
strafing and bombing ground targets around Tokyo, Honshu, Nagoya, Kobe and
Hakodate. The Japanese aircraft were few, but
the anti-aircraft fire was heavy and accurate. The Task
Force lost approximately 150 aircraft alone to AA fire in the
last 60 days.
The Randolph departed the Japanese Islands on the day before the surrender
document was signed in Tokyo Bay, stopping
at Pearl Harbour, and reaching Norfolk, Virginia in the first week
of October, 1945.
Air Group Sixteen was disbanded shortly thereafter.
It is interesting to note several events that took place
during the existence of Air Group Sixteen. It was an Airedale, Lieutenant
(jg) Z. W. Neff, who suggested that the air
combat of June 19, 1944 was a real 'turkey shoot', which soon
became the famous phrase for the battle.
Admiral Marc Mitscher, aboard the Lady Lex, made his famous move to save
his late-arriving Hellcats, Avengers, Dauntlesses and Helldivers on June 20,
1944. The pilots, who had
flown 250 miles from the targets back to their carriers, were
trying to land in darkness on pitching carrier decks, with
as little as 10 useable gallons of fuel remaining in their tanks.
It took Mitscher little time to realize that if he were to save
any of his pilots, at all, he would have to turn on the ships
lights throughout the Task Force so that the returning pilots
could see where to land. In spite of alerting enemy submarines to the
presence of the ships in the Task Force, Mitscher undoubtedly saved the lives
of many aircrew.
Alexander Vraciu would add one more Zeke to his score on
the second day of the "Turkey Shoot" to raise his tally to 19
kills, before returning home with Air Group Sixteen. The six
Judy torpedo bombers Alex shot down on June 19, 1944 would be
written up in a recommendation for the Medal of Honor, among
other actions, on June 26, 1944. Vraciu's 19 victories, 6 in
one sortie, was a record at that time, and he was the leading
Navy ace for three months in 1944. The recommendation was
watered-down to a Navy Cross, to the bewilderment of this
writer, and others, who regard Alex as a hero who undoubtedly
saved the lives of many ship-board sailors! (Commander David
McCampbell, skipper of VF-15, was awarded the Medal of Honor
three months later for shooting down 9 bomb-laden Oscar
fighters, flown by inexperienced Japanese pilots.) Alexander
would end the war as the fourth ranked Navy ace.
Longtime Airedale Terrier owner and breeder, Lawrence
Alexander of Florence, Alabama, has a relative who flew with
the Airedales in Air Group Sixteen. Roland Nevil "Mack"
McMackin, was a Dauntless (SBD) dive bomber pilot in Bombing
Sixteen, aboard the Lexington from the day she left Boston in
1943. Mack flew many hazardous missions, and was shot down on
a mission over Guam on July 4, 1944. Bombing Sixteen was one
of the last two squadrons to fly the old SBD's in battle; all
of the others had changed to the Curtiss SB2C Helldivers by
mid 1944. Mack wrote his memoirs a few years ago, and was
most gracious to send a copy to me several months ago. Mack's
attention to detail concerning dates and ship movements, was
an invaluable source of data used to fill in the blanks left
open by the existing references.
Article originally published in the The American Airedale. Copyright by
Dale Burrier
Article reprinted with permission of the author.
Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the author is
prohibited.
3/15/01 Addendum by Dale Burrier:
The Lexington is now a museum in Corpus Christi, Texas. Judith Whipple, a
friend of mine, is the curator
there. She can answer any other questions you might have regarding "Fighting
Sixteen", as they prefer to be called... Their website is:
U. S. S. Lexington Aircraft Carrier Museum on the Bay in Corpus Christi, Texas
My jacket has the Airedale with the blue-striped jersey. This is what I had
found early in 1990 when I got an image from a fellow at
Pensacloa NAS. In 1998, I attended a reunion of Air Group Sixteen in
Jacksonville, Florida. A fellow named Reed saw my jacket and said his
Airedale had a red-striped jersey. He then showed me his scrapbook, which had
one of the decals that they used on the sides of their planes...
sure'nuff the jersey had red and white stripes. Another fellow overheard us
and said his stripes were blue. They compared notes and found that they had
served on two separate "Task Forces", or tours of duty. Task Force 58 was
first and the jerseys had red stripes. Later Task Force 38 had the blue
stripes.
