An article devoted to VC-27 The Saints and their highest scoring ace and at the same time highest scoring US Navy Wildcat pilot Ralph Elliott Jr.

"The Saints"

Among all units which flew FM-2s with great success, the best and most glittering squadron was VC-27 "The Saints" embarked on CVE-78 USS Savo Island. With a total of 61.5 victories VC-27 became top scoring carrier based squadron of Wildcats. Only two other Navy squadrons scored more victories: VF-5 (79) and VGF-11/VF-21 (69) but they scored some (VF-5) or all (VGF-11/VF-21) kills during operations from land bases in Solomons. As regards FM-2 squadrons only, the next most successful FM-2 squadron (VF-26) scored 31 victories, easily the half of VC-27's tally.

The VC-27 was established in May 1943. Like other composite squadrons intended to operate from jeep carriers VC-27 consisted of fighter flight and bomber flight. On the beginning the squadron was equipped with some SNJ-4 and SNJ-5 trainers and later received combat aircraft: F4F-4 Wildcats and TBM Avengers. As the year 1944 began, unit's F4F-4s were supplemented with Eastern Aircraft built FM-1s of the 14xxx and 15xxx series and in February 1944 fighter division received very early FM-2s of the 15xxx and 16xxx series. In late June 1944 both divisions received new batches of General Motors aircraft. Bomber division received twelve new TBM-1Cs while fighter division received sixteen mid production FM-2s mostly of the 55xxx series. This batch of Wildcats would have been used by VC-27 until late October 1944. I have identified 15 FM-2s of VC-27 from this period. I am not sure if there were any reinforcements. If not, only one of sixteen FM-2s would remain unknown.

On July 7th 1944 pilots of the VC-27 ferried their aircraft onto CVE-89 USS Takanis Bay which served in Carrier Transport Squadron. Since the beginning of her life USS Takanis Bay had served as a "liner" for US Navy Squadrons and had been transferring entire squadrons from the the States to the operational areas, and bringing retired squadrons home. She was soon nicknamed a "Magic Carpet" by Navy crews. This time she vectored Pear Harbor. During the cruise VC-27 aviators decided to call themselves "the Saints" after famous novel character created by Leslie Charteris. They officially asked Charteris to for his consent to use cartoon "saint" as the squadron badge. He eagerly accepted it on July 20th 1944 in his encouraging letter to VC-27.

Winged "Saint" wearing gloves flying over ocean was taken as an official VC-27 badge and was duly approved to this role by Leslie Charteris, creator of "The Saints" novels. There is no indication however that any of VC-27's aircraft was adorned with this badge.

On July 30th the carrier reached Pearl Harbor area and VC-27 ferried their aircraft ashore onto Oahu island. On August 7th 1944 the squadron was qualified on USS Savo Island. For some days the Saints stayed on safe waters near Perl and then started their cruise into combat zone in South Pacific Area.

Ralph Elliott, Jr.

Ralph Earle Elliott, Jr. was born on August 22nd in Saint Louis, Missouri. He started studying accountancy in 1938, but when in February 1941 he was enlisted to US Navy as an aviation cadet and commissioned as an Ensign eightmonths later. Since December 1941 he had served as an instructor in Naval Air Base Corpus Christi in Neuaces County, Texas and most often flew SNJ trainers. In October 1943 he was promoted to Lieutenant and assigned to VC-27.

The war of the Saints

Peleliu

"The Saints" entered combat on September 12th in support of the bloody invasion on Peleliu. Hopeless Japanese garrison was left without any air cover and FM-2 pilots focused entirely on ground support missions together with their squadron mates flying TBM-3s. On first day VC-27 TBM-3s struck at Peleliu installations while escorting FM-2s focused on strafing the beaches. But on the next days the strikes were not limited to Peleliu Island but were targeted on other islands of Palau too. So the Saints performed attacks against Koror, Angaur, Babelthuap. On September 16th it became obvious that Japanese aviation presented no threat to US ships and since then FM-2s had begun carrying bombs. In the second half of Peleliu campaign VC-27 did some ship hunting in Palau area. The Saints struck some small vessels and barges on September 19th, 21st, 23rd, 25th. On September 25th Ralph Elliott Jr. managed to fire guns at a Japanese aircraft for the first time. On September 27th the Saints made their last combat mission in Peleliu campaign - bombing and strafing targets on Ngesebus island. Though bloody for Marines fighting on the island, Peleliu campagin brought no casualties for VC-27. Only one FM-2 was shot down by heavy anti aircraft guns, but luckily his pilot was picked up by a ship. By the end of September the island was claimed as secure (though the sporadic fights against some well concealed Japanese troops continued until late October) and USS Savo Island could be moved to Philippines to support forthcoming invasion in Leyte Gulf.

Philippines

The first actions against Japanese ground troops at Leyte began on October 16th. Initially fighter division of the VC-27 focused on ground strikes just like month ago over Peleliu. On the first day squadron's TBMs were softening Japanese positions on Leyte beaches and FM-2s made some CAPs over the Gulf. On October 17th heavy prevented Americans from any aerial activities. But on following day VC-27 struck targets in Visayan area. TBMs bombed Dulag airfield several times, and later in a day bombed gun emplacements near San Ricardo. FM-2s supported TBMs in strike missions and made some CAP sorties. On October 18th and 19th the Saints struck targets in Leyte mainland including Tacloban airbase. From October 20th to 23th they had been attacking airstrips in Dulas, Ormoc and San Pablo using bombs, rockets and machine guns.

Battle of the Leyte Gulf

On October 24th VC-27 met enemy aircraft for the first time. It was the first day of the battle which would be considered later as the greatest in history of naval warfare - Battle of Leyte Gulf. The battle ensued from still potent Japanese navy attempt to destroy US invasion fleet. The vessels of the rising sun were to be supported by joint effort of navyand army aviation units. Japanese planned to cut supply lines which would isolate Americans GIs on the Leyte beachheads allowing Japanese ground forces to repel invasion from the very beginning.

Early in the day a pair of Hayabusas attacked an Avenger, but after one was shot down by the gunner, second broke off and escaped. Later in the day four Japanese Ki-43s clashed with a four plane FM-2 flight led for CAP by Ralph Elliott Jr. The result was inconclusive as the Japanses retreated quickly and drop-tank laden Wildcats couldn't catch them. However four Americans quickly discovered a large formation of "Frances" bombers, which headed for the defenceless transport ships anchored off invasion beaches at Leyte Gulf. US Navy pilots had altitude advantage and they managed to catch enemy planes up immediately. Behavior of Japanese crews revealed that they intended to perform kamikaze attack. Ralph Elliott quickly dispatched two bombers out of the sky and tried to destroy another, which began suiside dive against US transport vessels. It was too late however and the kamikaze managed to hit the LST. Elliott avenged the vessel downing two more "Frances". Interestingly Elliott claimed only 3.5 victories but later his shared claim was upgraded to a full "kill". Another FM-2 pilot Frank Leighty scored three of Japanese kamikaze bombers. Still later in the day formation of VC-27 Avengers with FM-2 cover was attacked by a couple of waves of Mitsubishi A6Ms. The Saints downed nine of them. After that long day of heavy fighting, which was in fact the day of first aerial encounter of VC-27, some of its pilots built their scores rapidly. Ralph Elliot Jr and Frank Leighty had four victories each, Ralph Mayhew two, and four others one. Tragically Mayhew was killed in accident during attempt to make a victory roll over USS Savo Island when the engine of his FM-2 cut quiet in the maneuver.

Battle off Samar Island

However big success of the October 24th was rapidly overshadowed by the actions of the day after, when the greatest naval battle of all times was to reach its momentum. On October 25th Japanese Navy attempted to strike deep into US controlled waters at Leyte and to destroy transport ships. Vice Admiral Kurita, who commanded Japanese fleet, managed to gain initial advantage deceiving the enemy and prompting Admiral Halsey to take his powerful Third Fleet against a decoy fleet. When main Japanese forces consisting of 4 battleships including famous Yamato, 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 11 destroyers arrived, Americans had only a secondary force of 6 escort carriers and 7 destroyers grouped in three formations - Taffy 1, Taffy 2 and Taffy 3. The worst was that Japanese fleet sneaked close to American carrier fleet unnoticed, and the jeep carriers of Taffy 3 found themselves in the range of enemy guns. Americans seemed to fall into hopeless situation. Amazingly combination of desperate destroyer counterattack and evasive action under smoke screen enabled two carriers to survive.

Enemy attack caught aircraft of the VC-27 being prepared for bombing ground installations. Ten bob-laden Avengers were readying to start, while 13 FM-2s were already airborne. Immediately TBMs had their bombs replaced with torpedoes. After the start Avengers were vectored directly on enemy cruisers. The flight led by Lt. Goly Henry flew in clouds and broke down just in front of Japanese ships. Enemy was totally surprised and ships' aa guns failed to respond. Five torpedoes were dropped. One hit a destroyed and two a cruiser which would turn out to be Chikuma. Both ships sank soon. VC-27's Wildcats did not meet any Japanese aircraft by then and after the CAP they landed on Tacloban airfield.

Lt. Cdr. Percival W. Jackson - the CO of VC-27 - had been in the air since 5:30AM. He had an order to led Avengers from another carrier to attack Japanese troops in Surigao Straits. When the naval battle began, he was ordered to carry entire squadron against enemy ships. His TBM-1C was armed with light bombs and rockets and could hardly do any damage on Japanese cruisers. Thus he stayed high and co-ordinated attacks of "his" squadron from above. Then he spotted a sole Aichi E13A "Jake" recon floatplane getting out of the cloud. Jackson fired a burst which flamed Japanese aircraft. Seconds later "Jake" crashed into the sea. That was the first victory scored by VC-27's Avenger pilot. Then Jackson noticed two cruisers below. He dived and dropped all 100 pound bombs one after another under intervalometer control. Some of the bombs caused explosions on a cruiser that would turn to be Mogami. He managed to escape AA fire but before heading home his dorsal gunner spotted a periscope of I class submarine. Jackson turned in and unloaded eight rockets at the sea around periscope.

Later in the morning battle continued, but there was no time to plan more sophisticated air actions. Avengers were being armed and sent against enemy ships one after another. In the air they were often hastily joining with TBMs from other carriers as well as with Avengers from Manus Island:

• At 10:15 TBM-1Cs flown by Ensign Laurence E. MacFawn and Ensign William R. Penden together with eleven Avengers from other squadrons attacked Kongo class battleship but now aware Japanese eavaded torpedoes
• Some minutes later a sole TBM-1C manned by Ensign Harold B. Harms joined two TBM-1Cs of other CVE and dove against battleship Ise. The other Avengers dropped torpedowes at too steep angle and wasted them. Harms withstood and made another pass. Just before releasing the torpedo his TBM was hit by a heavy gun in the left wheel well. He managed to bring his plane on Savo however. Miraculously he landed on the deck with five foot hole in the wing, the engine burning and entire airframe pierced with thousands of bullet holes.
• At 11:15 Percival Jackson took the Avenger armed with the last torpedo available on Savo. He was joined be Widcats and other TBMs and headed for enemy battleships. In spite of water spouts caused by ship's main gun and heavy fire of AA guns, Jackson well placed the last torpedo in the board of the battleship. The other TBM-1Cs flown by Lt. Goly Henry, Lt.(jg) Albert R. Douglas, Lt.(jg) Claude C. Nathan, Ens. Samuel H. Blackwell, and Ens. William R. Penden had semi armor piercing bombs. They unloaded them onto a Mogami class cruiser and scored three hits.
• At the same time Lt.(jg) John Mark Yeaman and Ens. Laurence E. MacFawn scored three bomb hits on another cruiser. Then Yeaman found an Aichi E13 floatplane and let his gunner L. C. Weiner shooting at it. Japanese began trailing smoke but managed to hide into a cloud. However seconds later Yeaman spotted and shot down another "Jake" with his fixed guns.

By 15:00 not only torpedoes, but also semi armor piercing bombs were gone. Seven serviceable Avengers were loaded with general purpose bombs and rockets and launched agains retreating Japan ships. The formation was led by Captain Jackson. They were joined by twenty one Avengers and fifteen Wildcats from other squadrons. Several direct bomb and rocket hits on two Nachi class cruisers, on Atago class cruiser and Mogami class cruiser.

In afternoon the fighter division of VC-27 was back in action. Ralph Elliott led the division to a CAP over the gulf. Wildcat appeared on the scene just in time. On 16:43 Japanese land based air units constituted first air strike in support of Kurita fleet. A flight of Aichi D3A "Vals" attempted to dive bomb American carriers. They were escorted by a squadron of Ki-44 "Tojos". FM-2s attacked fighter escort and in the series of dogfights eight Japanese fighters were downed. Ralph Elliott claimed three of them while Lt. Andrew T. Price, Lt. Charles M. Vehorn, Lt. George H. Davidson, Lt. Ross claimed single kills. Demise of the escort forced "Val" pilots to drop their bombs and return to base. Despite the fact, that one of Elliot's claims was rejected, he nevertheless became the first ace of VC-27.

The battle off Samar ended in a complete disaster for Japanese fleet. Three heavy cruisers and a destroyer were sunk, and three more heavy cruisers and a destroyer were seriously damaged. The most important result of the battle was that Kurita was convinced that he met much stronger force that it was in reality. In consequence he withdrew his fleet and the invasion force was saved. The real cause of the defeat was that the attack was not co-ordinated with land based aviation units. Japanese aircraft reacted late afternoon when the battle was already lost.

Though VC-27 lost only one pilot that day, that is Ensign Sterling Paul Ross who was reported MIA, the actions of the day took heavy toll on VC-27's equipment. Five FM-2s and one TBM were written off by the end of the day and most of the remaining planes were damaged.

The battle of Leyte Gulf continued into October 26th 1944. On that day Japanese launched massive kamikaze strikes against US fleet. One of the carriers of Taffy 1 - USS St. Lo was sunk in that way. A few operational VC-27s Widlcats attempted to intervene. Ralph Elliott claimed one A6M "Zeke" damaged, but later that claim was downgraded to shared damage.

On October 27th VC-27's Wildcats performed some CAPs over the carrier fleet. Ralph Elliott flew twice. During first patrol he and Frank M. Leighty jointly shot down Aichi Val dive bomber. The second patrol was eventless with an exception of the fact that FM-2s landed atop USS Petrof Bay.

Recovery

On October 28th The Saints made no sorties. The fighter division replaced seriously impaired Wildcat contingent for new batch of FM-2s. Now strenght of the fighter division was increased from 16 aircraft to 19 aircraft (Phil Crowther's site states 24 FM-2s). Here is the list of identified FM-2s used by VC-27 since October 29th till February 2nd 1945:

On October 29th 1944 Ralph Elliott Jr made his last CAP over Leyte Gulf. On November 3rd 1944 VC-27 flew from USS Savo Island to Ponam Island in Admiralities. During two weeks The Saints rested performing loose gunnery training sorties. On November 19th they returned to USS Savo Island but until mid December they were flying boring convoy patrols.

Mindoro Island

On December 15th 1944 VC-27 supported invasion of Mindoro Island in Philippines which was a part of preparation for large invasion on Luzon. Just on the very first day of the invasion Ralph Elliott Jr made a successful CAP over Sulu Sea and shot down a Ki-43 bringing his score to 7.5. USS Savo Island remained in Mindoro victinity until December 17th 1944 and then sailed back to Manus Island. This relatively short campaign was nevertheless very succesful in terms of air combat. Besides Elliott's claim FM-2 pilots destroyed 8 aircraft in the air and 7 on the ground at the cost of one Wildcat lost with its pilot Ensign Fred J. Moelter.

Lingayen Gulf

The landing in Luzon at Lingayen Gulf was to be launched on January 9th 1945. However US Navy as usually started bombing the soil some days before. Japanese aviation made its last effort to hamper American advance in Philippines and was very active during a week of invasion. VC-27 pilots scored 25 of enemy planes, but lost to various causes as many as eight FM-2s and five Avengers. Fortunately most of the downed crews survived. On January 5th Ralph Elliott Jr made a CAP over China Sea and one individual and two shared victories to his tally (0.5 Ki-61 Hien, 0.5 J2M Raiden, 1 B6N Tenzan) and thus brought his score to 9.5 victories surpassing the former US Navy Wildcat top scorer Don Runyon who had claimed 8 kills in 1942 over Solomons. On January 7th Elliott chased an A6M fighter, but finally it was shot down by his colleagues. On January 9th VC-27 aircraft supported invasion. Even these FM-2s which were on CAP turned their guns against Japanese ground forces. John Elliott Jr strafed enemy warehouse that day. On January 10th 1945 Ralph Elliott had his near miss. After return from CAP he attempted to land on Savo Island but the hook of the FM-2 stuck. He overshot the deck and ditched on ocean. Luckily he managed to get out of the cockpit before Wildcat sank and was picked by USS Abbott. On January 15th 1945 he destroyed four Japanese trucks on Luzon. It was the last time he fired guns at enemy. VC-27 made several CAPs until begin of February, but they were rather uneventful. On February 2nd 1945 the Saints flew to NAS Samar Island and later in the day to transport carrier, which sailed back to the States.

You can live only twice

After heavy completion of the tour of duty VC-27 was disbanded. However in March 1945 it was constituted again under command of Ralph Elliott Jr. The new squadron was also supposed to serve on a "jeep" carrier and was equipped again with FM-2s and TBM-3s. On late April 1945 The Saints began intense preparations for the next campaign. But the war ended before they entered combat.

Ralph Elliott Jr. remained US Navy's top Wildcat ace and survived the war. He passed away on December 4th 2006. His son Ralph "Butch" Elliott III joined US Army and fought in Vietnam as an UH-1 pilot. Here is the list of Ralph Elliott Jr.'s victories:

note: claims listed after Ralph Elliott's logbook, credits after Air Combat Action Report via Frank Olynyk's Stars and Bars
color key: aircraft shot down, aircraft damaged

Aircraft no. 35

During his tour of duty between July 1944 and February 1945 Ralph Elliot Jr. flew no less than 33 various FM-2s. However it is clear that some aircraft were flown by him more often than other. It seems that since the Saints boarded USS Takanis Bay in July 1944 Elliott had selected FM-2 no. 55443 as "his own" aircraft. He made 43 sorties in no. 55443 (numerology followers can start thinking about it) and scored 6.5 victories with it (see Elliott's victory table). Apparently the aircraft no. 55443 was left among others on USS Petrof Bay in the height of the battle of Leyte Gulf. After new batch of Wildcats had been delivered onto USS Savo Island the deck became apparently much more crowded and Elliott had fewer opportunities to select specific aricraft for a mission. Hovewer it seems that he chose the plane no 57012 as his second "personal" FM-2. He flew 15 sorties and scored final three kills with it (one individual and two shared). When the new VC-27 was created in the States Elliott chose FM-2 serialled 74583 as his third mount. He used it for almost all of the training sorties he flew in mid-late 1945. Unfortunately it is hard to associate given serial number with individual number painted on FM-2's cowling and fin. I have seen FC-27's Wildcats numbered "35", "42", 52" but neither serial number I am aware of had such an ending.

It is clear however, that at the end of the first tour of Duty Ralph Elliott used FM-2 numbered "35" and nicknamed "Baldy" after Ralph's brother's german shepherd. The plane sported nine victory marks in front of the windscreen. There is a number of photos of this FM-2 and they seem to be taken just after VC-27's combat tour on their return home. At least one of the photos depicts clearly that the aircraft stands on carrier's deck, presumably the deck of USS Savo Island, or the deck of a Magic Carpet carrier.

Close-up of the victory board and the nickname. Note the style of "Baldy" letters. In spite their overlapping there is a thin spacing between them. It is not know if any of these markings were repeated on the left side.

"Enclosure Release" was in fact the only stencilling apparent on "Baldy" photos. By contrast it is boldly staring in the face.

According to Forrest F. Glasgow, VC-27's Aviation Ordnance Officer, unit's FM-2s had underwing pylons for carrying six rocekts. Also, he recalls that VC-27's Wildcats had no wheel covers (what was very common on FM-2s) and had propellers with no spinners. Unfortunately neither of these features can be clearly seen on known photos of the aircraft no.35. One of the photos of the cokpit area shows small rectangular headrest mounted to the pilot's armor plate instead of more common rounded type. Also the photos seem to suggest that the aircraft no. 35 had small type of the tail wheel common among carrier based Wildcats, and the tail wheel leg without usual fairing.

The camouflage of the aircraft no. 35 was of the latter simple type of plain Glossy Sea Blue finish. It appears that FM-2s had no Non Specular Sea Blue anti-glare panel in front of windscreens. I haven't found any photo that would reveal tail markings. One can only suppose that the tail sported typical VC-27's markings - the white number '35' superimposed over diagonally pointed arrow. The number '35' was repeated on the cowling sides, but this time it was supplemented by the small white arrow in a way that resembled VC-27's tail marking layout. All other known VC-27s I have seen, lacked the arrow on engine cowling and carried only two digit number in that place. It is not known if the cowling arrow was Elliott's personal markings, or if it was added just for photo session.

Close-up of the cowling number 35. Note the shape of the digits and the arrow. The latter is much smaller than usual arrows sported on VC-27's FM-2s tails.

Though barely seen at the photos, the national insignias should be of the full Insignia Blue/White type rather than Grumman-style white only stars and bars. One has to remember that FM-2s were not Grumman-built and they did carry full two color NIs. Many photos confirm that and the lack of Insignia Blue background under stars and bars is the most common error of decal sheets for FM-2 models. It is not fully known if the upper wing stars and bars were "low-viz" light gray (as they should be) or white. The light gray on upper surfaces of US Navy aircraft was so bright, that it is very hard to tell any difference on b/w photos. Also there is an inconsistence as regards sizes of national insignias on FM-2s. According to official USN directives FM-2s were supposed to carry the insignias of the diameter of 35" both on fuselage and the wings. However it seems that all but very early FMs had larger 40" insignias.

Coming back to Elliott's Wildcat the survived photo shows clearly, that enitre propeller including the hub was painted black. Only front stepped part of the hub was painted with a bright color, or much more likely was left in natural aluminum finish. The wheel hub was almost entirely obscured by Ralph Elliott's leg at the photo. The very small area which is visible past the standing pilot allows to speculate, that the wheel hub was painted Glossy Sea Blue, but had outer rim left in aluminum finish.

Interior colors appear to be typical for other FM-2s. Cockpit was painted ANA 612 Interior Green (as opposed to Dull Green used on earlier Grumman-built Wildcats). The wheel bay and undercarriage legs were painted ANA Glossy Sea Blue in order to match exterior finish. The inside of engine cowling was finished in bright color - reportedly light gray.

In spite of a number of photos of "Baldy" some of the questions which can arise are still to be answered:

• Was was the serial of the aircraft no "35"? Was it the #57012 he used commonly at the end of his combat tour?
• Did the vertical stabilizer carry usual VC-27's arrow?
• Were victory flags and "Baldy" nickname applied on the left side too?
• Were wheel hubs blue with silver outer rims and lacked wheel covers?