The Commemorative Air Force’s former US Navy Douglas R4D Gooney Bird Ready 4 Duty left our Museum bound for Europe over the Easter Weekend - and may well have reached Britain by the time these words are read. Its 12-week, 12,000 mile journey will see the aircraft and its crew take part in commemorations celebrating the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, the end of WWII in Europe. By now, everyone reading this article will be well aware that traveling with the airplane are the grave stone rubbings of British service personnel who lost their lives here in the United States during that global conflict. Of these rubbings, those gathered from war graves in Southern Virginia and North Carolina were created by our own Museum's volunteers (for more on that effort known as Bring the Boys Back Home please see previous articles here and here).
Ready 4 Duty on the ramp at the Military Aviation Museum over Easter Weekend. (image by Justin Fortier)
Military Aviation Museum's Director and CEO, Keegan Chetwynd, during the formal send-off ceremony for the Bring the Boys Back Home program over Easter Weekend. (image by Justin Fortier)
RAF Group Captain David Trimmer during the send-off ceremony for the Bring the Boys Back Home project at the Military Aviation Museum over Easter Weekend. (image by Justin Fortier)
Royal Navy Chaplain, Michael Woodall, during his homily. He also gave a stirring rendition of Laurence Binyon's ode, For the Fallen, with the famous refrain, "They Shall Not Grow Old". (image by Justin Fortier)
Members of the audience helped load the gravestone rubbings aboard Ready 4 Duty at the Military Aviation Museum over Easter Weekend. (image by Justin Fortier)
US Navy D-Day veteran, Julius Shoulars, poses with the British military contingent who attended the Bring the Boys Back Home send-off event on Easter Sunday. Former US Navy R4D-6S Gooney Bird, Ready 4 Duty stands on the Military Aviation Museum's ramp in the background. (image by Dylan Phelps).
The original motivation behind Ready 4 Duty's intercontinental journey stemmed from a desire to highlight the US Navy and its role in winning World War II. At the same time the world is observing the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, the US Navy is marking its 250th Anniversary as well. So, alongside the grave stone rubbings, the CAF's R4D is carrying another sacred cargo with it too - physical pieces of US Navy Museum ships.
The aircraft itself is a Museum piece too, and likely the last of its variant still flying. Built in 1944 as Bureau Number 50783, Ready 4 Duty is the US Navy’s version of the iconic Douglas DC-3 transport aircraft. Modified to carry depth charges on external racks, with an airborne search radar fitted, the CAF's Gooney Bird helped train crews for anti-submarine warfare and maritime search and rescue missions. The aircraft also hunted enemy submarines, venturing as far as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the south, Greenland to the north, and Dakar, Senegal to the east. During February 1945 the aircraft was assigned to a squadron which surprised a surfaced German U-Boat and sank it!
The CAF's Dallas/Fort Worth Wing, which has operated Ready 4 Duty for many years, maintains its interior as a traveling exhibit addressing the various roles R4Ds performed. This includes various aspects like Sub-Chasing, Aero-medical Evacuation, the Naval Air Transport Service - and of course - Paratrooper jump platform. However, for this crossing, the aircraft also highlights some of the US Navy’s great WWII ships. Traveling on board Ready 4 Duty are items from USS Texas (BB 35), USS Yorktown (CV 10), USS Laffey (DD 724) and several other historic vessels preserved as museums today.
Loading Precious Cargo
While visiting the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach over Easter Weekend, the aircraft was loaded with additional artifacts from our region's historic naval vessels, including items from battleships USS Wisconsin (BB 64) and USS North Carolina (BB 55).
A fast battleship designed before the outbreak of WWII, USS North Carolina was the lead ship in her class. Her design was initially governed by the five-nation Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which aimed to prevent an arms race amongst the global powers of the day after WWI. The later London Naval Treaty contained loopholes which allowed the battleship more powerful armament capabilities, which were incorporated into the vessel. Completed in April 1941, North Carolina saw extensive service throughout the war.
From countering the German battleship Tirpitz in the North Atlantic, to the Pacific Battles of Guadalcanal, Eastern Solomons, Marshall Islands and the Philippine Sea, the “Showboat” (as the ship’s crew dubbed her) screened aircraft carriers and supported landing operations. In September 1942, the Japanese Submarine I-19 torpedoed North Carolina in the same salvo which crippled the carrier USS Wasp (subsequently scuttled). Thankfully, North Carolina’s crew was able to counter-flood the ship to balance the list resulting from the torpedo hit, allowing her to remain on station.
North Carolina earned 15 battle stars during WWII, which included her participation in the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and eventually direct attacks on the Japanese home islands themselves – making a piece of hull steel from the ship an important historical artifact in its own right. However, this is not the whole story; our piece is cut to resemble the side profile of a Vought OS2U Kingfisher, ensuring that an often overlooked aspect of the history of Naval Aviation is represented in the flying museum traveling aboard Ready 4 Duty.
Sometimes referred to as Slingshot Fliers, the naval aviators who flew from cruisers and battleships during World War II seldom receive proper recognition. Several aircraft types comprised The Eyes of the Fleet during WWII, but the Kingfisher was the most numerous. While it wasn’t the fastest, with a nominal cruise speed of 152mph, it had significant range (900 miles), making it an effective platform for the types of missions it served. Please read on as we highlight what even the National Air and Space Museum called The Naval Aviation You’ve Never Heard Of.
Honoring and Remembering V Division
Known as V Division aboard warships like USS North Carolina, the Aviation Detachment was part of the vessel’s gunnery department. Each aircraft was supported by a team of enlisted men including aerographer’s mates, aviation machinist’s mates, aviation metalsmiths, aviation ordnancemen, aviation radiomen, photographers, and even a storekeeper. The aviators who flew these aircraft were all officers.
Displayed aboard USS North Carolina presently, is a placard with a quote from Captain Tracy Wilder, USN (Retired) which amusingly describes the 'unique qualities' which some of these pilots possessed:
“One of the more colorful characters on board was our senior aviation Lt. ‘Dipsy’ Dowdle. Dipsy was a frustrated fighter pilot and a salty flier. When we stopped at Pearl Harbor on our way to the Pacific in October 1944, the captain received a complaint from the beach and an order from the air base to ground Dipsy while in Hawaii because he kept buzzing the airfield and challenged the fighter pilots to a dog fight!”
Kingfisher Flight Characteristics:
While the Kingfisher’s aerodynamics certainly didn’t lend themselves to aerial combat roles - the floats creating significant drag - the type was well suited to catapult launch, and recovery by crane; this is how they operated from their host battleships. Kingfishers served primarily as scouts, their crews tracking down enemy forces or directing their own ship’s gunnery to greater effect. They also performed roles such as dropping important messages to other ships in the fleet, conducting radar calibration flights, or towing targets for anti-aircraft gunners to hone their firing accuracy.
During maritime invasion operations, Kingfishers had to fly over enemy territory to aid the ship’s gunnery teams, as WWII-era naval radars were unable to differentiate targets on land due to the clutter (backscatter) from the terrain which swamped the radar's receiver. As quoted on a placard aboard North Carolina, one of the ship's Kingfisher pilots, Commander Almon P. Oliver, described his own experiences during the US invasion of Iwo Jima:
“We were asked to make low passes over [Iwo Jima] to try and locate [enemy] gun positions. The nature of spotting means that you flew 'low and slow', anywhere from 200 feet to 1,500 feet altitude at a speed of 80 – 120 knots. In the case of Iwo Jima, I spent nearly 40 hours over the island."
Overflying occupied beaches was far from the only hair raising experience Kingfisher crews could encounter during a flight. Even the seemingly simple act of taking off on a mission was fraught with danger. Launching the aircraft from a battleship was effected by steaming the vessel into the wind and then pivoting the Kingfisher's catapult ramp outboard at a roughly 30º angle to the ship's centerline. The pilot ran the engine up while a deckhand released the locking pins on the launching car. After receiving the order to launch, a Gunner’s mate then fired the Catapult Gun (an 8" artillery shell charge), causing the launching car to hurtle down the track and rapidly raise the aircraft's velocity to its 70mph liftoff speed. A hydraulic buffer in the track snagged the car, which slung the Kingfisher forward and into the air. Lieutenant (jg) Everette Landers, USN (Retired) remembered his own experiences performing this seemingly insane feat with the following:
“With full flaps, low pitch and full power, we went off that catapult at 45 knots. And in my case, I was only semi-conscious. I blacked out but you had your plane trimmed so it was in flight. It was actually flying itself when you went off the end of the catapult and you just took control as you regained consciousness.”
A nice close-up view of the catapult mounting mechanism used to launch a Kingfishers seen here as sailors swab swab the deck. Note the spare catapult car partially in view at lower left. This is what the Kingfisher was strapped to when mounted on the catapult launching rail. (image via Battleship North Carolina Museum)
Preparing to launch a Kingfisher from the rear deck of USS North Carolina circa early 1942. (image via North Carolina Museum)
A Kingfisher launching from USS Quincy (CA 71) in WWII. (image via Air & Space Magazine)
A Kingfisher approaching a recovery sled laid out by USS Quincy during WWII. These devices would help stabilize and bring the aircraft in closer to the ship so they could be winched aboard after a flight. (image via Air & Space Magazine)
A Naval Aircraft Factory-built variant of the Vought Kingfisher, OS2N-1 (BuNo. 01491 or 01401) is seen hear being lowered onto its catapult cradle after a flight, during the USS Missouri's shakedown cruise, circa August 1944. Note the Mk.51 director and its associated 40mm quad gun mount at left. (NARA image via Air&Space Magazine)
Feats of great Valor:
Numerous US Navy ships were furnished with scout aircraft, so why is it that this small piece of USS North Carolina’s hull formed into the shape of a Kingfisher has a special story to share? It is because the crews who flew the scout aircraft from the North Carolina commonly displayed acts of uncommon valor. The first occurred on April 30, 1944, and led to one of the most iconic photographs ever taken of a Kingfisher.
Announcing the target of a raid as the Japanese Navy base at Truk would send a shiver through the ready room of any US aircraft carrier during World War II. The secret base the Japanese had established years earlier had a carefully cultivated air of superiority. It was sometimes called the Gibraltar of the South Pacific, and was regarded across the US Navy fleet as the strongest base between Pearl Harbor and Japan itself.
Considered by the Japanese to be their main base in the south Pacific, Truk was manned with fearsome defenders. It was a bastion that was positioned directly in the path of the US Navy, and it was routinely attacked to diminish its ability to effect US operations in the region. April 29, 1944 brought one such wave of strikes from Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher’s carriers. The following day, April 30, saw the Kingfishers launched from the North Carolina to search the areas around the island for downed US aviators.
Lieutenant Junior Grade John Burns, a native of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania launched to join Lt. John “Dipsy” Dowdle Jr. in the air searching for the pilot of a downed F6F. They located the pilot, but when Dowdle landed his Kingfisher to take him aboard, a gust of wind overturned the aircraft. Dowdle and his radioman now joined the F6F pilot in needing rescue – and sea conditions were deteriorating.
Burns landed his Kingfisher in 5 foot seas, grabbed the F6F pilot, Dowdle and his radioman. He then taxied his floatplane out to where the submarine USS Tang (SS 306) was expected to be on station to collect downed airmen and deposited his precious cargo before taking off to search for more stranded American aircrew. By this time, strikes against Truk had resumed, and while Burns was landing to collect yet another F6F Hellcat pilot, he observed two Avengers ditching nearby. Taxiing over to collect those men from their raft, Burns now had a wing-full again.
By this time, the pounding seas were starting to damage Burn’s Kingfisher. He once again turned for the Tang, but this time, after unloading his rescues, it became clear that he and his radioman would have to join everyone aboard the Submarine. The pontoon had been taking on water, and the aircraft was listing. As the aircraft’s crew descended below deck, the Submarine’s crew used the deck gun to sink the aircraft so it wouldn’t fall into enemy hands.
For using his Kingfisher as a fast rescue boat to save 10 men, in close proximity to the enemy’s most significant and heavily defended base in the South Pacific, Burns was awarded the Navy Cross.
Snatched from the shoreline of Japan itself
With the US Navy striking directly at the Japanese home islands, and the closing days of the war fast approaching Lt. (JG) Vernon T. Coumbe had his Corsair shot out from under him on a raid against Ominato Airfield. He made a deadstick landing, but after boarding his raft, he was quickly pushed back on-shore. Coumbe recalled, “I hid in a sparse clump of trees the rest of that day. All night long the Japanese failed to find me, and at dawn I heard the roar of planes… I signaled and tried to paddle out through a small bay, but the surf was against me.” At noon, he saw the Kingfishers overhead, and knew that they were there to effect his rescue.
Similarly to the situation off Truk, the wind was whipping the seas up, and as the first Kingfisher attempted to land, enemy shore batteries began firing at it. The aircraft taxied to the edge of the breakers, about 50 yards from Coubme. Unfortunately, while trying to throw the downed airman a line, the Kingfisher’s pilot (Lt. Ralph Jacobs) was thrown from the airplane by an unusually large wave strike, which also knocked the floatplane's throttles on the airplane out of idle. As the two men sat in the water, the aircraft trailed off across the bay by itself.
Overhead, Lt. Almon P. Oliver was flying North Carolina's second Kingfisher. The pilot had previously received an Air Medal for staying aloft over Iwo Jima spotting anti-aircraft batteries from the air so that the ship’s guns could knock them all out. Seeing the Kingfisher speeding off across the water initially made Oliver believe that the rescue had been a success - but when he got lower, he saw that the situation in the surf was altogether different. “When I came down just for a look-see, I was amazed to see that the cockpit was empty and the seaplane was simply running away under heavy enemy fire. At any other time, it would have been comical.”
With enemy fire diverted by the errant Kingfisher, Oliver made his lucky landing and snatched the two men from the surf. They took off while being straddled by enemy shells. By the time they made it back to the fleet, Oliver shared with the others that he had almost run out of fuel getting them there.
Sometimes maligned by its crews as Old, Slow and Ugly (OS2U), the Kingfisher was beloved by those it rescued – many of whom acknowledged it as a guardian angel of sorts. US Naval Aviators, unlike those of many other nations during WWII, knew that being down – did not necessarily mean you were out – especially when you had colleagues who were experts at air-sea rescue.
The Military Aviation Museum’s Kingfisher
Yes, we do have a Kingfisher, although everyone can be forgiven for not knowing this fact! Our OS2U-3 has been overseas in storage awaiting restoration for a great many years, now. For more information on the aircraft please check out its collection page! To answer the inevitable questions regarding when restoration work begin on the aircraft, we can only say that we hope to initiate this endeavor after the Museum’s SBD Dauntless is completed.
Without the whole aircraft to hand to share its important stories, we have to sometimes get a little creative! And that is where our small piece of USS North Carolina’s armored hull plate come in. They provide us with an object we can use to share a piece of important aviation history under-represented in our collection.
