Originally from fencer
VMF-312 "Checkerboards" or also "Days Knights" for their founding CO Maj. Richard Day, he was probably the only Marine CO of the same squad for nearly 2 years. They were stationed on Okinawa and Ie Shima, April to September 1945. No pilot was attributed to this aircraft, but has the very recognizable checkerboard nose and rudder.
vmf-312 611 by
whitemanLS1, on Flickr
vmf-312 611b by
whitemanLS1, on Flickr
New one I'm adding is #584 that was flown by 1Lt. Bob Klingman in one the most reported episodes of the campaign. On May 10th the division led by Capt Ken Reusser sighted a high Ki-45 "Nick" reconnasissance at 25,000 ft. and climbing. The division of 4 corsairs began pursuit with two maxing out below 36,000, Reusser and Klingman fired off most their ammunition to lighten up and were able to get to an astounding 38,000 ft. Reusser fired all his ammo and damaged the snooper. Klingman closed in but his guns had frozen, the rear gunner of the Nick was able to fire and opened up on Klingman. Despite having no guns, he pressed the attack and in 3 passes he had sawed enough of the rear and tail of the Nick away that it broke apart and crashed into the ocean. Missing a chunk of his prop, and losing 300ft of altitude a minute he dead-stick landed on the very edge of the runway. Upon inspection his motor was full of 7.7 holes along with bits of the Nicks rudder in the cowling.
This is how it looked that day. In May VMF-312 dropped the rudder checkers and also removed them from the cowling flaps.
vmf-312 584 by
whitemanLS1, on Flickr
vmf-312 584b by
whitemanLS1, on Flickr
