The F4F has a reputation for being “Grumman tough.” Great
engine, Pratt & Whitney 1830, twin-row radial, 1,200 hp. Pretty
good visibility, but no bubble canopy, so it’s a little harder to
see directly behind you. You can’t blow the canopy; you have to
manually slide it back to bail out, and canopies can jam, especially
damaged ones.
After takeoff, you change hands on the stick and crank the gear
up with the help of pulleys, levers, chains, and pivots. You are the
hydraulics; it’s kind of complicated, but it works quite well and
is strong. The gear is also quite narrow; it works okay on carriers
because the tail hook grabs and holds you before the airplane gets
squirrely, but on land, get it straight before you touch down or it’ll
try to swap ends. Add to that the sometimes cruddy runways of
combat operations—muck, ruts, dust, and bomb craters—and you
have your hands full. It’s pretty obvious you’re not on concrete in
Kansas anymore.
The din and confusion of combat has its own
initiation: Will you keep your wits? Your skill?
Your courage?
Conditions on Guadalcanal are brutal: jungle living, hot,
humid, filled with bugs—all mixed with combat. Dinner is always
dehydrated potatoes, Spam, cold hash, and rice. Almost everyone
has some degree of malaria. Shake it off—the mission is all that
matters. It’s the same for every man in the unit: Everybody works
hard and everybody faces danger. It’s a way of life; you don’t have a
lot of time to think about it, and you don’t want to. You have a job to
do, for your buddies and your country. That’s just the way it is.
You’ll be at Henderson Field. Recently captured from the
Japanese, personnel there are hanging on by a thread. The
Japanese want Henderson Field back, or they want to destroy
it so you can’t use it. Either way, they’re coming after you with
Betty bombers from Rabaul and Zero fighters to protect them. To
your advantage, that’s a long haul, so they don’t have a lot of fuel
to spare. The fights will be furious, but probably brief. With allied
“coast watchers” on the outlying islands and radar, you’ll usually
get some warning that they’re coming. Still, you’ve never been in
combat. You want to kick some butt, or at least you think you do.
After launching from the carrier Long Island, you land at
Henderson just days after it is captured from the Japanese. The
field is muddy, 3 ,500 feet long and 150 feet wide, with crude
revetments bulldozed around it. Troops there are glad to see
you. Japanese Betty bombers and the Zeros are bombing and
strafing almost daily, and Henderson is basically uncovered. Your
band of pilots and F4Fs are Henderson’s salvation. It’s a great
responsibility, and you don’t take it lightly.
By noon the next day, airplanes are fueling up from 55-gallon
drums. There wasn’t enough time to get yours fueled, so
you stay behind. The Bettys and Zeros drop 50 bombs on
Henderson. It’s a mess. You feel the bombs and think, Damn!
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