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I was talking to my father a short while ago. He flew Hellcats off the USS Franklin, besides the close call he had on Oct 30, 1944. He was sitting in his Hellcat waiting to take off. His Hellcat was blown forward, prop hit the deck, left wing collapse, he runs off wing and dives into a door in carrier island.
On 30 October 1944, the Franklin was damaged extensively by a Japanese suicide plane east of Samar Island. The plane with a bomb load aboard crashed through the flight deck, igniting planes parked at the after end of the flight deck. The bombs carried forward, detonating among the gassed planes in the hanger and causing fires in the after portion of the flight deck and hangar. The fire spread to the second and third deck spaces. In addition, gas explosions occurred in the hangar, but all fires were extinguished in two and one half hours. Structural damage was extensive to the flight and gallery decks as well as to structures within the hangar.
Besides this close call, he told me his closest call was when he and his wingman were on CAP and got lost way out in the Pacific somewhere, they lost their carrier task force and were on fumes. They both decided to ditch, but at the last minute, they made contact with their carrier. Dad landed on the deck and engine quit. Soiled flight suit.
Another 4 Hellcat CAP and as Dad and his wingman, along with the other two in a 4 ship formation, entered through some broken clouds, his wingman somehow broke formation and clipped the second lead's wing and both tumbled in a fireball. Killing both. My dad to this day wears his belt buckle to the side of his pants as a memorial to his buddy he lost that day. Guess this happened a lot out there.
Dad chased a few enemy aircraft, and actually fired on a few, but he said they were always running away and dad was too far away to really hit anything. He did rocket fire on several airstrips, barges, and a greenhouse loaded with explosives on Saipan that blew up and shattered in a million pieces and beat up his Hellcat quite a bit. But he made it back safe.
Anyway, just wondering if any of you have a relative who flew missions during WW2 and have some personal close calls to share. A story interesting that we rarely hear about. Doesn't have to be combat related.
Mark the Hellcat driver.
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