Kamikaze Killers
Marine Corsair pilots dominate the Pacific
Marine Corsair pilots dominate the Pacific
When VMF-323 Marine Fighter Squadron first trained at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina in August of 1943, three lieutenants killed a huge, six-foot rattlesnake. It quickly became the squadron’s namesake, and from then on, they were known as the “Death Rattlers.” The name is still used for the squadron today! The newly commissioned squadron started flying the Vought F4U-1 Corsair in North Carolina and then shipped out to the West Coast, to El Centro, California where they prepared to go to the Pacific theater. In August 1944, they moved to Emirau Island in the Bismarck Archipelago. They had no kills at this location, so they moved to Espiritu Santo in March 1945 (still no kills), and then to harm’s way in Okinawa in March 1945. Throughout the war, their commanding officer was Maj. George Axtell, who would retire as a Lieutenant General in September 1974.
First kill
It did not take long to get in the action as hundreds of Japanese aircraft were used as suicide bombers, trying to get to the ships anchored off Okinawa. Lt. Al Wells, who would score the first of 120 confirmed kills, remembers the events as they unfolded. “Our Corsairs were parked along the side of the runway, and just as we were strapping ourselves in, all hell broke loose! Suddenly, there were tracers all over the place. Right in the middle of all this was a Japanese plane coming in low and firing in the direction of our Corsairs. It was probably the most exciting time as we all finally realized that we were in the thick of war. It had rained the night before, which made our runway a quagmire. The wheels bogged down and a few of the pilots went to full throttle, causing their Corsairs to nose over without moving a foot.”
However, Lt. Wells and his wingman,
Lt. Henry Brandon, were able to get to the main runway. Lt. Brandon describes what happened next. “Just as we were going to full power, I looked up and saw a single [D3A] Val dive-bomber
coming down the runway at a very low altitude. He was heading for our two Corsairs. I saw the bomb release and it hit just off the runway … dead center on the tower. Everyone in the tower was killed. Lt. Wells must have hit a dry section on the runway as his Corsair leaped into the air. As the Val thought he was clear, he was in for a big shock. The Val pilot never knew what was behind him and Lt. Wells at point blank range started firing his .50-caliber guns. Seconds later, the enemy aircraft burst into flames.” By that time, Lt. Wells was having trouble with his aircraft as he had failed to retract his landing gear. This was the first of many kills in April 1945, and by the end of the month, the squadron had run up their score to 56 destroyed Japanese aircraft.
A few days later, Death Rattler pilot Lt. Charles “Seab” Allen was flying on a routine patrol mission at dusk when their flight encountered a large formation of enemy aircraft about 20 miles off the coast of Okinawa. The enemy’s target was a group of Allied ships. As soon as the enemy spotted the Corsairs, they broke formation and scrambled. Lt. Allen locked on to the closest one and fired a few short bursts, which caused the bogey to start trailing smoke
and losing altitude. The fight was so intense that Allen did not have time to follow his target to make sure he destroyed it. As he maneuvered back into the fight, he closed on another Jap fighter and fired two short bursts from a slight angle. His rounds hit dead center on the cockpit, immediately killing the enemy pilot. This time, he stayed with his target and it went into a slow dive, trailing black smoke. He witnessed its plunge into the water, so it was definitely a kill. What remained of the enemy formation started their turn to return to base and not one bomber got through the Corsairs to hit the fleet.
Three days later, Lt. Allen was up with three other Corsairs and they discovered eight Japanese fighters approaching the coast of Ie Shima at 1,000 feet. As they approached the coast and the fight started, one of 323’s planes was hit and had gone down. Lt. Allen told the rest of the flight to head back to the base and he would stick around to see if the pilot had survived. While circling the area, Lt. Allen’s plane was riddled with gunfire that had come from above his altitude. “My hydraulic system, radio compartment, oil line and a cylinder were damaged, but I managed to limp back to our base.”
Kamikaze attacks
The suicide, or kamikaze raids against Okinawa began on April 6 and 7, when 350 Japanese suicide planes attacked. Two days later, Marine Air Group 33, which included VMF-323, began their operations at Kadena airfield. A few days later, April 12 and 13, they came under another attack of 186 planes. Lt. John W. Rusham shot down an A6M Zeke that day, as did five other Death Rattler pilots. The squadron only lost a few aircraft to enemy aircraft and ground fire. They also had a few losses due to accidents on takeoff and landing. The worst of these happened when a 323 Corsair had difficulty taking off and crashed into four other F4Us. The ammo cooked off, and the accident caused the death of four crewmen and the loss of eight aircraft.
On April 15, the Japanese launched another 165 suicide planes from bases
close to Okinawa. Once again, the 323 pilots did their part. In that dogfight, one of the squadron pilots chased an enemy aircraft into a hillside, but he could not pull out in time and he was killed in action.
On April 16, the number of kamikaze missions continued to grow. About 60 miles north of Ie Shima, a Death Rattler patrol in the same area knocked down two A6M3 Hamps, two J2M Jacks, and a Ki-48 Lily bomber. It was on that same mission that
Lt. Dewey Durnford saw his first MXYZ Baka, a small rocket-powered, pilot-guided kamikaze aircraft carried within sight of its target by a bomber. He was shooting at a Ki-49 heavy bomber when it suddenly spawned a Baka. He yelled into the mic, “The Helen was carrying a papoose!” He shot the Helen down.
A record-setting mission
The endless number of kamikazes with escorts kept the squadron busy. They had to protect those ships no matter the cost. April 22 turned out to be the most productive day they would have in the war. The squadron put up six flights with very few results, but things opened up on the day’s seventh flight. Maj. George Axtell took off with a group of eight Corsairs from Kadena toward a group of kamikaze aircraft headed for the armada of ships off the coast of Okinawa. They took off at 1500 hours and did not return until 1915 hours, and what happened in that time set records for the squadron! Despite the success of Marine and Navy pilots, some kamikaze aircraft got through and sunk a couple of ships.
The first three hours of the historymaking mission produced nothing, so that left the final hour to mix things up!
The action started 50 miles north of Aguni Shima. Maj. Axtell’s division received instructions to climb to 25,000 feet to intercept a high-flying Japanese aircraft, but before attaining their assigned altitude,
the flight was told to dive after some newly detected low-flying enemy aircraft. At approximately 5,000 feet, they finally spotted the enemy formation of divebombers, just ahead of and heading straight toward them. The Marines immediately pressed their attack on the enemy bombers.
The Japanese formation split up and began taking violent evasive action. Some headed for cloud cover at 2,000 feet. In the action that ensued, the pilots racked up a big score. One pilot scored two Vals and damaged another, all in a single stern run. One of the wingtips of Lt. Eddie Abner’s Corsair was damaged, and both of his wing roots received heavy damage in addition to bullet holes along his fuselage. He managed to retain control of his plane and was able to return to base. Lt. Jerry O’Keefe, one of three pilots in 323 who scored seven kills, was constantly trying to get into position to get behind them, and this maneuver got him four of his kills. His fifth victim came while he was scissoring with a Val.
Lt. O’Keefe made a head-on run and pulled up violently to avoid a collision, forcing the Val to do a wingover; due to the low altitude, it crashed. It should be noted here that all of Lt. O’Keefe’s kills were made from a point -blank range, which meant that his .50-caliber ammo was not wasted.
All of VMF-323’s kills on that day happened close to the island Ie Shima, where the enemy had a clear shot at all the ships anchored off the coast. Kamikaze attacks were just getting started, however. The Japanese might even send more than 80 of these aircraft to take out Allied ships. On June 11, the Japanese switched tactics and started sending from one to nine planes at a time; this dropped quantities of “window” to confuse the radar screens. This only worked for a limited time, but it was the overwhelming number of suicide aircraft that caused the most problems. A short time after their April 22 grand
slam, the 323 crews were up again, and this time they were to try and protect the hundreds of ships that were off-loading at Okinawa. Many of their missions consisted of picket duty, in which the Corsairs would be assigned to orbit over one of the Navy’s radar picket destroyers stationed to the north of Okinawa.
Pilot Lt. Jerry O’Keefe recalls, “On this day, I was part of a flight of twelve Corsairs led by Maj. Axtell. I was in my usual place as the skipper’s section leader, and Lt. Bill Hood was flying on my wing. The weather was sunny and clear. Heading east at approximately 12,000 feet, I spotted five unidentified planes at about 8,000 to 10,000 feet. I called the rest of the flight to say that I saw five bogeys and I suspected they were Japanese, because the group was composed of five aircraft instead of the usual four, eight, or twelve planes. I asked Maj. Axtell to allow my squadron to investigate. With his approval, I began a slow turn to the south and began bearing down on the bogeys from above and behind.”
Lts. Jerry O’Keefe and Bill Hood got closer, armed their machine guns, and positioned themselves at five and seven o’clock to the bandits. The enemy aircraft were old Imperial Army, fixed-gear, Ki-27 Nates headed for a kamikaze run against the U.S. ships. Unaware of the Corsairs, the Japanese pilots made no move to evade. Lt. O’Keefe opened fire on the leader at 300 yards, hitting it around the cockpit, and the Nate exploded. He streaked by the enemy in a shallow dive, pulled up and found a single aircraft diving for the ocean. He flew straight down on its tail and it also exploded. He learned a short time later that Lt. Bill Hood had downed two and Maj. Axtell had one.
The war winds down
By the end of April, the Japanese attempts against ships had diminished quite a bit, but it is unknown whether it was because of the victories of April 22 or if the enemy was changing tactics. By April 28, things began to pick up when Lt. Joseph V. Dillard destroyed a torpedo-carrying B5N Kate that was headed toward six radar picket ships. Lt. Dillard closed on the Kate from the five o’clock position while his wingman closed from the seven o’clock. The Japanese pilot made a turn in each direction, then straightened, realizing his plane was bracketed. Lt. Dillard noted that the Kate had no rear seat gunner as he fired on it from
100 yards out. The Kate, hit on Dillard’s first burst, went into a diving turn to the left and crashed. Through the month of April, VMF323 executed almost daily close air support and Combat Air Patrol (CAP) missions. The Death Rattlers were credited with 54 enemy aircraft shot down.
The month of May saw the number of Kamikaze aircraft diminish from April. This was probably due to the Japanese starting to pull back on Okinawa, which had started to fall; their priority had to be the defense of mainland Japan. This allowed more time for other types of mission such as close
air support. On May 5, eight Corsairs from VMF-323 participated in close air support on a mission on Japanese regimental headquarters and several anti-aircraft gun emplacements. After they struck, the target area was left in flames. Their bombs shattered the area that had housed the HQ, and rockets had wiped out the anti-aircraft gun emplacements. The squadron lost one pilot in this attack.
On May 11, the USS Hugh W. Hadley (DD774), a radar picket, was under attack from kamikaze aircraft. Protection overhead was afforded by a two-ship CAP of MF-323 pilots. The ship’s action report describes the heroism of the Marine pilots: “One very outstanding feat by one of two aircraft was that, though out of ammunition, he twice forced a suicide plane out of its dive on the ship, and the third time forced him into such a poor position that enemy aircraft crashed through the rigging, but missed the ship, going into the water nearby. This was done while all guns on the ship was firing at the kamikaze. His wingman stayed at masthead height in the flak and assisted in driving planes away from the DD-774.”
During the month of June 1945, flight activity and air strikes consisted of CAPs, radar picket ship patrols, close air support, and air strikes against enemy strongpoints in lower Sakishima Gunto. The Death Rattlers had a complete turnover in flight personnel during June. In addition, research conducted by the public relations section of 2nd Marine Air Wing that VMF-323 had established many records during their brief stay with the Okinawa campaign. The record set on April 22 was a big win for the Death Rattlers: the highest recorded score for any Marine squadron in one aerial battle. In addition, on May 4, 1945 they shot down another 24 aircraft. This was a remarkable record for any Marine squadron—especially considering their brief time in combat. Twelve Death Rattlers became aces— another record broken.