148

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1944-Contin ued

landplanes received a color scheme that was in gener-

al similar to that prescribed for carrier based airplanes.

Specifically, the patrol and patrol bombers were to be

painted semigloss sea blue on top and bottom sur-

faces of wings and on all horizontal tail surfaces; other

tail surfaces and the fuselage were to be non-specular

sea blue.

1945

1 January Carrier Training Squadron, Pacific, com-

posed of two carrier divisions, was established in the

Pacific Fleet to provide operational control over carri-

ers employed in training Carrier Air Groups out of

Pearl Harbor and San Diego.

2 January Eighteen Fighter Bomber Squadrons

(VBF) were established within existing Carrier Air

Groups to adjust their composition to the needs of

changed combat requirements in the Pacific.

2 January Headquarters, Fleet Air Wing 17, based

on Tangier, directed patrol plane support of the

Lingayen Gulf operations from San Pedro Bay.

3-22 January Invasion of Luzon-Southwest Pacific

Force operations against Luzon were directly support-

ed by Seventh Fleet escort carriers in Task Group 77.4

(Rear Admiral Calvin T. Durgin) and indirectly by the

fast carriers in Task Force 38 (Vice Admiral John S.

McCain) of Third Fleet and Central Pacific Forces. Task

Group 77.4, with 17 escort carriers, covered the

approach of the Luzon Attack Force against serious

enemy air opposition from Kamikaze pilots which

sank Ommaney Bay (4 Jan), and damaged several

ships including escort carriers Manila Bay and Savo

Island (5 Jan). It conducted preliminary strikes in the

assault area (7-9 Jan), covered the landings in

Lingayen Gulf (9 Jan), and supported the inland

advance of troops ashore (9-17 Jan). Among the ships

damaged by Kamikaze pilots opposing the landings

were the escort carriers Kadashan Bay and Kitkun

Bay (8 Jan), and Salamaua (13 Jan). Task Force 38,

with seven heavy and four light carriers in three

groups and one heavy and one light carrier in a night

group, and accompanied by a Replenishment Group

with one hunter-killer and seven escort carriers, con-

centrated on the destruction of enemy air power and

air installations in surrounding areas. In spite of almost

continuous bad weather which hampered flight opera-

tions during the entire month, this force launched

offensive strikes on Formosa and the Ryukyus (3-4

Jan), a two day attack on Luzon (6-7 Jan) and on

fields in the Formosa-Pescadores-Ryukyus area (9 Jan),

destroying over 100 enemy aircraft and sinking 40,000

tons of merchant and small combatant ships in one

week of preliminary action. During the night (9-10

Jan) Task Force 38 made a high-speed run through

Luzon Strait followed by the Replenishment Group

which passed through Balintang Channel, for

Operations in the South China Sea (9-20 Jan). Strikes

(12 Jan), over 420 miles of the Indo-China coast,

reached south to Saigon and caught ships in the harbor

and in coastal convoys with devastating results, sinking

12 tankers, 20 passenger and cargo vessels and numer-

ous small combatant ships, totaling 149,000 tons.

Moving northward to evade a typhoon, the force hit

targets at Hong Kong, the China Coast, and Formosa

(15 Jan) and next day concentrated on the Hong Kong

area damaging enemy shore installations and sinking

another 62,000 tons of shipping. As inclement weather

persisted, the force left the South China Sea with an

after dark run through Balintang Channel (20 Jan) and

hit Formosa, the Pescadores, and Okinawa against

enemy air opposition which damaged Ticonderoga and

Langley (20 Jan) and repeated the attack in the

Ryukyus the next day to finish off three weeks of

action with an aerial score of over 600 enemy aircraft

destroyed and 325,000 tons of enemy shipping sunk.

11 January The Bureau of Ordnance assigned the

first task on Project Bumblebee to the Applied Physics

Laboratory, thus formally establishing the program for

development of a ram-jet powered, guided, antiaircraft

weapon from which the Talos, Terrier, and Tartar mis-

siles eventually emerged.

29-31 January Six escort carriers of Task Group

77.4 (Rear Admiral William D. Sample) provided air

cover and support for landings by Army troops at San

Antonio near Subic Bay (29 Jan), on Grande Island in

the same area (30 Jan) and at Nasugbu, south of the

entrance to Manila Bay (31 Jan).

6 February The Chief of Naval Operations directed

that, following a period of training at NAS Kaneohe

Bay, Hawaii, VPB Squadrons 109, 123, and 124 of

Fleet Air Wing 2 be equipped to employ the SWOD

Mark 9 (Bat) glide bomb in combat.

15 February The West Coast Wing of the Naval Air

Transport Service was disestablished and its squadrons

reassigned to the Pacific and Atlantic Wings.

16 February-16 March Capture of Iwo Jima-The

Marine Corps assault of 19 February was preceded and

supported by two separate carrier elements of the

Central Pacific Force. The first of these was Task Force