This channel is dedicated to these four WWII escort carriers and their squadrons:
CVE-106 USS Block Island - VMTB-233 and VMF-511 CVE-107 USS Gilbert Islands - VMTB-143 and VMF-512 CVE--109 USS Cape Gloucester - VMTB-132 and VMF-351 CVE-111 USS Vella Gulf - VMTB-234 and VMF-513
They were the beginning of a change to Marine Corp operations of air attack and ground support.
Through researching the subject I came across over 100 archive color films that the Marine Corp documented by having film crews embedded with the squadrons. Captured on colored film were the flight crew training of the new mission tactics, the daily life of men aboard the carrier, and mission specific operations.
My motivation for undertaking this project is my connection to my Father in Law who was a pilot assigned to VMTB-143 aboard CVE-107 USS Gilbert Islands.
I can’t help but wonder if one of the new, tri-color PBJ-1J’s is Bureau Number 64975 which my father ferried from Pearl Harbor (Ewa) to the Philippines. He and the other pilot were stopped at either Midway or Guam when they learned the war had ended.
CVE were a great innovation by Henry Kaiser. They were baby carriers that only carried a fraction of planes of a fleet carrier and could do no better than 18 knots. The big plus factor was that we built about 100 of them in a few months, using prefabricated sections. Lots of them were sunk, they were called Kaiser coffins.
Interesting to note the interior spaces [4:27] inside the wing of the early F4Us were painted in a pink blend of Zinc Chromate anti-corrosion paint. Later, all US-built aircraft were sprayed inside with a chartreuse green - to sage green tint of ZC. Possibly the green primers were originally an Air Corps requirement., then the war production board streamlined production and the AN- standards were created. [For Army/Navy.] Also interesting to see the sailors and air Marines working together as teams on deck.
Thanks for uploading these rare and historic clips. Being a big fan of the Hellcat and of the Pacific airwar in general, it's always great to see new material on these subjects.
My Uncle Irv was a gunner on a Dauntless and shot down in the battle of the Philippines sea. He survived over a year as a POW. He made it through and lived into his 90s. Ten thousand thumbs up Uncle IRV!
USS John C. Butler DE-339 , pictured in the opening had survived the battle off Samar the previous year. The finest hour of the tin can sailors , in defense of Taffy 3 , arguably the finest hour in the history of the US navy. Amazing seeing it , the crew on deck giving an idea of scale , then considering a ship of this size charging towards the largest battleship ever buit , Yamato .
So true... Based on my Father In Law's war history (he is one of the pilots filmed in these videos), he spent some 2.5 years getting trained and ready to fight, followed by a few months in the action area, then about 8 actual missions where he directly attacked the enemy over a two month span. I sometimes think about what those years were like for him, particularly when in his 20s, and how it must have affected the rest of his life. He was a great person that everyone loved being around. He rarely talked about that time, and when asked directly, minimized his response. It was only after I started doing research for details that I realized what he actually went through... Thanks for watching.
@@VMTB143Mike That's a wonderful story about your Dad. Thanks for sharing it. Great color footage of day to day flight deck ops and high lining activity!
My Day flew off of the CVE-111 Vella Gulf (known as the "Three Aces") in the South Pacific in WWII. He was part of VMF-513. He then kept up his flight time at the end of WWII at MCAS Santa Barbara, where we lived for a short time in the late 90's. He came to visit us there and we took him around to all of his old haunts. He loved visiting! He lived until he was 94 (passed in 2014). He was the oldest marine living in NH at the time. I still have many good war stories of his! Thank you for this footage!
I have more films of CVE-111 flight activities coming, so stay tuned! I am trying to release these video clips in chronological order as best I can (from data I can find). That is why we see most of these already released videos from the Block Island...they were first to head to the Pacific War (of the four), followed by the Gilbert Islands, then the Cape Gloucester and finally the Vella Gulf. I have videos of VMF-513 for sure...
If you google Goleta History Marine Corps you will see a picture of my dad, a Corsair pilot, shooting trap while waiting to be shipped to the Marshall Is. in March of 1944 where he joined VMF 441
My Dad, Captain Ed McAleer, USMC , was assigned to VMF112 (Wolf Pack) as a replacement pilot after the squadron rotated back to the United States in August 1943. The squadron was then operating from Marine Corps Air Station Air Station Goleta. VMF112 was transitioning from the the F4F Wildcat to the F4U-1 Corsair. Ed was from Taft, Ca , near Bakersfield, and his flight log documents several "training flights" to Bakersfield. Ca, a one hour hop in the Corsair. In letters he talks about "buzzing" his home in Taft before landing in Bakersfield to spend the night with his Mother before flying back to Goleta the next morning. Can you imagine a 20 year old kid blowing off the roof tops of his home town in the hotest fighter plane.! On April 4,1944 he received orders to report as a replacement pilot with VMF441 (Blackjacks), then stationed at Roi-Namur, Marshall Is. Dad flew 192 combat mission before he rotated back to the states in April 1945 just before the squadron was re-located to Okinawa .He was later called up and returned to combat in Korea with VMF323 (Death Rattlers).
Oh Wow! Old Corps Flying Nightmares! OO-Rah. I was with VMA-513 when it was a Harrier squadron at MCAS Iwakuni and MCAS Yuma, AZ. Five One Three was slated to be a nightfighter squadron -- hence the name -- but a freak hurricane at CPNC wrecked their F6F-3Ns. They had to start over, relocating to Arkansas and training in ground attack. They got more polished in that at Santa Barbara. They were in on the invasion of Okinawa. During the Korean Police Action, VMF[N]-513 was a full fledged nightfighter unit with F7F-3N Tigercats and F4U-5Ns. Nightmares also flew Douglas F3D-2 jet nightfighters.
I love this old footage- it reminds me of how I was part of a legacy when I served as an Engineman Unrep Specialist (Unrep Hydraulics NEC) aboard Mt Hood, Camden and Rainier during my 20's.
I am reissuing this video with edits. This is the comment that was on the older version of this video: @georgekraus313 • 1 month ago Marine Corps Air Station Goleta is now Santa Barbara Airport. The Marine base residential area on the bluffs to the south of the field is now UCSB. When l first attended UCSB in 1961 we were housed in old barracks buildings while the campus was under construction. The football team was housed in the old Officers Club during pre-season workouts. The bluffs overlooked the ocean which was nice but the air was full of the smell of kerosine and the beaches were full of tar from the Santa Barbara oil spill. The campus had empty bunkers once used to store ammunition for the base. The bunkers 😮were shelled by a Japenese submarine during the war.
Thank you WW2VMTB for posting these videos. Your channel is a real treasure for WW2 US Naval Aviation memorabilia collectors. Just great to see the pilots dressed in full flying gear. I hope you got some more footage in store, let’s keep it coming our way!
Thank you WW2VMTB for posting these videos. Your channel is a real treasure for WW2 US Naval Aviation memorabilia collectors. Just great to see the pilots dressed in full flying gear. I hope you got some more footage in store, let’s keep it coming our way!
I want to thank the author of this site for providing footage of the VMTB 233 on the USS Block Island. I keep looking for my father on these videos but that’s ok, I have my Dad’s stories to remember. The men in these videos are all gone now or close to 100 years old or more. Their smiles and friendship on display while they go forward in history until evermore.
My Dad was a Corsair pilot with VMF441 (Blackjacks) March 1944 to March 1945 flying off or Roi-Namur. VMBF231 (Ace of Spades) flew SBD, SB2C-4 & F4U-1 off of Majuro October 1944 to September 1945
Great footage. Thanks for posting. I never really had considered practice before, because most of the WWII naval footage I have seen has been during battle. But, duh, how do they become proficient?!
Neat clip that shows how well the mounts were guided by the director. You can just see it being moved in the background and the mounts are snapping right along with it wherever it is trained.
I miss the days when sailors wore dungarees, blue jeans. Now the only time you can tell someone’s a sailor is when they’re wearing the dress uniform, Cracker Jacks.
"Those Corsairs are a beauty.. They would be the Marshall Islands" Yes, exactly! The film has listed locations as "Majuro, Marshall Islands; Mili Atoll".
Indeed, I have an upcoming video showing a F4U Corsair do a torque roll into the ocean at takeoff. I understand that they had to make some changes to that plane design to counter this affect...
