"Grumman planes saved Guadalcanal" —Navy Secretary Forrestal.
The Hellcat is a tough, round-bellied fighter plane that looks like two beer barrels, end to end. The U.S. Navy calls it the greatest sea fighter in the world. The Japs respect it above all other planes. Wherever the Hellcats have roved in the skies above the Pacific, they have conquered. At Guam, Ensign W. B. ("Spider") Webb nosed his Hellcat into a cluster of Jap dive bombers, joined them in their landing circle, leisurely shot down six. In the first attack on the Bonin Islands in June, Lieut. L. G. ("Barney") Barnard shot down two Jap planes in 25 seconds, sent three more spinning out of the air within 25 minutes.
The Navy tirelessly trumpets the Hellcat record. In the first five months of this year, Navy pilots officially blasted out of the air 444 Jap planes, destroyed another 323 on the ground. The Navy lost only 71 planes, mainly because Hellcats, when they are seemingly held together only by will power, limp home to their carriers somehow. In the battle of the Marianas, which Navy flyers scoffingly call the "turkey shoot," Hellcats shot down 360 Jap planes in one day, the greatest aerial bag of the war. In this combat, the Navy lost only 22 planes.
Down U-Boats. The Japs also respect a smaller brother of the Hellcat, the Wildcat fighter, and a halfbrother, the Avenger, a torpedo bomber. The Germans learned to respect them also in the once nip-&-tuck Battle of the Atlantic. With a "now-it-can-be-told" flourish, the Navy has let out the news that the most potent weapon of all against the U-boats were Wildcats, flying from baby flattops, and rocket-firing Avengers. In one six-month period, these planes sent 31 U-boats to the bottom, more than half of the entire total sunk by the Navy in that time.
But the most remarkable box score of all is still being totted up. It is the record of one Navy squadron, some of the "fair-haired bastards of Dr. Chung."*
The squadron promised Dr. Chung 200 Jap planes by next Christmas, but by June it had bagged only ten. Then, during the battle of Saipan, the squadron shot down 177 Jap planes within two weeks without a loss. Joyfully, squadron leader, Commander William A. Dean Jr., wired Dr. Chung: "TOJO SAY ROY GRUMMAN PUBLIC
ENEMY NO. I. SCORE 187 TO O NOT GOOD FOR HONORABLE SONS."
To which Leroy Randle Grumman, the man who makes Hellcats, Avengers, Wildcats and has more cats upcoming, wired back: "GRUMMAN MEN & WOMEN SAY BILL DEAN GRUMMAN COMPANY'S NO. I WORST CUSTOMER. SCORE 187 TO 0 NOT GOOD FOR THEIR BUSINESS." Bill Dean's squadron has now run its box score up to 223 Jap planes, has lost two.
Planemaker "Roy" Grumman (rhymes with summon) modestly insists that the high scores are due to superb Navy tactics and skill. The Navy thinks differently. Navy brass hats long ago ran out of glowing phrases (say they: "Roy Grumman is the hottest thing in aviation today") and E flags for Grumman. Last week, as a new token of their esteem, the Navy was reportedly seeking permission to give him a medal, the Meritorious Civilian Service award, something no U.S. manufacturer has yet received. The medal was as much for Grumman's amazing production record as for his superb planes.