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Lt. Philip H. Torrey Jr., CO VF-22, USS Independence (CVL-22), June 1943
VC-13, USS Core (CVE-13), August-September 1943
The VF-22 unit was activated on September
30, 1942 and flew from the aircraft carrier USS
Indenpedence (CVL-22) during World War II. The
unit was flew F4F Wildcats, later F6F Hellcats.
The unit’s first commander was Lt. Philip H. Torrey
Jr. who commanded the unit until the summer of
1943. During the summer of 1943, Torrey became
the commanding officer of Fighting Squadron
9 (VF-9), operating from the USS Essex (CV-9).
In March 1944, he was transferred to Carrier Air
Group 9 (CAG-9) operating aboard USS Lexington
(CV-16) with F6F Hellcats. On February 16, 1945,
Torrey volunteered for his first mission which
was to fly over Tokyo. Over the target, however,
his Hellcat was shot down by a Japanese fighter
and Torrey fatally crashed in the village of Habu
near Narita. His Wildcat, which he flew with
VF-22, had a non-standard camouflage with
a third shade of Semi-Gloss Sea Blue applied to
the original older Blue Gray/Light Gray scheme
on the upper fuselage and wings.
The Tacoma-built Bogue-class escort carrier USS
Core (CVE-13) was commissioned on December
10, 1942, and named after Core Sound. USS Core
operated on the west coast off San Diego, but
soon joined the Atlantic Fleet to take part in
the bloody war against submarines with TBF-1C
Avengers and F4F-4 Wildcats on board. Core’s
first combat cruise in the Atlantic lasted from
June 27 to July 31, 1943, during which VC-13 hit
a pair of submarines. USS Core and VC-13 scored
a total of four submarine kills by the end of 1943,
helping to end the good times of the German
U-boat fleet. The Wildcats on USS Core carried
an interesting combination of colors from the
factory blue-grey NS through light grey NS
as well as both the then-new ASWN I and II
schemes designed for the Atlantic. The aircraft
shown, with the black identification number
6 on the rudder, had a unique design of the unit
emblem painted on the fuselage with the number
13 inscribed on it. This made it a popular
background for photographs of VC-13 pilots.
KITS 04/2024
INFO Eduard
53
April 2024