Corsair Pilots sought for Documentary

[Jerry O'Neill]

Hi guys;
I was contacted on my way home from the Mustang Gathering by a Japanese Film company that is trying to locate a Corsair pilot who was flying in the vicinity of Okinawa on April 6, 1945.
It seems a kamakazi pilot who survivied owes his life to this particular Corsair pilot and they would like to find him or someone from his squadron who might know the story.

Does anybody out there know someone who was airborne over Okinawa about mid-day on April 6, 1945?

Thanks guys.
Jerry

[Jack Cook]

VMF-323 was killing kamikazes by the dozen at that time.

[Rob Mears]

My uncle Wendell Langston was flying FG-1D BuNo.57891 with VMF-221 on April 6th, 1945. He logged 4.1 hours while searching for enemy shipping but I don't know if he made contact with any enemy. Like Jack said, there was LOTS of action going on there at that time. Pretty much the entire air was with Japan had been pressed into the areas over, and immediately surrounding the Japanese islands. Probably a fairly target rich environment, but the vast majority of the Allied push had consolidated itself there by that time as well. I imagine there must have been jillions of Allied fighters flying combat air patrol around the area by then.

I need to find out of US Navy squadrons filed after action reports for each day. I figure the Comanding Officerss surely kept a tally of pilot sorties, or at least any actual action their pilots took part in.

[corsair166b]

Getting a description of the markings on the Corsair itself would go a LONG way towards finding out which squadron it came from if the Japanese pilot recalls what it was painted like....most squadrons towards the end of the war had individual colors and we would at least know where to look squadron wise if he recalled the paint scheme...

Mark

[Jerry O'Neill]

Here's some more info from an e-mail I was sent today.
Jerry

Hi Jerry,



Thank you so much for talking to me.



Just to recap, I’m looking for a F4U Corsair pilot that flew in Okinawa on April 6th, 1945 for a surviving Japanese pilot.

These are the groups and their respective squadrons that would have flown F4U Corsair on that day:

Group 58.1 WASP (VBF86)

Group 58.1 BENNINGTON (VMF112, VMF123)

Group 58.3 ESSEX (VBF83)

Group 58.3 BUNKER HILL (VF84, VMF221, VMF451)

Group 58.4 INTREPID (VF10, VBF10)



Here’s a synopsis of the Japanese pilot’s story:

Kamikaze Pilot/Shigeyoshi Hamazono:

During Kikusui (Floating Chrysanthemum) Operation No. 1, on April 6th, 1945, Shigeyoshi Hamazono, then 21-years-old, departed from Kokubu No. 1 Air Base in southern Japan in a Type 99 carrier dive bomber (allied code name VAL) at 14:00, headed for Access Aisle 240 degrees (Okinawa). About an hour and a half to two hours later, he reached what is probably Americans’ "Picket Line" and had a firefight with at least three F4U Corsair fighters. After a 35-minute battle with American F4U Corsair fighters that riddled his aircraft with 78 bullet holes, he broke from the engagement and barely managed to fly his plane back to crash land to the Chiran Army Air Base (near Kaimondake Volcano), before running out of fuel. The lead fighter seemed skillful to Hamazono. He was ultimately positioned in front of him but did not shoot him down. After the American pilot banked, he shook his wing left to right to salute Hamazono. Hamazono returned the salute to the American as well. Hamazono, now in his 80s, feels he is alive today because of he spared his life.



As I said before, any help or suggestion on this research will be greatly appreciated.

[t28pilot]

This could have been Jim Swett. He was in VMF-221 and he did have to break out of a fight due to low fuel. I'll look into this farther. My Dad just had dinner with him recently and saw him again TODAY ! I'll get this info to Jim Swett.