Lt Cook Cleland WW2

[Stig Jarlevik]

Originally Posted by twocee

Stig,

According to Lexington's Action Report for 20Nov43 an SBD on a search mission claimed a Betty. The pilot was Lt. C. Cleland, his rsm ARM3c W.J. Hisler.

The Sonia claim was made on 21Apr44 in the course of strikes on the Hollandia airfields. Total claims were 9, 8 by the VF.

Thanks George

Regarding point 1, that is basically what Frank just said. Since the claim is not in his book, I am interested in is why it isn't.
Could be many reasons, such as the claim was not found until after publishing, mistake perhaps, or, it was not accepted as a valid claim at a higher level.
Thus should it be added to Cleland's score or should it be listed as unconfirmed?

Regarding point 2, thanks for the confirmation. Typing error by Frank

Cheers
Stig

[twocee]

I'm sure that "higher level" was not interested in individual claims, so most likely an error.

[Frank Olynyk]

Stig,
I have corrected the date of the April 1944 claim. Typoed, probably because my eyes are bad, or because it was ACA 24.

With regard to the Nov 1943 claim, I did not have access to ships deck logs at the time I prepared the USN list. I may not have had the Action Report either, or overlooked it.

With regard to a review of claims by higher authority, I do not believe the USN had any review process after a report (ACA) was prepared by the Intelligence Officer. But certainly the Action Report is prepared by a "higher authority". If there is an ACA report for this claim I probably missed it, because I went through the VB and VT records rather quickly by hand, rather than having all the records put on microfilm as was done with the VF units (costs shared by myself, Chris Shores, and Pete Clausen, with copies to each).

Enjoy!

Frank.

[twocee]

Back in the nineteen eighties I paid to have most of the VB records placed on microfilm.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Frank/George

Thanks again
So conclusion thus is that we should increase Cook Cleland's claims to three.

Not often I have had to update your extremely useful books, Frank!!

Cheers
Stig