Torpedo Squadron Nine

In trying to research names for the next section of my grandfather's Carrier Air Group Nine yearbook from World War II, I came across a February 1948 issue of Naval Aviation News that has an article on Torpedo Squadron Nine. It's on pages 10 & 11 of the PDF. I look forward to taking the time to read the whole thing.

The Last Fish

When I first posted about finding my grandfather's yearbook from his time with Carrier Air Group Nine during World War II, I soon had a comment from artist Scott Nelson, looking for some guidance about the markings of the aircraft assigned to the USS Yorktown. With a little help from BillT's comments on that same post, Scott got the information he needed to complete his project. Last weekend, I received an email letting me know the painting was finished:

Hi,
I had promised to get the photo of the painting to you, you can post it you want. The painting was a surprize for Stew Bass at his 90th BD party held at the Air Museum, Fargo ND. Stew signed the painting. The second pict. is Stew Bass and me.

The painting shows half of Torpedo 9, 7 planes (the other half, 6 planes were attacking the Yamato in the upper right of the painting). Stew's flight attacked the cruiser Yahagi, coming in at a pie shaped formation, altitude around 800 feet, releasing the torpedoes around 1500 yards from the ship. This was the high speed, high altitude, torpedo attack developed by the Navy.

Scott

The artwork:


With Stew and Scott:



I emailed back to ask if the piece had a title yet. Not officially, but he explained:

...have thought about the title "THE LAST FISH". Fish refers to what the Navy flyers called the torpedo. One of the planes from Torpedo Nine dropped the last arial torpedo ever used against enemy shipping. (could have been Stew?)
Scott

I haven't gotten to Stew's section in the yearbook yet, but I promise I haven't given up on this project. It will just take a bit of time, considering I want to research the names of the men in the book, to share whatever it is that can be shared about who they are/were. Would that there were more hours in the day ;-)

Carrier Air Group Nine, Introduction

I've been able to scan more pages from the book. Some were done out-of-order based on a comment on the previous post from artist Scott Nelson who was looking for information about the markings for an Avenger attached to the Yorktown for a project he's working on depicting the events of April 7, 1945. While I sent pages along to Scott, I'll not post them here until I "get to them" in page order. I'll do my best to post the pages as they appear with the book open. These are the next four pages.

First is a chronology for Carrier Air Group Nine from the commissioning on March 1, 1942 through to the return to San Francisco on July 6, 1945 with the carriers Yorktown and Lexington on the opposite page.



Next, "The Score". Ships sunk, probably sunk, damaged. Planes destroyed, probably destroyed, damaged, both airborne and on the ground. Sorties by squadron. Personnel lost. Aircraft lost. Operations.



Lieutenant Commander Herbert N. Houck replaced Commander Philip H. Torrey, Jr.

Lieutenant Commander Houck passed away at the age of 86 on February 24, 2002, in Cape Coral, Florida. According to the article, he flew Hellcats. My grandfather doesn't mention April 7, 1945 in his combat diary, but I wonder if he was involved. Surely, he knew Houck. Would that I had been able to talk to Grandpa about his time in the Navy...

Carrier Air Group Nine, March 1944-July 1945

As I have mentioned before, my grandfather was a Naval Aviator in the Pacific during World War II. Recently, my parents found Grandpa's yearbook from back then. The binding is fragile, so I need to be careful handling it. I will slowly work through scanning the whole thing. Here's a start:







I've been lucky enough to tour both the Lexington, in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the Yorktown, at Patriot's Point, South Carolina, both carriers on which Grandpa served.

Tonight, though, I'll stop with the dedication pages:

To
Commander Philip H. Torrey, Jr.
United States Navy

Commander, Carrier Air Group Nine
December 1943 - February 1944

Killed in First Carrier Raids on Tokyo
16 February 1944

"Outstanding leadership is the quality above all others that inspires fighting spirit. The remarkable records of some air groups reveal and confirm the fact that the Air Group Commanders were outstandingly capable leaders. It has now become axiomatic that the fighting spirit, combat efficiency and success of air groups reflect in almost an exact ratio, the extent to which those qualities are found in their leaders"

-Commander Air Force, Pacific Fleet

Commander Philip H. Torrey, Jr., United States Navy:

*TORREY, PHILIP H., JR.
Synopsis:
The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Philip H. Torrey, Jr., Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Plane and Commander of Air Group NINE (AG-9), embarked from the U.S.S. ESSEX (CV-9), in action on 16 and 17 February 1944, while deployed over Truk in the Caroline Islands. His outstanding courage and determined skill were at all times inspiring and in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Born: April 25, 1913 at Washington, D.C.
Home Town: Long Beach, California