Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323 (United States)

Marine Fighter Squadron 323
Type	Marine Fighter Squadron
Nickname(s)	Death Rattlers

Marine Fighter Squadron 323 (Abbreviated as VMFA-323), known as the Death Rattlers, was a Marine Fighter Attack Squadron in the United States Marine Corps during the Second World War

Formation and history

12 April 1945 - First missions off of Okinawa

0530 - First mission of the day

At 0530 local time, 12 April 1945, with no clouds at twilight before sunrise, 21 F4U-1D Corsairs of VMF-323 scrambled off of Kadena Air Base (spelled Katena in the source) 26° 21’N 127° 45’E as it was currently under a bombing attack just before sunrise.

While 1st Lt. Albert Philip Wells was the sixth plane taking off, a Tony dropped a 250 lb bomb on the edge of the runway. He then sighted the Tony a mile ahead and above at 1,500 feet. Getting on his tail from closing in at it's 6 o'clock below, he opened fire from 200 feet. Up until that point he observed that the plane made no attempt to evade Wells until he opened fire, making him think he took him by surprise. The Tony made a sharp diving turn to the left. Wells turned with it, firing the whole time. He hit its tail, and the enemy plane exploded into flames and crashed into Nakagasuku Wan.

Other than that the flight was uneventful.

Report

Sometime that day a report was prepared by 1st Lt. Atilio Luigi Ferdenzi and approved by Major George Clifton Axtell of what had happened. There was a total of 114 rounds of .50 cal expended, the Corsair going 35 miles out and in return, the average amount of hours in the air being 3, average fuel loaded being 240 gal, with 200 consumed on average.

Apparently there were three damaged Corsairs from the squadron. One had nosed over on muddy runway, another hit by shrapnel on deck, and the third hit a hole while landing. These were reported that they could be repaired locally.

It was also reported that the Tony apparently lacked protection for gas tanks.

1330 - Second mission of the day

At 1330 local time, in the second mission of 323 at Okinawa, 16 F4U-1D Corsairs took off from Kadena at 26° 21’N 127° 45’E for Combat Air Patrol over Okinawa Shima. No kind of ordinance (bombs or torpedoes were carried by each plane), though 240 gallons on average were fueled in each Corsair. Unfortunately two Corsairs had mechanical problems and so had to return to the airfield.

The rest of the 14 planes continued on. While in the air, Japanese planes were approaching North of them, and so the formation split while chasing the different enemy planes.

The Fighter Director vectored six planes under the command of Major Arthur Layton Turner, who was the flight leader, with his wingman 2nd Lieutenant Obie Wesley Stover Jr. The second section was led by 2nd Lt Dellwyn Lewis Davis whose wingman was 2nd Lt. Robert J. Woods. Finally, the third section was led by 1st Lt. Charles E. Spangler. His wingman was 2nd Lt. Dewey Foster Durnford Jr.

Another six planes were vectored North to Motobu Peninsula. These six were led by Captain Felix Stephen Cecot who was winged with 2nd Lt. Leon Abbott Reynolds Jr. Second Section was led by Captain Joe McPhail, with 2nd Lt. Warren William Bestwick as his wingman. Third seciton was led by 2nd Lt. Glenn O. Thacker, with Everett Leland Yager on his wing.

1430 - Engagement over Motobu Penninsula

The Fighter Director vectored the body under Cecot to Motobu Peninsula, where Japanese planes were reported to be at 18,000 feet. The flight climbed to 23,000 feet and began circling.

Captain McPhail spotted some Corsairs chasing Zekes, and called out their position to the others, and rolled over with Bestwick on his wing. As they descended the four Zekes appeared right under the two at 19,000 feet, flying almost abreast in a two-two plane sections. Joe lit his guns on the rear plane on the right from 400yd away above and behind. His first burst of bullets missed and the Japanese plane saw his tracers. It made a couple of small turns, but then eventually McPhail started hitting. Pieces from around the cockpit of the plane came off and the Zero exploded in flames, as it passed under the rest of the formation. The three other planes scattered. Bestwick, upon McPhail's Zeke exploding, picked the second plane of the first section and fired a long burst making it explode. The Zero, however, pulled up and made it impossible for Bestwick to stay on his 6 o'clock.

Cpt McPhail, after his Zeke exploded in flames, pushed over and, although he tried finding his wingman, couldn't, and so went back to base.

By the time that the Zero pulled up, the first plane of the second section had broken off heading down to the right, to which Bestwick continued his run, firing a 20 degree deflection shot from behind the enemy. This Zeke exploded in flames as well.

At this point Bestwick tried looking for McPhail. He saw the first Zeke he killed spiraling down while smoking, but couldn't see the second plane after firing on it.

Thacker had followed Bestwick in on his original pass, and even tackled the fourth Zeke in the formation, making a beam run from its 3 o'clock on the same level. His bullets caused pieces of the fuselage to come off and it started smoking. The Zeke rolled, pulled through tightly, and escaped. It wasn't an exact confirmed kill, but it made Thacker think it was a possible one. Him and Yager then proceeded to return to base.

Not able to find his Captain, he got his bearings when he saw three Zekes ahead and above him doing slow rolls in column. Bestwick began to climb and tail them, until which he was spotted and they turned and started to bracket him. He made a 180 degree turn left and didn't see them any more, as they didn't follow him too far. He turned to look for them after a minute of flying away but didn't see them.

On the way back to base, he saw 4 Japanese planes 3,000 feet above and to the right of him flying in the opposite direction. He shifted his plane toward them to investigate and identified that they were Zekes. They slightly turned towards him but continued North. Unfortunately they were still 2,000 feet above him and several miles past. This, plus the fact that he was low on fuel, made him decide to return to base.

1515 - Encounter North-West of Ie Shima

At 1515 the first six planes under Turner were flying at 15,000ft, 71 miles northwest of Ie Shima, when they spotted an enemy plane at their 10 o'clock, 4,000ft below and 8 miles away.

Spangler and his wingman Durnford peeled off with Davis and Woods following suit. The Japanese plane they were attacking was spotted to be a Betty, which was camouflaged green and brown with the red insignia, and seemed to have the intent of destroying American ships in the area. Spangler closed in on the Betty at its 5 o'clock and began firing at it from 800 ft away. The tail gunner and top of the plane's rudder were knocked out, and the port of its engine was set aflame. It was now Durnford's turn, as he closed in from 7 o'clock. Then, the Betty turned to him, seemingly trying to give the side blister gunner a shot at him. At 200 feet, Durnford opened fire, aiming for the cockpit. Now Davis came in and set alight the plane's right engine 100 feet away from it and now the bomber spiraled down in a flame, exploding upon impact with the ocean. The members of the squadron didn't see any of the Betty's crew parachuting.

They spent the rest of the time working with the Fighter Director, but no more bogies were met.

1530

On the other hand, Cecot and his wingman continued their way north after they got word that bogies were reported at 20,000 feet, while the two were still at 23,000. Cecot then spotted an opportunity, a Jack being camouflaged green and brown with the red insignia. Diving 5,000 feet, he fired at the plane, which rolled, to which Cecot fired at the plane's belly and saw it smoking. However the speed of his Corsair prevented him from identifying more results, so wasn't able to claim a full kill. Therefore he thought he got a probably.

1530 to 1550

Unfortunately for Reynolds his hydraulic system was caput, so was unable to retract one wheel. Despite this the two continued chasing Japanese planes for 20 minutes before returning to base.

Wade and Ruhsam

The other two pilots, John William Ruhsam and Robert Wade of the 14 planes were on their way back to the airfield due to the inability of Wade to retract his landing gear. They were just south of Motobu Peninsula when a Zeke dove from the sun making a pass on Wade. Wade lowered his flaps and made a tight turn. This caused the Zeke to fly past, then rolling, and diving for the ground. Wade persued him down, almost in firing position, when Ruhsam fired upon the enemy with a 30 degree deflection shot. The Japanese plane exploded into flames and crashed.

Ruhsam and Wade then continued their journey back to the airfield and pancaked.

1630 - Return

At 1630 the formations and planes returned back to base.

Post Analysis

One F4U-1D was lost this mission when, during an artillery bombardment on the airfield, the Corsair was taxiing and hit a tractor, the plane becoming a total lost. Fortunately the pilot was uninjured. The Bureau number of the Corsair was No. 57299.

This was the first time that the squadron's members encountered Japanese planes, and after the attacks were having trouble keeping together as divisions

All these Zekes that had been encountered were camouflaged green and brown with the red insignia.

It was found that the pilots experienced considerable hydraulic problems due to the fact that the mechanics were unable to work on the Corsairs. A lack of time, poor operation conditions, and the fact the squadron just reached the airfield added to the reasons for trouble.

It was reported that a total of 3056 .50 cal rounds were expended, the planes on average going 70 miles out and 70 miles back, average of 3 hours in air. As for the enemy planes it was noted that they lacked protection for gas tanks.

A report was prepared by Lt. Ferdenzi and approved by Major Axtell the same day.

14 April 1945 - Close Air Support on Japanese artillery positions

0812 - Takeoff

At 0812 on 14 April 1945, 15 F4U-1D Corsiars of VMF-323 took off from Kadena Airfield. Each plane were carrying 2 500lb bombs with a MK AN-M103 fuses with the setting of Head-Instantaneous, Tail-0.25 second delay, on Mark 4 bomb racks. Each plane also carried 8 MK.7 3.25 in rocket motors with 5 in MK I armor piercing shells. The rockets had a MK.148 Base fuze with 1/100 second delay.

Prior to takeoff, were the aircraft were on the deck, an ordnance man was working on the same rocket launcher on the opposite wing when 2 rockets were accident fired. Due to the fact that the switches for firing them were set to off, and that all the safety precautions were being observed, they concluded that the two rockets fired on an accidental discharge caused by a current being supplied by a flashlight battery used in connection with a zero voltage check kit used by the squadron.

It was concluded by a rocket expert from The Tactical Air Force that due to the construction of the zero voltage test kit it was possible to run a current into the launcher, and since the corresponding launchers on both wings are at the same wiring circuit, the rocket on the opposite launcher would be fired. The rocket expert recommended new zero voltage test kits. Fortunately the 2 rockets caused no casualties or damage to any installations.

Their mission was to provide Close Air Support by bombing and rocket firing enemy artillery positions which were holding up the front line troops in the Southern part of Okinawa.

Specifically, their targets were artillery positions 6000 yds east of Machinato Service Area, and other artillery positions 5000 yds souteast of the Service Area.

The location of the targets was given to the pilots on station by the Air Support Control Unit through the Air Support Net. The Air Coordinator was in a TBF in the sky further identifying the given target by flying over it and reporting the terrain features. Then the Flight leader went down over the target to further verify.

The clouds that day were 3/10 scattered at 3000 ft, with 20 miles of visibility, giving a clear view of the targets.

1020 - Over the first target

At 1020 they came over the first target, which they had to use the grid coordinates to identify, identifying them to be 100% on the assigned coordinates of 6000 yds east of Machinato. However they couldn't actually observe it. 6 Corsairs attacked it, with 6 bombs hitting the first target.

The pilots would have spotted their targets, and began their 50 to 60° angle dive for the bombs at 7000 to 8000 feet with dive breaks, using their Mark 8 100 Mill Reflector Gunsights to aim. They attained a speed of 280 knots. On each run each plane dropped 1 bomb, releasing them between 1000 to 1500 to 2000 ft. Recovery was low on deck.

At 40 to 50° angle dive with a slant range they used the same sight at around 1000 to 15000 to 2000 ft to launch 4 of their rockets.

They didn't observe damage to the first target.

The second target involved all 15 Corsairs attacking. At first the pilots didn't see any of the targets. Then an unidentified pilot of the squadron spotted blasts of gunfire coming from a few of the native grass huts in the target area. The artillery pieces of unidentifiable sizes had grass hut housing in the area, being 75 to 95% within the assigned coordinates area 5000 yds east of Machinato. 13 bombs landed on the second target here, with no rockets hitting the first target but 66 hitting the second one. At least 4 artillery pieces were seen by the pilots to have exploded.

From the low level attacks 4 of the Corsairs got shrapnel from their exploding bombs due to the delayed fuzes.

Overall the concealment of Japanese positions was deemed by the pilots as excellent, with no one observing any military observations at the first target, and the second only being identified after the Japanese guns fired from the position.

1050 - Return to base

At 1050 all 15 planes returned.

They reported that there were never any enemy aircraft that they encountered on the ground.

4 of the Corsairs that came back had shrapnel holes in their planes from the exploding target under them. This was deemed to be repairable locally.

It was concluded from the mission that the Mark 4 bomb racks were unsuitable for dive bombing, with this rack hangups were frequent. It was concluded that until the squadron was able to obtain Mark 8 bomb racks, more suitable for dive bombing, the planes will try to get delayed fuzes on their bombs for low level attacks.

Both the average miles out and back was 10, with 2.50 average hours in the air, 230 gallons of fuel loaded onto the Corsairs, and 190 gal on average consumed. Not a single .50 cal bullet was used.

No photographs were taken of the mission.

First report of the day

That day a report was prepared by Ferdenzi, and approved by Major Axtell. The report states that the second target was spotted at 1130, but it was likely that it was actually at 1030 due to the fact that it stated that they returned at 1050, since they only had 2.50 hours of flight time on average.

1550 - More CAS

At 1550 the same day, 15 F4U-1Ds were set to take off on a mission to bomb, strafe, and rocket fire underground enemy positions on the northern end of Shuri on the island.

Each plane carried 2 500lb bombs of Mark AN-M103 type. Each bomb had a Head instantaneous tail-.025 second delayed fuze. Each also carried 8 Mark 7 3.25 in rocket motors with 5 in Mark 1 armor piercing steel nose heads of a Mark 148 Base fuze and a 1/100 second delay.

1545 - Over the target

At 1545, the Corsairs came over their target north of Shuri. There were no clouds over there, with 20 mile visibility, but the visibility of the target was hazy, being in or near grass huts in the northern part of the town.

The target area had buildings and underground installations in that part of town, which was selected by The Air Support Control Unit.

The planes began their bombing runs at 8000ft north of the target and dove at a 45-50° angle, using their dive breaks and Mark 8 100 Mill Reflector Gunsights for aim, and each plane dropped both bombs simultaneously over the target at an altitude of 1500 to 2500 feet. They pulled out at 1000 ft

Their rocket runs began at 6000 ft again north of the target, they came down at a 40-45° angle on automatic fire, using their sights and launching them at 1000 to 1500 feet. Since no Japanese Anti Aircraft was there to interfere, a normal climbing turn to the left was used to join up.

Strafing runs were made on the grass huts.

26 bombs, 112 rockets, and 3575 .50 cal bullets were expended. Only 60% of the ordnances were identified to have hit the target area. It wasn't know exactly what the nature of the damage was because of the haze and smoke over the target which prevented close observation. Therefore there was no observation of damage. Although there were scattered fires that were observed.

1630 -

Because of poor communications between ground and flight leader, the lead was turned over to the 2nd in command after being on station for 1/2 an hour.

For the mission, the aircraft were on station at this time when the flight leader (unspecified who) contacted the Air Support Control Unit. The flight leader received the location of the target area by them on gridded target charts. The approach to the target was designated North-South by Air Support Control Unit.

1820 - The planes return

At 1820 the planes returned from their mission.

On average the planes went 12 miles out and returned 12 miles, with an average 2.60 hours in the air. On average each plane was loaded with 230 gal of fuel and consumed 195 gal. A total of 3575 .50 caliber bullets were expended.

15 April 1945 - Combat Air Patrol

1705 - Takeoff

At 1705 on 15 April 1945, 4 F4U-1D Corsairs from VMF-323 took off from Kadena Airbase.

1830 - Contact with the enemy

The Corsairs were flying over cover for a picket ship on CAP. They were then vectored to 65 miles southeast of the northern tip of Okinawa, where they arrived at 8000ft at a scene of no clouds around with 15 mils of visibility at twilight, encountering 2 Val dive bombers at 6500ft. They observed that no bombs were being carried, and that the planes had the camouflage of standard brown and red discs. They seemed to be intending to destroy installations at Kadena and Yontan A/D's

Out of the 4, only 1 didn't engage the enemy. 1st Lt J. V. Dillard, 1st Lt. H. Tonnessen, and 1st Lt. F. A. Terrill, picked a Val.

The Val they were about to pounce on was observed to continuously fly straight and level, cruising at 160-180 knots as the Corsairs closed in on it fast at 240 knots. They chose the aggressive route, working together as a team while they made high beam runs, noticing that the rear-seat gunner was firing at them. They attacked from a 3 or 5 o'clock angle but the Val tried to turn. 3 of the Corsair pilots began simultaneously firing their 6-50s from 600ft away, hitting the gunner and cockpit of the plane, at the same time the plane snap rolling, fragments of the Val flew off before it exploding into flames and split-essing into the water, destroyed. Each one thought that they had the kill.

One of the Corsairs, bureau number 82598, ran out of gas in a traffic circle, and so made a belly landing, resulting in the plane being damaged beyond repair/destroyed. It isn't exactly clear whether this is the plane that didn't engage but it is likely.

1930 - Return, report and the conflicting info on the reports

At 1930 the 4 Corsairs returned to Kadena Airbase. The 3 pilots that engaged with the one Val claimed that it was their kill. This leads to the conclusion that they started firing at the Val at the exact or nearly the exact same time

The 5th report of the squadron on the island was made in which it was reported that on average, the planes went 35 miles out and back, 2.3 hours in the air, 240 gallons of fuel loaded, and 230 gallons expended, with 1320 rounds of .50 cal expended in total.

The pilots also reported that with pylon fairings off there was a great loss of speed, which was the only complaint about material as the rest worked fine.

One thing of note that can be seen between the diffferent reports is the differences between some of the numbers reported in the first page versus the numbers on the narrative (OPERATIONAL DATA) page. On the first they came in on the Val which was going at 180 knots from a 5 o'clock angle. This changed on the narrative page to going at 160 knots coming in at a 3 o'clock angle. This suggests that either there are more than one author and/or Axtell is simply being told conflicting information that he can't tell exactly which one is right and so puts both. It seems easy to understand the latter, as these numbers are observable guesses for the most part on the pilots. They would know the speed that they are going but don't know exactly the number on the speedometer on the Vals. Although why they wouldn't just put the estimate that the Val went between 160-180 knots throughout is confusing. This could suggest that they asked for one of the pilots, got an answer, then asked one of the other pilots later to give them a narrative. This could help explain why in the narratives the pronouns used are "we" most of the time, despite the fact that Axtell wasn't on the mission nor Ferdenzi.

Bibliography

• "Joe McPhail". WWII Archives. 1 December 2023.
• IIc(33), VMF-322, Kadena Field, Okinawa THRU IIc(37), VMF(N)-533, Drake Field, Chimu Field, Okinawa; Charlie Strip, Ie Shima.