As per usual with the Vikings, note that this is reduced to 33%. Click on the profile to see it on Photobucket where you can click again and see it at 100%.
Rising sun ‘victory flags' were exceptional on SB4Us at any time. Erroneous profiles published in the past 30 years display 'meatballs' on some scout-bombers, especially the Scouting Two aircraft of Lt. (jg) Leppla and Radioman Liska. However, the USS
Wasp’s two SB4U squadrons flaunted their success over Japanese aircraft at the start of the Guadalcanal campaign.
Wasp's Vikings stole a march on the carrier's two fighter squadrons, with seven actual shootdowns before the F4Fs notched their first. VS-71's Lt. (jg) R L Howard shot down a Rabaul-based A6M2 fighter over Tulagi on 8 August 1942 at the start of the Guadalcanal campaign.
On 25 August, SB4U-4 BuNo 03315 was flown by two pilots to shoot down three Japanese aircraft. During the morning search at 0657 about 150 miles northwest of the force, VS-71's Lt. (jg) Chester V. Zalewski noticed a twin-float seaplane cruising at 1,500 feet. It fled towards some clouds, but Zalewski's below-rear attack swiftly flamed it. One crewman jumped from the burning plane, but never opened his chute. "Feeling pretty good over his achievement," as Zalewski later wrote, he resumed his search. At 0825, only 30 miles from home plate, he spotted a similar seaplane approaching about 500 feet above. This time he torched the enemy plane before the crew could react, and again a hapless Japanese jumped before his flaming aircraft crashed into the sea. The sharpshooting Zalewski destroyed two Type 0 reconnaissance seaplanes commanded by WO Nakamura Saburō and WO Adachi Hisaji from heavy cruiser
Atago (Kondō's flagship). Lt. Roy E. Breen, Jr. (USNA 1939), of VS-72, shot up a third enemy seaplane, another Type 0 from the Myōkō, only 30 miles from TF-18. The Japanese got away, but only after Breen expended all his bullets.
Other than raising havoc with Kondō's morning search, the
Wasp's SB4Us sighted no ships, because the Japanese drew northward out of range. From the AirSoPac morning search reports, Rear Admiral Noyes learned of more ships too distant to attack. More accessible targets appeared to westward. At 1007 Lt. James J. Murphy in 23-P-1 sighted Tanaka's battered invasion convoy, with the
Kinryū Maru being abandoned. A little later, CACTUS announced Mangrum's attack. Hoping his forces would renew battle that morning, an impatient Nimitz sent the following to Ghormley and Fletcher: "Realize situation still critical but exchange of damage to date seems to be in our favor...Let's finish off those carriers." Fortunately the Japanese had withdrawn out of reach of the outmatched
Wasp.
Noyes turned northwest, and at 1326 the
Wasp dispatched Lieutenant Commander Beakley with twenty-four SB4Us and ten TBFs on a search/attack mission against the convoy. Among these aircraft was SB4U-4 BuNo 03315 that Zalewski had piloted that morning. While they took off a 14th Air Group Kawanishi Type 2 flying boat (Spec. Duty Ens. Itō Tatsuhisa) snooped TF-18 and at 1345 reported one carrier, two cruisers, and six destroyers ("whether enemy's or ours unknown") bearing 110 degrees and 514 miles from Shortland. Easing into position several miles to abeam as the
Wasp planes climbed to 12,000 feet, Itō shadowed the strike group as it headed west toward his base. After about 40 minutes, the big Type 2 flying boat had foolishly closed within 3,000 yards of the nearest
Wasp planes, which had finally noticed it. VS-71's 2nd Division of Lt. Morris R. Doughty, Ens. Howard N. Murphy, Lt. (jg) Charles H. Mester, and Ens. Robert A. Escher climbed above the target and rolled into a rear attack. The Japanese gunners could not prevent Doughty from igniting the right inboard engine. In deep trouble, Itō reefed the Kawanishi into a chandelle, but the other three SB4Us quickly charged in from the rear. At 9,000 feet the Type 2 shed its wings in a fiery explosion. VS-71 scored a remarkable victory against a tough, swift target.
Three documented victory flags on one Navy SB4U undoubtedly stood as a record. Since 8 August the two
Wasp scouting squadrons, 71 and 72, shot down seven enemy aircraft, while a frustrated VF-71 had yet to even see an enemy plane aloft. All of these claims are substantiated by Japanese records, and
Wasp's fighter pilots insisted that the SB4U pilots 'tend to their own business'!
Cheers,
Logan