USN
USS Saratoga
VF-5
"Fighting Five"
M Claringbould 1998
Justin Taylan 2003
Justin Taylan 2006
M Claringbould 2008
Pilot James "Pug" Southerland II (survived)
Shot Down August 7, 1942
Discovered February 14, 1998
Aircraft History
Accepted by the US Navy
on April 1, 1942. Entered service with VF-5 a week later. Ensign Mortimer
Kleinmann, Jr. nicknamed the aircraft "Junior", painting the name in small black letters beneath the cockpit.
Assigned tail number F-12. VF-5 was the only Navy squadron to retain the letter
F designator. This Wildcat was not
formally removed from the Navy inventory until September 30, 1942.
Mission
History
Took off from the USS Saratoga at 1048 to intercept the first Japanese air raid against Guadalcanal. In the rush to intercept, James "Pug" Southerland
took off this Wildcat, usually flown by Ensign Mortimer
Kleinmann.
Southerland shot down the first Japanese aircraft of the Guadalcanal campaign at 1251 hours: a G4M1 Betty bomber of the 4th Kokutai, under the command of Shizuo Yamada.
After shooting down the bomber, he was engaged in a dogfight with A6M2 Zeros of the Tainan Kokutai, including ace Saburo Sakai, who shot down this Wildcat after a lengthy dogfight. Southerland managed to bail out just moments before it exploded, the first American aircraft shot down during the Guadalcanal campaign.
After Shooting down Southerland, Saburo Sakai was himself severely wounded when he attacked SBDs, then flew back to Rabaul blinded in one eye in his heavily damaged Zero. After the war, he wrote about the dogfight in his book Samurai!
On the ground, Southerland was met by Solomon Islander, Bruno Nana, and returned to American lines. Evacuated from Guadalcanal on the first PB to land at Henderson Field, on August 20th. He later returned to combat and became an ace himself, and awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He attained the rank of Navy Commander, but disappeared in a jet training accident of the coast off the United States on October 12, 1949.
Wreckage
The wreckage lies in a jungle ravine and subsequently
most parts have been well preserved by thick foliage protection.
Black stenciling is visible on both sides of the fin "NAVY 5192",
and a stencil on the inside of a cowl flap "5192". Parts of the left elevator
still had intact camouflaged fabric on them. Three Browning .5 caliber
machine guns
were located, as was the engine, with two
cylinders cleanly removed through combat damage, and bullet holes in
the prop.
Michael
Claringbould adds:
"On
February 14, 1998 I was led by a Solomon Islander to the
scattered wreckage of a Wildcat
fighter. Markings
on the wreckage confirm that the aircraft was Bu 5192 flown by "Pug" Southerland
II, shot down by Japanese ace Saburo
Sakai on 7th August 1942, the date of the Guadalcanal US landing. I was substantially assisted in my research
by Australian John Innes, world expert on Guadalcanal battlefields,
and New Zealander Ewan Stevenson, an authority on aircraft wrecks
in the Solomons. The aircraft is arguably the most historic
US Navy aircraft wreck of World War II"
Justin Taylan adds:
"I visited this wreckage twice. The first with Claringbould's help in 2003 and the second with a documentary film crew in 2006. This visit appears in the documentary Dogfight Over Guadalcanal, that aired on PBS Secrets of the Dead."
References
New York Times "Flier Fights 31 Japanese Planes; Has 11 Wounds When He Bails Out" March 15, 1943 tells Southerland's story.
Pacific Ghosts CD-ROM documents the crash site, and history.
Author and historian John Lundstron was the first to publish information on this Wildcat, in "Fighter Pilots in Aerial Combat" No. 6 (Fall 1982) and later The First Team And The Guadalcanal Campaign pages 48-55 and 552-3. Winged Samurai pages 59-71 reprints Lundstrom's 1982 article.
Samurai! by Saburo
Sakai tells his recollections
of the dogfight
Winged Samurai by Henry Sakaida describes this mission pages 59 - 71
Wildcat
Samurai!
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