Presentation Date: August 27, 1998
Commander Ted Crosby
F6F-3 Hellcat Ace Commander Ted Crosby flew F6F Hellcats with VF-17 and VF-18 off the carriers Bunker Hill and Hornet. He became an "Ace in a Day" shooting down three Jacks, one Zero, and one Val on April 16, 1945. Ted describes this mission in detail and talks of many other exciting flying stories of the Pacific War.
"Ace in a Day"
"I'm just damned lucky and I'm just lucky to be here, really."
With those words, Commander Ted Crosby launched into telling Golden Gate Wing members and guests at the August meeting his key experiences as a Navy fighter pilot in the latter months of World War II, including his "ace-in-a-day" mission.
"There was more luck involved in the things that I did. Anybody else that's played the game right up front realizes 'yes you've gotta' know what you're doing, but you've gotta' be lucky, too."
Crosby says there wasn't much glory in the tours of duty he served. Japan was being pushed back through the Pacific islands and there were fewer and fewer planes to fight. He says that led to too many boring Combat Air Patrol (CAP) over the carrier fleet.
Ted is a Bay Area native who was enrolled at Marin Junior College when the war started. He signed up with the Navy at San Francisco's Embarcadero and was sent to St. Mary's for preflight school, "building muscles, running around railroad tracks and taking ground school. Livermore was the next stop, and that's where Ted flew the N2-S "Yellow Peril" before being sent to Corpus Christy for his wings, to Opalocka for carrier landing practice and then the Great Lakes for carrier qualifications in an SNJ.
Crosby was assigned to VF-18 on the Bunker Hill as a F6F-3 Hellcat pilot. The road to that assignment took a few turns when Ted heard he was destined to fly from an escort carrier. "I'd already made up my mind I wanted a big carrier. I didn't want one of the small guys." Stopping by the office daily, Crosby kept checking on his assignment. After a few days an officer came up on one of the visits, introduced himself as Jim Bellow, and asked if Ted really wanted a big carrier. Bellow was forming the squadron VF-18 in Alameda, and told the assignment officer to list Crosby for his unit. The assignment officer blew up, stating he had other plans for Crosby.
"Bellow said, 'I think I've changed those,' " Crosby relates, "and I was just very fortunate to be persistent enough to join the squadron."
Before VF-18 could finish its training, the squadron was ordered to sea aboard the Bunker Hill, which was already carrying Tom Blackburn's VF-17 with its F4U Corsairs. On the way to Hawaii, there was a surprise announcement that VF-17 would become a land-based unit. The maker of the "bent-wing" Corsairs, Chance-Vought had been unable to amass necessary spare parts for carrier operations. But that simply meant opportunities for both squadrons - - VF-18 would get its carrier rotations and Blackburn's VF-17 would distinguish itself on operations in the Solomons.
VF-18 reformed as VF-17 on the carrier Hornet from January 1945 to the end of the war, and the squadron soon found itself on missions to hit Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Tokyo, all in preparation for "the big stuff." That proved to be Okinawa, where five fleet carriers flew operations to support the invasion.
On April 16th, 1945, the day the landings were to begin, Crosby became an "Ace in a Day", shooting down three Jacks, one Zero and one Val.
Crosby's section was assigned to fly an AIRCAP over a destroyer running a radar picket line north of Okinawa. Millard Willey, known as "Fuzz", was leading the section, and he started climbing when a call came out for twenty incoming bogeys. Crosby says the destroyer immediately noticed the AIRCAP leaving and repeatedly called for the Hellcats to maintain their station.
"This poor guy on the destroyer, you could tell he was almost in tears," Crosby recalls, " 'Do not leave us!'. You are our protection. We need you.' And old Fuzz said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll be back.' "
As the fighters climbed through 15,000 feet, they spotted the bogeys, Crosby painfully recalling he could only keep his supercharger engaged by wedging his knee against the blower clutch. Then, both Fuzz's and Crosby's wingmen fell out of formation. Crosby couldn't keep up, and watched Fuzz fly head-on through the enemy formation, shooting down two aircraft along the way.
Crosby then remembers VF-18's skipper, as his flight of Hellcats raced to confront the enemy, asking for the AIRCAP's location. "Never mind skipper," was Fuzz' reply, says Crosby. "We've got these guys cornered."
The Japanese formation was a mixed group - - a few fighters flown by experienced pilots and some dive bombers and trainers loaded with explosives - - "kamikazes." Fuzz, having made his first pass, turned and mistakenly began shooting at Crosby, who pushed over and watched the tracers flash by.
Then Crosby heard Fuzz ask, "Was that you Ted?"
"You got it right."
"Did I get you?"
"...Noooo."
When the two F6F pilots tried to coordinate, Fuzz announced he was out of ammo and offered himself as bait, allowing Crosby to knock two Japanese down. Another fighter turned into Crosby in a head-on attack.
"Six .50s were too much for this guy, and I blew him away. The worst thing was I was watching this engine that came off the airplane and right over the top of me, the propeller and everything still turning. And you know, this gets scary after awhile."
Crosby hit another fighter before Fuzz said being unarmed made him edgy. On the way back a kamikaze streaked by and Willey gave chase, right down to the wave tops, where both planes rolled inverted. As Crosby called to Willey to roll-out, the kamikaze plunged into the island jungle and exploded. "And with that I turned to shoot down a kamikaze making a run on the destroyer. Knowing the destroyer's radar could not distinguish Crosby from the enemy, he broke off his attack right before the Japanese plane was blown up by flak.
Crosby says at first he didn't think much of having downed a group of kamikazes. But when he later learned of the damage caused by suicide planes, he became proud of his efforts.
Crosby also took part in sinking of the battleship Yamato and in the raid on Kuri Harbor. In the latter event, Crosby was flying photo mission and loitered too long over the target after his friends went home. A Japanese fighter sneaked up on him and hit his plane with a burst. Crosby later found an unexploded 30mm shell in the cockpit armor of his Hellcat. On another aborted mission, Crosby dumped his bombs on the island of Kikishima, where there was an anti-aircraft gun nicknamed "Machine Gun Charlie."
After making his run, Crosby thought his Hellcat's engine was running rough, but he'd smoother it out enough to return and land on the Hornet. After taxiing forward, the crew chief told Ted he'd better look at the nose of his ship, where Crosby was surprised to find the top two cylinders had been shot away and virtually all of the oil was gone, too.