[keith A]

Yep, many thanks. The squafton also make claims on 25 September 1944 for a probable by Ens FM Collins and then a Zeke destroyed by Ltjg Hammett on 26 September 1944 (flying from Tacloban a/f). The claimants vary in the war history. There's a pencilled note on one of the pages which seems to point to a shared victory (Ens CW Traul is named with another VC-65 member, name begins with R) and the combat reports have a couple of victories shared where the text attributes full victories to all four pilots.

The six missing victories of June 1944 as well as the one in September and four at Leyte were mostly credited to pilots who did survive although both the top scorer Lt Joseph T Riley (3-4?), and squadron leader LtCdr Ralph M Jones (1) were lost in action. I wonder why the reports prior to October 25, 1944 were not stored in another location or why the surviving pilots were not able to give details after the StLO was lost.

Based on what I know the claimants are Riley 3-4, Hamman 2.5, Hammett 2, Green 1.5, Vogel 1-2, Maino 1, Jones 1, Stroup 1, Freer 0.5, Bludnick 0.5, Traul 0.5 and (Riley)?.

best regards

Keith