Tag Archives: Casablanca-class escort carrier

Smokey’s Lucky Witch

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Twenty-year-old Ens. Darrell C. “Smoke” Bennett, USNR, stands beside “Smokey’s Lucky Witch”, his FM-2 Wildcat, onboard the ill-fated Casablanca class escort carrier USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73), August 1944. The young aviator strikes a jaunty pose carrying an M1911A1 pistol in a shoulder holster, along with a mag pouch and survival knife on his gun belt, as he leans on the fuselage and exhaust-frosted engine cowling, a Composite Squadron Ten (VC-10) insignia painted below the cockpit windshield, and his plane number (White 27) on the starboard wing.

Note the exhaust-streaked cowling and nose art. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-243864

Just three months after the above image was snapped, Gambier Bay was lost during the “Sacrifice of Taffy 3” in the Battle off Samar on 25 October 1944– the only American aircraft carrier sunk by enemy surface gunfire during WW II.

Bennett was in the air at the time and was able to divert to nearby Tacloban Field, where the Army was setting up a base for P-61s and P-38s. The field, only partially constructed and very recently liberated from the Japanese, turned into muddy chaos as dozens of homeless Wildcats and Avengers were forced to land there throughout 25 October. Not to be deterred, pilots helped Army aerodrome personnel refuel and reload with anything available, then took back off to try and chase away the Japanese surface group.

After continuing to operate from fields around Leyte, VC-10, which had lost 10 men on 25 October as well as most of its planes, was shipped back home to be reconstituted at NAAS Ventura and would end the war on one of Gambier Bay’s sisters, USS Fanshaw Bay (CVE-70).

Bennett would survive WWII as well as later service in Korea, continue his Navy career as a pilot, a flight instructor, and as Commander Fleet Air Miramar, retiring in 1965. CDR Bennett received the following decorations: Air Medal (5), Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Unit Citation, Korean Presidential Unit Citation, WWII Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal (Europe), National Defense Service Medal, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, Korean Service Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal.

Retiring to the Florida panhandle after a second career as a corporate and personal pilot to Hollywood types, CDR Bennett was a well-known supporter of the Pensacola National Naval Aviation Museum, where one of his former airframes was on display, and the USS Gambier Bay Association. 

CDR Bennett passed in 2020, aged 96, and is interred at Barrancas National Cemetery, Pensacola, leaving behind “two sons, seven grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.”.

For more on Taffy 3, be sure to check out “The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors” by James D. Hornfischer.

Poncho of the High Seas

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Some 80 years ago today: Poncho, the mascot of USS White Plains (CVE 66), 11 December 1943 as the ship conducts her shakedown cruise between Astoria and San Diego. In the background, note the jeep carrier’s sole 5″/38 open-mount gun.

NARA 80-G-384069

The Casablanca-class escort carrier was a “Kaiser Coffin” built in Vancouver in just 277 days from laydown (11 February 1943) to commissioning (15 November 1943).

Before the end of the year, she had wrapped up her shakedown and was back at sea, bound for Kiribati with 333 passengers from VC-66, Marine Air Warning Squadron (AWS) 1, and Marine Night Fighter Squadron (VMF (N) 531. She then picked up 39 aircraft of VMF-113 and VMF (N)-532, and 398 Marines bound for Tarawa, where she launched her first aircraft: Vought F4U-1 and F4U-2 Corsairs bound for shore.

USS White Plains (CVE-66) in San Diego harbor, California, circa April 1944. She is being assisted by the harbor tug Wenonah (YT-148). White Plains is painted in Camouflage Measure 33, Design 10A. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) collections, #80-G-302258.

It wasn’t until April that White Plains shipped to the war proper with an airwing of FM-2 Wildcats and TBM-1Cs to take part in Operation Forager– the landings in the Marianas Islands. She would continue her service in the Phippilipines– serving with Taffy 3’s CarDiv 25 at Samar, as well as Operation Iceberg—the invasion of Okinawa.

White Plains received five battle stars during World War II and the Presidential Unit Citation for her part in the Battle off Samar.

Postwar, White Plains was decommissioned on 10 July 1946 and, after a dozen years in the reserve fleet, was sold for scrapping.

No word on what became of Poncho the sea dog.

Smokey’s Lucky Witch, 77 Years Ago Today

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Ensign Darrell C. “Smoke” Bennett, A-V(N), USNR, stands beside his plane, a General Motors FM-2 Wildcat fighter, on board the Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73), 1 August 1944. According to reports, he had just arrived to join COMPRON (VC) 10 as Gambier Bay made Guam that day. 

Note pinup art and nickname Smokey’s Lucky Witch adorning the engine cowling; what appears to be a Composite Squadron Ten (VC-10) insignia below the cockpit windshield; plane numbers (27) in white on the wing leading edge and in black under the lip of the cowling; and Bennett’s flight gear and .45 caliber M1911A1 pistol carried in a shoulder holster. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-243864

Born in Hamburg, Iowa 30 March 1924, “Smoke” Bennett joined the Navy as an aviation cadet volunteer 1 October 1943, age 19, and was a deployed combat pilot on his first flattop just 10 months later. He spent most of the war in ground support missions from escort carriers supporting the liberation of the Philippines and narrowly avoided going down with Gambier Bay in the Battle off Samar just two months after the above image was snapped.

He would survive WWII as well as later service in Korea, continue his Navy career as a pilot, a flight instructor, and as Commander Fleet Air Miramar, retiring in 1965. CDR Bennett received the following decorations: Air Medal (5), Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Unit Citation, Korean Presidential Unit Citation, WWII Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal (Europe), National Defense Service Medal, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, Korean Service Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal.

Retiring to the Florida panhandle after a second career as a corporate and personal pilot to Hollywood types, CDR Bennett was a well-known supporter of the Pensacola National Naval Aviation Museum, where one of his former airframes was on display, and the USS Gambier Bay Association. He passed last December, age 96, leaving behind “two sons, seven grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.”