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Strana 10

TASK FORCE 58 OFF THE COAST OF JAPAN
And they drew first blood in fair quantities
4 enemy planes shot down, 1 airborne damaged,
and on the ground, 9 destroyed, 4 probables,
17 damaged. Konoike and Hokoda were the
airfields offering up their sitting ducks and, in
the process of accepting the offer, none of our
planes was damaged.
The fighting encountered and engaged in by
this flight set a pattern that was to be repeated,
with few exceptions, on all subsequent hops
over the area. Airborne opposition was met,
of course, and in substantial quantities, but it
never proved too hot to handle. The Japanese
pilot were individual runs from in or at the
base of the cloud cover, diving down into our
formation. The runs were met and countered
and, in most cases, the attacker was shot down
or damaged. At no time did the enemy make
coordinated attacks or division or section runs.
His tactics were aggressive but ineffectual,
and his approaches were often embellished
by aerobatics on the way in. Occasionally he
would not open fire at all, but simply dive into
the midst of our fighters. He had a few tricks
up his sleeve - dummy pilot on parachutes
and, on one later flight, an attempted suicide
ramming - but these were poor substitutes for
valid offensive tactics or accurate shooting.
The difficulties encountered by our pilots
were also repeated on later flights. The area
was a strange one and, to a large extent,
unknown. Intelligence, before the operation,
had only the small scale, high altitude
photographs of the area which Army B-29‘s
had taken. Ground intelligence was entirely
lacking. Briefings based on this meager
material had to be sketchy and provisional, and
as a result, pilots went into the target with only
a general idea of the lay of the land. Orientation
had to be made on the flight itself and, in one or
two instances, prior information proved to be
inaccurate. Again, for many of the pilots this
was the first heady taste of aerial combat after
weeks of attacking ground targets and dodging
flak, and they were eager to seize every
opportunity. This not altogether commendable
eagerness often made rendezvous a slow
process and, time and again, left juicy ground
targets untouched while airborne stragglers
were chased off into other areas. Finally the
weather, while never bad, was never clear and
unlimited, and there were always some clouds
for the Japanese interceptors to retire into.
But the troubles were incidental. The richness
of the prize compensated for all that.
A second sweep, a strike, and a RAPCAP
were still to be flown on this day and, when
they were over, the score had grown splendidly.
Lt. Williams led the second sweep, the fighter
this time carrying rockets, and succeeded in
taking them to Mawatari Airfield for a ground
attack before the air borne opposition grew
so intense that they were forced to stay
aloft. Again our tactics proved superior to the
enemy‘s. The section proved to be a strong unit,
both offensively and defensively. The standard
weave was used to advantage. The 7-0 score
of airborne kills and the fact that no F6F was
hit at any time by enemy fire substantiates this.
It was on this flight that Lt. Williams met the
anti-social character who tried to ram him,
and got a smoking engine for his pains. When
the hop returned to base it left 18 of Mawatari‘s
deckload of planes destroyed or damaged.
The strike, launched in the afternoon, was
deflected to a secondary target because of
insufficient time after a delayed take-off. The
extensive facilities at Kasumigaura Airfield
were hit by the bombers. Lt.Cmdr Wolf led
the fighters and, again, they found plenty
to keep them busy aloft. Our fighters were
jumped both on approach and retirement
but no attackers go through to the bombers.
On this flight our fighters encountered the
closest approximation to coordinated attacks
that the Japanese could offer. An attacking
enemy would be followed at 100 to 200 yards
by another, who would attempt to reach
a firing position on whatever plane or planes
attacked the leader. Once this device secured
hits. Lt(jg) Chamber (on loan from VF-3) was
on the tail of a probable Jack, firing into him,
when a following Tony came down in a high-
side on him. Lt.Cmdr. Wolf saw the second
enemy firing at the F6F and turned into him
and shot him down. More often, however, the
interceptors came one at a time. The split, was
their favorite evasive device, and would seem
to be the only defensive maneuver they knew.
The flight came back with 8 kills to its credit,
Grumman F6F Hellcats warm up their engines on the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-12) before taking
off for raids on Tokyo, Japan, in February 1945. Photo: US Naval Heritage Command
Two SB2C-3 Helldiver dive-bombers from USS Lexington (CV-16) fly over Task Force 58 en route to Tokyo, circa
16 February 1945. The ships below include an Essex-class carrier, a New Orleans-class cruiser and a destroyer.
Photo: US Naval Heritage Command
INFO Eduard10
November 2026

TASK FORCE 58 OFF THE COAST OF JAPAN

Grumman F6F Hellcats warm up their engines on the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-12) before taking off for raids on Tokyo, Japan, in February 1945. Photo: US Naval Heritage Command

And they drew first blood in fair quantities 4 enemy planes shot down, 1 airborne damaged, and on the ground, 9 destroyed, 4 probables, 17 damaged. Konoike and Hokoda were the airfields offering up their sitting ducks and, in the process of accepting the offer, none of our planes was damaged.

The fighting encountered and engaged in by this flight set a pattern that was to be repeated, with few exceptions, on all subsequent hops over the area. Airborne opposition was met, of course, and in substantial quantities, but it never proved too hot to handle. The Japanese pilot were individual runs from in or at the base of the cloud cover, diving down into our formation. The runs were met and countered and, in most cases, the attacker was shot down or damaged. At no time did the enemy make coordinated attacks or division or section runs.

His tactics were aggressive but ineffectual, and his approaches were often embellished by aerobatics on the way in. Occasionally he would not open fire at all, but simply dive into the midst of our fighters. He had a few tricks up his sleeve - dummy pilot on parachutes and, on one later flight, an attempted suicide ramming - but these were poor substitutes for valid offensive tactics or accurate shooting.

The difficulties encountered by our pilots were also repeated on later flights. The area was a strange one and, to a large extent, unknown. Intelligence, before the operation, had only the small scale, high altitude photographs of the area which Army B-29‘s had taken. Ground intelligence was entirely lacking. Briefings based on this meager material had to be sketchy and provisional, and as a result, pilots went into the target with only

Two SB2C-3 Helldiver dive-bombers from USS Lexington (CV-16) fly over Task Force 58 en route to Tokyo, circa 16 February 1945. The ships below include an Essex-class carrier, a New Orleans-class cruiser and a destroyer. Photo: US Naval Heritage Command

a general idea of the lay of the land. Orientation had to be made on the flight itself and, in one or two instances, prior information proved to be inaccurate. Again, for many of the pilots this was the first heady taste of aerial combat after weeks of attacking ground targets and dodging flak, and they were eager to seize every opportunity. This not altogether commendable eagerness often made rendezvous a slow process and, time and again, left juicy ground targets untouched while airborne stragglers were chased off into other areas. Finally the weather, while never bad, was never clear and unlimited, and there were always some clouds for the Japanese interceptors to retire into. But the troubles were incidental. The richness of the prize compensated for all that.

A second sweep, a strike, and a RAPCAP were still to be flown on this day and, when they were over, the score had grown splendidly. Lt. Williams led the second sweep, the fighter this time carrying rockets, and succeeded in taking them to Mawatari Airfield for a ground attack before the air borne opposition grew so intense that they were forced to stay aloft. Again our tactics proved superior to the enemy‘s. The section proved to be a strong unit, both offensively and defensively. The standard weave was used to advantage. The 7-0 score of airborne kills and the fact that no F6F was hit at any time by enemy fire substantiates this. It was on this flight that Lt. Williams met the anti-social character who tried to ram him, and got a smoking engine for his pains. When the hop returned to base it left 18 of Mawatari‘s deckload of planes destroyed or damaged.

The strike, launched in the afternoon, was deflected to a secondary target because of insufficient time after a delayed take-off. The extensive facilities at Kasumigaura Airfield were hit by the bombers. Lt.Cmdr Wolf led the fighters and, again, they found plenty to keep them busy aloft. Our fighters were jumped both on approach and retirement but no attackers go through to the bombers. On this flight our fighters encountered the closest approximation to coordinated attacks that the Japanese could offer. An attacking enemy would be followed at 100 to 200 yards by another, who would attempt to reach a firing position on whatever plane or planes attacked the leader. Once this device secured hits. Lt(jg) Chamber (on loan from VF-3) was on the tail of a probable Jack, firing into him, when a following Tony came down in a highside on him. Lt.Cmdr. Wolf saw the second enemy firing at the F6F and turned into him and shot him down. More often, however, the interceptors came one at a time. The split, was their favorite evasive device, and would seem to be the only defensive maneuver they knew. The flight came back with 8 kills to its credit,

10

INFO Eduard

November 2026

Info EDUARD