Date:	Monday 15 January 1945
Time:	12:10
Type:	Grumman F6F-5N Hellcat
Owner/operator:	VF-80, US Navy
Registration:	71813
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	South China Sea -   Taiwan
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	USS Ticonderoga
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 15 January 1945, TF 38 attacked Japanese shipping and aircraft off Formosa and the China coast. Carrier planes sank the destroyer Hatakaze and the fast transport T.14 off Hisashiyama, near Takao, at 22°37’N, 120°15’E, the fleet tanker Mirii Maru and the army cargo ship Enoshima Maru off Takao, the destroyer Tsuga off Mako, by 23°33’N, 119°33’E, and damaged the auxiliary minelayer Maroshima off Formosa and the army cargo ships Beiju Maru and Yoshun Maru off Keelung.

The aircraft carrier CV-14 Ticonderoga’s Air Group 80 flew that day 100 sorties: 31 CAP sorties, 8 TCAP sorties, 6 JACK patrols, 2 dusk JACK patrol, 8 photo damage assessment sorties and two strikes on assigned targets in southern Taiwan including Takao and Toshien, which totalled 45 sorties, starting at 0807 hrs. The Air Group claimed a destroyer, an APD and an SA sunk, four other enemy ships damaged, extensive damage to Apin Magnesium Plant’s processing buildings, and four Zekes and one Dinah shot down by CAP, against the loss of two fighters, both pilots being unhurt.

On this day, despite extremely poor flying conditions, Lt Cdr Albert Ogden Vorse, the Air Group Commander and a veteran from the carrier battles of 1942 with 10.5 victories so far, led the strike against shipping off Takao aboard a VF-80 fighter, the F6F-5 Buno 71813. Spottong a Japanese destroyer, Vorse dived through heavy AA fire, and dropped his bomb from 200 feet. As he dropped, he was hit by AA gunfire. He felt a terrific explosion and the next thing he knew his plane was on its back with seven feet of his wing gone.

Struggling to hold the F6F upright at just 50 feet above the surface, he managed to avoid crashing and pulled his plane into level flight. Looking back, he saw the enemy ship exploding (she might have been the Hatakaze) as he headed out to sea with his wingman in a desperate attempt to get back to his carrier. Five different times his plane just about rolled over again, but Vorse made it back to the task group by holding the stick all the way to the left with both hands.

He knew it would be impossible to land aboard his carrier and he couldn’t gain enough altitude to parachute safely. The only course left was to land in the water at a very high speed to keep him from spinning in. He made a perfect 160 knot water landing near the task group at 1210 hrs, with nothing more than a few bumps and bruises. According to the official Navy communique released about this action on 15 February 1945, his only injury was a scratch on his knee, incurred as he climbed out of his plane into his life raft. It was his fourth water landing of the war! He was picked up by a destroyer shortly after.

The location of this water landing was in the South China Sea, close to 21° 08’ N 118° 03’ 30’’ E, the position of the USS Ticonderoga at 1200 hrs.

http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/USN/LLJan45.htm
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1945.html
http://www.combinedfleet.com/T.14_t.htm
USS Ticonderoga War Diary, January 1945 (available online at https://www.fold3.com/image/1/295239791)
USS Ticonderoga Report of air operations against Formosa, Philippines, French Indo-China, & South China, 1/3-21/45, including enemy suicide crash dives on 1/21/45 (available online at https://www.fold3.com/image/1/295266400)
http://www.cv14.com/scoop_vorse.html
http://www.cv14.com/imgs/vorse_cl.gif
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=21.135745&lon=118.059082&z=7&m=b

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
14-Nov-2010 11:55	ASN archive	Added
15-Jan-2016 16:07	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Time, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]