A very lucky Marine pilot to have walked away ...

[Mark Allen M]

... with just a few scratches from this incident ... These (grainy) photos show a Marine Corsair (date, and VMF unknown, to me). Most likely happened at Guiuan Airfield, Samar, Philippine Islands.
As the first photo states it looked to have been a landing with a bomb still attached. Once the Corsair touched down the bomb released and must have fallen back just enough from the Corsairs forward momentum. This obviously caused the major damage behind the cockpit. Both wings look to have taken some damage as well. Very lucky pilot to have walked away from this.

Now that I think about it, this could also have happened on take-off.











Below: Field conditions at Guiuan Airfield, Samar, Philippine Islands on 5 January 1945

[Mark Allen M]

Found the story ...

"The remains of VMF-251's 2Lt. Hugh "Yogi" Irwin's Corsair (BuNo 57518), squadron number 22, following an explosion of a hung bomb at Guiuan Airfield on Samar, Philippine Islands, 8 April 1945. Following a mission near Cebu City, Irwin tried desperately to shake the bomb loose while flying back to Guiuan but to no avail. Photos were taken by 2Lt. James W. "Tiny" Robinson and came from the Hugh Irwin collection"

[DH82EH]

Wow!
Lucky indeed. That Corsair is quite the lookin' mess.
Might have been just as well to bail out.

Andy

[wendovertom]

Jeeezz - talk about "not your number" day!

Tom P.

[Invader26]

Great project. John Lane at Airpower would have rebuilt in a week!