While in Ulithi, we had learned about the targets of the next operation. These included strikes over Japan, and support of the Invasion of Iwo Jima. This information caused some soul searching. If the last operation had been such a rough one, what might this one be like? Well we were soon to find out.

 

On 10 February, we raised anchor and headed for "Indian Country." No time was left for worry. The morning of 11 February we participated in a massive "Group Grope", which wound up causing more casualties than the one in January. We then settled down and continued toward Japan.

 

As we steamed toward Japan, we had many sessions in the Ready Room discussing tactics and operations. Fritz Wolfe announced that he guaranteed each of us, who returned, would have a neck one size larger. His theme was: "If you don't keep swiveling your head looking for planes, you won't be alive on the way back." He also left the Ready Room many times for the "head", remarking that he had to take a nervous "pee."

 

16 February LCDR Fritz Wolfe led the first Strike on Japan. A description of the first day's operations is extracted from the Squadron's History:

 

"Fighter Sweeps were launched by the Fighting Lady on the first day, and, though the first sweep failed to find their targets, because of inclement weather, the sun soon burned off some of the overcast and the succeeding strikes flew into a hornets nest of enemy interceptors. They (the Japs) acted characteristically and cruised around in two plane units or singly and even their two plane units broke down when engaged by the F6F's."

"LCDR Wolfe took his fighters in low, flying in the base of the clouds, and from there attacked Konoike Airfield. Thus the flight was to the best of our knowledge, the first to get in that day. If so, the VBF-3 pilots were the first carrier-based Navy pilots, and the first fighter pilots, ever to attack the sacred soil of the Empire of Japan."

 

Mac's boys were included in the strike group assigned to the Tachikawa Aircraft Engine Plant. As we came over the coast of Japan, although at 20,000 feet, we began to encounter enemy aircraft. They would start a run on our group and break off just before coming into range. We were using the Thatch Weave, and this must have been confusing to them. The torpedo bombers had hit the airfield, but there were many revetments peripherally around the field that were still intact. So we began a dive on the airfield revetments.

In getting into position for the dive McBrayer's division had been on the inside of a right turn. I was on Mac's right wing, so I was on the very inside of a very tight turn without any room to maneuver. I looked up over my right shoulder, and to my consternation, saw a Jap Zero diving and firing on our division. I could see his machine guns winking, and I scrunched down in my seat, hoping to be covered by the armor plate back of the seat. Well, I didn't feel any bullets hitting me, and a few seconds later, the Jap was below us in the same turning dive. As he came in front of our division, we all blasted him. He blew up and the remains of the plane made a most beautiful smoke trail arching toward earth. Why he didn't try to make a left turn out of his dive, I cannot understand. If he had done that, we would have been in no position to fire on him.

As we continued down, we could see planes parked in revetments. Some of the planes were taxiing out for take off, and others had ground crews hovering around while the pilot was starting the plane. There appeared to be many revetments. I fired into one revetment and exploded a plane. Then I shifted to a another revetment and got a second. By this time I was so low that the pull out caused me to gray-out. Gray-out is the stage just before black-out. By the time we had joined up, succeeding planes were in their dives, so we left to look for other targets. By this time the strike had broken up into individual divisions. Jap planes were keeping us apart by their attacks. It seemed like the numbers of enemy planes were increasing. By the time we had climbed to altitude and fought off the Jap's attempts to attack us, we were getting low on gas. We headed for the coast, still weaving and fighting off the enemy. As soon as we were over the sea, all attempts by the Japs ceased .We felt relieved. All we had to show for our encounters were a few holes in the planes.

 

After the first sweep had returned, a strike to assess the damage done to the Tachikawa Aircraft Engine factory southwest of Tokyo, was diverted, to the Kasumigaura Airfield area because of insufficient time after a delayed take off.

 

To provide an idea of what we knew about the area, as we engaged in our first strikes, the Squadron History will again be cited:

 

"The difficulties encountered by our pilots were also repeated on later flights. The area was a strange one, and, to a large extent, unknown. Intelligence, before the operation, had only the small scale, high altitude photographs of the area which Army B-29's had taken. Ground intelligence was entirely lacking. Briefings based on this meager material had to be sketchy and provisional, and, as a result, pilots went into the target with only a general idea of the lay of the land. Orientation had to be made on the flight itself, and, in one or two instances, prior information proved to be inaccurate."

The next day a few attacks were launched, but the Fleet had to pull out and head for Iwo Jima to support the Marine landings. The pilots of Air Group 3 provided close air support for the Marine ground troops from 20 to 22 February. By that time the Marine landings were well under way, and had sufficient support by other units of the Navy so Task Group 58 refueled and headed back to Japan.

At Iwo Jima there was no air opposition, and the Japanese were dug into underground fortifications, so other than close strafing support against the Japanese troops, there was little for the fighters to do. Napalm (jellied gasoline) bombs were dropped on enemy emplacements. This was a new experience for Air Group 3. McBrayer's group flew a CAP above the fleet, but after the past action, it was almost boring.

 

23 February, McBrayer's Division was part of Sweep 3A over Japan. The weather was clear and cold. Looking down, the ground was covered with snow. The last storm had dropped a beautiful blanket. As we flew toward Tokyo, I kept looking for Mt. Fujiyama, but could not locate it. Then it occurred to me that we were flying at 20,000 feet and Fujiyama is about 12,000 feet. Then I was able to locate it. The mountain was not as spectacular as I recalled from pictures. In the pictures, the ground was always green, while Fujiyama had snow on its crest. As I looked down everything was covered with snow and there was no contrast.

 

We finally came to Tsukuba Airfield, a few miles north of Tokyo. In contrast to my last trip over Japan, we encountered no airborne fighters. This seemed a little peculiar, until we headed down in a dive on Tsukuba. We had caught the Japs with their pants down. All the revetments around the field were filled with planes. As we continued down, we could see ground crews and pilots running for planes. Those already in planes were having trouble starting engines in the cold weather. What a piece of luck! In my dive I placed four rockets into the hangar complex, which erupted in flame. I moved over and got one fighter in a revetment. At that time my eye caught sight of what appeared to be a huge 4-engine bomber. I was out of position, but thought maybe in my next dive I could demolish it.

 

I stayed in my dive a little longer than I intended, and when I pulled out I was about 40-50 feet above the ground. As I pulled out, I looked over at the big 4-engine bomber. The plane was a decoy built of wood and canvas, painted to look like the real thing! At my altitude I could see the wooden framework holding the decoy up. I was glad I didn't have it in my sights during the dive and waste a good run.

 

There were so many of our planes attacking the area that we didn't get to execute a second attack. After join up, we looked for some more targets, and strafed the ones we found. Fuel was getting low, so we joined up on some other Yorktown planes and headed for home.

 

About 10 miles off the coast of Japan we encountered a convoy of 20 or more small coastwise shipping vessels. The signal was given and we formed a line abreast and headed for the ships. In one pass the whole convoy was destroyed. I blew up two of them with a nice long burst for each. They created a spectacular sight as their boilers exploded.

 

We landed back aboard without loss, feeling it had been a good day's work. However, there was one little incident that could have ended tragically. Jack Auerbach developed engine trouble just as we left the coast heading home. Neil McLean called up and said he would escort Jack back to the Carrier. McLean, in trying to join up on Jack, saw a low flying plane closing on Jack's tail. McLean slipped in behind him and let him have the benefit of all six guns, resulting in a beautiful kill. Jack and McLean got back without further incident.