Figure 1.--Marine Air Groups began the Pacific War with largely obsolete airgraft handed down from the Navy like the Brewster Buffalo. They ended the War with the superb F4U Corsair, like the Army Air Corps P-51 Mustang approaching the absolute limits of performance poissible with piston propeller aircraft. This is a division of Marine Fighter Squadron 323 (VMF-323) 'Death Rattlers' flying the Goodyear FG-1D Corsair variant in a wingtip formation over Okinawa. They operated from Kadena airfield. Notice the rocket armament--close air support ordinance. In addition to supporting ground troops, VMF-323 shot down 124 Japanese aircraft without one loss of their own.

The United States not only had the Army Air Corps and Naval Air Aservive, but the Marines also developed their own air component. It was the Marines that used American air power, such that it was, for the first time in a close-air support role uring World War I. Unfortunately the Army Air Corps paid little attention. This had to be reinvented. Marine Corps aviation evolved in the inter-War era to focus on suporting amphibious operations and training was sytmatized. The Marine air arm at the time of Pearl Harbor was, however, can only be described as tiny. It consisted of only 13 flying squadrons and 230 aircraft. Basic Navy practice was to turn over older basically obsolete ircraft to the Marines. VMF-221 on Midway had the virtully suisidal task of fighting the highly maneuverablr Mitsubishi Zero with Brewster F2A-3 Buffalos. The Marines conducted the first American offense of the War, seizing the airstrip the Japanese were constructing on Guadalcanal, the southern-most island of the Solomons (August 1942). The 1st Marine Division was not yet ready for the assignment and the U.S. Navy was even less capable of supporing the Marines once landed. The Japenese responded in force and the result was a series of ferocious naval battles that made it difficult to supply the Marines. Meanwhile the Japanese funelled men and supplies down the Slot and hammered the Marines with air strikes and naval artillery. Fornunately for the Marines, even when the Japanese were dominnt in the air, they did not have a system of close air support. The one major asset the Marines had was the nearly completed air strip that the Japanese were building. The Marines rushed its completion and chritened it Henderson Field in honor of a Marine aviator lost in the Battle of Midway. Hendeson Field which they rushed to completion and the Cactus Air Force. This proved to be the defining momment for Marine Corps aviation. The Marine aviators on Guadalcanal with obsolete aurcraft could not provide vmuxh air support as they were hard pressed to protect American transports and fend off Japanese air strikes and shipping coming down the Slot. Never again were the Marines without air cover, but subequent poor performance of Navy pilots, untrauned in close air support, at Tarawa (Novembr 1943) cemented the idea that the Maines needed their own air arm with pilots trained in close-air support. Tarawa was the beginning of the Nvy's Central Pacific campaign and the Narine paid a heavy price. The Marine Corps leadership pressed for this because they could not always depend on the Army Air Corps and Navy. General Holland Smith recommended, "Marine aviators, thoroughly schooled in the principles of direct air support," should do the job. [Condon, pp. 87-88.] After Guadalcnal, a major exoansion if Marine Air Groups began. The New Georgia Campaign was the first opportunity for Marine Air to provide close air support (June 1943). Not only were more Marine squadrons formed and better aircraft made available, but important improvements were made in operations. A key development was the establishment of air liaison parties (forward air controllers) to coordinate air support with the Marines on the ground. This began with Bougainville (Novembr 1943) and the Phillipines (October 1944). As a result, by the time of the climatic battle for Okinawa (April 1945), Marine Air had a finally honed system of close air support. There was aviation command and control oversen by Landing Force Air Support Control Units. By this time there were 5 air wings, 31 aircraft groups and 145 flying squadrons. Many of the Marine Air units were provided the superb F4U Corsair. This was at firsrt fortuitous, the Navy could not work out how to operate the Corsair on carriers. Marine Air groups shot down 2,355 Japanese aircraft while losing only 573 of aircraft. Most of the Marine air losses were in the first year of the War while still operaring obsolete aircraft. Some 120 Narine pilots achieved ace status abd earned 11 Medals of Honor.

Sources

Condon, John Pomeroy. Corsairs and Flattops: Marine Carrier Air Warfare, 1944–45 ( Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1998).

Created: 12:46 PM 6/15/2015
Last updated: 3:27 AM 6/16/2015