October 24, 1944: David McCampbell Downed More Enemy Aircraft Than Any Other Naval Aviator—Ever

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October 24, 1944: David McCampbell Downed More Enemy Aircraft Than Any Other Naval Aviator—Ever By: Alvin TownleyDate:October24 , 2011

In a dogfight, expect anything. All bets are off.

 

Nobody drove that lesson home more pointedly than David McCampbell, a son of Bessemer, Alabama, who downed more enemy aircraft than any other naval aviator—ever. By the end of World War II, he’d destroyed thirty-four enemy planes in the type of thick, guns-only, air-to-air dogfights Hoser would have given his other thumb to join.

 

“Dashing Dave” McCampbell’s career had started inconspicuously. He graduated the U.S. Naval Academy in 1933, and was discharged into the reserves that same day; the navy had limited its officer commissions. He spent a disappointing year working construction and assembling airplanes in Bessemer before the navy recalled him and he finally earned his wings at Pensacola in 1938. He made his real debut six years later.

 

When he first tasted aerial combat on May 19, 1944, he was serving as CAG, commander of soon- to-be-legendary Air Group Fifteen, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex. He didn’t down any bogies but his F6F Hellcat, named Monsoon Maiden, returned from the day’s mission so shredded by enemy bullets that the flight deck crew finished the job the Japanese had started by pushing the propeller-driven Grumman fighter into the sea. McCampbell would go on to fly in Minsi, Minsi II, and finally Minsi III

 

http://www.commandposts.com/2011/10/october-24-1944-david-mccampbell-downed-more-enemy-aircraft-than-any-other-naval-aviator%e2%80%94ever/