Warbird Information Exchange

Enjoy and comments welcomed.

VP-14 was based at Kaneohe NAS on December 7th 1941. Squadron VP-14 was comprised of 12 PBY-5's on December 7th.

Note: three PBY's where airborne before the Japanese attack began. PBY-5's; 14-P-1, 14-P-2, and 14-P-3 were all airborne. PBY 14-P-1 flown by ENS. William P Tanner spotted the USS Ward attack a Japanese midget sub. Armed with depth charges ENS. Tanner dropped his depth charges on the Japanese midget sub aiding the USS Ward in sinking it.


Of interest, here is a list of BuNos for VP-14 and their fate on December 7th.

-2419 14-P-1 Airborne.

-2418 14-P-2 Airborne. Pilot ENS. O. Fred Meyer, Jr. (Aircraft was damaged in dog fight with Japanese aircraft. PBY crew shot back out of side blisters with their .45's! ).

-2415 14-P-3 Airborne, not damaged. Pilot ENS. Thomas W. Hillis. Not damaged.

-2363 14-P-4 Destroyed.

-2360 14-P-5 Minor Damage.

-2362 14-P-6 Badly Damaged.

-2365 14-P-7 Destroyed.

-2364 14-P-8 Destroyed.

-2369 14-P-9 Destroyed.

-2361 14-P-10 Destroyed.

-2357 14-P-11 Destroyed.

-2359 14-P-12 Destroyed.

Interesting stuff. Never knew that a PBY had assisted the Ward. Always interested to hear about the actions of US aircraft airborne that day. Imagine the shock of being unexpectedly under attack and shooting back with .45's. Bravery and desperation, and quite a bit of fear I suspect.

_________________
If the first casualty of war is innocence, the second is sobriety - Hawkeye.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws - Plato.
Lies get halfway round the world before the truth has a chance to get it's pants on - Churchill
If you are going through he11 - keep going - Churchill

The 14-P-1 navigator and the plane captain both saw the midget sub to alert the pilot. Then 14-P-1 dropped a smoke float which alerted the USS WARD...

THEN the WARD fired two shells...first missed, the second did not. The WARD thence dropped depth charges...

THEN the 14-P-1 dropped a depth charge...circled again and dropped a second...

Thanks David! I can't remember everything.