Lt.jg. Claude Briggs - Hellcat Pilot - USS WASP - VF81 - Task Force 38 - November 44 to March 45
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A F6F Hellcat preparing for launch & Lt.jg. Claude Briggs
Claude Briggs was born in Carter Oklahoma on 10/9/23. In 1936 his family moved to Salem Oregon. He attended Salem High there and eventually George Washington University. What follows is Claudes story in his own words. A few excerpts from his squadron mate Bill "Bird Dog" Grants book Sting of the WASP and responses from our correspondance in parenthesis are included ( )
Sunday December 7, 1941
Being Sunday, my grandfather's photographic studio was closed, so a group of us went to the only movie theater in Elk City, Oklahoma. My parents now lived in Salem, Oregon, but we all had come down for my Grandmothers funeral and I had stayed to learn the photo business.
About 10 A.M., halfway through the movie, the lights came on and the announcer reported that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. None of us had the slightest idea where Pearl harbor was located. We immediately left the theater and went looking for a world atlas.
A few days later I bought a bus ticket to return to Salem since it was obvious I was subject to the draft. The bus ride was non-stop and on a round-about route, since I recall passing through Boise, Idaho in a heavy snow storm.
My brother, Don, and I had always been enthralled by airplanes. Bought every magazine we could find and papered the wall of our bedroom with cut-out airplane pictures. The only magazine I remember was Flying Aces which always had a story about Phineas Pinkham, WWI fighter ace. We had both been Sea Scouts and were interested in any and everything involving the Navy. Consequently, we decided to try for Naval Avaition. We went to the recruiting office and filled out the papers, then went for the physical by a civilian doctor. (Claude and Don's parents did not oppose their desire to join up and were not required to give their under 21 sons written permission. This policy was inconsistently enforced in the USA as some recruitment offices insisted on parental signatures for under age volunteers.) Some character switched urine samples and I was turned down with a diagnosis of Hodgkins Disease. I had to prove my test was false, and finally did so after several exchanges with the Doc and the Navy. (Note: Claude was 19 at the time of his enlistment)
Don and I were given tickets to Seattle, Washington, along with several other local boys who had also applied. We went through the induction process and were sent back home to await further orders. Finally in November 1942 we were both ordered to Baker, Oregon to commence primary flight training on Taylorcraft and Piper Cub aircraft. They lodged us in a hotel and fitted us with Civilian Conversation Corps uniforms. Our instructors were all civilians. As it was winter in eastern Oregon we had plenty of snow to contend with. About 20 of us would form a line abreast on the runway and march from one end to the other until the snow was packed down sufficiently to allow a takeoff. Fortunately, the runway was only about 1200 feet long. We logged about 25 hours and soloed in approximately 2 months, then received orders for Del Monte, California for pre-flight training, ground school and physical conditioning.
Reported in at Del Monte class number 4A43 April 8th 1943 and finished there on July 10th 1943. Reported then to Norman, Oklahoma, class number 7B43N on July 15th for primary flight training in the N2S Stearman 
for 42 hours of dual and 59 hours solo flight. My inverted spin checkout was on 8/20/43. Exciting to say the least. My instructor, Bill Kitchell, made a comment on the record that I was the second best student he had seen in 18 months. I'll never know who was the first.
Next stop was Corpus Christi, Texas, class number 10B43 arriving on October 14th 43. There I had 30 hours of training in the SNV, a low wing monoplane with fixed gear, two speed prop, and flaps. Then 110 hours in the SNJ (Texan) doing cross-country, instruments, bombing and air to air gunnery firing at towed target sleves.
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(Claude got high marks for air to air gunnery 50% of his deflection shots found their mark).
Don and I graduated side by side on April 1 1944 and received our Navy Wings and a comission as Ensign, US Naval Reserve. Don went on the night fighter school in Flordia. (Note: Don subsequently served on board a CVL Sangamon allocated to Night Combat Air patrol with F6F-5N's during the Okinawa campaign and the Carrier strikes off Japan. In 1945 his ship took a Kamikaze hit while he was on board)
I went to dive bombers (SBD's) at Masters Field, Miami Flordia 
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class number VB2, where I flew 110 hours, mainly practicing dive bombing with training 20 pound bombs and occasionally a 500 pounder to drop on a wrecked ship near Bimini. On June 9th 1944 I took a train to Glenview Illinois and carrier qualification began on June 18th on the USS Sable in a SNJ. Real state of the art equipment. Had to tie a rope around the arm rest to hold the tailhook up. After 8 arrested landing I was ready for combat. On to Wildwood, New Jersey and transition to the Curtis SB2C dive bomber, affectionately know as the "Beast". A real dog. 320 knots straight down. Engine overspeeds, hydraulic failures, etc were a regular occurance.
(Claude indicates that the SBD verticle dive was about 240 knots vs the Helldivers 320. This gave more time in the SBD to adjust aim.) (The Helldivers were delayed in getting into service and many carrier crews perferred to keep the SBD's converting only when forced to.)
July I spent a couple of weeks at Otis field Mass, then cross country for training at Ream Field in San Diego California for 8 more carrier qualification landings on the US Makassar Strait. My first catapult shot was on 8/15/44. We departed San Diego for Honolulu on 8/23/44 and thence to Puunene, Maui on an inter island steamer. Then on September 2nd good news. The kamikaze were becomming a problem so they asked for volunteers to transfer to fighters, F6F Hellcats. That was my dream from the begining so I was the first one to hold up my hand. During September and October there was intensive training in the F6F and 4 more carrier landings on the USS Ranger. On November 9th embarked on the CVE USS Copahee for transpac to Guam where our Air Groups relieved the homeward bound Air Groups aboard the USS Wasp, CV18
(Note: Claude never ditched or damaged an aircraft while training on these small decked ships in Lake Michigan. When he embarked on the WASP he had 394 hours under his belt.)
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USS WASP CV18
Five Days later on November 14th we make our first attack on Cabanatuan and Tarlac airfields on central Luzon, Phillipines. What a rude awakening! Up to this point there was not even a though of getting hurt or killed but today it suddenly dawned on me that they were actually shooting at ME! and I took a hit in the tail section, fortunately not serious enough to cause a problem getting back aboard. (During these missions squadron mate Ed Maddock went down in Lingayen Gulf after the second strike at Clark airfield. He would spend two months in the bush with Phillipine guerillas before being brought out on a submarine and back to the WASP.
Our task force under Halsey's command, went through two severe typhoons and lost three destroyers and close to 1000 men. The destroyers had not been able to refuel due to heavy seas preceeding to main storm and capsized when they ran out of fuel and could no longer head directly into the swells. Our carrier took green water across the bow and at one point rolled so far over as to take water into the stack. Several other carriers had aircraft break lose on the hanger deck starting fires that were impossible to put out due to the rolling and crashing back and forth. A couple of them had the foreward part of the flight deck folded back. (Note: Halsey took some criticism for his actions in not heading away from the worst of the storm but remained in command. It would not be the first time TF 38 would face extremes of weather).
On the November 29th we pulled into Ulithi Atoll for replenishment and recreation. Recreation consisted of warm beer on a small island called Mog Mog,
There were no females at any time during this deployment, something different from our countries later involvement in Korea and Vietman.
Back to Luzon in mid December. On the 21st we hit southern Luzon, Batangas and Catingatan. I burned an oil barge, made a rocket attack on an airfield and downed a Japanese float plane. (The plane had a low wing and no bomb in sight. When I hit him he was very low, probably trying to land and get out.
(It was a Jake)
I hit him on the pull-up from the rocket run. (I did a split-S at about 300 knots and pulled over 12 G's (the G meter pegged out). He was attempting to land just off the beach at Batangas, Southern coast of Luzon. Interesting coincidence, at a Retired Officer's Association dinner a couple of years ago, Edith and I sponsored a young Philippine boy who was going to the Air Force Academy. His mother turned out to be from Batangas and said her parents saw the shoot down. I should point out that all of us had no doubt as to the outcome of the war and were only concerned with doing the most damage to the enemy to speed up the end of it. At this point we considered ourselves lucky to even see a Japanese airplane airborne and almost ran over each other trying to be the first to get to him.
Early in January we hit Formosa, and lost a few planes there as Shinchiku turned out to be an anti-aircraft training facility for the Japanese.
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(Claude indicated this was possibly his hardest mission due to the losses and returning in darkness low on fuel to the carrier. He also made a sortie into mainland China at Canton where other airgroups sustained losses but none from WASP). On south into the South China Sea in mid January looking for the Japanese fleet in Camrahn Bay. Turned out to be empty so we continued on to Saigon and attacked the airfields and oil storage tanks there. Took my second hit making a low pass over the airfield in a straffing run on a row of Topsy's 
and/or Tabbys(the Japanese equivalent to our DC3).
Some character had the gall to hit my left wing 50 calibre gun breech with a rifle bullet. No big deal, however as I still had 5, 50's. (I was flying at about 20 feet and for good measure I put an HVAR 5" rocket into the hanger.) On the way out at 10,000 feet a Japanese destroyer just south of Cape St. Jaques made the mistake of shooting at us.
My flight leader still had a 500 pound bomb so we turned around and made a run on him. That 500 pounder must have hit a magazine, as I flew over through a hail of metal and oil, I turned around too see what had happened and there was no destroyer there. He hit the bottom in a matter of seconds. After that it was back to Ulithi Atoll on the 22nd of January.
While at Ulithi I flew CAP Combat air partol from an island called Fallalop, next to Mog Mog. Only 2500 feet of coral for a strip with water at both ends. (Mog Mog was a rest and recreation area for the crews to let off steam, barter for native crafts and generally drink and relax.
Several of the Wasp crews were involved in accidently tackling a high ranking commander while under the influence and knocked him into the water. Crowleys Tavern was a haunt where you could run into people you had not seen in years as they greeted you with an arm load of beer cans. There were other pursuits like voley ball and movies to entertain the crews.)
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Early February saw us on the way north for the first Tokyo strikes on the 16th. The first launch was a fighter sweep, 55 F6F's from our carrier alone. Halfway to the beach at 12000 feet we spotted a twin engined Betty 
headed out towards our fleet at about 2500 feet. Four of us broke off and went after him. Pulled in behind and two of us pumped him full of 50 calibers. He turned left back towards Japan but caught fire and continued in a decending turn right into the water where he exploded in a giant orange ball of flame. It later occured to me that the crew was probably 3 or 4 teen-agers, convinced that they were doing the right thing. At this point in time the Japanese had just about run out of experienced pilots. We continued on in to unload our bombs and rockets on an airfield north of Tokyo and surprisingly had only one AA gun shooting at us. 
We had expected a hot bed of anti-aircraft here. (VF81 did not get off lightly, it lost 5 pilots during the Empire missions Feb 15-17. Lt's Bauman, Gage and Ensign Stailey were lost after last being seen mixing it up with Japanese fighters. Lt. Bauman was seen to down two before he disappeared. Ensigns Butler and Metzger are believed to have been lost to AA on the 17th.) From there we sailed to Iwo Jima and then to Okinawa in March.(the WASP supported the landings at Iwo and provided aircover CAP. During this time the Kamizake hit the task force sinking the USS CVE Bismark Sea and severely damaging the Saratoga with heavy loss of life. They then moved for additional strikes against the Ryuku's chain. Here the combat tour ends on March 12th, The typical combat tour was expected to last 4 to 6 months, Claude and his squadron mates did not discuss the possibility of death or capture and never met a Japanese face to face, as he says "We felt were immortal"
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