Air Combat Reports US Navy Planes in the Pacific on Vinyl Records * 11-12 Oct 1944

Hello! I came across this site while trying to do some research on a collection of vinyl records I recently obtained from my mother-in-law. I have not been able to find much information about this and was hoping some of you guys would be kind enough to help me out .

It's a navy blue book with gold writing on the front that says;

" Air Combat Reports - Series One - Navy Planes in the Pacific Devices 8-ER-6A Special Devices Division Bureau of Aeronautics U.S Navy"

I've attached a photo of the inside of the front cover to show its contents. All of the vinyl records are still in great shape, the outside cover is in rough shape though.

The bottom right cover of the cover has 'Restricted' printed on it as well as on each record. By reading the inside cover, I'm assuming that it says restricted because the recordings were intended only for officers, enlisted and members in training for the Navy? Not sure if this would cause any issues if I were to decide to sell this item.

According to my mother-in-law, it was passed down to her by her father who was a Navy Pilot. Other than that, she couldn't give me anymore information as he passed away while she was still at a young age.

Thank's for your time and I appreciate any information!





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Welcome to the forum. I imagine a few of our militaria collector's are beginning to drool about now!

 

Thanks, guys! I spent quite a while the other night browsing the forum. I've always been a big history buff, I've found many interesting threads so far and still have many many more to browse!

Biak - Thanks for the tip, I'll send an e-mail to a few of the contacts to see what kind of responses I get!

 

BuAer had an active program interviewing returning aviators, describing their experiences and comments on equipment and doctrine. I have the transcripts for John Thach made in August 1942 and Noel Gayler made in June 1942. Your record set would make for some fascinating reading.

I’d suggest you find someone with a 78 rpm turntable who can record to CD, then you’d have them in a form more easily preserved, and, perhaps importantly, reproduceable. The 78 rpm records will break if you look at them hard, especially at their age. Trust me, lost a first press of Miller's "In the Mood" once. Probably it would be well worth the effort to even get someone to transcribe them, but you might need a review by someone who is comfortable with some of the more arcane terminology.

Commander Henry Edward Sears commanded VB-104 in the Solomon’s from March 1943 to April 1944 operating out of Guadalcanal to the squadron’s return to NAAS Camp Kearney in May. He was awarded the Navy Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross and the Legion of Merit with Combat V device during the Solomon’s tour.

Lieutenant Junior Grade George Henry Smith served in VF-21 operating out of Guadalcanal in the summer of 1943. He later, as a Lieutenant, served in VF-3 off USS Yorktown (CV-10) in 1945.

Lieutenant Arthur T. Decker was commanding officer of VB-9 operating off USS Essex in 1943. I show him with two awards of the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Lieutenant John E Butler was assigned as an operations officer on the staff of Strike Command at Guadalcanal in late 1943. Often flying in missions he planned, he was awarded the Air Medal and was twice awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

I don’t have much information on Ensign L L Marr other than his first and middle names, Lyle Lee. Oddly, he does not appear to have been an aviator, but he was, at some point, awarded an Air Medal.

Fraser was Major Robert B Fraser, USMC. He commanded VMF-112 in the Solomon’s out of Guadalcanal starting in June 1943 and then took over VMF-122 in July. He stayed as CO of 122 through the squadrons stateside reforming at MCAB Camp Kearney and MCAS El Centro, then took the squadron aboard USS Bennington as one of the few USMC VMFs to operate off a fleet carrier. After that deployment he took of Marine Carrier Air Group 1 at MCAS Santa Barbara, working up for CVE deployment in support of the invasion of Japan.

Regards,

Rich

 

That's a ton of excellent information! I'll see if I can find something on CraigsList where I can do just that, copy the audio over to CD. I'm sure I could pick one up from off Amazon as well. That idea never crossed my mind honestly! Once they're on CD, I can then upload the audio files for others to enjoy.

It's really cool to see so many people who really are enthusiasts of this era, I've learned quite a bit in just the past few days.

Thanks for taking the time to share all of that information, it really gives more depth to what I'll be listening to, rather than just seeing a name.

 

Once you get set up and can listen to them, see if any other names crop up in ENS Marr's interview and we'll see if there's more info I can troll from my lists on places and units. My suspicion, since Marr had a direct commission as an Ensign, a regular officer, and was somewhat older than most ensigns (he was 30 in 1943), and was not a designated aviator is that he was a technical specialist, probably in a VP squadron (the "Dumbo" reference), and probably his specialty was radar. Just a guess.

Also, the father, the naval aviator, care to share the name? Just to see if we get a hit from my lists.

 

R Leonard.... Excellent work ! I hope you and RichB pursue this. Would love to see this available to all of us.

 

Allen Hartshorne was his name. I've been searching for an LP to MP3 converter and it seems that Wal-Mart has the best price on them, I'm going to make my way out to one this afternoon to see if they have any on the shelf. Makes me nervous about the idea of touching the albums now lol, I pulled a few of them out of their sleeves and they look almost brand new, no dust/dirt etc. Hopefully I don't mess anything up while playing them.