BOXART STORY

#84194

Greenies from Green island

In January 1944, American forces were

entering the third year of the war in the Pacific.

They had a number of combat operations under

their belts, and experience to the credit of units,

commanders, and their men was growing.

However, none of these experienced men were

present at the formation of VF-34, a Naval

fighter squadron that was to operate from

land bases during the final phase of Operation

Cartweel. The newly and hastily formed unit

consisted of 45 pilots, only one of whom had

seen any combat action and only two of whom

were classified as fully trained Class A pilots.

None of the eighteen Lieutenant or Lieutenat

Junior Grade pilots had completed combat

training, and of the twenty five Ensign rank

pilots, twenty had indeed been trained, but only

ten of them in the F6F Hellcat. The rest had only

experience in Wildcats or Dauntlesses. This was

simply not an A-team, or even a B-team. More

like a C-team ... Still, the unit was thrown into

combat without hesitation.

The personnel of the new VF-34 departed San

Diego on February 13 bound for Pearl Harbor,

from where they were airlifted to Espiritu Santo

on February 23 to pick up their equipment.

Within a week everything was ready, and on

March 3 the entire unit moved to Guadalcanal

and from there to Piva Yoke airfield on

Bougainville, where the rookies of VF-34 first

encountered the harsh realities of war. Their

airfield experienced shelling the very next day

and three aircraft were damaged. Therefore,

VF-34 left the hot ground and moved to the

island of Vella Lavella, where the pilots made

November 2023

their first combat sorties, but their location

proved logistically disadvantageous. So, their

third and final move followed. Green Island

became the squadron’s home for nearly two

months.

Pilots of VF-34 provided escort to bomber

formations of Mitchells, Dauntlesses or

Avengers and attacked ground targets, though

they had no opportunity to get a single kill

because the enemy aircraft were neither

seen nor heard.. Thus, the greatest danger to

the VF-34 pilots was Japanese anti-aircraft

fire, which soon claimed its first victim when

Ens. Driscoll was hit by defensive fire during

an attack on a Japanese boat. Although he

managed to land on the sea and was even seen

swimming away from the sinking aircraft, he

disappeared shortly thereafter and was never

found. Ten days later the unit suffered a second

loss when Ens. Miller failed to return from an

attack on Japanese vessels off New Ireland,

and five days later the squadron endured

its third casualty. In bad weather conditions,

Lt. Rose’s landing Hellcat collided with an

Avenger that was landing on the runway in the

opposite direction. The unfortunate pilot was

pulled out of the burning wreckage by Lt. Kukuk,

but Rose died shortly afterwards in hospital.

It took less than a month of fighting for the

rookies to become seasoned warriors, because

the combat sorties were conducted one after

the other virtually on an everyday basis.

The squadron’s account included destroyed

ammunition or fuel depots, vessels including

gun boats, trucks, engineering machines or

Text: Richard Plos

Illustration: Adam Tooby

port facilities. There was hardly a mission from

which the pilots did not bring back some wounds,

caused by the “salutes” of Japanese antiaircraft guns. Pilots attacked from ever lower

altitudes. Sometimes they literally “combed”

the tops of the vegetation with their propellers,

which proved fatal to the Ens. Richardson, who

hit a tree on April 24. His Hellcat flew by inertia

over the shoreline to the water surface and

soon disappeared under it.

The fifth and most unfortunate loss was

suffered by VF-34 three days before the end

of its operational tour. Two divisions led by

Lt. Knight and Lt. Shaw escorted Avengers and

Dauntlesses that were to attack two Japanese

gun boats. During the attack, Lt. Knight was

hit by AA fire and crashed into the ocean. Both

boats were destroyed, unfortunately it turned

out they were not Japanese but American...

The Navy was quite strict when it came to the

efforts of personnel to improve the appearance

of their aircraft with various nosearts.

Occasional exceptions happened though,

especially when the unit was out of reach of

high command officers’ supervision, which was

the case with the VF-34. Thus, several of their

Hellcats were decorated with some pin-ups,

including the boxart aircraft of kit cat. no. 84194.

The port side was decorated with a painting

based on Vargas’ masterpiece from the Esquire

magazine calendar and the inscription Mary

Jane, while the starboard side was most likely

adorned with the cut-out of the same calendar

glued to the fuselage.

INFO Eduard

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