VF-24 spent their time on the USS Santee supporting ground operations on Okinawa 1 April to 8 April. The only three kills of that cruise came on April 6, 1945, Ens. Roy Farmer was credited with 2. They supported British carriers in denying the use of Sakishima Gunto airfields to the enemy starting the 8th. For 42 consecutive dawns, Santee's aircraft winged over target sectors in the East China Sea, with daily returns to Okinawa itself for routine ground support. On 16 June, Santee launched a fighter bomber mission against specified targets on Kyūshū, Japan. On 7 July, a tail hook broke on a landing aircraft, allowing it to clear all barriers, crash among parked planes, and cause a fire. Four fighters and two torpedo bombers were jettisoned, six torpedo bombers were rendered non-flyable duds, and one of the pilots of the parked aircraft was killed. No.15 appears to be the one that had the hook failure.
These style of markings with white tail and wing, white or yellow single or multiple bands were used by the CVE's to define carrier division and CVE in the group. The white tail and wing on this plane designate it's from Carrier Division Twenty-Two. The Double yellow bands represent the 4th carrier, in that being the Santee. There could be up to 6 carriers in a division.
VF-24's biggest air to air action came while stationed on the CVL-24 Belleau Wood in June 1944 in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. On the 11th 4 fighters were shot down over Guam and 2 more the next day, but it was the 19th that the action would ramp up. At 6am again over Guam they shot down 3 Zekes and initiated the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, by days end they added 7 more and making Lt. Robert H. Thelen the squads only ace with 6.5 victories. The next day the Belleau Woods Avengers sank the IJNS Hiyo and VF-24 added 3 more kills and 3 probables.
Would have liked to find profiles of their F6F-3's from the Battle of the Philippine Sea but no luck yet.
VF-24 landing-mishap Aug-1945 by
whitemanLS1, on Flickr
vf24 1 by
whitemanLS1, on Flickr
vf24 2 by
whitemanLS1, on Flickr
