On November 6, 1944, US Navy F6F Hellcat pilots encountered a Japanese fighter they could not identify while conducting a fighter sweep over the airfields north of Manila
The F6F Hellcat squadrons entered the Pacific in late 1943 and quickly proved their superiority against their Japanese adversaries, which culminated in the historic “Marianas Turkey Shoot” in June 1944 during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The fighter proved to be an aircraft pilot’s dream, enabling both inexperienced and seasoned Naval Aviators to win large-scale aerial combat.
Lt. Elvin Lindsay, CO of VF-19, Lt. Albert Seckel, and Lt(jg) Lachlan McLaughlin came upon a Japanese fighter they could not identify on Nov. 6, 1944, during a fighter sweep over the airfields north of Manila, according to the story provided by Edward M. Young in his book F6F Hellcat Philippines 1944.
The Aircraft Action Report for VF-19 stated:
“The six who went up to Clark ran into 15 enemy planes, of which they destroyed 13 without losing themselves. They were led by Lt. Lindsay, the new squadron commanding officer, who shot down two “Tojos” and one “Oscar.” The group was attacked first by five “Oscars,” but when our planes turned into them, they climbed into the overcast, where Ens. Tatman got onto the tail of a straggler and shot it down in flames. Then singles and pairs of enemy planes came down out of the overcast, and several other enemy planes joined in from the side. All fights took place under the overcast and from 5,000ft down to the ground. A “Tojo” came in on Lt. Lindsay, firing both 7.7 and the two 20mm guns in his wings from above. He was a poor shot, missing, and Lt. Seckel pulled up a bit, centering him with a 60° deflection shot, and he burst into flames, crashing.”
Lt. Seckel says:
“We encountered 12 to 15 enemy planes, in groups of three to five planes. Lindsay’s division and my section kept weaving, covering each other, and by aggressively climbing and turning right into the enemy we kept the initiative, scaring off all but one or two of the planes in the group we attacked. Thus, all of us would gang up on a single plane or two as their pals fled, and we would take turns knocking them down. In a long chase, McLaughlin damaged a single-engine fighter of unknown type, and as he pulled out I hit him with a burst and he crashed. This plane was very fast – I was doing 290 knots indicated at 100ft and gaining only a very little. Its wing was a low mid-wing, and the plane resembled a P-47, with a heavy belly below the wing. Carried bombs or tanks under the wings.”
Lt. Lindsay added the following observations:
“We all stayed together in excellent fashion and supported each other with no strain. One “Oscar” approached Ens Sassman head-on, then suddenly whipped around and was on Sassman’s tail in amazingly short time. He began firing but broke away when he saw my tracers pass him. A few short bursts set his center section afire, and he crashed without bailing out. The “Tojos” pressed their head-on attacks to a very dangerous collision range, where we broke away. One “Tojo,” after making such a run on another F6F, tried to pull up sharply into the overcast but burst into flame from my gunfire just before entering the cloud. The sight of a burning “Tojo” spinning out of an overcast is beautiful indeed. I found another “Tojo” (or unidentified plane) in my sights soon after, and a short burst sent him flaming to the ground.”
The powerful new N1K1-J Shiden fighter, code-named “George,” of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force (IJNAF) matches the pilots’ description. It had been flying over the airfields of Luzon for a few weeks, but it didn’t seem to have been recognized as a new type of Japanese fighter until then.
F6F Hellcat Philippines 1944 is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo by Jim Laurier and Gareth Hector via Osprey