Archie Donahue: WWII Ace Pilot

As the Zeros disengaged, Donahue, flying F4U-1 02383, went after them and shot down two. “There was one day we took a lot of burning on them,” he recalled. “I got lost in a cloud, dove down, got two and there I had the other seven cornered. There was another flight of U.S. planes lower, but they didn’t know I was up there. Those Zeros were all over me, and suddenly my plane started shaking. I managed to get away and landed in the Russells to find that they’d shot a hole in my prop, which caused all the vibrations. The Zeros were strafing the island, so I jumped into a foxhole, only to hear a strangely familiar voice yell ‘Get the f— off me!’ It was Joe Cain, a girlfriend’s sister’s boyfriend who I had known when we went to the University of Texas. He was a Marine, and there we were, meeting again in a foxhole in the Russells.”

While the Japanese fighters re-formed, Fraser and Synar looked for more trouble and got it when 12 Zeros attacked them from above. Fraser blew one up, but another hit him in the oil line. Forced to ditch in the sea, he was later picked up by a rescue boat. Synar made it back to Henderson despite a damaged oil system.

At that point, Curtiss P-40Fs of the 44th Fighter Squadron dived into the melee and claimed eight Zeros. First Lieutenants John Stack, Julian Willcox and Samual Richards Jr. of VMF-112 joined the fight, and Stack was closing on a Zero that had turned for home when, much to his chagrin, Richards sped by and blew it up. Another Wolf Pack pilot, 1st Lt. Samuel S. Logan, was alone when he spotted a Zero on a P-40’s tail and drove it away, only to be caught from behind by another that shot away his controls. He bailed out at 18,000 feet, but as he parachuted down his opponent made repeated attempts to slice him with his propeller, succeeding in cutting off half his right foot on the third pass before another American fighter drove him off. As he continued his descent, Logan coolly applied a tourniquet, injected himself with morphine and took sulfathiazole tablets.

A Grumman J2F floatplane rescued him, but upon his return to Guadalcanal medics were forced to amputate his foot. “One of the bravest men I ever knew was Sammy Logan,” Donahue would say thereafter.

The Americans claimed 23 enemy planes destroyed on June 7, while the Japanese reported nine Zeros and seven pilots lost that day. Four of the fatalities were from the 251st Kokutai, including Petty Officer 1st Class Masuaki Endo, who after his plane was set on fire rammed 1st Lt. Henry E. Matson of the 44th Fighter Squadron for his 14th and final victory. Thanks to his P-40F’s rugged construction, Matson survived to bail out and was later saved by a rescue boat. VMF-112 lost three Corsairs, along with Donahue’s and two others damaged, but all its pilots came back alive.

Later that month the battle-weary VMF-112 was shipped back to the United States, having tallied 90 aerial victories since its formation on March 1, 1942. Captain Donahue, whose own score stood at nine, was made the flight operations officer at El Toro Naval Air Station, Calif. On February 15, 1944, a new Marine unit, VMF-451—the “Blue Devils”—was formed at Marine Corps Air Station Mojave, and Donahue was tasked with training its pilots to qualify for carrier operations.

The Marines had originally received the F4U-1 because the Navy had rejected it as unsuitable for carrier use, but VMF-451 was equipped with the F4U-1D, featuring a new roomier frameless Plexiglas canopy that greatly improved visibility for the pilot. Donahue stated that he and his pilots had no trouble adapting to carrier landings. “I thought that inverted gull wing helped you get into position,” he said. “When landing, you’d fly with the signal officer, and that dip in the wing as you made a left turn allowed you to see him. If you do what you’re supposed to do, you’re going to get in there.”

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