Death Rattlers: Marine Squadron VMF-323 over Okinawa

by William B. Wolf

Nearly every World War II fighter squadron that flew in Europe has had its history chronicled. Other than "Pappy" Boyington's famous VMF-214 "Black Sheep", little has been written about Marine Corps squadrons in World War II. The contribution of VMF-223, the "Death Rattlers", over Okinawa in the Spring of 1945 is virtually unknown. In two months there, the squadron became the top-scoring unit of any service with 124 1/2 victories and produced 12 aces, the most for one tour of any Marine squadron. The squadron downed 24 3/4 Japanese aircraft twice in its tour, the most for a single Marine squadron in any single action. The squadron's story is not only one of its pilots, combat, and valor, but also of the enlisted men, "the ground-crunchers," who made it function against the Japanese kamikaze menace. Along with the traditional historical perspective, it is an inside look at the personal side of training and war. It is the story of a group of untried young men who trained long and hard and became "family."

216 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1999

Reviews

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book chronicles the story of Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-323 during World War II, from its inception through the final surrender of Japan. It contains a wealth of personal accounts from various members of the squadron, from the commanding officer, pilots, officers and many ground crew.

The first half of the book covers the formation and training of the squadron, along with information about the F4U Corsair, the plane they flew into combat in the skies over Okinawa. As a lifelong fan of the Corsair, I was very pleased with the dozens of photos of this magnificent plane, as well as the brief description of various elements of the plane. There are also lots of photos of various members of the squadron and the various bases they flew and trained from along the way to the combat zone.

When the squadron finally arrives off Okinawa, that's when the book hits its stride. Each day in the combat zone is chronicled in some detail as the squadron flew ground support missions for the invading American troops and Combat Air Patrols (CAPs) over the naval units covering the invasion. The Japanese resisted the invasion with waves of Kamikaze aircraft, and VMF-323 was in the thick of the action much of the time, becoming the highest-scoring Marine squadron during the Battle of Okinawa. Several pilots became aces during the fighting, with a few becoming "aces in a day" by destroying five or more aircraft in a single encounter. There are also sections of the book which give brief bios of each of the squadron's aces and a chronicle of the squadron's victory claims.

The book is really excellent as a pictorial history of the squadron, but unfortunately, it has quite a few typos and some formatting errors which are very common with many books by Schiffer Publishing. Since I can't give half-stars, I'd give this book 3.5 stars if I could.