F4U Corsairs vs. Zeros | Forget the TV show: Here is what the Black Sheep actually faced in WWII

Video from the channel DroneScapes about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 55:02. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary about the Marine fighter squadron VMF-214, the "Black Sheep," who flew Vought F4U Corsair fighters in combat over the Solomon Islands between September 1943 and January 1944 under the command of Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington. It combines narration with testimony from former pilots about combat, jungle life and their commander.

The documentary reviews Boyington's life. Born on 4 December 1912, he grew up as Gregory Hollenbeck in an Idaho logging town and worked as a draftsman at Boeing before training as a Marine pilot at Pensacola. Deep in debt, in 1941 he joined Claire Chennault's American Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers, in Burma and China, and left it abruptly. Back in the United States, he wrote to Navy Secretary Frank Knox, was reinstated as a major and formed the squadron with pilots from the replacement pool. The first name, "Boyington's Bastards," was changed to "Black Sheep" at the request of the press officer. Intelligence officer Frank Walton, a former Los Angeles policeman, acted as a steadying counterweight and kept the families informed.

Boyington taught his pilots not to turn with the more agile Zero, but to attack from above, using the Corsair's weight and its six heavy machine guns. On 16 September 1943, on its third mission, the squadron claimed 11 victories, five of them Boyington's. The first combat tour ended with 57 confirmed kills and 19 probables in six weeks. In total he is credited with 126 aircraft destroyed and 34 probables in 12 weeks. On the second tour the squadron supported infantry at Bougainville, escorted B-24 bombers and swept over Rabaul. On 3 January 1944 Boyington went missing in combat over Rabaul: he had bailed out into the sea and was picked up by a Japanese submarine. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner, finally at the Omori camp near Tokyo. On his return he went on a war bonds tour and received the Medal of Honor from President Truman. The squadron's number passed to a new unit embarked on the carrier USS Franklin, which was hit on 19 March 1945. According to the documentary, the survivors maintain that neither the Hollywood film nor the 1970s television series told their real story.