warbirddigest.com Number 78 WARBIRDD I G E S T Multi-Mission Mustang –––––––––––––––– Sunken Treasures –––––––––––––––– Naked Fanny –––––––––––––––– Gunship 049 1 Multi-Mission Mustang The Collings Foundation’s North American A-36 By James Church Photo: Scott Slocum 1616 • • WARBIRD WARBIRD DIGEST DIGEST • • MAY MAY/JUNE/JUNE 2018 2018 1717 he concept of using aircraft in the role of dive bombing wasn’t exactly something the Army Air Corps T considered as a high priority prior to World War Two. While the U.S. Navy had embraced the concept as an accurate means of attacking enemy ships using aircraft, the Air Corps saw no real need to embrace the idea and felt that bombardment by heavy or medium bombers from large formations in level flight was more than adequate. 1 The original Baby Carmen served with However, the success of the Luftwaffe’s use the 526th FBS, 86th FBG, while operating of the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka in this role during in the MTO, and these markings have the early Blitzkrieg campaigns in Europe and been faithfully reproduced on the Collings Foundation’s restored example. Photo: elsewhere could not be ignored. Collings Foundation 2 One of Baby Carmen’s wartime pilots was Lt. Walter L. Gibson, here being strapped into the aircraft by Crew Chief Sgt. Mike Brown. Photo: Collings Foundation 2 The situation came to a head with the disastrous attack on Pearl Harbor, when pinpoint attacks by Imperial Japanese Navy Aichi D3A Val dive bombers contributed greatly to the decimation of a large portion of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet, which had been sitting at anchor providing an excellent target, along with the heavy damage inflicted to shore installations and airfields. Though the U.S. Navy had types dedicated to the dive bomber role in its inventory for years, dating back to its Photo: Scott Slocum 18 • WARBIRD DIGEST • MAY/JUNE 2018 1919 Sunken T reasures By Lynn Ritger lmost 76 years ago, the U.S. Navy managed to finally halt the previously unstoppable AJapanese advance through the Pacific by sinking the carrier Shoho and severely damaging the carrier Shokaku in the Coral Sea, off the northeastern coast of Australia on May 7 and 8, 1942. The loss of these two ships caused the Japanese to delay their plans to invade the southern coast of New Guinea, which would have represented an existential threat to Australia. Strategically, it was a badly needed win for the Allies after five months of unrelenting defeats. Singapore, Java, Rabaul, Hong Kong, the Solomons and Marshall Islands, the Dutch East Indies—in one after another, the Japanese overwhelmed Allied forces throughout the western and southern Pacific regions, and on May 6th Gen. Wainwright signed an unconditional surrender of all U.S. forces remaining in the Philippines. Australia was the last remaining Allied stronghold in the southwest; and if the Japanese were able to establish a base near Port Moresby on the southern coast of New Guinea, virtually the entire northern coast of the country would be under extreme danger— and the Japanese could also strangle supply lines flowing to and from Australia, thus imperiling the global Allied war effort. Taken by LIFE photographer Carl Mydans aboard a TBD of VT-6 in the fall of 1940, this photo first appeared in the March 31, 1941 edition. 40 • WARBIRD DIGEST • MAY/JUNE 2017 41 40 • WARBIRD DIGEST • MAY/JUNE 2018 41 NAKED FANNY here are few surviving warbirds that can claim the varied lineage of Jim Rohlf’s Douglas T Skyraider, Naked Fanny. From service with the U.S. Navy as a carrier- borne attack aircraft to the mount of mercenaries in central Africa, this AD-4NA saw more than its share of combat before returning to the land of its manufacturer. Warbird Digest and Sébastien Guillemin take a look back at its illustrious lineage. In the post-World War Two period, many of the French African territories were restless for independence. This led to considerable unrest, terrorism, and outright combat. Consequently, there were significant military operations in territories like Algeria, where Republic P-47 Thunderbolts were used for ground attack missions against the rebellious insurgent forces. Attrition, age, and lack of parts took their toll on these aircraft, and this directly led to the French acquisition of Skyraiders to replace the remaining worn-out Thunderbolts starting in 1956. The Armée de l’Air purchased 146 Skyraiders, of which 113 were ultimately put in service. These were comprised of 20 AD-4s, 21 AD-4Ns, and 72 AD- 4NAs direct from U.S. Navy storage at Litchfield Park, Arizona. They were flown to NAS Norfolk for ship transport to Bordeaux in France, where Société Française d’Entretien et de Réparation de Matériel Aéronautique (SFERMA) overhauled and prepared them for French service. The first Skyraider arrived in Boufarik, Algeria, in February 1960, where they were utilized against the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN). BuNo. 126959 rolled off the Douglas assembly line in El Segundo, California, on August 29, 1952. The AD-4NA was a modified AD-4N. The -4N was initially designed for night- attack and anti-submarine duties with the addition of a two- man crew compartment in the aft fuselage. The compartment contained radar, electronic countermeasure, and anti- submarine warfare equipment and was intended to be occupied by the radar operator/navigator and electronic countermeasures officer. The need for strike-only aircraft during the Korean War Photo: Greg Morehead 54 • WARBIRD DIGEST • MAY/JUNE 2018 55 GUNSHIP 049 ECONOMICALLY INFEASIBLE By Greg Morehead merican Huey 369 in Peru, Indiana, recently completed the restoration of Gunship 049, which is undoubtedly the most historically significant AHuey to have survived the Vietnam War and returned to flight status. Warbird Digest attended the public unveiling at its Annual Homecoming event in August 2017, where the enormity of the project became clear and the level of its success was gauged by the reactions of the many Vietnam veterans in attendance, including some who served on this very helicopter over 50 years ago. American Huey 369 Founder, John Walker, opened this epic story. Photo: Greg Morehead 70 • • WARBIRD WARBIRD DIGEST DIGEST • • MAY MAY//JUNEJUNE 2018 2018 71 The Adventures of Captain Connie or over 50 years Wilson “Connie” Edwards has been a fixture in the warbird movement. From its earliest days he has made an indelible mark on the Findustry. Warbird Digest recently met with Connie at his ranch in West Texas to hear about his incredible adventures. Born and raised in West Texas, Edwards was fascinated by flight at an early age. When he was 15, he began taking lessons in nearby San Angelo, Texas. “I soloed in four hours and got my license when I was 16. I wanted to fly, so that is what I did,” he recalled. “After I got my license, I went and bought a Piper Super Cub. Since 1950, I have always owned a Super Cub. I have had as many as six of them at one time and currently have two. One of them belonged to my son, Tex. Edwards had an engine failure on I bought it for him when he was 12. He was very innovative because the Super July 9, 1968, in Spitfire T.Mk.9 MJ772, Cub has heel brakes: when he first started flying it, he couldn’t reach the pedals so during the filming of Battle of Britain. he duct-taped beer cans to the bottom of his heels so he could reach them.” The propeller on the belly-landed Spitfire While still 16, Edwards also purchased a Cessna UC-78 and a PT-22. “Of is from a Buchon and made from course, at 16, I thought I was the world’s greatest acrobatic talent. By the time aluminum, hence the chatter marks on I was 18, I had lost all that talent; there were a lot of people better than me!” the runway. The normal Spitfire blades laughed Edwards. When he was 17, he went to American Flyers in Fort Worth were wood composite and would have and learned to fly the DC-3. “I got my start on C-47s up there with old Reed shattered or broken on ground impact. Pigman, who started American Flyers. He had a couple of ragged old DC-3s. Photo: Peter R. Arnold Collection I don’t think I ever saw two of them fly at once—they were always down for maintenance. He told us, he said, ‘Now kids, you don’t have any cargo; you want to three-point the DC-3.’ My old friend Randy Sohn was always writing articles about this and that, and he wrote one about the DC-3. He said, ‘I don’t want to be in the same county of anyone who three-points a DC-3.’ I told him, ‘Where Photo: James Church 8888 • • WARBIRD WARBIRD DIGEST DIGEST • • MAY MAY//JUNEJUNE 2018 2018 89.