Combat Report

Though it fly with the wings of angels, a combat aircraft is no demonstrable good until it has met and passed the final test of battle. Last week the U.S. had a glow ing report on the first combat performance of its newest fighter plane, the Navy's Grumman Hellcat (F6F). It also got a well-documented secondary report on the Vought Corsair (F4U), already one of the hottest things in the Pacific air.

> In the Wake Island raid Oct. 5 and 6, carrier-borne Hellcats shot 30 Japanese Zeros out of the air, nailed another 31 to the ground with merciless low-level strafing. Not a Hellcat was lost. At another Pacific island, not identified by the Navy, 21 Jap fighters were destroyed, two Hell cats lost. Combined score: 51-to-2.

> Back to San Diego came a battle-tried Marine outfit, Fighter Squadron 124, first unit to use the Corsair against the Japanese. In eight months of desperately tough operations, Fighter Squadron 124 had shot down 68 enemy planes, lost only three men. Now its pilots, home for rest and new combat orders, had only praise for the rugged, high-performance, hard hitting, crooked-wing Corsair.

Escort Missions. Hellcats went looking for trouble in the Marcus Island raid Sept. 1, but ran into no opposition. They found it at Wake and in bomber-escort missions in the Solomons area.

Lieut, (j.g.) C. K. Hildebrandt dived on one of six Zeros closing in on another Hellcat, gave the enemy ship a burst and saw it roll over on its back, smoking.

"Tracers went by me," said he. "so I pulled up, collecting some 7.7 slugs through the cockpit enclosure. The Zero behind me pulled away. Firing from 100 yards, I continued through his pull-out and roll. He 'went in' when his port wing was shot off."

Then Hildebrandt used one of the Hellcat's special tricks for getting out of a tough spot--lowering the landing flaps to cut speed abruptly and maneuver on to the tail of an attacking ship.

"I was jumped by a Zero at 100 feet," he said. "Then I used the hand lever to dump the flaps and I saw the Jap go by and pull up in a turn. I just held my trigger down until he blew up."

Ensign Paul C. Durup had another story of Hellcat's nimbleness:

"I was ten miles behind the bombers and catching up fast when a 7.7 slug from a Zero entered the cockpit. I pushed over, skidded away and went into a steep dive at 500 feet. I barely managed to mush out at 50 feet over the water. The Zero had less luck, I guess. At least he wasn't there when I looked--just a big splash."

Switch to Offensive. Soon after the Corsair went into action in the Solomons, the Japanese had given it a nickname worthy of their language's tradition of poetical allusion: "Whistling Death." They had reason. The Corsairs were helping U.S. air power in the South Pacific to pass to the offensive, turning the tide of battle at a critical point early this year.

Older Wildcat fighter planes, with an effective range of 400 miles, were sound defensive ships but could not give bombers protection for attacks on major Jap bases. The Corsair's 70O-mile range changed that picture, made possible the knockout and capture of vital Munda; Fighter 124 became the first U.S. squadron to use the landing strip there.

To launch that offensive drive (and also to give the Corsair its final examination in war) the Marine squadron had been put together in a tearing hurry. The first 22 Corsairs arrived at San Diego last October, underwent modifications of guns and radio equipment. The squadron shoved off in January, went to the front, operated successively out of Guadalcanal, the Russells and Munda.

Ace of the squadron is Lieut. Kenneth Walsh, with 20 victories.* In the course of operations Walsh made four crash landings; in his first engagement he had his canopy shot away, but destroyed three enemy planes. Like other U.S. fighter pilots he was firsthand sure that the U.S.'s new fighters had not got this speed, range and climb at the expense of safety; several of his squadron's planes flew home with as many as 70 bullet holes in them; one landed safely after a collision which had torn the ailerons off and sliced 43 inches from one wing.

* Still tops for U.S. flyers in World War II: Marine Major Joe Foss, in a Wildcat, 26.

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