f-86A: Oldest flying jet returns to america
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10 Great air rescues Kamikazes: The original suicide bombers Israeli F-16 strike on Iraq’s nuclear reactors
unsung liberator
JANUARY 2016
HistoryNet.com
America built more B-24s than any other military aircraft, so why doesn’t it get the respect it deserves?
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TWO NEW RELEASES COMMEMORATING THE 75th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN THE GREATEST DAY – 15 SEPTEMBER 1940 –
By Robert Taylor Leading his Duxford ‘Big Wing’, Squadron Leader Douglas Bader scores a direct hit on a Do17 as he dives his Hurricane into the mass of German bombers and Bf109’s heading towards London, on 15 September 1940. It was the RAF’s greatest day and the tide of the Battle of Britain had turned. This outstanding new edition is signed by RAF & Luftwaffe Battle of Britain Pilots.
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RETURN FROM THE FRAY By Richard Taylor With the Battle of Britain reaching its crescendo, the tranquillity of a sleepy village is interrupted by the sound of Merlin engines as Spitfires of 19 Squadron return from another encounter with the Luftwaffe. This superb new edition is personally signed by Battle of Britain Fighter Pilots. PLEASE CONTACT US FOR YOUR FREE COLOR BROCHURES OF THESE NEW RELEASES
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january 2016
departments 5 MAILBAG 6 BRIEFING 12 EXTREMES
The Kyushu Shinden proved that not all Japanese aircraft were derivative. By Robert Guttman
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features 22 UNLOVED LIBERATOR
Although the Consolidated B-24 outperformed the B-17, it never got the same respect accorded its more famous stablemate. By Robert F. Dorr
With their B-24 crippled by flak over Italy, the crew fought to make it safely back to base. By John L. Chase
16 RESTORED
The world’s oldest flying jet, an F-86A Sabre, returns Stateside. By Richard Paver
32 ‘FLYING DEATH’ OVER THE ATLANTIC
21 LETTER FROM AVIATION HISTORY 60 REVIEWS 63 FLIGHT TEST 64 AERO ARTIFACT
38 ANGELS OF MERCY
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B-24 Liberators modified for very long range duty turned out to be World War II’s best U-boat killers. By David Sears
Ten aerial rescue stories showcase aircraft crews’ dedicated efforts to pluck endangered souls from peril. By Stephan Wilkinson
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14 AVIATORS
46 DIVINE WIND
American military analysts called the kamikaze “by far the most effective weapon devised by the Japanese for use against surface vessels.” By Don Hollway
54 AVERTING ARMAGEDDON
In 1981 Israel launched Operation Babylon to eliminate the Iraqi nuclear menace. By Philip Handleman
ON THE COVER: The Collings Foundation’s B-24J Witchcraft flies over a patchwork countryside reminiscent of wartime England. The late-model Liberator, one of only two still flying, visits more than 120 cities annually along with Collings’ B-17 and B-25 as part of the foundation’s Wings of Freedom Tour. Cover: Paul Bowen Photography
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TOP LEFT: RICHARD PAVER; BOTTOM LEFT: ROBERT F. DORR
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korean war classic The oldest airworthy jet is back in the U.S. after 22 years on the European airshow circuit.
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MICHAEL A. REINSTEIN CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER DIONISIO LUCCHESI PRESIDENT WILLIAM KONEVAL ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER EDITOR IN CHIEF ROGER L. VANCE
AVIATION H
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JANUARY 2016 / VOL. 26, NO. 3 CARL VON WODTKE EDITOR NAN SIEGEL ASSOCIATE EDITOR DIT RUTLAND ART DIRECTOR JON GUTTMAN RESEARCH DIRECTOR GUY ACETO PHOTO EDITOR
Online
You’ll find much more from Aviation History on the Web’s leading history resource: HistoryNet.com Go to HistoryNet.com/aviation-history for these great exclusives:
A BAD DAY FOR FLYING The B-24D Belle Starr was downed over Japanese-occupied China in August 1943.
RESCUE BEHIND ENEMY LINES A B-24 crewman was among hundreds rescued from the Balkans during one of the U.S. Army Air Forces’ most successful air evacuation operations.
PARARESCUE JUMPERS’ DARING RESCUE When MiG-17s attacked his chopper, a pararescue jumper realized why his flight over North Vietnam had been canceled.
O N L I N E / D I G I TA L B O N U S Follow our step-by-step instructions to build this issue’s “Modeling” project: a B-24J/Mk. VI sub-hunter, featured in “‘Flying Death’ Over the Atlantic” (P. 32).
Let’s Connect Like Aviation History Magazine on Facebook Digital Subscription Aviation History is available on iPad and other digital platforms
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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS WALTER J. BOYNE, CARROLL V. GLINES, RICHARD G. SMITH, STEPHAN WILKINSON ARTHUR H. SANFELICI EDITOR EMERITUS
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Aviation History
mailbag
YOUNG AVIATORS
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our November “Letter From Aviation History” rang a bell with me. The picture of the 10 young men in front of the Piper Cub made me go to my scrapbook and dig out a similar picture [above]—10 young men standing in front of a Piper Cub at Huntington, Va., in 1943 as part of our introduction to flying in the U.S. Army Air Forces WWII pilot training program. I’m standing at far right. Of those 10 young guys I’m the only one alive today. Interesting note: Not one of them died flying. Robert L. Wieman St. Paul, Minn.
LOGBOOK: RAF MUSEUM, HENDON
JET ENCOUNTER
Your article in the November issue on the Arado Ar-234 [“Nazi Blitz Bomber”] captured my attention. I was a pilot in the 428th Squadron, 474th Fighter Group, flying P-38 Lightnings. The 474th’s three squadrons were tasked with protecting the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen from the Luftwaffe. This decision was based on the unique design of the P-38, which it was hoped would aid the trigger-happy anti-aircraft gunners in not shooting down friendlies while they patrolled the area. We provided close coverage from dawn to dark in welltimed relays. Our squadron flew 23 missions during the nine-day task, and I participated in nine of them. They were welcome milk runs compared to our normal mission. Only once did our squadron encounter “bandits” attempting to destroy the bridge. On March 14, 1945, our pilots took on six enemy
aircraft, identified as Me-262s, in a diving attack. Four of the enemy were reported damaged prior to their escaping due to superior speed. Did we improperly identify Ar-234s as Me-262s? Or did the Luftwaffe utilize both at Remagen? F.G. “Bud” Holecheck Chester, Md.
In addition to using Ar-234s, the Luftwaffe did indeed repeatedly attack the Ludendorff Bridge with Me-262s, though German records indicate that due to bad weather no 262s flew on March 14. Eleven Ar-234s attacked the pontoon bridges south of the Ludendorff span that day, however, and two of four losses were attributed to P-38s.
BLUE MAX PILOT
What a delight to read Don Hollway’s article in your July issue on the filming of The Blue Max. I have had the great honor to fly with
Derek Piggott. When he was visiting a mutual friend in the States a number of years back, we of course could not pass up the chance to spend some time in my Christen Eagle biplane. Shortly after takeoff, I turned control over to Derek, and he gently felt the airplane out for 20 or 30 seconds. Then, in that wonderful, understated, quintessentially British manner of his, he said, “I believe I’ve got it.” He then proceeded to treat me to the smoothest, most expertly flown half-hour of aerobatics it has been my pleasure to experience. All in an airplane he had never flown before! Later, he regaled us with tales of filming The Blue Max, which Hollway has repeated faithfully. One thing that becomes immediately apparent is that Piggott possesses a director’s eye, and knows how to plan a sequence for optimal filming. Couple that with unmatched piloting skill, and you get a timeless classic in the can. Ashley Messenger Cincinnati, Ohio
TROOP CARRIERS
Re your vignette “D-Day C-47 to Fly Again” [“Briefing,” November], as the proud son of glider pilot
Dick Libbey, who made successful landings on D-Day, in Holland and crossing the Rhine, and who became 436th TCG staff glider officer, I feel I must remind you that TCG stands for Troop Carrier Group, not Tactical Carrier Group. Grey Libbey Virginia Beach, Va.
AFTERMATH OF WAR
I enjoyed the article by my buddy Bob Wieman [“Aviators,” November]. We could write a book about our days at Atsugi Air Base in Japan. With old-timers leaving, we second lieutenants were forced to “crew” our A-26s with oil and gas. Tunnels under the field there held “Baka” bombs, small rocketpropelled suicide planes. Other tunnels held props and instruments. My main reason for writing, however, is to put Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va., not Norfolk. Donald D. Watt Fort Mill, S.C.
Thanks for the correction (to a caption on P. 53 in the Oshkosh photo portfolio). As a Virginia-based publisher, we should know better! Regarding your buddy Bob, see his letter at top.
WRONG LOGBOOK PAGE
Author Nick O’Dell (“After the Dams,” November) wrote to point out that we ran the wrong logbook page in our November “Aero Artifact” department, showing bomb aimer Clifford Crafer’s February 1945 missions rather than the March 14 first Grand Slam mission described. The correct entry is shown above. SEND LETTERS TO
Aviation History Editor, World History Group 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500 OR EMAIL TO
[email protected]
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briefing
Pilot and P-38 Reunited
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he Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a technological marvel when Q\IZZQ^MLQV\PM8IKQÅK theater in August 1942: turbocharged twin Allison engines, tricycle TIVLQVOOMIZ.W_TMZÆIX[ J]\\RWQV\MLIVLÆ][P ZQ^M\ML[SQVJ]JJTMKIVWXa IVLMVW]OP[XMML\PI\Q\ could tweak the tail of that jet age dragon called com-
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white 33 The P-38F takes shape at WestPac’s facility in
Colorado (top). Frank Royal (above) was among the first to fly this very Lightning after it arrived in New Guinea.
^MZaÅZ[\NW]ZO]VVML]X Lightnings to challenge Zeros and Oscars, arriving in New /]QVMIQV;MX\MUJMZ!
ÅVLQ[\PMUa\PQKITJ]ZQML ZIZQ\a¸\aXQKITTa[IQL\WJM I;XQ\ÅZM¸J]\?PQ\M was actually unearthed for ZM[\WZI\QWV
junkers replica
OPPOSITE: (TOP) LOGAN RIELY/THE GAZETTE; (BOTTOM) NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WORLD WAR II AVIATION; ABOVE RIGHT: RIMOWA
Rimowa plans to make Pratt & Whitney engines standard in its updated version of the F.13.
until it was stripped and scrapped in 1944, and after the war it was bulldozed with several P-47Ds into a large pit at Dreger Field, a ÅOP\MZ\ZIV[XWZ\JI[MQV Finschhafen, east of Lae (where Amelia Earhart had UILMPMZTI[\\ISMWٺQV July 1937). In 1999 an Australian group uncovered what was left of White 33, and in 2002 the remains were delivered to collector Jim Slattery for ZM\]ZV\WÆQOP\Ja?M[\8IK Restorations, in Colorado Springs, Colo. The job turned into the most comprehensive P-38 restoration ever done, with features not even present on the famous Glacier Girl, and it has produced one WN WVTa\_WÆaQVO8 [_Q\P working turbochargers. It is also the earliest and most historic P-38 ever restored, and shop co-owner William Klaers admits that “It’s probably the hardest project WestPac has ever done.” In a fortunate coincidence, 100-year-old Colorado Springs AAF veteran Frank Royal recently met Klaers IVL\WTLPQUPM¼LÆW_V 8 [QV\PM8IKQÅK)[\PMa talked, it came to light that Royal had been one of the ÅZ[\\WÆa?PQ\M[QVKM he was the 27-year-old commander of the squadron to which it had been delivered. Royal, who visited the WestPac shop last summer as the restoration was nearing completion, recalled, “The ÅZ[\\QUM1\WWSWٺM^MZathing worked perfectly.” Stephan Wilkinson
heavy metal pioneer
A Air Quotes
“I ALWAYS BELIEVED THAT THE HELICOPTER WOULD BE AN OUTSTANDING VEHICLE FOR THE GREATEST VARIETY OF LIFE-SAVING MISSIONS AND NOW, NEAR THE CLOSE OF MY LIFE, I HAVE THE SATISFACTION OF KNOWING THIS HAS PROVED TO BE TRUE.” –IGOR SIKORSKY, IN HIS LAST LETTER
century ago, on January 18, 1916, the Junkers J.1 made its first flight, revolutionizing aeronautics with its all-metal construction and cantilever wings requiring no external bracing. After World War I ended, Junkers and his chief designer, Otto Reuter, made history again on June 25, 1919, with the first flight of the F.13. With pilot and copilot seated side by side in a semi-open cockpit and four passengers in an enclosed cabin behind them, it was the world’s first all-metal commercial airplane. Of 330 built, 110 were operated in Germany and the rest by air transport companies throughout North and South America, Eastern Europe, China, Japan, the Dutch East Indies and Australia. Five F.13s survive in museums, but none are in flyable condition. In July 2015, however, a faithful reproduction, built by a joint collaboration of Rimowa, a German luggage manufacturer, and Swiss JU-AIR, was publicly displayed at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis. Constructed using 3-D scans of an F.13 at the Musée de l’Air et l’Espace at le Bourget, France, as reference, and skinned in corrugated duraluminum similar to that used by Rimowa in its light but rugged traveling cases, the repro F.13 differs from its ancestors primarily in its engine, a 450-hp Pratt & Whitney R-985 radial with Hamilton Standard prop, originally mounted on a few F.13s for proposed export to the United States. The only other major modifications were made to comply with current safety standards. The Rimowa Junkers is slated to make its first test flights in March 2016 and is expected to be certified for manufacture and sale in May. For a projected asking price of $2.2 million, you can have a historic flying runabout for six.
Jon Guttman
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briefing berlin express P-51B 43-24837, painted in the markings of 357th Fighter Group pilot Bill Overstreet, earned top honors at Reno.
By the Numbers
National Championship Air Races
488.983 MPH
Robert “Hoot” Gibson’s
winning speed in the Unlimited Gold Race
The recently restored P-51B Berlin Express swept the 2015 National Aviation Heritage Invitational competition, held September 15-20, 2015, at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nev. Berlin Express was awarded the coveted grand champion Neil A. Armstrong Aviation Heritage Trophy, and also took top honors in the military >
> category, receiving the Henry “Hap” Arnold Trophy, and won the People’s Choice award. Restored by John Muszala’s 8IKQÅK.QOP\MZ[WN 1LIPW .ITT[1LIPWNWZW_VMZ5I` Chapman, the Mustang was J]QT\NZWU\PMZMUIQV[WN P-51B serial no. 43-24837 IVL_MIZ[\PMUIZSQVO[WN \P.QOP\MZ/ZW]XXQTW\ William “Bill” Overstreet, _PWQ[NIUW][NWZX]Z[]QVOI 4]N\_IٺM5M!]VLMZ\PM
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YEARS Steve Hinton jr.’s
consecutive wins in the Unlimited Gold Race before being unseated by Gibson (Hinton did not finish)
284.454 MPH
Tom Aberle’s
record biplane class speed during a qualifying race (previous record was 274 mph)
ABOVE LEFT: JIM DUNN; ABOVE, FROM TOP: RICHARD VANDERMEULEN; ©TVR PHOTOGRAPHY; AIRPORT JOURNALS
NAHI Winners Recognized at Reno
DISTINCTIVE STYLE BOLDLY SHOWS YOUR
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briefing
MILESTONES
Altitude Record Still Stands More than 45 years ago, aeromodeling legend Maynard L. Hill (shown below working on one of his transatlantic models) set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale world record for gain in altitude for aeromodeling and spacemodeling that remains unbroken. On September 6, 1970, after Hill launched his Catbird from Virginia at 5:24 p.m., it spent roughly 43 minutes climbing to a record height of 26,920 feet, then dived for 20 minutes, landing within 33 feet of its launch point. Before his death in 2011, Hill established 25 model-aircraft records for speed, duration and altitude. A metallurgist who had become interested in aeromodeling as a youngster, Hill spent more than two decades on the staff of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He later managed research on unmanned aircraft.
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TOP: ©MOD CROWN COPYRIGHT 2015; BOTTOM: MODEL AVIATION MAGAZINE/BARRETT JOSEPH FOSTER
Last Airworthy avro Vulcan grounded
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extremes
Imperial original The first prototype of the Kyushu J7W1 displays the interceptor’s unusual canard pusher configuration.
Magnificent Lightning
KYUSHU’S ADVANCED J7W1 SHINDEN INTERCEPTOR LOOKED LIKE NO OTHER AIRPLANE BUILT IN WORLD WAR II BY ROBERT GUTTMAN
D
uring the late 1930s and early 1940s, Europeans and Americans tended to characterize Japanese aviation technology as derivative, imitative or downright plagiaristic. Although many historians now consider that viewpoint the result of Western bias, it had some factual basis. Japanese designers learned a great deal from foreign aircraft acquired from France, Britain, Germany and the United States. During the 1920s and ’30s, British aircraft bought from Shorts, Blackburn and Gloster were copied by Kawanishi, Mitsubishi and Nakajima. From the U.S. the Japanese bought the prototype Douglas DC-4E airliner, which provided the basis for Japan’s wartime multiengine bomber development. During World War II the Japanese aircraft industry also produced copies of American Lockheed 14 and Douglas DC-3 transports.
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Germany supplied Japan with blueprints of the Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine, which the Japanese built under license and used in some of their combat aircraft, notably the Kawasaki Ki-61 HienÅOP\MZQVQ\QITTa UQ[QLMV\QÅMLJa\PM)TTQM[ as a copy of a German or 1\ITQIVÅOP\MZLM[QOV2IXIV also received details of Germany’s Messerschmitt Me-262 jet and Me-163 rocket interceptor, though Japanese development of those designs had not progressed far by war’s end. But not all Japanese aircraft design was derivative. After the war Allied aviation technicians discovered a pair of extremely advanced planes in Japan that owed absolutely nothing to any foreign aircraft. They were the XZW\W\aXM[WNIVM_ÅOP\MZ the Kyushu J7W1 Shinden 5IOVQÅKMV\4QOP\VQVO Designed for the Japanese
navy, the J7W1 was a fastclimbing, high-altitude interKMX\WZLM^MTWXML[XMKQÅKITTa to defend against U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 raids on the Home Islands. The Shinden, a singleengine plane of tailless canard design, looked like no other aircraft in the world in 1945. The wings, swept back LMOZMM[IVLÅ\\ML_Q\P a pair of vertical stabilizers, were attached toward the rear of the fuselage, while small horizontal stabilizers _MZMÅ\\ML\W\PMNZWV\ The 18-cylinder Mitsubishi Ha-43 air-cooled radial engine, producing 2,130 hp, was mounted above the wings, close to the center of gravity, and drove a sixbladed pusher propeller via an extension shaft. The pilot
OPPOSITE: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; ILLUSTRATION: STEVE KARP
sat between the engine and the pointed nose, where he had a good view in all directions except perhaps the rear. Four 30mm cannons, concentrated in the nose, would have proved more than adequate to bring down a B-29. Due to its pusher KWVÅO]ZI\QWV\PMIQZKZIN\ was mounted on a retractable tricycle undercarriage. ,M^MTWXUMV\WN\PMQV\MZceptor was initiated early in 1943 by Lt. Cmdr. Masayoshi Tsuruno at the Kyushu Hikoki K.K. Company— until that year known as Watanabe Tekkojo. Watanabe, which had a track ZMKWZLNWZ\PQVSQVOW]\[QLM the box, had developed the -!?\PMÅZ[\2IXIVM[MIQZplane that was designed [XMKQÅKITTaNWZWXMZI\QWV NZWUI[]JUIZQVM,]ZQVO ??11\PMÅZUPILXZWduced the Q1W1 Tokai (Eastern Sea), known to the )TTQM[I[¹4WZVIº\PMÅZ[\ airplane to specialize in IV\Q[]JUIZQVM_IZNIZM Tsuruno began by building a reduced-scale proto\aXMOTQLMZÅ\\ML_Q\PI 22-hp auxiliary engine, as an aerodynamic test vehiKTM\WMV[]ZM\PMNMI[QJQTQ\a WN\PMJI[QKKWVÅO]ZI\QWV Called the MXY6, it was to be towed into the air behind another airplane, then ZMTMI[ML\WÆaWVQ\[W_V _Q\P\PMIQLWN\PMTQUQ\ML power provided by the small auxiliary engine. Because its towline was attached at the wrong place, however, the IQZKZIN\QVQ\QITTaXZW^ML\W JMVW[MPMI^aIVLZMN][ML \W\ISMW)ٺN\MZ\PM\W_TQVM attachment was relocated, the MXY6—piloted by <[]Z]VWPQU[MTN¸\WWSWٺ IVLÆM_^MZa_MTT Once the basic aerodyVIUQK[PILJMMV[I\Q[NIK\Wrily tested, Tsuruno went to _WZSWV\PMN]TT[QbMLÅOP\MZ )T\PW]OPVI^aWٻKMZ[_MZM
initially uninterested in the radical new airplane, the B-29 bombing campaign during mid- to late 1944 made them think again. 7ٻKQITTaLM[QOVI\ML2 ? by the navy and named Shinden, the interceptor was ordered into production [\ZIQOP\W\ٺPMLZI_QVO JWIZLJMNWZM\PMÅZ[\XZW\W\aXM_I[M^MVÅVQ[PML Completed in April 1945, that prototype had to return \W\PMNIK\WZaNWZZMXIQZ[ JMNWZMQ\ÆM_NWZ[M^MZITZMIsons. Its air-cooled engine overheated while on the ground, requiring a redesign WN\PMKWWTQVOL]K\[.]Z\PMZ \PM\QX[WN\PMXZWXMTTMZ blades were bent during the ÅZ[\\ISMWٺI\\MUX\_PMV\PM nose rose and the tail canted back, grinding the prop into the tarmac. A new airscrew PIL\WJMNI[PQWVMLIVL [UITT_PMMT[_MZMÅ\\ML\W \PMJW\\WUWN\PM\IQTÅV[ XZW^QLQVO[]ٻKQMV\KTMIZIVKMNWZ\PMXZWXJTILM[
the j7w1 shinden was ordered into production straight off the drawing board. I\WUQKJWUJNMTTWV0QZW shima. By the time the 2IXIVM[M[]ZZMVLMZMLWV ;MX\MUJMZ\PM2 ?PIL TWOOMLR][\ UQV]\M[¼ÆQOP\ time. Although the Shinden reportedly handled well, the ÆQOP\[ZM^MITML\PI\Q\X]TTML PIZLZQOP\]VLMZN]TTXW_MZ WV\ISMWٺIVL\PMXZWXMTTMZ IVLLZQ^M[PIN\M`PQJQ\ML strong vibrations. 7N\PM\_WShindens built, WVTa\PMÅZ[\XZW\W\aXMM^MZ ÆM_*]\3a][P]_I[IT ready committed to building 30 Shindens a month, while the larger Nakajima concern _I[KWV\ZIK\ML\WUIV]NIK-
ture 120 per month. So technically the Shinden holds the LQ[\QVK\QWVWNJMQVO\PMWVTa KIVIZLX][PMZÅOP\MZM^MZ\W enter production. Tsuruno had planned to develop a jet-powered ver[QWVWN\PMQV\MZKMX\WZ\PM 2 ?Shinden-Kai. It was to JMXW_MZMLJaI2IXIVM[M J]QT\^MZ[QWVWN/MZUIVa¼[ 2]VSMZ[2]UW I`QIT ÆW_\]ZJWRM\_PQKP2IXIV IT[WQV\MVLML\WUIV]NIK\]ZMNWZ][MQVQ\[^MZ[QWVWN the Me-262. American servicemen discovered the two Shindens [PWZ\TaIN\MZ2IXIV¼[[]ZZMVLMZIVL\PMÅZ[\XZW\W\aXM was shipped back to the ;\I\M[NWZM`IUQVI\QWV1\ still exists, dismantled, at the National Air and Space 5][M]U¼[8I]T/IZJMZ NIKQTQ\a6WLW]J\\PM Smithsonian will one day restore this truly original 2IXIVM[M_IZXTIVMIVL place it on display.
J7W1 SHINDEN SPECIFICATIONS LENGTH 30 feet 4 inches WINGSPAN 36 feet 5 inches WEIGHT 7,639 pounds (empty) 10,913 pounds (loaded) ENGINE 2,130-hp Mitsubishi Ha-43 (Mk9D) 18-cylinder air-cooled radial MAXIMUM SPEED 466 mph RANGE 531 miles RATE OF CLIMB 26,250 feet in 10 minutes SERVICE CEILING 39,000 feet
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aviators diverse team Copilot John Chase (standing at right), with the original crew of his B-24J.
Terror at 12,000 Feet
AFTER THEIR B-24 WAS CRIPPLED BY FLAK, THE CREWMEN SPOTTED A MESSERSCHMITT JET FIGHTER STALKING THEIR LIBERATOR BY JOHN L. CHASE
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n January 1945, I was the copilot aboard a * 4QJMZI\WZWVÅVIT approach to Tunis, <]VQ[QIIN\MZÆaQVO across the Atlantic and 5MLQ\MZZIVMIVNZWU*IVOWZ Maine. Tunis was our last _IaXWQV\JMNWZM\PMÅVITTMO to Lecce, Italy. Our crew had trained \WOM\PMZNWZIJW]\_MMS[ J]\\PMW\PMZ\PZMMWٻKMZ[¸ XQTW\VI^QOI\WZIVLJWUJIZLQMZ¸IVL1PILITZMILa spent more than a year in ÆQOP\IVLOZW]VL[KPWWT The remainder of our crew consisted of six enlisted men: NW]Z\]ZZM\O]VVMZ[IZILQW WXMZI\WZIVLIVMVOQVMMZ ITT[MZOMIV\[_Q\PIJW]\I aMIZWN\ZIQVQVOJMPQVL\PMU
ZIVOQVONZWU aMIZWTL 8I]T+W`W]ZVW[MO]VVMZ \W aMIZWTL\IQTO]VVMZ Jason Alexander, a married father who, as the old man of the crew, was naturally SVW_VI[¹8WXº?M_MZM a truly diverse crew, from W]ZUQVQ[\MZ¼[[WVÅZ[\XQTW\ ,_QOP\;\I]ٺMZ\WW]ZJWUbardier, Lou Rosenman, the son of a rabbi. In Lecce we were relieved of our new plane and bussed \WIJI[MIJW]\UQTM[ away, where we joined the \P;Y]ILZWV \P Bombardment Group. For W]ZÅZ[\KWUJI\UQ[[QWV_M _MZMLQ^QLML]XIVLÆM_ with experienced crews. ;QVKM\PM\IZOM\IZMI_I[ covered by overcast, the lead bombardier attempted to
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF JOHN L. CHASE
bomb using radar, an inaccurate method. Fortunately the overcast meant that enemy IV\QIQZKZIN\ÅZM_I[IT[W inaccurate, and we watched ÆISM`XTWLMNZWUI[INMLQ[\IVKM¸W]ZJIX\Q[UWNÅZM German forces were then retreating through Italy, mostly heading for Germany via the Brenner Pass. The 376th was one of several bomb groups assigned to cut \PMUWٺ7]Z[Y]ILZWV¼[ target in late February was a railroad marshaling yard close to Linz, Austria, near \PM*ZMVVMZ¼[VWZ\PMZVMVL We had been warned that it was protected by an estimated 200 German 88mm ÆISO]V[[Q\ML\WPQ\][_PMV we were most vulnerable, L]ZQVO\PMIXXZW`QUI\MTa 10-mile bomb run. 7VW]ZNW]Z\PUQ[[QWV _M\WWSWٺVMIZLI_VIVL ÆM_VWZ\P_M[\W^MZ\PM Adriatic Sea. We had just made our turn over the IP (initial point) and leveled out so that the bombardier could take control when the squadron was enveloped QVÆIS
nated medic. Summoned via intercom, Lou Rosenman negotiated the awkward trip from the nose compartment across the passageway between the armed bombs to reach Foster. After cutting I_Ia\PMZILQWUIV¼[[TMM^M he applied sulfa to the wound and bound it up with a Carlisle bandage. Rosenman then readied the syrette of morphine packaged with the bandage. After inserting the VMMLTMQV\W.W[\MZ¼[IZUPM discovered the syrette was frozen too hard to inject. So he withdrew the needle and placed the syrette inside his ÆQOP\[]Q\]VLMZPQ[IZUQV IVMٺWZ\\W\PI_Q\*]\I[ Rosenman had forgotten to ZMXTIKM\PMVMMLTM¼[[PMI\P before doing so, he accidentally injected himself. ?Q\PQVÅ^MUQV]\M[PM_I[ out. Happily, both gunner and medic-bombardier survived—one with a damaged ego, the other having earned a Purple Heart. As we attempted to rejoin our squadron, we discovered that our left outboard engine had failed, due to a severed N]MTTQVM?M_MZMÆaQVO solo, crossing the northern Adriatic coast at about 12,000 feet—a tempting \IZOM\NWZMVMUaÅOP\MZ[
As we flew through the turbulence and debris, our bomber corkscrewed violently downward and more than 90 degrees to the right.
ready for action Chase (left) talks with pilot Dwight Stauffer during their time with an Overseas Training Unit, shortly before they flew a new B-24 to Lecce, Italy.
And of course we were still carrying two parallel racks of bombs, each weighing more than 2,000 pounds. We had been briefed against dropping them over land, but now that we were over open water we could defuse the bombs and dump them. Almost simultaneously we feathered the props on the useless engine, shut down its fuel supply and advised the base of our situation, requesting escort. At that point one of our gunners spotted a Messerschmitt Me-262 jet IJW]\aIZL[W\ٺPMTMN\ wing, paralleling our course. Then another crewman ZMXWZ\MLIV]VQLMV\QÅML single-engine plane headed straight toward us. )TTMaM[_MZMÅ`MLWV\PM oncoming plane, and our gun turrets swiveled in its direction. After several tense minutes, we recognized it as a red-tailed P-51 Mustang, which we later learned _I[ÆW_VJaIUMUJMZWN the 332nd Fighter Group,
the “Tuskegee Airmen.”
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restored
Sabre Comes Full Circle
)N\MZJMQVOZM\QZML\WI \MKPVQKITKWTTMOMQV.ZM[VW +ITQN\PMRM\_I[[WTL to a scrap dealer, where ;MI\\TMZM[QLMV\2QU4IZ[MV LQ[KW^MZMLQ\QV! 0M IVLVMQOPJWZ*MV0ITTI BRITAIN’S LOSS WAS AMERICA’S UMUJMZWN\PM;IJZM8QTW\[ GAIN WHEN A HISTORIC )[[WKQI\QWVJW]OP\\PM F-86A, THE WORLD’S OLDEST IQZXTIVMNWZ I[_MTTI[ IVW\PMZ. )NWZ \PI\ FLYING JET, RETURNED \PMa][MLNWZXIZ\[)N\MZI STATESIDE AFTER 22 YEARS NW]ZaMIZZM[\WZI\QWVXZWR MK\QV^WT^QVO[WUM BY RICHARD PAVER UIVPW]Z[IVL\PMX]ZKPI[M WN[M^MZIT2 MVOQVM[\PM n June 2014, Golden Apple Operations Ltd. announced ZM[\WZML;IJZMUILMQ\[ÅZ[\ \PI\\PM*ZQ\Q[PÅZU¼[6WZ\P)UMZQKIV;IJZMPILJMMV[WTL ÆQOP\NZWU8IQVM.QMTLQV \WIVM_W_VMZQV\PM=VQ\ML;\I\M[IVL\PI\I[WN2]VM ?I[PQVO\WVWV.MJZ]IZa Q\_W]TLKMI[MÆaQVOQV\PM=VQ\ML3QVOLWUQM\VIUIKM:WJQV7TL[ 1V!!\PM;IJZM_I[
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[PQXXML\W\PM=3_PMZM 2M\0MZQ\IOM4\LI\*W]ZVM UW]\PWXMZI\MLQ\NWZ /WTLMV)XXTM,]ZQVOQ\[ ÅZ[\ÆQOP\QV*ZQ\IQVWV5Ia !!Q\_I[LMKSMLW]\ QV\PM3WZMIV?IZUIZSQVO[ WN\PM=;)QZ.WZKM¼[ \P .QOP\MZ1V\MZKMX\WZ?QVO 1\_I[\PMVWXMZI\MLNZWU ,]`NWZLJa5IZS0IVVI WN\PM7TL.TaQVO5IKPQVM +WUXIVa)N\MZ0IVVI¼[ \ZIOQKLMI\PQVI0Q[XIVW BuchonIKKQLMV\QV;XIQVQV ;MX\MUJMZ!!!\PM;IJZM _I[UW^ML\W\PM)QZKZIN\ :M[\WZI\QWV+WUXIVaIT[W I\,]`NWZLIVLNZWU\PMV WV_I[ÆW_VQVI_QLM^IZQ M\aWN-]ZWXMIVIQZ[PW_[ Ja)ZKW1\[ZMO]TIZXQTW\[ PI^MQVKT]LML5IZS4QVVMa /WTLMV)XXTMKPQMNXQTW\ +TQ;ٺXQVS3MQ\P,MVVQ[WV IVL,I^M0IZ^Ma ,]ZQVO\PM;IJZM UILMINM_IXXMIZIVKM[ QVI^MZa[XMKQITWVMWٺ ¹
ALL PHOTOS: RICHARD PAVER
golden oldie Mark Linney puts the F-86A through its paces near Duxford in June 2013.
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restored
"the really great news is that the aircraft will be kept flying and is not to become a ground-bound museum piece.”
local attraction The Sabre flies over the English countryside at 7,000 feet. fond farewell Linney (below) boards the F-86A at Aircraft Restoration's hangar.
paint scheme to honor Spink, who had been invited to display the airplane at the annual 2011 Tiger Meet at Cambrai. At the end WN\PMÆaQVO[MI[WV the Sabre was grounded at Duxford while its J47-13 engine underwent a major overhaul in the U.S. The jet’s entire rear fuselage can be removed from a joint just aft of the wing, allowing the power plant to be swapped quickly with relatively basic tools. Due to the engine’s rarity, however, the rebuild took some time—not until January 2013 was it returned to Duxford, where successful ground runs took place the following month. )[IÅZ[\OMVMZI\QWV;IJZM the F-86A is in many respects ]VZMÅVMLIVL]VLMZXW_MZML compared to later variants. The engineering team that looked after the airplane mentioned how surprising
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Q\_I[\WÅVLUIVa[UITT components on the F-86A that are also used on pistonengine North American T-6 trainers. The J47 turbojet, rated at 5,200 pounds of thrust, was very simple in design, with far fewer moving parts than 1940s piston engines, and it gained a reputation for reliability. Later variants were given much more powerful engines and hydraulically powered controls. On the other hand, the F-86A can be ÆW_VUIV]ITTaQV\PMM^MV\ of a hydraulic failure. The XZQUIZaÆQOP\KWV\ZWT[IZM mechanical, with conventional control wires, but the aircraft does have a hydraulic boost system to help reduce
stick forces for the ailerons and elevators. The Sabre’s sweptwing design and the trail from its very smoky engine make for a visually pleasing aircraft \PI\KIVJMÆW_VKWV[MZ^Itively, yet still look impressive. The airplane also has an adjustable horizontal stabilizer, leading-edge wing slats and fuselage speed brakes. Located on either side of the rear fuselage, the speed brakes comprise a PQVOMLXIVMTÅ`ML\WI[QVOTM hydraulic ram that opens the panel down and forward into \PMIQZÆW_KWV\ZWTTMLJaI switch on top of the throttle. “While many display pilots OM\\PMWXXWZ\]VQ\a\WÆa\PM popular warbirds such as a
;XQ\ÅZMWZ8 \PMWXXWZ\]VQ\a\WÆa[]KPIZIZMRM\ is totally unique, and I have been so privileged to have had that opportunity,” Mark Linney remarked as the F-86A returned to its land of origin. “The Sabre was a hugely important iconic IQZKZIN\_PQKPÅZ[\ÆM_I\I time when aircraft development was advancing with technological and design improvements being made at an amazing rate. “The aircraft is certainly going to its new owners with all of our very best wishes,” he added. “We will do whatever we can to ensure that the new owner is helped with training, support and our fullest cooperation in transferring the operations of the Sabre to the USA. The really great news is that the aircraft _QTTJMSMX\ÆaQVOIVLQ[VW\ to become a ground-bound museum piece.” 4QVVMa¼[ÅVIT[WZ\QMQV\PM Sabre, at Duxford on June ! _I[ILMUWÆQOP\ for the new owner, John Swartz of Afton, Okla. With \PI\ÆQOP\WXMZI\QWV[NWZ Golden Apple ceased, marking the end of an era in the UK for this much-loved jet. Disassembled and shipped to Heritage Aero in Rockford, Ill., the Sabre was thoroughly inspected and reassembled by Heritage owner +TQ?ٺQTM_[SQ)T\PW]OPQ\ did not make its intended debut at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s 2015 AirVenture in July, Swartz and Willewski—both EAA members—will no doubt see to it that it does not miss the show in 2016. The reassembled Sabre was slated to ]VLMZOWQ\[ÅZ[\\I`Q\M[\[QV late September 2015.
Sorry, Bob, but I gotta go...again.
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(WWSLHUK[OL(WWSLSVNVHYL[YHKLTHYRZVM(WWSL0UJ YLNPZ[LYLKPU[OL<:HUKV[OLYJV\U[YPLZ (WW:[VYLPZHZLY]PJLTHYRVM(WWSL0UJ
LETTER FROM AVIATION HISTORY
Great Saves BY CARL VON WODTKE
AP PHOTO/NICK UT
W home free U.S. and South Vietnamese soldiers carry Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton on a stretcher following his rescue after 11 days of evading the North Vietnamese.
hen is an aerial rescue not worth the MٺWZ\')\[WUMXWQV\\PM=;)QZ.WZKM KWUUIVLMZ[LQZMK\QVO\PMZM[K]MWN 4\+WT1KMIT¹/MVMº0IUJTM\WV¸KITT [QOV*I\*ZI^W¸U][\PI^MI[SML \PMU[MT^M[\PI\Y]M[\QWV*]\\PMIQZUMVQV^WT^MLQV\PMZM[K]MI\\MUX\XZWJIJTa LQLV¼\I[\PMaPILIRWJ\WLWZMOIZLTM[[WN\PM ZQ[S[QV^WT^ML.WZ\PM=;UQTQ\IZa¹VWUIVTMN\ JMPQVLºQ[IVIZ\QKTMWNNIQ\P]XWV_PQKPITT[MZ^QKM XMZ[WVVMTZMTa 7V)XZQT! 0IUJTM\WV_I[[MZ^QVOI[ VI^QOI\WZIJWIZLI,W]OTI[-* +M[KWZ\QVO IKMTTWN\PZMM* [VMIZ\PMLMUQTQ\IZQbMLbWVM JM\_MMV6WZ\PIVL;W]\P>QM\VIUQM\VIUM[M)ZUaIL^IVKQVO[W]\PWV\PM\PQZL LIaWNQ\[UI[[Q^M-I[\MZ7NNMV[Q^MTI]VKPML \_W^WTTMa[WN;)[]ZNIKM\WIQZUQ[[QTM[I\\PM IQZXTIVM[\PM[MKWVLWN_PQKPLIUIOML\PMV LM[\ZWaML0IUJTM\WV¼[-* 0M_I[\PMWVTa UMUJMZWN\PM[Q`UIVKZM_\W[INMTaMRMK\ ?PI\ NWTTW_ML PI[ JMMV KITTML \PM TIZOM[\ TWVOM[\ IVL UW[\ KWUXTM` [MIZKPIVLZM[K]M ;):WXMZI\QWVWN\PM>QM\VIU?IZ1\QV^WT^ML IQZI[[M\[ZIVOQVONZWU);SaZIQLMZ[\W7> *ZWVKW[=00¹0]Ma[º\W00 ¹2WTTa/ZMMV /QIV\[ºWVMWN_PQKP\PM6>)[PW\LW_VSQTTQVO Q\[[Q`KZM_UMV,M[XQ\M\PMIQZUMV¼[PMZWQKMٺWZ\[ W^MZ\PMKW]Z[MWNÅ^MTWVOLIa[\PM)UMZQKIV[
NIQTML\WZMKW^MZ0IUJTM\WVIVL[\4\5IZS +TIZSINWZ_IZLIQZKWV\ZWTTMZ_PWPILJMMV [PW\LW_VL]ZQVO\PMZM[K]MI\\MUX\*ZQMNML WV\PMTW[[M[/MVMZIT+ZMQOP\WV)JZIU[KITTML WٺIQZZM[K]MWXMZI\QWV[WV)XZQT IVLITIVL _I\MZWXMZI\QWV_I[UW]V\MLJaI[UITT\MIUWN ;W]\P>QM\VIUM[MKWUUIVLW[TMLJa=;6I^a ;-)44QM]\MVIV\IV 3QM\ZM[K]MLJW\PLW_VMLIQZUMVL]ZQVO\_W LIVOMZW][VQOP\WXMZI\QWV[\PMNWZUMZMIZVQVO \PM5MLITWN0WVWZIVL\PMTI\\MZ\PM6I^a+ZW[[ \PMWVTa;W]\P>QM\VIUM[MVI^a[MZ^QKMUIV\W JM[WPWVWZMLL]ZQVO\PM_IZ
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PHILIP MAKANNA/©GHOSTS
“bomber camp” The Collings Foundation’s B-24J Witchcraft drops dummy bombs near Stockton, Calif., during a recent warbird training exercise.
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THE B-24 WAS PRODUCED IN GREATER NUMBERS, CARRIED A BIGGER BOMBLOAD AND FLEW FARTHER THAN THE B-17, SO WHY DOESN’T IT GET THE SAME RESPECT? BY ROBERT F. DORR
UNLOVED LIBERATOR january 2016
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Only two Consolidated B-24s fly today. There should be more, given the number of Liberators that trundled out of factories in five locations during World War II. They built them deliberately, and they built them fast. The Liberator was the American military’s huge margin. It’s a shame that just two of them are airworthy now (see sidebar, P. 29 ). Postwar America wasn’t interested in preservQVOIVLÆaQVO[]ZXT][UQTQ\IZaIQZKZIN\[W4QJMZI\WZ[_MZM\WZV apart, pushed overboard or crushed into scrap. Some veterans believe that the B-24 was singled out for the junkman because it never projected much glamour and lacked a constituency. The B-24, they’ll say, was always a bridesmaid. “It didn’t get no respect,” said Sergeant Vincent Re, a former engineer-gunner with the 467th Bombardment Group, doing his best Rodney ,IVOMZÅMTLQUQ\I\QWV¹
slow starter The XB-24 originally had a maximum speed of just 273 mph. A redesign that incorporated turbosupercharged engines raised its speed to 311 mph.
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he B-24 fought in every theater. It was above all an instrument for high-altitude precision daylight bombing of military and industrial targets, but it also took crews on exhausting low-level anti-submarine patrols (story, P. 32). The B-24 performed brilliantly in most ways, though not if the pilot had to ditch in the ocean. It could even be considered handsome—if you ignore protruding bumps and bulges and focus on the grace of its thick, short-chord,
high-aspect-ratio, 110-foot Davis wing. The B-24 deserves its own place in history. Yet it’s almost never allowed to stand alone on its laurels because it’s doomed to be constantly compared to the better-loved, better-looking Boeing B-17. The B-17 had an extra crew position for a publicity agent, B-24 veterans tell you. “They always ribbed us about the B-24 being ‘the box the B-17 came in,’” said 1st Lt. Ralph Davis, a pilot with the 467th Group. “We were always being told that the other airplane was the swan and we were the ugly duckling.” Never mind that American industry manufactured 19,526 B-24 variants (including 774 single-tail PB4Y-2 Privateers) as compared to 12,731 B-17s. Never mind that the B-24 was so much faster that a Liberator flying on three engines could overtake and pass a B-17 chugging along on all four. Never mind that the * ÆM_NIZ\PMZIVLKIZZQML a heavier bombload (although the B-17 had a higher ceiling and was easier to handle). More variants were produced of the B-24. The C-87 Liberator Express was a robust cargo hauler, one of which was modified as an executive transport for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Though the 32nd XZM[QLMV\VM^MZIK\]ITTaÆM_ aboard that aircraft, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt put it to good use. The C-109 version was perhaps aviation’s most uneconomical tanker.
OPPOSITE: PETER STACKPOLE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY; ABOVE: PHOTOQUEST/GETTY IMAGES
liberator lineup B-24s on the assembly line at Ford’s Willow Run plant in Michigan, one of five factories that cranked out the bombers.
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TECH NOTES B-24J LIBERATOR SPECIFICATIONS ENGINES Four 1,200-hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-65 Twin Wasp radials WINGSPAN 110 feet
TAIL GUNNER CONSOLIDATED OR MOTOR PRODUCTS MPC A-6B ELECTRICALLY OPERATED TAIL TURRET
FABRICCOVERED RUDDER
RUDDER TRIM TAB
FABRICCOVERED ELEVATOR
ELEVATOR TRIM TAB
LENGTH 67 feet 8 inches HEIGHT 18 feet
LEADING EDGE DE-ICING BOOT
WEIGHT 38,000 pounds (empty) 56,000 pounds (combat) 71,200 pounds (maximum) SPEED 290 mph at 25,000 feet (maximum) SERVICE CEILING 28,000 feet
AFT FUSELAGE K 7-C CAMERA
COMBAT RANGE 1,700 miles with 5,000 pounds of bombs WAIST GUNNERS .50-CALIBER MANUALLY OPERATED WAIST GUNS
FERRY RANGE 3,300 miles ARMAMENT 10 M2 .50-caliber machine guns Up to 8,000-pound internal bombload
BALL TURRET GUNNER BRIGGS-SPERRY ELECTRICALLY OPERATED BALL TURRET
REAR WING SPAR
AILERON
WING RIBS (PRESSED AND BUILT-UP FORMER)
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HAMILTON STANDARD HYDROMATIC CONSTANT-SPEED PROPELLER
DIRECTION FINDER LOOP HOUSING
AILERON TRIM TAB WING CENTER SECTION CARRYTHROUGH
BOMB RACKS
WING LEADING EDGE DE-ICING BOOT
FLIGHT ENGINEER MARTIN ELECTRICALLY OPERATED DORSAL TURRET
5-MAN INFLATABLE DINGHIES
SELF-SEALING INTER-RIB FUEL CELLS
SUPERCHARGED NACELLE CHEEK PLATES
PILOT’S SEAT PITOT HEAD ASTRODOME
NOSE GUNNER
CONSOLIDATED OR EMERSON ELECTRICALLY OPERATED NOSE TURRET
PRATT & WHITNEY R-1830-65 TWIN WASP 14-CYLINDER TWIN-ROW RADIAL ENGINE
COPILOT’S SEAT
NAVIGATOR’S POSITION
MUDGUARD
OPTICALLY FLAT BOMB AIMING PANEL ILLUSTRATION: JOHN BATCHELOR
RADIO OPERATOR’S POSITION
BOMBARDIER’S POSITION (NOT VISIBLE)
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LEFT AND RIGHT: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; ABOVE RIGHT: GUY ACETO
LIBERATORS FLEW THEIR MOST FAMOUS MISSION ON AUGUST 1, 1943, AGAINST AXIS OIL REFINERIES IN PLOESTI, ROMANIA, A LOW-LEVEL RAID CARRIED OUT BY 179 B-24S.
* )_I[\PMÅZ[\)UMZQKIVIQZKZIN\\WJMPQ\JaI 2IXIVM[MJWUJI\8MIZT0IZJWZ-IZTaKWUJI\UQ[[QWV[ Ja 4*[ I KWZXWZI\M LM[QOVI\QWV NWZ 4QJMZI\WZ[QV\MVLMLNWZ\PM*ZQ\Q[PWN\PM=; \P *WUJIZLUMV\/ZW]X]T\QUI\MTaNIQTML\W[\MU\PM2IXIVM[M QV^I[QWVWN2I^I*a! PW_M^MZ* [WN\PM-TM^MV\P)QZ .WZKM_MZMJZI^QVOÆISIVL¹\PMJQZ\PXTIKMWNJIL_MI\PMZº \W[\ZQSMI\2IXIVM[MJI[M[QV\PM)TM]\QIV[IVL8IZIU][PQZW _PQTMI* OZW]XM`\MVLML\PM[\ZQSQVOXW_MZWN5IR/MV +TIQZM+PMVVI]T\¼[.W]Z\MMV\P)QZ.WZKMQV+PQVI;M^MV\P )QZ.WZKM4QJMZI\WZ[XW]VLML+MV\ZIT8IKQÅK\IZOM\[NZWU\PM 5IZ[PITT[IVL
A
LAST FLYING LIBERATORS
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t’s perhaps providential that the two flying survivors highlight the differences between the first and last versions of the B-24 Liberator. Together they illustrate the way the Liberator evolved. Diamond Lil, operated by the Commemorative Air Force, is configured as an early B-24A, with clean, unbroken lines and a slightly shorter fuselage than Liberators that followed. Lil was the 25th Liberator off the line but is little different from the first. In service it wore the British serial AM927, and later, as a warbird, was dubbed Ol’ 927. It now performs as B-24A 402366, representing a model that lacked the armor, armament and turbochargers of later Liberators. “Takeoff roll in the airplane is somewhat complicated,” said Al Benzing, pilot of Diamond Lil. “You’re very careful to make sure the nosewheel is straight ahead. When you add power, the aircraft will tend to the left, so you steer with the throttle until you reach the point where the rudder is effective. The amount of rudder pedal movement is quite large: You can have your leg almost fully extended and back, so you need to make sure you maintain leverage—a technique you
couldn’t think about on another aircraft. “Raising the landing gear is a challenge to the low-pressure hydraulic system. There is a restriction that no turns be made during gear operation because the main gear retract outward and G forces can easily overwhelm the system. In addition, flaps cannot be selected during gear operation, due to insufficient hydraulic pressure to operate both systems.” Witchcraft, operated by the Collings Foundation, is a B-24J-85-CF (serial no. 44-44052) painted to represent a slightly earlier B-24H-15-FO (42-52534) of the 467th Bombardment Group that flew 130 combat sorties. Witchcraft’s contours are cluttered with antennas and gun turrets. Witchcraft has a longer fuselage (67 feet 8 inches) and is equipped with superchargers for better high-altitude performance. Since Collings restored this B-24J, it has been painted to represent three wartime aircraft: All American (19891998), a Fifteenth Air Force craft based in Italy; The Dragon and Its Tail (19982005), a Fifth Air Force Pacific Liberator adorned with extraordinary art; and now Witchcraft (since 2005). R.F.D.
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CONSOLIDATED B-24D LIBERATOR COCKPIT 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
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Propeller feathering push buttons Clock Automatic direction finder Compass Destruction switches Defrosting tubes Pilot direction indicator Turn indicator Artificial horizon Radio compass Manifold pressure gauges
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12. Tachometers 13. Fuel pressure gauges 14. Cylinder head temperature gauges 15. Ventilator control 16. Altimeter 17. Airspeed indicator 18. Turn and bank indicator 19. Rate of climb indicator 20. Active flow control box 21. Flap position gauge 22. Free air temperature gauge
23. Oil pressure gauges 24. Oil temperature gauges 25. Control wheel 26. Indicator lights 27. Supercharger controls 28. Throttles 29. Mixture controls 30. Booster pump switches, primer switches 31. Starter switches, oil dilution switches 32. Recognition light switch box
Intercooler switches Cowl flap switches Elevator trim tab wheel AC switches, passing light switch, alarm bell, horn interruption switch 37. Rudder trim tab knob 38. Landing light switches 39. Aileron trim tab wheel 40. Landing gear handle 41. Radio control 33. 34. 35. 36.
OPPOSITE: NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE; RIGHT: U.S. AIR FORCE
would be 40 degrees colder. We had two types of flying clothing: sheepskin-lined leather pants and jacket and fur-lined boots, and electrically heated suit and shoes. The electrical heating wires in the suit were hooked in series. If one wire broke in that suit, the suit would not work. It got darned cold the rest of the trip. The wires usually broke on the inside of the elbow, [WUM\QUM[KI][QVOI[UITTÅZM that would have to be slapped at a few times to extinguish. I looked up one day to see the nose gunner’s door come open. He was beating out a ÅZMQV\PMMTJW_WNPQ[[]Q\1 don’t know what would happen if a wire shorted out in the crotch area.” B-24 and B-17 crews were the only Americans to receive the Purple Heart when they []ٺMZMLNZW[\JQ\M1\Q[ITUW[\ indescribable how cold they were. Liberator copilot 2nd Lt. Robert Durrell recalled that his airplane commander, IaMIZWTLÅZ[\TQM]\MVIV\ forbade the crew to carry drinking water: “It froze and became useless and was dead weight.” Crewmen also worried constantly about midair collisions. “We thought about the cold and the crowd in the sky around us a lot more than we thought about flak and ÅOP\MZ[º[IQL,]ZZMTT Sometimes a Liberator came back with its insides smeared with vomit and blood. Those who didn’t need to be scraped out of the aircraft or rushed to a burn unit were allotted grapefruit juice, hard candy and whiskey. Alcohol flowed freely at the officers’ club. At one station, whenever a man got drunk he was hoisted from his chair, his shoe bottoms were painted black, and he was turned upside-down and raised so that his footprints would be planted on the white ceiling. By the time the thou-
sand-day war in the skies of Nazi Germany ended, that ceiling was black.
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t was both good and bad that the B-24 was harder \WÆa\PIV\PM*
THE B-24 VIRTUALLY DISAPPEARED THE MOMENT THE JAPANESE SURRENDER WAS INKED. B-24 was less than two years. 5W[\* KZM_[ÆM_ UQ[sions early in the war, or 35 missions late in the war, then they went home. Unlike the B-17, which soldiered on—the Korean ?IZ¼[ÅZ[\UQ[[QWV_I[ÆW_V by an SB-17G modified for air rescue—the B-24 virtually disappeared the moment the Japanese surrender was inked. The only exception was the PB4Y-2 Privateer variant, which did Cold War reconnaissance. The last active-duty Liberator was an all-silver, Fordbuilt EZB-24M-21-FO (serial no. 44-51228) used for ice research into the 1950s. In 1956 that airplane was put on
display at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. During my basic training at Lackland as a 17-year-old airman in 1957, I remember sitting on the grass next to 44-51228. That airplane was transferred to the Duxford museum in Britain in 1999 and is now painted to represent Dugan, a Liberator based with the 392nd Bombardment Group at Wendling, Norfolk (it was replaced at Lackland by a \IKSaÅJMZOTI[[ZMXTQKI
final task EZB-24M-21-FO 44-51228 was the last Liberator to serve in the U.S. Air Force.
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sub hunters A U.S. Navy PB4Y-1 patrols the Bay of Biscay in the summer of 1943. On October 8 of that same year, U-643 goes down (opposite) after being depth-charged by RAF Liberators.
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‘FLYING DEATH’ OVER THE ATLANTIC VERY LONG RANGE LIBERATORS TURNED OUT TO BE WORLD WAR II’S MOST EFFECTIVE AERIAL U-BOAT KILLERS BY DAVID SEARS
ADVANTAGE SEESAWED IN WORLD WAR II’S EPIC BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC deep trouble Armorers load depth charges aboard a Liberator GR Mk. Va of RAF Coastal Command in Cornwall.
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as Germany introduced new weapons or tactics and the Allies countered. It was a struggle “of groping and drowning, of ambuscade and stratagem, of science and seamanship,” wrote British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. At the beginning of 1943, even as the Germans were struggling to hold the overall strategic initiative in Europe, the Allies had not yet solved the U-boat problem. Between November 1, 1942, and March 31, 1943, the Allies lost an unprecedented 350,000 tons of merchant shipping. The Germans seemed poised to sever the vital ocean supply lines between America and Britain. Eastbound from Canadian waters, North Atlantic convoys entered the shallow waters of the Grand Banks. For the next thousand miles, weather conditions were dominated by the col-
lision of the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador Current. The expanse was usually fogbound and cluttered with icebergs, hazardous for merchants, surface warships and escort aircraft. This was the Air Gap or Greenland Gap or Black 0WTM7^MZ\PMKW]Z[MWNNW]Z\WÅ^M[MMUQVOTa endless days, the typical convoy and its surface escorts ran a U-boat gantlet without any air cover. World War II submarines could not submerge for long and were especially vulnerable to air attack when surfaced. To cover the Air Gap, the Allies desperately needed very long range (VLR) aircraft, capable of remaining four hours on station 1,000 miles from base. As it turned out, by NIZ\PMUW[\MٻKQMV\IMZQIT=JWI\SQTTMZ[_W]TL be B-24 Liberators.
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ften compared with the better-known Boeing B-17, Consolidated’s B-24 was lighter, faster and boasted a longer range than the Flying Fortress. In addition, the “Flying Boxcar’s” spacious, slab-sided fuselage contained a central bomb bay that could hold four tons of munitions. Despite these advantages, however, the B-24 _I[IT[WUWZMLQٻK]T\\WÆaIVLQV\PMWXQVQWV of many, not nearly as rugged as the B-17. Its only entry and exit point was in the stern, making it difÅK]T\NWZ\PMÆQOP\LMKSKZM_IVLVW[MO]VVMZ\W escape quickly. Capacious fuselage-mounted fuel
PREVIOUS PAGES: (LEFT) PHOTOQUEST/GETTY IMAGES; (RIGHT) IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM C 3933 THESE PAGES: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM CH 12373 (OPPOSITE) AND C 4603 (RIGHT)
tanks made the aircraft vulnerable to explosion IVLÅZMIVLQ\[QVVW^I\Q^MPQOPUW]V\ML_QVO IT[WZMVLMZML\PM¹.TaQVO+WٻVº[][KMX\QJTM\W JZMISQVOIXIZ\L]ZQVOLQ\KPQVOWZJMTTaTIVLQVO *W\P\PM=;)ZUa)QZ+WZX[IVL*ZQ\IQV¼[ :WaIT)QZ.WZKMNW]VL\PMMIZTa4*)UWL MT[]V[]Q\IJTMNWZKWUJI\4:L]\aZMY]QZMLZML]K QVO_MQOP\JaZMUW^QVOIZUWZIVLO]V\]ZZM\[ _PQTM[QU]T\IVMW][TaM`XIVLQVON]MTKIXIKQ\a 6M_IV\Q[]JUIZQVM_IZNIZM);?\MKPVWTWOa IVL_MIXWVZa_MZMIT[WILLML"IQZ\W[]ZNIKM^M[ [MT);>UQKZW_I^MZILIZ\PI\=JWI\[KW]TLV¼\ LM\MK\JTQVLQVO[XW\TQOP\[KITTML4MQOP4QOP\[ \PI\MVIJTMLVWK\]ZVITI\\IKS[ XW]VLIMZQIT LMX\PJWUJ[¹.QLWºIKW][\QKPWUQVO\WZXMLWM[ IVLVMIZ[]XMZ[WVQK[WTQLXZWXMTTIV\ZWKSM\[_Q\P [WTQL[\MMTIZUWZXQMZKQVO_IZPMIL[ 7VKMQV\ZWL]KMLQV\W\PMNQOP\>4:* [ M`\MVLML\PMZILQ][WNTIVLJI[MLIQZKW^MZIOM W^MZ\ZIV[I\TIV\QKKWV^Wa[\W UQTM[MI[\IVL _M[\NZWU6M_NW]VLTIVLIVL!UQTM[_M[\ NZWU\PM*ZQ\Q[P1[TM[*]\\PMZWTTW]\XZW^ML[TW_ VW\WVTaJMKI][MWN\PM\QUMKWV[]UQVOZM\ZW Å\[J]\IT[WI[IZM[]T\WNWZOIVQbI\QWVITTWORIU[ QVKT]LQVOLQ[X]\M[JM\_MMV\PM=;6I^aIVL )ZUa)QZ.WZKM[W^MZLWK\ZQVMR]ZQ[LQK\QWVIVL KWUUIVL[\Z]K\]ZM 8MZPIX[UW[\TM\PITQV\PMMIZTQMZ[\IOM[WN\PM MNNWZ\_I[+WI[\IT+WUUIVL¼[1KMTIVLJI[ML 6W;Y]ILZWVÆaQVOIPIVLN]TWNXI\KPML]X IVLUWLQÅMLMIZTaUWLMT4QJMZI\WZ[.WZI\QUM ;Y]ILZWVKWUUIVLMLJa;YL4LZ
“HAWKEYE” BULLOCH HAD REMARKABLE EYESIGHT THAT ENABLED HIM TO DETECT SUBMARINES WHERE OTHERS SAW JUST SWIRLS OF WATER.
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NEAR MISS U-243 is crippled by a depth charge dropped by a Short Sunderland. The U-boat sank after being targeted by a second Sunderland and a U.S. Navy PB4Y-1 Liberator.
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deadly defense An armorer cleans the .303-inch gun barrels of a Liberator Mk. III’s rear turret in 1943.
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Arnold and Admiral Ernest King. Slessor’s pleas for American VLR Liberators were instrumental in resolving the long-simmering ASW disputes between the Army and Navy. In brief, the Army _W]TLXPI[MW]\Q\[);?MٺWZ\[QVZM\]ZVNWZIV increased allotment of new production B-24s. Moreover, King, an Anglophobe, agreed to temXWZIZQTa\ZIV[NMZÅ^M[Y]ILZWV[WN);>ZILIZ MY]QXXML>4:* [\W+WI[\IT+WUUIVL In July and August, while U-boats received lit\TM4]N\_IٺM[]XXWZ\*IaWN*Q[KIaP]V\QVO_I[ superb for all ASW aircraft, including the VLR * [;M^MVJWI\[[]KK]UJML\W¹ÆaQVOLMI\Pº in the early weeks of July. Then, between July 28 IVL)]O][\\PM¹JQO*Ia;TI]OP\MZºKTIQUML nine more, three of them on July 30. But Slessor SVM_Q\KW]TLV¼\TI[\,VQ\bZITTQML4]N\_IٺM[]Xport, then authorized his skippers to trespass into neutral Spain’s coastal waters whenever feasible. 0MIT[WWZLMZMLPQ[=JWI\[SQXXMZ[\WÅOP\JIKS Germany had previously experimented with TM\PITÆIS=JWI\[Å\\ML_Q\PIY]ILZ]XTMUU KIVVWVIVL UU;SWLIZIXQLÅZMIV\QIQZKZIN\ gun. Now U-boats armed with dismountable sinOTMWZ\_QVUUKIVVWV[_MZMWZLMZML\WÅOP\Q\ out when surprised on the surface. The stage was set for pitched air/surface battles.
P
erhaps the most intense of these showdowns began before dawn on November ! _PMVIV);>ZILIZMY]QXXML Vickers Wellington bomber detected a []ZNIKMKWV\IK\ UQTM[W\ٺPM;XIVQ[PKWI[\1V addition to the RAF Wellington, three U.S. Navy IVL\_W:).4QJMZI\WZ[ITWVM:).ÅOP\MZIVL I;]VLMZTIVLÆaQVOJWI\NW]OP\IXZWTWVOMLVQVM hour battle. A diary entry from the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Air ?QVO [MVQWZIQZKWUJI\QV\MTTQOMVKM)+1WٻKMZJI[MLQV8TaUW]\P-VOTIVLZMKWZLML\PMÅZ[\ blows: “10 November 1943/Time 0910/U-boat VMIZ+IXM.MZZWT;XIQV]VLMZI\\IKSJa4QJMZI \WZ[NZWUC6I^aJWUJQVO[Y]ILZWV[E>* VB-105, and VB-110. Flak from U-boat was in tense. One Liberator hit and returning to Dunkeswell Air Base with one engine out. U-boat ZMUIQVQVOWV[]ZNIKMIVLÅOP\QVOJIKSº The submarine was U-966, a 712-ton Type >11+)\TIV\QKKTI[[JWI\TI]VKPMLQV5IZKP! and commanded by Lt. j.g. Ekkehard Wolf, not yet 25. Wolf and his 50-man crew had survived a British destroyer depth-charge attack but lost ][MWN\PMQZZILQWMY]QXUMV\=VIJTM\WKWUU]nicate, Wolf aborted the patrol and made a run for western France. U-966 surfaced in the Bay of Biscay and was changing its deck watch when the TW_ÆaQVO?MTTQVO\WVNZWU6W ;Y]ILZWV XQTW\MLJa?IZZIV\7ٻKMZ4,/]VVXW]VKML Gunn doused his Leigh Light, instead exploiting bright moonlight and a telltale phosphorescent _ISM\W[\ITSPQ[Y]IZZaIVLLZWXLMX\PKPIZOM[ When the charges exploded, remembered Herbert Komer, U-966’s chief engineer, “It was as if IVQV^Q[QJTMPIVLOZIJJMLIVL[PWWS\PMJWI\º)[ soon as wounded sailors were brought below, Wolf ordered an emergency dive to 150 meters. Making VWQ[M[TQSM¹I_W]VLMLIVLLM[XMZI\MIVQUITºI[Q\ plunged, U-966_W]TLVW\TM^MTWٺKWV\QV]QVO\W 240 meters before stabilizing. The German crew rallied to patch and repair. Finally, at 9 a.m., its battery power exhausted, U-966 surfaced in bright sunlight and fair seas only to be spotted again, now by a PB4Y-1 Liberator from VB-105. Lieutenant Leonard Harmon attacked out of \PM[]VJ]\ÆISPQ\[RIUUMLPQ[LMX\PJWUJ ZMTMI[MLWWZ[2WQVMLJZQMÆaJaIV:).ÅOP\MZ Harmon executed three strafing runs, using \PMKZM_ÅZML\_QV KITQJMZ[UW]V\MLQVPQ[ navalized Liberator’s bow turret. Having sustained heavy damage and low on fuel, Harmon JZWSMW\¸ٺPW]OPVW\JMNWZMITMZ\QVOZMQVNWZKMments. Shortly before noon VB-103 PB4Y-1 pilot 4QM]\MVIV\3MV?ZQOP\UILM\_WUWZM[\ZIÅVO I\\IKS[LZWXXQVOÅ^MLMX\PKPIZOM[IVLI.QLW Afterward, Wright reported the U-boat was [\QTTIÆWI\IVLÅZQVOQV\MV[MTa?WTNZMXMI\MLTa UIVM]^MZML\WKWVNZWV\\PMI\\IKSMZ[JW_ÅZ[\ ZML]KQVOPQ[JWI\¼[\IZOM\XZWÅTMU-966 survivors
prickly target
OPPOSITE: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM CH 18031; ABOVE: HISTORYNET ARCHIVE
U-966’s crew depended on its “Wintergarten” of flak guns to fend off Allied attackers before the sub finally ran aground on November 10, 1943.
TI\MZM[\QUI\MLÅZQVOZW]VL[WNUUIVL UUIUU]VQ\QWVL]ZQVO\PMNZIa7VMW^MZPMI\MLUUO]VM`XTWLMLNMTTQVOQ\[O]VVMZ _Q\PIUWZ\ITPMIL_W]VL5MIV_PQTMJIKSQV 8TaUW]\P\PM)+1¼[LQIZaMV\ZQM[]XLI\ML\PM [\I\]["=JWI\[\QTTWV\PM[]ZNIKMÅOP\QVOJIKS# VWKZM_KTIQUMLILMNQVQ\MSQTT#LMX\PKPIZOM[ LZWXXMLKTW[M\WJ]\LQLV¼\SQTT#=JWI\[PWW\QVO JIKS_Q\PM^MZa\PQVOQ\PIL#IQZKZIN\ZM\]ZVQVO _Q\PMVOQVMIVLIQZNZIUMLIUIOM 4QM]\MVIV\?QTTQIU8IZQ[PXQTW\QVOI>* 4QJMZI\WZ_I[VM`\\W[\ZQSMTIaQVOQV[Q`LMX\P KPIZOM[ KTW[M IJWIZL U-966 .QVITTa \PM []J [TW_MLIVL\ZIQTMLWQTJ]\WVTaI[Q\VMIZML;XIQV¼[ ZWKSa KWI[\
WHEN THE CHARGES EXPLODED, “IT WAS AS IF AN INVISIBLE HAND GRABBED AND SHOOK THE BOAT.”
XQTW\MLJa.TaQVO7ٻKMZ)Z\P]Z.ZIVSTQVWT]UM@"
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ANGELS OF MERCY
THESE 10 GREAT AERIAL RESCUES DEMONSTRATE THAT AIRCRAFT SERVE A FAR NOBLER PURPOSE THAN HAULING PASSENGERS AND CARGO OR DEALING DEATH FROM THE SKIES BY STEPHAN WILKINSON
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all aboard! Members
of a U.S. Air Force combat control team sprint for Lt. Col. Joe Jackson‘s C-123 amid the carnage of Kham Duc Special Forces camp, in a Keith Ferris painting.
AIRCRAFT QUICKLY BECAME WEAPONS OF WAR, BUT LESS EXPECTED WAS THEIR ROLE AS RESCUERS.
Today it seems inevitable that aircraft—particularly helicopters—should be used as angels of mercy, to pluck the endangered from peril in ways that no other vehicle can. But it certainly wasn’t part of their job description originally. A few aerial rescues were performed during World War I almost as afterthoughts, and during the 1930s the U.S. Coast Guard developed amphibious aerial rescue techniques. It took the next world war, however, to create aircraft and procedures truly devoted to aerial rescue. 6W_UIVa_IZ[TI\MZTIVLXTIVM[[MIXTIVM[;<74KZIN\IVL[WXPQ[\QKI\MLÆQVO wings have extended the aerial-rescue operating theater to distances, altitudes and environmental conditions that were until recently unimaginable. And, as always, bravery has extended them even farther.
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1
2
4
3
A PROVIDER PROVIDES AN OUT A
medal of honor action
Jackson begins turning around his C-123 (1) to avoid a wrecked CH-47 (2) blocking the runway and pick up the trapped team. A damaged C-130 (3) sits just beyond an O-2 (4) that had also crash-landed.
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mid the wreckage of one of the U.S. Army’s worst defeats in Vietnam—the Battle of Kham Duc— acts of heroism shone, none more brightly than Lt. Col. Joe Jackson’s rescue of three otherwise-doomed American airmen. Kham Duc was an isolated Special Forces camp with a single short, narrow runway, and in May 1968 the base was overrun by the NVA. A thousand U.S. and South Vietnamese troops and many civilians were evacuated from the beleaguered strip by a stream of Air Commando C-123 Providers and C-130s. Their rescues included extracting the three-man Air Force combat control team (CCT) that had been on the ground coordinating the evacuation.
In a baffling display of desk-jockey stubbornness, Saigon ordered the CCT back into Kham Duc to finish their job, despite the fact that nearly everybody had already been evacuated. The team was back in Kham Duc just in time to hear the airborne command post declare the evacuation finished. Fortunately, the C-130 crew that had emplaced them made it abundantly clear that three Americans were still on the ground. A C-123 landed to pick up the abandoned CCT, but mortar, rocket and machine-gun fire turned the landing into an immediate touch-and-go. (Eight aircraft had already been shot down or destroyed on the ground.) Colonel Jackson, also piloting a
Provider, was next in line, and it never occurred to him to say the rescue was too risky. To give the North Vietnamese the least possible opportunity to target him, Jackson used what we’d today call a tactical approach and assault landing, diving from 9,000 feet with gear and flaps down, power at idle, and then touching down short and hard. The runway was blocked by a wrecked helo, allowing only 2,200 clear feet for takeoff, but the CCT scrambled aboard and Jackson was off moments later—as a 122mm rocket landed just 25 feet from the Provider’s nose, but thankfully didn’t explode. For his selfless heroism, Jackson was awarded the Medal of Honor.
arctic recovery
Crewmen on the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Munro assist a member of the fishing ship Alaska Ranger‘s crew.
PREVIOUS PAGES: ©1980 KEITH FERRIS; OPPOSITE: U.S. AIR FORCE; TOP: U.S. COAST GUARD; BOTTOM: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM Q 69475
The First of Many
Richard Bell-Davies became a Royal Naval Air Service pilot in 1913, at a time when British aviators were all hyphenated, peers or rich, sometimes all three: Bell-Davies PILTMIZVML\WÆa\PZMMaMIZ[MIZTQMZWVPQ[W_VLQUM0MQ[ NZMY]MV\TaKZMLQ\ML_Q\PPI^QVOJMMV\PM_WZTL¼[ÅZ[\KIZZQMZ XQTW\UISQVO\PMÅZ[\\ISMWٺIVLKIJTMIZZM[\MLLMKSTIVLing on an aircraft carrier while it was underway in September ! *]\PMPILITZMILaUILMPQ[\WZaWV6W^MUJMZ! ! JaXMZNWZUQVO\PM_WZTL¼[ÅZ[\ZM[K]MUQ[[QWVJaIV IQZKZIN\INMI\NWZ_PQKPPMMIZVML\PM>QK\WZQI+ZW[[ *MTT,I^QM[IVL.TQOP\;]J4\/QTJMZ\;UaTQMPILJMMV ÆaQVOIJWUJQVOUQ[[QWVIOIQV[\I*]TOIZQIVZIQT_IaR]VK\QWV\PI\_I[KZIUUML_Q\P[]XXTQM[NWZ\PM<]ZS[ÅOP\ing the British during Churchill’s Folly—the disastrous ,IZLIVMTTM[KIUXIQOV;UaTQM¼[.IZUIVJWUJMZ_I[PQ\ JaPMI^aÅZMIVLKZI[PTIVLMLQVIZWKSaLZQMLW]\UIZ[P R][\QV[QLM\PM*]TOIZQIVJWZLMZ_Q\P<]ZSMa*MTT,I^QM[ quickly decided to land and retrieve him, but his biggest concern was that Smylie might have also been carrying a JWUJIZLQMZO]VVMZ¹)VM`XMZQMVKMLO]VVMZWٻKMZ_I[ much more valuable than a newly minted sub,” Bell-Davies wrote in his autobiography—and he knew he could only KIZZaWVMXI[[MVOMZQVPQ[[QVOTM[MI\6QM]XWZ\0MLQLV¼\ LIZMKWV[QLMZPW_PMKW]TLTMI^MMQ\PMZUIVJMPQVL Smylie was alone, fortunately, and while a squad of Bulgarian troops pounded toward the airplane, Bell-Davies crammed Smylie into the Nieuport’s footwell, where the young sub crouched on all fours between the rudder bar and \PMÅZM_ITTP]VSMZML]VLMZ\PMWQT\IVSNWZ\PM UQV]\M ÆQOP\PWUM1\ZMXWZ\MLTa\WWS\_WPW]Z[\WM`\ZQKI\M;UaTQM from the various rods, cables and controls, but better that than spending the rest of the war in a Bulgarian prisoner WN _IZKIUX
Richard Bell-Davies
BELL-DAVIES MADE HISTORY BY PERFORMING THE WORLD’S FIRST RESCUE MISSION BY AN AIRCRAFT.
ALASKA RANGER
W
hen I was a young merchant seaman, we called Coast Guardsmen “knee-deeps,” implying that they never got far from the safety of rivers and shores. There is no greater refutation of that condescension than the Coast Guard’s rescue of 42 of 47 souls from the fishing ship Alaska Ranger in late March 2008, plucking the surviving men (and one woman) from the bitter-cold Bering Sea, which is plenty more than knee-deep. And doing much of it at night, amid 20-foot waves, 30-knot winds, -24 degree wind chill and snow showers. Twenty of the rescues were made by two Coast Guard helicopters: a Sikorsky HH-60 Jayhawk and a Eurocopter HH-65 Dolphin. The rest of the survivors were picked up by Alaska Ranger’s sister ship Alaska Warrior while a Coast Guard C-130 orbited overhead coordinat-
ing communications and searching for life vest strobes scattered amid a mile-long drift zone. The helos were 120 miles from the nearest helipad. The big Jayhawk could do midair refueling by picking up a hose from the cutter Munro, which was steaming toward the sinking ship, and the Dolphin was able to land on the cutter, though with great difficulty on a severely pitching, rolling deck. During the rescue, the Dolphin landed aboard to drop off an overload of freezing fishermen with barely 20 gallons of jet fuel remaining—which, for a 1,700-hp aircraft, is little more than fumes. Bravest of the brave were the Coastie rescue swimmers, who were dropped into the water to help survivors into lifting slings or baskets. One swimmer, on his first for-real rescue mission, was left in a life raft for an hour, after giving up his space on the helo to a hypothermic survivor.
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Behind Enemy Lines
PBY MAXIMUM EFFORT
T
o land a PBY-5 Catalina in 16- to 18-foot Pacific seas is a feat of rare air- and seamanship. To do it four times in one day, under heavy enemy fire, is incomprehensible. Yet U.S. Navy Lt. j.g. Nathan G. Gordon did exactly that on February 15, 1944, to rescue 15 Army airmen within sight of furious Japanese machine gunners and artillerymen at Kavieng, north of New Britain. Gordon had been flying night anti-shipping missions as part of VP-34, one of the notorious “Black Cat“ patrol squadrons, when he got a hurry-up call that an A-20 Havoc had been downed during a daytime raid on Kavieng. Gordon’s rescue mission was given an escort of four P-47 Thunderbolts, but his incredible landing between the big swells sweeping in toward the large Japanese base proved fruitless. There was wreckage and a raft but no sign of the Havoc’s crew. After taking off, Gordon got a message from the crew of a B-25 Mitchell orbiting the area. They gave him the coordinates of a ditched Mitchell. Gordon quickly found it, landed again and took aboard six B-25 crewmen while under heavy fire. Fortunately, the swells were so deep that
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multiple pickups Lt. j.g.
Nathan Gordon (above) rescued 15 in a PBY-5A, like these “Black Cats“ (top). the Cat spent half its time bobbing out of sight of the Japanese shore gunners. Another takeoff, another turn to a heading home. This time Gordon got about 20 miles before the same B-25 called with news of another ditched bomber about a mile from shore. Back Gordon went to pick up the three surviving crewmen. By this time, the Cat’s hull was leaking badly where rivets had popped during the full-stall, slow-as-possible landings, and two of his escorting P-47s had called bingo fuel and headed home. With nine extra passengers, several badly wounded, Gordon set off again for his base, but within minutes the radio crackled yet again. This time, the ditched B-25 was just 600 yards offshore. To land between the swells, Gordon had to make his approach directly over the Japanese guns and without the help of any suppressing fire; the last two P-47s had already left. He and his crew picked up six more bomber crewmen and finally were cleared to leave with their 15 extra passengers—an accomplishment for which Gordon was awarded the Medal of Honor and his entire crew Silver Stars.
There was a time when\PM=;)QZ.WZKMÆM_[MIXTIVM[¸IVLVWVMUWZM[]KKM[[N]TTa\PIV\PMJQO/Z]UUIV ;) )TJI\ZW[[XQTW\MLJa[\4\2WPV6IRIZQIV\WUISM IZM[K]MNIZJMPQVLMVMUaTQVM[L]ZQVO\PM3WZMIV?IZ +IX\IQV3MVVM\P;\M_IZ\PILXIZIKP]\MLNZWUPQ[. , 5][\IVO IN\MZ Z]VVQVO QV\W NTIS UQTM[ VWZ\PMI[\ WN 8aWVOaIVO\PM6WZ\P3WZMIVKIXQ\IT;\M_IZ\KIUMLW_V QV\PMVIZZW_[PITTW_LMJZQ[LW\\ML
Taedong river rescue Captain Kenneth Stewart (left)
talks with SA-16 pilot Lieutenant John Najarian, who rescued the F-51 flier after he went down in North Korea.
swiss specialistS
Mountaineers reach the downed C-53 before (below) a ski-equipped Swiss Fi-156 Storch arrives to evacuate the passengers and crew.
OPPOSITE: (ABOVE) U.S. NAVY; (BELOW) U.S. AIR FORCE; ABOVE & RIGHT: SWISS FEDERAL ARCHIVES
GAULI GLACIER O
n November 19, 1946, a U.S. Army Air Forces C-53 Skytrooper—the troop-carrying version of the cargo-configured C-47—crash-landed on the Gauli Glacier, in the Bernese Alps of central Switzerland. The twin-engine Douglas had been flying through bad weather, already too low among towering peaks, and a powerful downslope wind made the hard, wheels-up touchdown inevitable. When the transport was reported missing, an international fullcourt media press began, for it had been carrying a cargo of high-ranking officers, one of them a general, plus two wives, a 12-year-old daughter
and the pilot’s mother—a dozen people in all, including four crew. Other than a crewman’s badly fractured leg, injuries were minor, but five frigid days and nights at nearly 11,000 feet in drifting snow left its occupants near the edge of survival. The U.S. Army had mounted a huge but pointless rescue mission involving two trainloads of jeeps, tracked M29 Weasels and 150 mountain troops. The Swiss pointed out that none of the vehicles or men would be of any use in the Alps, and themselves sent 80 experienced mountaineers toward the wreck site. It took the climbers 13 grueling hours
to reach the C-53, and even the Swiss were of little use by that time. Some 100 aircraft including B-17s, B-29s and RAF Lancasters (one of which was the first to spot the crash site) had been involved in the search and subsequent dropping of survival gear and food, much of which fell into ravines or deep snow, but the actual rescue was performed by two small, ski-equipped Swiss army Fieseler Fi-156
Storches. The stalky STOL planes carried everybody to safety during deteriorating weather, in eight flights from the glacier. The Swiss had experimented with skiplanes and snow operations during WWII, but this was the first attempt at actual high-altitude glacier landings and takeoffs. The Gauli Glacier crash began a tradition of Swiss aerial mountain rescues that continues to this day.
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Hitching a Ride
ride to freedom Some
of the 500 downed airmen who rode C-47s out of Yugoslavia in 1944.
OPERATION HALYARD
T
he biggest behindenemy-lines aerial extraction ever attempted— and pulled off—took place in Yugoslavia between August and December 1944. Numbers are difficult to confirm, since this was a controversial operation that remained classified until the late 1990s, but best estimates are that more than 500 American, British, Canadian, French, Italian and Soviet airmen who had crash-landed or parachuted after raids on Romanian oil facilities, including infamous Ploesti, were spirited out of German-held Yugoslavia by Douglas C-47s, from dirt strips and pastures that would have challenged a single-engine Cessna pilot. The airmen and their Serbian protectors cleared the initial 2,100-foot runway using nothing but shovels, hoes, axes and oxcarts. On August 9, the first four
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Skytrains landed at night on a mountain strip they’d never seen, lit by burning hay bales, and flew out a dozen men per airplane. Every rescue flight for the next 4½ months had to go perfectly, lest the runway be blocked by a ground-looped C-47 or, worse, a fiery crash attracted German troops from a base barely 15 miles away. The decision was quickly made to abandon suicidal night runs, so the unarmed C-47s had to risk daylight trips through skies patrolled by the Luftwaffe. This called for the best fighter escorts available—the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group, known for their propensity to stick with their charges rather than chase the Luftwaffe. When Wehrmacht activities made the initial runway unusable, Operation Halyard moved to first one, then another mountain strip. The rescues ended when the oil-interdiction campaign wound down for lack of targets.
In March 1966, 2,000 North Vietnamese regulars attacked a tiny Special Forces squad and several hundred South Vietnamese Civilian Irregular Defense Group soldiers at a camp in the A Shau Valley, near the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Under an 800-foot ceiling that obscured the tops of the surrounding hills, air support for the Green Berets was limited, but A-1 Skyraiders were still low and slow enough to harass the attackers. The NVA had surrounded the camp, however, and their guns controlled its narrow landing strip. 7VMWN \PM[\ZIÅVO;XIL[_I[PQ\J]\UIVIOML\W[SQL onto the 2,500-foot runway, its crushed belly tank erupting QVÆIUM[
BERNIE FISHER’S SPAD TOOK 19 HITS, BUT HE PULLED AN EXHAUSTED MYERS ABOARD AND FIREWALLED THE THROTTLE.
PRINSENDAM AFIRE M
OPPOSITE: (ABOVE) NATIONAL ARCHIVES; (BELOW) U.S. AIR FORCE; ABOVE: U.S. COAST GUARD; RIGHT: MAURIZIO FOLINI
V Prinsendam (above) was a Dutch liner that specialized in Pacific cruises for the wealthy elderly. The ship was not a floating housing project like today’s Caribbean cruisers but a relatively intimate 427foot luxury yacht. Yet all its pretensions couldn’t keep a fuel line from bursting and spraying fuel onto one of the
ship’s four 4,000-hp diesel engines. It happened at midnight on October 4, 1980, in the Gulf of Alaska, one of the most inhospitable bodies of water in the world. Within hours the fire was out of control, and a combination of airways and natural chimneys quickly spread superheated flames and choking smoke throughout the ship.
So began the largest peacetime air-sea rescue the world has yet seen: 320 passengers and 200 crew, most of the passengers over 65, some of them in wheelchairs and walkers, were cast adrift in the middle of the night in lifeboats on a frigid, angry sea. The weather was worsening as a typhoon moved into the area, land was 150 miles away, the nearest U.S. Coast Guard cutter 10 hours distant. It was up to the Coast Guard to coordinate a long-distance rescue that involved a fleet of Coast Guard, U.S. Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force helicopters and C-130s, Air Force parajumpers, three Coast Guard cutters, the supertanker Williamsburgh and a host of support vessels. One Coast Guard helo dropped a firefighter and a powerful pump onto Prinsendam’s deck to help a skeleton crew that had stayed aboard, but the effort
failed. When Williamsburgh hove to near the sinking Prinsendam, the supertanker became the focus of the rescue effort. Barely a hundred feet shorter than a nuclear carrier, Williamsburgh had two large helipads and room for Prinsendam’s entire complement, but few could climb the rope ladders to its deck. Throughout the day, hurrying to get everybody aboard before dark, helicopters transferred survivors from lifeboats to Williamsburgh, flying in strong winds and, at times, 25-foot seas. By nightfall, the rescue was declared over…but it wasn’t. “Where are my PJs [parajumpers]?” the commander of USAF operations cabled the Coast Guard. They were aboard a single forgotten lifeboat, which was finally located at 2:30 the next morning and its 22 occupants transferred to the cutter Boutwell. Not a man, woman or child had been lost.
Mountain High The unofficial world altitude record for helicopters is exactly 42,500 feet, set in March 2002 by cinema pilot Fred North in an altitude-optimized Aérospatiale AS-350B2. *]\\PMZM¼[ILQٺMZMVKMJM\_MMVNWZKQVOI\W\ITTa[\ZQXXML [QVOTMXQTW\\]ZJQVMPMTW\WIPMQOP\[WM`\ZMUM\PI\Q\[MVOQVM ÆIUMLW]\I[[WWVI[Q\OW\\PMZMIVLÆaQVO\W\PMZM[K]MWN I 0QUITIaIVKTQUJMZ4WWUQVOUW]V\IQVKZIO[[_QZTQVOKTW]L[ turbulence and helicopter aerodynamics confuse the issue. The record for a mountain rescue, performed in May 2013 by Italian pilot Maurizio Folini in an AS-350B3 on Lhotse, near Mt. Everest, stands at 23,590 feet. )PMTQKWX\MZI\M`\ZMUMIT\Q\]LM¸_PQKPNWZKWV^MV\QWVIT [UITTPMTW[UMIV[XZM\\aU]KPIVa\PQVOW^MZNMM\WVI _IZULIa¸Q[I\W]KPaJMI[\.WZ.WTQVQ¼[ZM[K]MWN I6MXITM[M Canadian armless double-amputee climber, a Sherpa on the OZW]VLPIL\WKTQX\PI\KTQMV\WV\W\PMMVLWN I NWW\TQVM LIVOTQVOJMVMI\P\PMPMTQKWX\MZQVI[Q\]I\QWV_PMZMI[.WTQVQ [IQLQVIVQV\MZ^QM_NWTTW_QVOILQٺMZMV\IVL]T\QUI\MTa]V[]KKM[[N]TZM[K]MI\\MUX\¹)JIOWN OZWKMZQM[KTQXXML\W\PMTWVOTQVM_W]TLPI^MJZW]OP\C\PMPMTQKWX\MZELW_Vº Client? Yes, unlike most other aerial saves, Himalayan resK]M[IZMJ][QVM[[IZZIVOMUMV\[VW\P]UIVQ\IZQIVMVLMI^WZ[ A typical rescue mission costs $2,500 an hour and can con[]UMI\TMI[\\PZMMPW]Z[WN PMTW\QUM[WTQNM[I^QVOÆQOP\[IVL
because it's there Maurizio Folini heads for the
Himalayan peaks in his AS-350B3 to rescue a climber.
\PMIKKWUXIVaQVO\W]ZQ[\IVL[QOP\[MMQVO\ZQX[PI^MJMKWUMI KWV\ZW^MZ[QIT\ZILMQV\PM0QUITIaI[_Q\PIV]UJMZWN 1\ITQIV ;_Q[[IVL6MXITQKWUXIVQM[KWUXM\QVONWZ\PMJ][QVM[[ For further reading, contributing editor Stephan Wilkinson suggests:
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FIERY SACRIFICE The carrier Bunker Hill burns after being hit by two kamikazes on May 11, 1945, killing nearly 400 Americans and wounding more than 250.
DIVINE WIND
IN THE FINAL MONTHS OF WORLD WAR II, JAPANESE AVIATORS RESORTED TO A LAST-DITCH TACTIC: THE SUICIDE DIVE BY DON HOLLWAY
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close call Above: This attack by a Zero on the battleship Missouri on April 11, 1945, did only minor damage. Above right: Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi, father of kamikaze tactics.
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PREVIOUS PAGES: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; ABOVE LEFT: U.S. NAVY; ABOVE RIGHT: ASAHI SHIMBUN/GETTY IMAGES; OPPOSITE PHOTOS: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
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fter the mid-1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea—the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”—the U.S. military considered 2IXIVM[MVI^ITI^QI\QWVÅVQ[PMLI[IV MٺMK\Q^MÅOP\QVONWZKMJ]\NW]Z5Q\[] JQ[PQ/ 5¹*M\\aºXQTW\[KTMIZTaLQ[IOZMML)\L][SWV7K\WJMZÆaQVO R][\IJW^M\PM_I\MZ\PMaXMVM\ZI\ML the destroyer screen around Task Force WNN .WZUW[I
MVOQVMAWSW[]SI, A+WUM\LQ^MJWUJMZ\_W days after the torpedo run on Franklin_PMVVW )UMZQKIVKIZZQMZ[_MZMPQ\XTIQVTa\PMQLMIWN[]QKQLITI\\IKSIOIQV[\W^MZ_PMTUQVOWLL[IXXMITML to the Japanese spirit. )NM_LIa[IN\MZ)ZQUI¼[LMI\PIVM_KWUUIVLMZIZZQ^MLI\5IVQTI>QKM)LUQZIT
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to launch torpedo bombers when at 0740 hours an A6M Zero, plunging so swiftly that the ship’s gun crews could not reach their posts in time, hurtled through its port side into the hangar bay. It killed [IQTWZ[IVL_W]VLML \PMÅZ[\^QK\QU[WN\PM Special Attack Unit. Half an hour later a Japanese \WZXMLWXTIVMLQ^ML NMM\QV\W\PMKIZZQMZ SuwaneePQ\\QVO\PMÆQOP\LMKS[WPIZLQ\SVWKSML W]\\PMIQZKZIN\MTM^I\WZ NMM\I_IaIVLX]VKPML a 25-foot hole in the hangar deck below. (Its engine was later found down in the lower compartments.)
FOR ONCE AMERICA HAD COME UP AGAINST A WEAPON IT COULDN’T ROLL OFF ASSEMBLY LINES.
rites of passage Kamikaze pilots don samurai headbands (top) and take part in a saki ceremony (above) before setting out on one-way missions—in this instance, taking off from Kyushu in Nakajima B6N torpedo bombers.
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relentless Lieutenant Yoshinori Yamaguchi points his burning D4Y3 at Essex’s flight deck on November 25, 1944. He killed 15 crewmen and wounded 44 aboard the carrier.
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Commander (later Admiral) John S. “Jimmy” Thach, the kamikaze was “a weapon, for all practical purposes, far ahead of its time. It was actually a guided missile before we had any such thing as guided missiles. It was guided by a human brain, human eyes and hands, and even better than a guided missile, it could look, digest the information and change course, thus avoiding damage, and get to the target.” For once America had come up against a weapon it couldn’t roll off assembly lines. As Thach put it: “Every time one country gets something, another soon has it. One country gets radar, another soon has it. One gets a new type of engine or plane, then another gets it. But the Japs have got the kamikaze boys, and nobody else is going to get that, because nobody else is built that way.” Suicide tactics struck Westerners, who initially believed every Japanese pilot had turned kamikaze, as inhuman. Sonarman 1st Class Jack Gebhardt of the destroyer Pringle, sunk in a kamikaze attack, described it as “horrifying to try and comprehend someone intentionally diving through a hail of LMILTaIV\QIQZKZIN\ÅZM_Q\P\PM[WTMX]ZXW[MWN killing themselves in a blinding explosion.” Yet judging by their surviving letters and diaries, kamikaze pilots were less fanatic than pragmatic. They knew their odds of survival were already slim. Vice Admiral Charles R. “Cat” *ZW_V\PMVIaW]VOWٻKMZ[MZ^QVOIJWIZL\PM
ÆI\\WXEssex, noted the average fast-carrier task force could bring to bear “over 1,600 guns to use in its defense....6,000 bullets per second or just under 200 tons of steel every minute....Even those Japs who were not suicidially inclined grew to consider an anti-carrier mission as almost automatic enrollment in the Kamikaze Corps.” For kamikaze pilots, death went from probable to certain, but also from anonymous to glorious. Onishi himself captured their mindset with a haiku: In blossom today, then scattered; / 4QNMQ[[WTQSMILMTQKI\MÆW_MZ/ 0W_KIVWVMM`XMK\\PMNZIOZIVKM\WTI[\NWZM^MZ? He demanded, and got, every available airplane sent to the Philippines. There was no shortage of pilots, only experienced ones. Volunteers were JZQMÆa\ZIQVMLQV[]QKQLM\IK\QK["IPQOPIXXZWIKP IJW^M)UMZQKIVÅOP\MZ[KTQUJQVO\WQV\MZKMX\WZ a low approach under radar before a pop-up and dive; the former was more damaging, but the latter more often successful. They targeted a ship’s bridge or the steering gear in the stern. Against carriers, which even an exploding plane might not sink, they aimed for the elevators, to cripple air operations. Later they were taught to actually dive under the waterline, using hydrostatic shock like a depth charge. By the end of November, the carriers Franklin, Belleau Wood, Lexington, Hancock, 1V\ZMXQL, Cabot and Essex had all been damaged. At the end of December, the Liberty ship John Burke, loaded with ammunition and hit by an Aichi D3A2 “Val” dive-bomber, utterly vanished in an explosion approximately 60 percent as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb; an Army supply ship convoying behind it sank as well—two for one. On January 4, 1945, a twin-engine Yokosuka P1Y1 “Frances” released a pair of bombs just before smashing into the escort carrier Ommaney Bay, which was so badly damaged by the triple hit that the AmeriKIV[ÅVQ[PMLQ\W\ٺPMU[MT^M[?Q\PXTIVM[ the Japanese struck 137 ships, sank 22 and killed more than 2,500 Americans. Though impressed with the results, Emperor Hirohito inquired, “Was it necessary to go to this extreme?” ¹?MU][\ZMLW]JTMW]ZMٺWZ\[\WZMTQM^M0Q[ Majesty of this concern,” Onishi told his pilots. “The evidence is quite conclusive that special attacks are our only chance.” But with the Battle of Leyte Gulf lost, so were the Philippines. Willing to die, but not under American bombs, the kamikazes withdrew to save themselves for the next big JI\\TM7ٺ.WZUW[IQV2IV]IZa\PMaVMIZTaJZWSM the destroyer Maddox (later of fame in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident) in two. The carrier Ticonderoga, hit twice, was escorted from the battle zone by two KZ]Q[MZ[IVL\PZMMLM[\ZWaMZ[¸I^MZQ\IJTMÆMM\X]\ out of action by just two aircraft, as surely as if they PILJMMV[]VS)UWV\PTI\MZWٺ1_W2QUISIUQkazes scored a carrier trifecta, damaging Lunga
ultimate test
OPPOSITE: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; ABOVE: U.S. NAVY
On October 25, 1944, the escort carrier St. Lo becomes the first warship sunk by a suicidal air attack.
Point, knocking the venerable Saratoga practically out of the war and sinking Bismarck Sea, all in one day. In mid-March some two-dozen P1Y1s, each _Q\PI XW]VLJWUJ\WWSWٺNZWU3a][P] to attack the Navy base at Ulithi, 2,500 miles away QVUQL8IKQÅK
SUICIDE FEVER SWEPT JAPAN. KAMIKAZE DUTY BECAME STRONGLY ENCOURAGED, THEN REQUIRED.
(see sidebar, P. 53). Rather than face captivity, Okinawans hurled themselves off a precipice [\QTTSVW_V\WLIaI[;]QKQLM+TQ=ٺX\WPITN\PM island’s population died. And almost every morning Japanese men tied on samurai headbands, took a ceremonial sip of sake and ascended toward the heavens, never to touch the earth again.
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dead and more than 250 wounded, the bloodiest suicide strike of the war. Three days later Enterprise, which had fought in every major battle in the 8IKQÅK_I[[M\]XWVJa SIUQSIbM[)BMZW ÆW_VJa4QM]\MVIV\;P]V[]SM
“IF WE ARE ...PREPARED TO SACRIFICE TWENTY MILLION LIVES IN A KAMIKAZE EFFORT, VICTORY WILL BE OURS!”
M`XMVLMLIJW]\ XTIVM[\W[KWZM PQ\[ IVL[QVS 6I^a[PQX[¸ITUW[\PITNWNITT\PW[M damaged and about a quarter of those lost in the MV\QZM_IZ¸J]\\PMaVM^MZ[IVSIVaWNKZ]Q[MZ[QbM WZTIZOMZ1V\PM[MI\\IKS[ITUW[\ )UMZQKIV[ LQMLIVLVMIZTa_MZM_W]VLMLNWZ_PWU \PM2IXIVM[M\ZILML[WUM IQZUMVTW[\*]\ _PI\2IXIVVMMLMLUW[\QV\PW[M_IVQVOUWV\P[ WN?WZTL?IZ11_I[M`XMZQMVKMLXQTW\[;]QKQLM \IK\QK[MV[]ZML\PI\_W]TLVM^MZPIXXMV
wall of steel A kamikaze (at left near the horizon) makes a run at the battleship Texas. It was downed before reaching its goal.
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TECH NOTES THE CHERRY BLOSSOM RING AND BEAD SIGHT PROPELLANT INSTRUMENT PANEL
ROCKET MOTORS (3) BATTERY
OXYGEN CYLINDER JUNCTION BOX
WARHEAD BASE FUSES NOSE FUSE PITOT TUBE
OPPOSITE: U.S. NAVY; ABOVE PHOTOS: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; ILLUSTRATION: STEVE KARP
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o obsessed were the Japanese with “death before defeat” that even when they developed aircraft suitable for high-speed, high-altitude intercept similar to the German Me-163 Komet, they instead created the most advanced suicide weapon of all: the Yokosuka MXY7 Model 11 Okha (“Cherry Blossom”). Japan built 755 of these rocketboosted, manned glide bombs. The first 80 were to have been shipped to the Philippines to oppose the American invasion, but they were lost when submarines torpedoed the carriers Unryu and Shinano in the last months of 1944. (It’s thought that the Okhas aboard Unryu exploded, blowing the ship apart.) Americans didn’t learn of the new secret weapon until the invasion of Okinawa, where they captured four. They named it the Baka, Japanese for “fool.” Its bare-bones controls were sufficient only to keep it
in the air for a few minutes (its entire mission life) and center a target in a simple crosshair sight (no mean feat at the Okha’s near-600-mph terminal velocity). Perhaps because of this, rocket-bomb duty was highly sought by kamikaze pilots. A cynic might say that the extra training involved extended their life spans, but as with all suicide attacks, skill played less of a role than luck. With a theoretical range of 50 miles—but realistically less than 10—the Model 11 required a ferry plane, usually a Mitsubishi G4M2e “Betty,” to reach launch distance. Its weight made the bomber clumsy and slow, easy prey for American interceptors. Under attack, the crew’s first move was to dump the rocket bomb and save themselves— the type’s typical fate. Yet if it reached its target the Okha, which packed more than 2,600 pounds of explosive into an armorpiercing warhead, was capable of inflicting massive damage. On April 12, 1945,
rocket ride This MXY7 was captured on Okinawa.
one struck the destroyer Stanly at such speed that it passed completely through the ship and out the other side before exploding. Later that day the destroyer escort Mannert L. Abele, lying dead in the water after a previous kamikaze strike, was hit amidships by an Okha flown by Lt. j.g. Saburo Dohi, who had calmly napped on the ferry flight out. The terrific explosion broke the ship’s keel. It snapped in two and sank in three minutes, taking 79 crewmen with it, the most successful Okha strike of the war. On May 11, the destroyer Hugh W. Hadley, similarly hit, remained afloat but was so badly damaged that it
retired and was scrapped a few months later. To overcome the Okha’s short legs, by war’s end several longer-ranged jet-bombs were under development. The Okha Model 22 was powered by a motorjet (a piston engine driving a single-stage compressor). The Baika (“Plum Blossom”) was a manned version of the German V-1 pulse-jet buzz bomb. They never reached operational status. Only about 50 Model 11s saw combat, and just four ever struck home, but that’s enough to secure the Cherry Blossom its curious niche in aviation history. D.H.
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AVERTING ARMAGEDDON
HOW THE ISRAELI AIR FORCE ELIMINATED THE IRAQI NUCLEAR MENACE IN 1981 BY PHILIP HANDLEMAN
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operation babylon On June 7, 1981, Israeli Air Force F-16As bomb Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, in a painting by Jack Fellows.
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A still on the job F-16A No. 107, a veteran of the Osirak raid, takes off from Nevatim Air Base (above) in October 2010. the “A” team In a postraid photo of the IAF pilots (opposite), llan Ramon stands at left, while Zeev Raz is seated at bottom left.
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[\PMWQTMUJIZOWWN ! _MV\QV\WMٺMK\IL^MZ[MTa QUXIK\QVO\PMMKWVWUQM[WN UIVaLM^MTWXMLVI\QWV[ 1ZIYNMT\MUJWTLMVML
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PREVIOUS PAGES: ©2005 JACK FELLOWS, ASAA; OPPOSITE: XINHUA/LANDOV; TOP: ISRAELI AIR FORCE; BOTTOM: ZEEV RAZ/LEVINE/SIPA/AP PHOTO
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on the mark An image from the head-up display of one of the F-16s shows the pilot zeroing in on the reactor dome.
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THE F-16’S COMPUTERIZED BOMB-SIGHTING SYSTEM WAS A MARVEL OF MODERN WARFARE.
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osirak’s nemesis Fighting Falcon No. 107 is now preserved at the Hatzerim Air Force Museum, in the Negev Desert.
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RAMON WOULD GO ON TO BECOME THE FIRST ISRAELI TO BE NAMED AN ASTRONAUT.
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TOP: NASA; BOTTOM: ISRAELI AIR FORCE
attackers would pop up one by one to dive-bombing altitude. :Ib_MV\ÅZ[\0M[PW^MLPQ[\PZW\\TMNWZ_IZL_Q\PPQ[TMN\PIVL IVLaIVSMLJIKSWVPQ[[QLM[\QKSKWV\ZWTTMZ_Q\PPQ[ZQOP\1V R][\[MKWVL[PM_I[I\ NMM\\PMXMISWN PQ[IZK+WUQVO LW_VNI[\PMKW]TL\MTTPMPILW^MZ[PW\\PMLWUM0MTM\\PM QVMZ\QIWN PQ[LM[KMVLQVORM\JTMMLWٺNWZINM_[MKWVL[\PMV pulled up to go around and try again. :Ib¼[_QVOUIV\ZIQTQVO[MKWVL[JMPQVLI[XTIVVMLM^IT] I\ML\PM[Q\]I\QWV
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reviews
RESCUE PILOT Cheating the Sea
by Jerry Grayson, Adlard Coles Nautical/ Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, $28.
1V\PQ[XTIQV[XWSMVUMUWQZIT\MZVI\MTaTIKML _Q\P[IZLWVQKP]UWZIVL\MVLMZ[WZZW_2MZZa /ZIa[WVLM[KZQJM[PQ[TQNMTWVOQVNI\]I\QWV_Q\P PMTQKWX\MZÆQOP\WV\PMMLOM/ZW_QVO]XQVZ]ZIT -VOTIVLL]ZQVO\PM! [PMQLMITQbMLTQNMQV\PM KWKSXQ\I[IVM[KIXMNZWU\PMKWVÅVM[WNNWZUIT [KPWWTQVO1V! PM][MLPQ[aW]\PN]TXT]KSQ VM[[\WXMZ[]ILM:WaIT6I^aZMKZ]Q\MZ[\W\ISM PQUQV\W\PMQZPMTQKWX\MZXZWOZIUZQOP\W]\WN PQOP[KPWWT& > /ZIa[WV¼[ÅZ[\WXMZI \QWVITI[[QOVUMV\_I[\W\PM ^MVMZIJTMIQZKZIN\KIZZQMZ HMS Ark RoyalI\\PMPMQOP\ WN\PM+WTL?IZ
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M^MV\ZIQVML_Q\PV]KTMIZ LMX\PKPIZOM[
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LAST TO DIE
A Defeated Empire, a Forgotten Mission, and the Last American Killed in World War II by Stephen Harding, Da Capo Press, 2015, $26.99.
Harding’s exhaustive interviews and research we get to know Marchione well—a nice young man who touched Anyone with a basic under- mission over Japan. Nearly all the author and now touches standing of World War II Japanese troops had laid down us as well. PQ[\WZaSVW_[\PI\ÅOP\QVOQV their arms, but tensions perThe book raises a big \PM8IKQÅKMVLMLWV)]O][\ sisted. The B-32 was a backup “what if?” What if large num15, 1945, and a surrender to the B-29 Superfortress, bers of Japanese forces had ceremony followed aboard operational in small numbers. Last to Die is a heartfelt narchosen to continue fighting the battleship USS Missouri in spite of the formal end of in Tokyo Bay on September rative by historian Stephen hostilities—as has happened 2. Between those dates, an Harding, who published a unexpected air encounter small specialty book about As Harding notes, Mar- in every one of America’s brought together Japa nese the B-32 fully 31 years ago. chione, just past his 20th wars since? Why did General ÅOP\MZXQTW\[ITQ\\TMSVW_V Since then, he has searched birthday, was “the embodi- Douglas MacArthur ultiAmerican bomber and U.S. every military archive in the ment of the millions of young mately decide that the attack Army photographer Sergeant United States and Japan to Americans who left their on the B-32s did not call for ÅVLTQ\\TMSVW_VNIK\[IJW]\ homes and families to serve in large-scale retaliation, potenAnthony J. Marchione. On August 18, two B-32 the bomber’s final mission. the nation’s armed forces in tially restarting the war? Find Dom inators took off from (Harding is also editor of ?WZTL?IZ11º?PMVÅOP\- out while immersed in this Oki nawa for what should Aviation History’s sister publi- MZ[ÅZMLWVPQ[*PM_I[ gripping, real-world tale. Robert F. Dorr have been a postwar photo cation Military History.) mortally wounded. Thanks to
THE HUNTER KILLERS
OPPOSITE: STEVEN PRATT/GETTY IMAGES
The Extraordinary Story of the First Wild Weasels, the Band of Maverick Aviators Who Flew the Most Dangerous Missions of the Vietnam War by Dan Hampton, William Morrow, 2015, $27.99. This portrait of the men who pioneered the art of knocking out surface-to-air missile batteries in the Vietnam War reads like a history of Titanic. Everyone knows the story ends tragically when the presumably invincible leviathan plunges to disaster. Yet there are remarkable examXTM[WN[MTÆM[[VM[[\PI\ZMÆMK\\PM nobility of the human spirit. Dan Hampton is supremely qualiÅML\W_ZQ\M\PQ[[\WZa0MTQ^MLI latter-day version of it as a “Wild Weasel” who notched 151 combat missions over Kosovo and Iraq. Readers get an in-the-cockpit close-up of what it was like NWZ\PMWZQOQVI\WZ[WN\PM[]XXZM[[QWV\MKPVQY]M[\WÆaQV\W\PM most heavily defended airspace the world had ever seen. There are bound to be comparisons with Jack Broughton’s 1969 classic Thud Ridge, which described an air commander operating under rules of engagement that all but guaranteed a failed outcome. Broughton’s book is a condemnatory memoir written in the heat of the moment. Hampton’s work is a heavily researched analysis prepared a generation later, in the shadow of a campaign bearing eerily familiar characteristics. This book is a must for anyone interested in the cat-andmouse game played in the skies of Southeast Asia. It ensures that the lost war’s courageous anti-SAM pilots will not be forgotten. It is also a reminder of still-unheeded lessons about the onerous constraints placed on the military and micromanagement by bureaucrats. Philip Handleman
JAPANESE SECRET PROJECTS Experimental Aircraft of the IJA and IJN 1939-1945 by Edwin M. Dyer III, distributed by Specialty Press, 2009 (Vol. 1) and 2014 (Vol. 2), $42.95 each. Back in 2009 Edwin M. Dyer published an account of Japanese experimental aircraft and aerial weapons projects ranging from those that barely reached the testing stage to some that never left the drawing board. The book revealed a combination of imaginative originality and attempts to adopt German technology such as jet and rocket propulsion. Among the latter was a plan to speed up the Kugisho P1Y Ginga bomber and the Nakajima J1N1-S Gekko night ÅOP\MZJaOQ^QVO\PMU\_QV jet engines, and improving the range of the rocketpropelled Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka with a Tsu-11 thermojet. Various special bomb and missile concepts were also explored, including the Fu-Go balloon bombs. Japanese Secret Projects has been reissued by Specialty
Press, with an added second volume devoted to experimental designs that made it to testing, as well as variants on proven designs intended either to extend their lives or transform them into kamikaze craft at WWII’s end. Also included are a few projMK\[UQ[[MLQV\PMÅZ[\^WTume, such as the colossal 3I_IVQ[PQ3@ÆaQVOJWI\ transport, powered by 12 Hungarian-developed Jendrassik Cs-1 turboprop MVOQVM[.WZIÅKQWVILW[ jaded by the wealth of literature devoted to Allied and German experimental aircraft, Japanese Secret Projects UQOP\WٺMZIZMNZM[PQVOVM_ OTQUX[MQV\W[QUQTIZMٺWZ\[ Ja\PM4]N\_IٺM¼[)[QIV counterparts. Jon Guttman
january 2016
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STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (required by Act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code). 1. Aviation History 2. (ISSN: 1076-8858) 3. Filing date: 10/1/2015. 4. Issue frequency: Bi-monthly. 5. Number of issues published annually: 6. 6. The annual subscription price is $39.95. 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: World History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500. Contact person: Kolin Rankin. 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher: World History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500. 9. Full names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor. Publisher, Michael A. Reinstein, World History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500, Editor, Carl Von Wodtke, World History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500, Managing Editor, Nan Siegel, World History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500. 10. Owner: World History Group, 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176-6500. 11. Known bondholders, mortgages, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None. 12. Tax status: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months. 13. Publisher title: Aviation History. 14. Issue date for circulation data below: September 2015. 15. The extent and nature of circulation: A. Total number of copies printed (Net press run). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 48,876. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 47,092. B. Paid circulation. 1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 28,926. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 27,203. 2. Mailed in-county paid subscriptions. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 5,594. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 5,577. 4. Paid distribution through other classes mailed through the USPS. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. C. Total paid distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 34,520. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 32,780. D. Free or nominal rate distribution (by mail and outside mail). 1. Free or nominal Outside-County. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 2. Free or nominal rate in-county copies. Average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 3. Free or nominal rate copies mailed at other Classes through the USPS. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months 0. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. 4. Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 736. Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 738. E. Total free or nominal rate distribution. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 736. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 738. F. Total distribution (sum of 15c and 15e). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 35,256. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 33,518. G. Copies not Distributed. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 13,620. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 13,574. H. Total (sum of 15f and 15g). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 48,876. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing: 47,092. I. Percent paid. Average percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 97.9%. Actual percent of copies paid for the preceding 12 months: 97.8%. 16. Electronic Copy Circulation: A. Paid Electronic Copies. Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 0. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 0. B. Total Paid Print Copies (Line 15c) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 34,520. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 32,780. C. Total Print Distribution (Line 15f) + Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 35,256. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 33,518. D. Percent Paid (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c x 100). Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 97.9%. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 97.8%. I certify that 50% of all distributed copies (electronic and print) are paid above nominal price: Yes. 17. Publication of statement of ownership will be printed in the January 2016 issue of the publication. 18. Signature and title of editor, publisher, business manager, or owner: Karen G. Johnson, Business Director. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanction and civil actions.
CLASSICS NIGHT RAIDERS OF THE AIR By A.R. Kingsford This book is for the connoisseur of World War I aviation history rather than the beginner, since it deals with an often-overlooked subject and is told in a disarming manner that nonetheless emphasizes the dangers involved. A young New Zealander, Alfred R. Bellingham-Kingsford was no amateur soldier, having served as a corporal in the Medical Corps from 1914 to 1917. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and in 1918 fought with No. 100 Squadron, _PQKPLZWXXML\PMÅZ[\IVLTI[\ bomb at night on Germany. Kingsford is halfway into his book before detailing his night bombing experiences using such less-thanformidable airplanes as the Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b and F.E.2c. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is the aplomb with which Kingsford and his fellow pilots accepted the PIbIZL[WNVQOP\ÆaQVO_Q\P^QZ\]ITTa no instrumentation and only the most minimal equipment available. Crashes and fatalities were routine. The pilots were convinced their JWUJQVO_I[MٺMK\Q^MIVLXW[ML a considerable threat to Germany. Most of the bombs dropped were 20-pounders, with an occasional 100-pounder. They used the most XZQUQ\Q^M¹XI\PÅVLMZºUM\PWLXW[sible—the lead airplane carried a phosphorus bomb, and subsequent aircraft in the squadron were supposed to bomb in the same area. Night Raiders of the Air is a pleasant and informative read, one that puts \PM\aXQKITJWWSWVLWOÅOP\QVOIKM[ into perspective. Walter J. Boyne
flight test
TO THE RESCUE! 1. What sank the French submarine Foucault on September 15, 1916—and then rescued all 29 of its crew? A. A Brandenburg W.13 flying boat B. Two Brandenburg KDW floatplanes C. A Phönix A11 flying boat D. Two Lohner TI flying boats
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2. After landing in Turkish lines, how did Lieutenant Frank McNamara rescue Captain David Rutherford on March 20, 1917?
MYSTERY SHIP
Can you identify this late-1930s attack aircraft? See the answer below.
FLYING SUB-HUNTERS
Match the anti-submarine warfare airplane to its description. Grumman AF Guardian Short Sturgeon SM.3 Kyushu Q1W Canadair CP-107 Argus Grumman S-2F Tracker Shin-Meiwa PS-1 Fairey Gannet Lockheed S-3 Viking Breguet Br.1050 Alizé Hawker Siddeley Nimrod
1. First plane built from inception for ASW duties 2. Four-engine ASW flying boat; 21 built from 1971-1978 3. Torpedo plane experimentally modified into a “grotesque hybrid” 4. ASW plane based on the world’s first jet airliner 5. Redesigned Bristol Britannia using American components 6. Twin-jet carrier-based ASW aircraft introduced in 1974 7. Carrier-based, used in combat by the Indian navy 8. Built in two specialized forms: detection and weapons 9. Featured side-by-side turboprops with a common gearbox 10. First single-airframe ASW carrier plane in the U.S. Navy
Hawker Siddeley Nimrod
ANSWERS MYSTERY SHIP: Vultee V-11. To learn more about it, visit HistoryNet.com/aviation-history FLYING SUB-HUNTERS: A.8, B.3, C.1, D.5, E.10, F.2, G.9, H.6, I.7, J.4 TO THE RESCUE!: 1.D, 2.B, 3.A, 4.C., 5.A
TOP: ROBERT F. DORR; BOTTOM: RAF/MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J.
A. In his own Martinsyde Elephant B. In Rutherford’s repaired B.E.2e C. On stolen Turkish horses D. By camel 3. After liberating Benito Mussolini from prison via a glider assault on September 12, 1943, how did Otto Skorzeny get him off the Gran Sasso? A. B. C. D.
Fieseler Fi-156C Storch Junkers Ju-52/3m DFS 230 Flettner Fl-282 Kolibri
4. After taking nine downed airmen aboard his Vought OS2U on April 29-30, 1944, how did Lt. j.g. John Burns get them out of Truk Lagoon? A. Took off with all aboard B. Made three separate flights C. Taxied out, where submarine Tang took all aboard D. Surrendered to the Japanese 5. British Prince Andrew earned public acclaim for rescuing crewmen from which stricken vessel in May 1982? A. B. C. D.
Atlantic Conveyor Antelope Coventry Lancelot
january 2016
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AERO ARTIFACT
how much is too much?
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January 2016
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GUY ACETO
payload adjuster This handy tool came packaged in a leather case, fastened with a metal clip in the pilot’s compartment.
ong before computers entered the picture, aircrews relied on tools like this to calculate just how much weight could be safely carried, and where the payload could be stowed, depending on fuel load and location in a given aircraft. The manual for the load adjuster pictured here—designed for the Consolidated B-24D, E, G, H and J, as well as the 8* A[MMZMTI\ML[\WZQM[XIOM[ IVL¸M`XTIQV[\PI\¹8ZWÅKQMVKaQVQ\[WXMZI\QWV _QTT[I^M\PM\QUMIVLMٺWZ\WN\ZIKSQVOLW_V\PMMT][Q^MKOCKMV\MZWNOZI^Q\aEJaUMIV[WN mathematical calculations.” It goes on to say that the device can even predict “exactly how \PMJITIVKMXW[Q\QWV_QTTJMIٺMK\MLJaMIKPQ\MUWNTWIL_PQKPQ[ILLMLWZM`XMVLMLº
