Download or read book The First Hellcat Ace written by Hamilton McWhorter and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2024-03-15 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new biography of Hamilton "Mac" McWhorter, the first pilot to achieve ace status in the Hellcat. Although he objected to being characterized as such, Hamilton McWhorter III's service to family and country make him a standout among America's Greatest Generation. A Georgia native whose family roots date from that region's settlement during the 1700s, “Mac” McWhorter was a naval aviation cadet undergoing training when Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan on December 7, 1941. After earning his Wings of Gold in early 1942, Ensign McWhorter was trained as a fighter pilot in the robust but technologically outmoded F4F Wildcat. Initially assigned to VF-9—a fiercely spirited and hard-playing fighter squadron—he saw first combat in November 1942 against Vichy French forces in North Africa. After returning to the United States, VF-9 became the first unit to convert to the new Grumman F6F Hellcat. This was the fighter the U.S. Navy would use to crush Japanese air power during the long offensive from the Southwest Pacific to the shores of Japan. From mid-1943, Hamilton McWhorter was constantly engaged in the unforgiving and deadly aerial warfare that characterized the battles against Imperial Japan. His fifth aerial victory, in November 1943 off Tarawa Atoll, made him the first ace in the Hellcat, and seven subsequent victories ensured his place in the annals of air-to-air combat. McWhorter's combat service, from the beginning of the war to the last campaign off the shores of Okinawa, makes his story a must-read for the serious student of the Pacific air war. Hamilton McWhorter III retired from the Navy as a commander in 1969. He passed away in 2008.

Download or read book The First Hellcat Ace written by Hamilton McWhorter and published by . This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After earning his Wings of Gold in early 1942, Ensign McWhorter was trained as a fighter pilot in the robust but technologically outmoded F4F Wildcat. His fifth aerial victory, in November 1943 off Tarawa Atoll, made him the first ace in the Hellcat, and seven subsequent victories ensured his place in the annals of air-to-air combat.

Download or read book The First Hellcat Ace written by Cdr Hamilton McWhorter and published by . This book was released on 2024-03-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hamilton McWhorter was a WWII naval aviator and the first-ever F6F Hellcat ace.

Download or read book F6F Hellcat Aces of VF 9 written by Edward M. Young and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-03-20 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the course of two combat tours VF-9 pilots shot down 250 Japanese aeroplanes and produced 20 aces. VF-9 was activated in March 1942 as part of Carrier Air Group (CAG) 9, one of the many air groups the US Navy was hurriedly forming in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Equipped with Grumman F4F Wildcats, VF-9 first saw combat during the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942, where the squadron engaged Vichy French fighters over Morocco. Returning to the United States, VF-9 became one of the first squadrons to receive the Grumman F6F Hellcat and to deploy on the USS Essex, the first of its class of fleet carriers that would form the backbone of the US Navy's Fast Carrier Task Force. VF-9, the Hellcat, and the Essex all entered combat in the fall of 1943. This book details how, In the hands of the squadron's pilots, and with other Navy fighter squadrons, the Hellcat proved superior to the Imperial Japanese Navy's A6M Zero, which had heretofore been the world's premier carrier fighter plane.

Download or read book F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat Aces of VF 2 written by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-02-20 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated history of the pilots of VF-2 who had a spectacular scoring rate and fought in many of the major aerial campaigns of the Pacific War. The first VF-2 was a prewar unit that had been dubbed the 'hottest outfit afloat' due to the skill of their non-commissioned pilots. This first unit only saw combat at the Battle of the Coral Sea, although VF-2 pilots flying Grumman F4F Wildcats were able to rack up 17 claims there during the bitter 48-hour period of fighting. The second 'Fighting Two' was armed with the new Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat fighter. Arriving in Hawaii in October 1943, the squadron so impressed Cdr Edward H 'Butch' O'Hare, the Medal of Honor-winning first US Navy ace of World War 2, that he requested the squadron replace VF-6 in his CAG-6 aboard USS Enterprise. No unit US Navy unit created more aces than VF-2, whose pilots went into action over the Carolines, Marianas, Guam, Iwo Jima and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Using exquisite photographs and first-hand accounts from the elite fliers themselves, this volume tells the story of the ace pilots who comprised the original VF-2 and the second.

Download or read book F6F Hellcat at War written by Cory Graff and published by Zenith Press. This book was released on 2009-04-15 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lavishly illustrated look at the most successful aircraft in naval history--from its design and development to its unparalleled performance in the last 2 years of WWII.

Download or read book Hellcat Aces of World War 2 written by Barrett Tillman and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 1996-07-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grumman's successor to the pugnacious Wildcat, the Hellcat embodied many of the lessons learnt by F4F pilots in the opening months of the Pacific war. Introduced to the fleet in January 1943, and blooded in combat against the Japanese by VF-5 seven months later, the F6F served as the principal US Navy fighter on board carrier decks until VJ-Day. Despite its lethality in the air when ranged against the best Japanese fighters, it still retained docile handling qualities around the carrier deck. Pilots flying the Hellcat claimed nearly 5000 kills in the Pacific, and over 350 pilots achieved ace status on the type.

Download or read book Aces Against Japan written by Eric Hammel and published by Daniel Hammel. This book was released on 2020-12-05 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ACES AGAINST JAPAN The American Aces Speak Eric Hammel In this superb, originally conceived offering, noted military historian, Eric Hammel brings us first-person accounts from thirty-nine of the American fighter aces who blasted their way across the skies of the Pacific and East Asia from December 7, 1941, until the final air battles over Japan itself in August 1945. Coupled with a clear view of America's far-flung air war against Japan, Hammel's detailed interviews bring out the most thrilling in-the-cockpit experiences of the air combat that the Pacific War’s best Army, Navy, and Marine pilots have chosen to tell. Meet Frank Holmes, who defied death in an outmoded P-36 while still clad in a seersucker suit he had worn to mass earlier that morning. Fly with Scott McCuskey as, single-handed at Midway, he takes out two waves of Japanese dive-bombers that are attacking his precious aircraft carrier. Sweat out the last precious drops of fuel in a defective Marine Wildcat fighter as Medal of Honor recipient Jeff DeBlanc bores ahead to his target to keep the faith with the bomber crews he has been assigned to protect. Experience the ecstasy of total victory as Ralph Hanks becomes the Navy's first Hellcat ace-in-a-day when he destroys five Japanese fighters over the Gilbert Islands in a single mission. A superb interviewer, Hammel has collected some of the very best air-combat tales from America's war with Japan. Combined with the four other volumes in The American Aces Speak series, this work will stand as an enduring testament to the brave men who fought the first and last air war in which high-performance, piston-engine fighters held sway. These are stories of bravery and survival, of men and machines pitted against one another in heart-stopping, unforgiving high-speed aerial combat. The American Aces Speak is a highly-charged emotional rendering of what men felt in the now-dim days of personal combat at the very edge of our living national history. There was never a war like it, and there never will be again. These are America's eagles, and the stories are their own, in their very own words. Eric Hammel is the author of nearly thirty other books, including Pacifica Press’s Carrier Clash, Carrier Strike, Aces Against Germany, Aces Against Japan II, Aces at War, and Aces in Combat. He lives with his family near San Francisco. Critical Acclaim for The American Aces Speak Series The Marine Corps Aviation Association Yellow Sheet says: “The recounting of each story is done in the pilot’s own words. This is a powerful technique that draws readers into the action and introduces them to the world of the fighter pilot” The American Fighter Aces Bulletin says: “Some of [the] episodes are well-known; others have never been written before. But each account delivers something intensely personal about the Pacific Air War.” The Library Journal says: “No PR hype or dry-as-dust prose here. Hammel allows his flyers to tell their stories in their own way . . . Exciting stuff aviation and World War II buffs will love.” Book Page says: “For those who have an interest in World War II, or those who simply like to read of drama in the skies, Eric Hammel’s [Aces Against Japan] is recommended reading. It is a must for any historian’s bookshelf.” WWII Aviation Booklist says: “Hammel provides a veritable feast of aviation combat narrative. As always in this series, the entries [in Aces at War] have been carefully selected to provide the most entertaining ride possible for his readers. Easily the best series available on air combat! Get them all!”

Download or read book Pushing the Envelope written by Marion Carl and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-03-15 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1994, this stirring autobiography of a fighter and test pilot takes readers full throttle through Carl's imposing list of "firsts." Beginning with his World War II career, he gained such commendations as first Marine Corps ace, among the first Marines ever to fly a helicopter, and first Marine to land aboard an aircraft carrier. His combat duty included the momentous battles at Midway and Guadalcanal. Not one to rest on his laurels, however, he participated in photoreconnaissance operations over Red China in 1955 and flew missions in Vietnam. In peacetime he gamed fame for "pushing the envelope" as a test pilot, adding the world's altitude and peace records to his wartime feats and becoming the first U.S. military aviator to wear a full pressure suit. Such achievements also led to Carl's being the first living Marine admitted to the Naval Aviation Hall of Honor, as well as the first Marine to be named to the Navy Carrier Aviation Test Pilots Hall of Honor. This very readable memoir is as forthright and compelling as the man it chronicles.

Download or read book Aces In Combat written by Eric Hammel and published by Daniel Hammel. This book was released on 2020-12-05 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ACES IN COMBAT The American Aces Speak Eric Hammel Adding to the acclaimed first four volumes of his exciting, in-the-cockpit series, The American Aces Speak, leading combat historian Eric Hammel comes through with yet another engrossing collection of first-person accounts by American fighter aces serving in World War II and the Korean War. As are the four earlier volumes, Aces In Combat is a highly charged excursion into life and death in the air, told by men who excelled at piston-engine and jet-engine aerial combat and lived to tell about it. It is an emotional rendering of what brave airmen felt and how they fought in the now-dim days of America’s living national history. View the Battle of Midway through Lieutenant Jim Gray’s eyes as he must balance the needs of fellow pilots against the needs of his nation. Share the fear with Captain Charlie Sullivan as would-be rescuers deep in the New Guinea jungle attempt to turn him into a blood sacrifice. Crew a Canadian Mosquito night fighter as Lieutenant Lou Luma stalks the wily Hun—and bags an ace—over an airfield deep in Germany. Share Lieutenant Bud Fortier’s and Major George Loving’s grief when, on missions nearly eight years apart, they look on helplessly as trusted wingmen dive to their deaths in treacherous ground-attack runs. And watch anxiously as Captain Tom Maloney hovers between life and death for ten lonely days after stepping on a mine on an enemy-held beach. These are America’s eagles, and the stories they tell are their own, in their very own words.

Download or read book Tidal Wave written by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now publishing in paperback, this is a vivid narrative history of the final stages of the Pacific War, as the US Navy began to slowly approach the Japanese Home Islands against fearsome opposition, notably from the suicidal Japanese airmen: the kamikaze. The United States Navy won such overwhelming victories in 1944 that, had the navy faced a different enemy, the war would have been over at the conclusion of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, in the moment of victory on 25 October 1944, the US Navy found itself confronting a frightening enemy that had been unimaginable until it appeared. The kamikaze, 'divine wind' in Japanese, was something Americans were totally unprepared for – a shocking violation of every belief held in the West. The attacks were terrifying. Regardless of the damage inflicted on an attacking aeroplane, there was no certainty of safety aboard the ship until that aeroplane was completely destroyed, as the crew of the USS St. Lo tragically learned. From best-selling author Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, Tidal Wave combines expert research and first-person accounts to tell the story of the naval campaigns in the Pacific from Leyte Gulf to the end of the war – a period in which the US Navy would fight harder for survival than ever before.

Download or read book To Be a U S Naval Aviator written by Jay A. Stout and published by Quarto Publishing Group USA. This book was released on 2005-11-10 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For anyone with the will to become a U.S. naval aviator, the future begins now. Marine fighter pilot and combat veteran Jay Stout shows us just what it takes to be a U.S. naval aviator in the twenty-first century, conducting us through every step of training as these dedicated, everyday heroes prepare for tomorrow’s threats while taking the fight to the enemy today. Throughout, Stout offers behind-the-scenes perspectives on the community of naval aviators, with profiles of the men and women who fly naval aircraft, of celebrated naval aviators, and of important figures in the history of naval aviation.

Download or read book Yakovlev Aces of World War 2 written by George Mellinger and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-20 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the Soviet aces who scored all, or most of their victories in the Yak, drawing information from official unit histories and memoirs of the Soviet pilots themselves. The Yak-1 entered Soviet service in 1941, one of three modern types of aircraft accepted for production just prior to the German invasion of the USSR. Despite initial shortcomings, it soon proved to be the thoroughbred of the Soviet Airforce. Indeed, it remained in production until the end of the war, modernized but fundamentally recognizable. By VE-day about 33,100 Yakovlev fighters had been built. Virtually all Soviet fighter regiments flew at least one variety of Yak for a time, including those which gained their fame identified with other aircraft, and consequently many pilots known as Airacobra or Lavochkin aces also scored victories with the Yak. Many other famous aces were exclusively 'Yak patriots', including the French Normandie pilots.

Download or read book Naval Aviation News written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Koga s Zero written by Jim Rearden and published by Graphic Arts Books. This book was released on 2014-04-04 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Found upside down in an Alaskan bog in the eighth month of our war with Japan, a Japanese fighter plane was retrieved and soon test flown by U.S. pilots. Knowledge gained from those flights ended the dominance of the Zero in the Pacific

Download or read book Air Combat written by Robert F. Dorr and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-11-06 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Air Combat, veteran and military author Robert F. Dorr has collected dozens of interviews from combat veterans who have experienced what it’s like to face the enemy in the skies above, from the first days of World War II to the current war on terror. Each story tells a first-hand account of what it’s like to be in the thick of the fight, describes the history, strengths, and weaknesses of each man’s plane in detail, and offers readers a rare glimpse into the minds and hearts of those who dare to fight in the air. From the savage dogfights of World War II to the high-tech missile duels of today, those who wage war in the skies—and the machines they fly—are a breed apart. Pushing themselves to the cutting edge of speed and skill, their battleground is among the clouds—where every fight you survive is a victory. These are their stories—in their own words.

Download or read book USS Princeton written by David R. Leick and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-10-24 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An in-depth history of the US Navy's light aircraft carrier the USS Princeton and its operational exploits in the Pacific Theater of World War II. This new history of the life and loss of USS Princeton tells the story of the new class of aircraft carrier that proved essential to the US Navy's victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War. USS Princeton (CVL-23) started life as the light cruiser Tallahassee before being converted while still under construction into a light carrier as part of the plan to ramp up the strength of US naval air power. The vessel joined the Pacific Fleet in August 1943 and was immediately put to work as the United States was assembling new ships and crews for the bitter struggle to come. Princeton played a key role in conducting multiple strikes against the Japanese bastion at Rabaul, and then joined Task Force 58/38 – the Fast Carrier Task Force – for the Central Pacific campaign, culminating in the invasion of the Philippines, where the ship was lost. David R. Leick skillfully uses first-hand accounts to examine the engagements, aircraft, tactics, command decisions and life on board during the Pacific campaign against Japan from early 1943 until Princeton's tragic demise in October 1944. He focuses closely on the ship's crew and embarked Naval Aviators, describing in detail the toll that prolonged combat operations took on the frontline sailor.