LtCdr GC Duncan VF-15 19 June 1944

[keith A]

According to the VF-15 War Diary and various books this pilot claimed three "Zekes" on this date but Tom Cleaver in his "Fabled Fifteen" (p.105) states he shot down a Judy and later two other Japanese 'planes. Later in this book this is confusingly amended to three "Zekes". However in an oral interview with Gene Valencia after the war Duncan states this....

"I got in finally on my second hop that morning on a run-in on a Japanese torpedo plane. I think I was 15th or 16th in line after this guy. This is the number of fighters ahead of me. And he was on the water and going just as fast as he could go and I—we were all after him full-tail. Just before that poor clown got shot down, the guy in the rear seat opened the canopy and leaped over the side, just bailed out. They must have been about 50 feet off the water. So I was real—I was heart-stricken."

In the same interview, discussing June 19, 1944 he says "I was up on CAP and ran out of gas, and I’ve never spent such a horrible morning in my life, with Dave McCampbell. And we finally got a reprieve and went down to Guam in the afternoon, and things just turned to hell down there. It was wonderful. I got a couple down there in that afternoon...Zekes. What happened was, the Japanese carrier airplanes that finished up striking the fleet and the fighters and all them were sent in later—all couldn’t get back to their ships and they went on to Guam and landed down there at [Agayan?]. And we got down there in the afternoon with this bunch of fighters, just in time to pick these—the last boys that come in to land."

I would suggest he is making a claim for the "torpedo bomber" (actually a "Judy" dive-bomber?). He is surely recounting his attack on the bomber as it tries to escape from a position to see it's demise and the shocking sight of the rear-gunner jumping from the aircraft.


regards

Keith

[twocee]

In VF15's Action Reports for 19 June 1944 the only kills credited to Duncan are three Zekes near Cabras Island, Guam.

23 Judys were claimed in total that day by VF15, but none by Duncan.

[keith A]

Hi George. I agree. Just found the ACA report. What I didn't know and is in the report was that on this date he also claimed two Zekes and a "Tony" (certainly a misidentified "Judy") damaged.

best regards

Keith