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Old 20th July 2017, 17:27
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Re: Wildcat (Grumman F4F/General Motors FM-1) victories

Hi Michael. Both FM-1s and FM-2s were in the anti-submarine groups on CVEs in the ATLANTIC 1943-45; so few air claims. The PACIFIC escort and A/S air groups only had FM-2s so it's almost certain that all their victories were Japanese. The squadrons were VCs ( Composite with TBMs) and in the Atlantic they had A/S camouflage schemes 1 and 2.
In the ATLANTIC the A/S escort carriers March-Dec. 1943 were Bogue, Croatan, Santee, Core, Card and Block Island.
From Jan. - Oct. 1944 they were Block Is., Bogue, Guadalcanal, Croatan, Solomons, Wake Is., Card, Tripoli and Mission Bay.
From March - May 1945 they were Mission Bay, Core, Bogue and Croatan; the gap in operations was because the Biscay U-boat ports had been captured after D-Day.
This is Steve Sherman's victory list consolidated; this is only PACIFIC so presumably doesn't include the Atlantic FM-1 claims.
I doubt the exact figures will ever be known.
Nick
http://acepilots.com/planes/air_wins.html
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