[R Leonard]

No offense, but it looks like you are trying to back into a result.

Better to look at FM-1s in terms of exposure to combat operations and any credited results there from.

There were two squadrons equipped with FM-1s that made it to a combat zone of which I am aware, VC-39 aboard USS Liscome Bay and VC-33 aboard USS Coral Sea.

Liscome Bay departed San Diego on 21 October 1943 and after a stop at Pearl Harbor participated in operations in the Gilberts until sunk by a Japanese submarine on 24 November. There were no, say again no, enemy aircraft credited to VC-39 during this period. Fourteen VC-39 officers were lost with the ship.

Coral Sea departed San Diego on 9 September 1943 and after the obligatory stop at Pearl Harbor also participated in operations in the Gilberts. On release from the operation. Coral Sea returned to Pearl Harbor and from thence on to San Diego, arriving on 14 December 1943. There were no enemy aircraft credited to VC-33 during this period and a quick check of the combat report show the FM-1s were utilized for CAP (no contacts) and for strafing enemy ground positions.

Supposedly VC-33/Coral Sea embarked new aircraft while on the west coast, but I can find the squadron still operating a complement FM1s, FM-2s, and F4F-4s as late as 18 April 1943 in the BuAer Aircraft Location Report with a change-over to FM-2s showing up sometime around 25 April 1942. So, as one looks deeper, we can find that on 6 April 1943, LTJG Robert Nicholls Glasgow of VF-33 was credited with shooting down a G4M. BUT, and it is a big one, the Aircraft Action Report clearly identifies the aircraft flown by LTJG Glasgow as an FM-2. An interesting line in the report reads, “. . . The enemy did not jettison gas or bombs, probably mistaking FM2 for F4F.” See note below regarding the timing of the Aircraft Location Reports. Glasgow was killed on 14 October 1958 in a crash while a member of the Blue Angels.

So, still not a credit for the FM-1.

So, just working the numbers does not always lead to the correct answer. Your 10 aircraft difference in the total credits for the types is not particularly unusual and certainly is not indicative of FM-1 credits.

Sources:

BuAer Aircraft Locations reports from 31 May 1943, when FM-1s first start appearing in squadron inventories through 18 April 1943 when FM-1s no longer appear in the inventories of combat type squadrons. BuAer Aircraft Location reports were published on a weekly basis and provide the complements of combat type squadrons and their support activities. There are a couple of things to remember when using these . . . 1 – the reports are forwarded to and compiled at BuAer so a report dated, say, 14 August 1943, is really showing the complement anywhere from five to four days before; something to keep in mind. 2 – Someone in early 1942 was being overly security conscious so what you see in the reports up through the summer of 1942 is not exactly accurate, and in some cases wildly inaccurate. This problem smooths out after that, my guess is that someone realized that the good guys were the ones reading the report and they needed to know what was going on.

VC-33 Aircraft Action Report #1, 20-21 November 1943

VC-33 Aircraft Action Report #3, 6 April 1944

Action Report USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) 16 December 1943

Olynky, Frank J., USN Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft in Air-to-Air Combat World War2 (1982)

Barrett’s Wildcat Aces of World War 2 is another nice treatment of Wildcat esoterica. If you look at the F4F Profile # 14 on page 43 . . . that’s my father’s airplane (at least in my copy). I have the panel you can see below and forward of the canopy with the VF-11 squadron insignia. He also appears on page 11, fourth from left, front row, in the picture of the aviators of VF-42 aboard Yorktown (CV-5).



A rainy Saturday, good for nosing around in old records.


Regards,


Rich