LTV A-7 Corsair II | Vought F4U Corsair | The Corsair | Phantom Corsair |
Micklin is a tough-as-nails maintenance line chief who has the unenviable job of keeping the squadron's 20 Chance Vought F4U Corsair fighter planes operational.
The first American aircraft landed at Munda on August 14, 1943 with landings by F4U Corsairs piloted by Robert Owen of VMF-215, a 44th Fighter Squadron (44th FS) P-40 Warhawk and a J2F Duck with Marine Brigadier General Francis P. Mulcahy aboard.
Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine, was originally constructed and occupied in March 1943, and was first commissioned on April 15, 1943, to train and form-up Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilots to fly squadrons of the Chance Vought F4U Corsair, and of the Grumman TBF Avenger and F6F Hellcat, for the British Naval Command.
The raid was launched at 5.30am on 19 April, with 17 Barracuda bombers and 13 Corsair fighters from HMS Illustrious and 29 Dauntless and Avenger bombers and 24 Hellcat fighters from USS Saratoga.
Forty-three Avenger bombers, 12 Firefly fighter-bombers with rockets and fifty Hellcat, Corsair and Seafire fighters were launched, approaching with the sun behind them and diving from 9000 feet to 3000 feet to release their bombs.