Friendly Fire Downs Fighting Six Wildcats

Launched by the carrier Enterprise shortly before 1700 on December 1941, six Fighting Six Wildcats escorted a strike consisting of 18 Torpedo Six TBDs and six VB-6 Dauntlesses fitted with smoke generators to mask the TBDs as they approached their targets. Unable to locate an enemy carrier reported to be 100 miles southeast, the strike returned to the Enterprise after nightfall. The VF-6 Wildcats under Lt. (jg) Francis “Fritz” Hebel were directed to land on Oahu instead of risking night carrier landings.

At 2100, VF-6 approached the Army’s Hickam Field near Pearl Harbor. Although multiple broadcasts to all ships and batteries in the vicinity warned of their arrival, the Wildcats were immediately challenged for recognition signals, which they did not have. Within seconds, the night sky was bright with tracers. Ens. Herbert Menges was the initial victim of the storm of anti-aircraft fire and became the first U.S. naval fighter pilot to die in the Pacific War. Lt. (jg) Hebel suffered a severe skull fracture ditching his shot-up F4F near Wheeler Field, and Lt. (jg) Eric Allen bailed out at low altitude over Pearl Harbor with a bullet wound and internal injuries before landing in oily water near the minesweeper Vireo.

Both Hebel and Allen succumbed to their injuries the next day.

Ens. James Daniels was the only one of the six airmen to land on an airfield, Ford Island Naval

Air Station. Ens. Gayle

Hermann landed on a small golf course on Ford Island, and Ens. David Flynn’s F4F ran out of fuel, forcing him to parachute into a cane field near Barbers Point.

With a loss of three pilots and four aircraft, December

7, 1941 saw VF-6’s worst casualties through June

1942.—Debra Cleghorn

An F4F of Fighting Squadron 6 aboard the USS Enterprise in early 1942. Four VF-6 Wildcats and two pilots were lost to friendly fire when they tried to land after the attacks.