KITS 10/2022

F4F-4, VF-8, USS Hornet (CV-8), May/June 1942

Another battle the USS Hornet (CV-8) took part in

after the participation in the Doolittle bomber raid

on Tokyo was Battle of Midway. VF-8 pilots were the

least experienced fighters out of all deployed fighter units. Right at the beginning of the battle the

squadron suffered heavy aircraft losses when after

the botched escort of the bombers launched against

the group of Japanese ships ten pilots got lost on the

return flight. All of them had to perform the emergency landings on the ocean surface due to the exhausted fuel. Eight pilots were rescued even though

some of them had to wait several days until the help

arrived. During the Battle of Midway the red circle on

the national insignia were already deleted as well as

the red and white stripes on the rudder. The feature

aircraft carried the Black Spade insignia in front of

the wind shield.

F4F-4, Lt. Walter Albert Haas, VF-8, USS Hornet (CV-8), June 1942

Collingswood, New Jersey native, Walter Albert Haas was

the first Wildcat pilot to score a kill of the Zero fighter. It

occurred on May 7, 1942, during the attack on Shōhō aircraft

carrier while he flew with VF-42 off the USS Yorktown (CV-5)

aircraft carrier. In June, during the Battle of Midway Lt. Haas

still flew with VF-42 which was incorporated into VF-3. After

the USS Yorktown was damaged, both VF-3 and VF-42 pilots

were transferred on board of the USS Hornet (CV-8) where

under the leadership of Lt. Cdr. Thach they formed the pro-

visional unit designated VF-3-8-42. One of the unit’s pilots

was Lt. Haas who during the Battle of Midway shot down one

B5N Kate. Six Japanese flags marking on his Wildcat represents the actual pilot’s score of 4.83 kills i.e., four individual

kills and two in the cooperation. The shots were taken by

the crew of John Ford who recorded a documentary film

shown in the movie theaters under the title “The Battle of

Midway” already in September 1942. Interesting fact is that

in the movie Lt. Haas’s Wildcat did not carry the marking

of any unit that participated in the battle. In the middle of

June 1942, after the return to Pearl Harbor this provisional

unit was disbanded, and Lt. Haas joined the new Navy pilots

flight training program. After that he was commissioned to

command the bomber squadron aboard the USS Ticonderoga

(CV-14) where he flew until the end of war. Initially the Wildcat marked white 17 probably flew with VF-8. The original

marking on the fuselage and the engine cowling was oversprayed with the camouflage paint.

F4F-4, Ens. Ralph McMaster Rich, VF-6, USS Enterprise (CV-6), April/June 1942

Ralph M. Rich was born on January 22, 1916, in Denmark, North Dakota. In October 1939, after he joined

the US NAVY reserves, he was accepted to the pilot

training which he completed on June 12, 1940. On

November 28 of the same year, he boarded the USS

Enterprise (CV-6) where he was assigned to VF-6.

During the fighting in Pacific, he participated in the

raid on Marshall and Gilbert Islands where he destroyed one Japanese bomber on the ground. His next

mission was the attack on Japanese occupied Wake

Atoll. This was followed by the VF-6 deployment from

October 2022

the deck of USS Enterprise during the Battle of Midway where Ens. Rich, in the cooperation with other

two pilots shot down a B5N Kate bomber defending

the formation of the US aircraft carriers. On June 18,

1942, during the shooting exercises at 5,000 feet above Kaneohe Bay base the wing of the Wildcat flown

by Lt. Rich tore off. The aircraft crashed and the pilot

perished. Ens. Rich flew the featured aircraft in April 1942 when the planes were camouflaged in Light

Gray on the bottom surfaces and Blue Gray on the

side and top surface. National insignia were painted

on the fuselage, four positions on the wings and complemented with red and white stripes on the rudder.

At the time of the Battle of Midway the rudder stripes

were overpainted with camouflage paint red circles

were deleted from the national insignia and the

aircraft marking was changed to F-5. The national

marking on the fuselage was larger, slightly moved

forward so the original marking was partially visible.

The aircraft number was painted on the starboard

wing only.

INFO Eduard

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