Archie Donahue: WWII Ace Pilot

Commanded by Major Henry A. Ellis Jr., with Major Herbert Harvey “Trigger” Long, a Solomons veteran who had previously served in VMF-121 and VMF-122 as its executive officer, VMF-451 was assigned to Air Group 84 aboard the carrier Bunker Hill, along with Navy squadron VF-84 and Marine VMF-221, all equipped with Corsairs. Donahue was the Blue Devils’ operations officer as well as a flight leader.

VMF-451 scored its first aerial victory during a raid on Tokyo on February 16, 1945, when 1st Lt. James R. Anderson Jr. and 2nd Lt. Phil Wilmot shot down an Aichi E13A1 floatplane off the coast, but also suffered its first loss: 1st Lt. Forrest P. Brown, killed by anti-aircraft fire. Over the next few days the squadron supported the Marine landings on Iwo Jima, then returned to the Japanese Home Islands on March 18, during which Trigger Long scored VMF-451’s second kill, a Zero over Miyazaki airfield.

The Zero—now code-named “Zeke” by the Allies—had been eclipsed by the newest American fighter designs, and Japan had few well-trained or experienced airmen left to fly them. But AA fire could still take a sobering toll on the Corsairs during ground attack operations. In one such bombing strike on Okinawa on March 24, 2nd Lt. Richard Walsey of VMF-221 and Air Group 84’s leader, Commander George M. Ottinger, were shot down and killed. Also badly hit was the Corsair of VMF-451’s Major Emerson H. Dedrick. Advised to ditch rather than land, he flipped over in the water and went down with his plane. During another strike on Minami Tori Shima, about 150 miles east of Okinawa, Captain John R. Morgan Jr. of VMF-451 was killed, again by AA fire.

On April 1, U.S. Army and Marine troops landed on Okinawa, with two Blue Devils pilots lost during dawn launches—both crashed into the sea on takeoff. While Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima’s Thirty-Second Army fought a protracted campaign of attrition against the Americans on the island, the Japanese navy mounted a series of mass attacks by kamikaze suicide planes, called kikusui (“floating chrysanthemums”), against the supporting task forces of the U.S. and Royal navies. VMF-451 claimed 11 Zekes on April 3, including two by Long; the Japanese recorded the loss of eight fighters.

Major Donahue, who was at that point acting as VMF-451’s executive officer, had not added to his score since he left the Solomons, but he got his chance on April 12 while leading a flight in F4U-1D 57621 (No. 141). “We were on patrol heading for the southern tip of Okinawa when we got into a tangle,” he later recalled. “There was a field on Okinawa, and some other flights joined mine. We had ’em outnumbered quite a bit. We lost a few, from another flight, but they took far the worst of it.” Tearing into the enemy formations west of Okinawa between 1237 and 1603 hours, Donahue was credited with three “Vals,” as the Allies called the Aichi D3A2 dive bomber, and two Zekes. Three other VMF-451 pilots, 1st Lts. George S. Petersen, Raymond H. Swallow and John R. Webb, emerged from the melee with two enemies planes each.

Bunker Hill was then serving as the flagship of Vice Adm. Marc Mitscher, commander of Task Force 58, so he was present to personally award the Navy Cross to Donahue for his quintuple victory. The citation commended Donahue:

For distinguishing himself by extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as leader of a carrier based fighter division on Combat Air Patrol over Okinawa on 12 April 1945. After taking over the lead of two other fighter divisions in addition to his own, he skillfully and courageously led the flight into action against numerically superior enemy planes that were directing an attack against units of our shipping. As a result of his able and inspiring leadership the flight destroyed a total of sixteen enemy planes of which he personally shot down five. His prompt and effective action in routing the enemy not only removed a dangerous threat to our shipping but was also accomplished without loss to our own planes.

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