World War II Database

Contributor: David Stubblebine

ww2dbaseAlbert Ogden "Scoop" Vorse, Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States on 9 Aug 1914. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, United States, before entering the US Naval Academy in 1933. He graduated on 3 Jun 1937 and received his commission as an Ensign.

ww2dbaseEnsign Vorse's first assignment was to the cruiser USS Astoria (New Orleans-class). He was aboard when Astoria returned the ashes of the late Japanese Ambassador to the United States Hiroshi Saito to Japan in 1939. On 15 Mar 1940, he was detached from the ship and began flight training at Pensacola, Florida, United States. That same year his wife gave birth to their first son.

ww2dbaseAfter Vorse earned his aviator's wings, he was assigned to the fighting squadron on carrier USS Saratoga. This was the famed VF-3 that was a venerable Who's-Who of Naval aviation, all of whom made names for themselves later in World War II. The squadron's commander was the soon-to-be famous John "Jimmy" Thach with his infectious passion for flying, aerial tactics, and especially marksmanship.

ww2dbaseAt the time of the Pearl Harbor Attack on 7 Dec 1941, Vorse and the Saratoga were in San Diego, California, United States. Saratoga soon sortied into the Pacific and was part of the task group sent to defend Wake Island later that month. Vorse and the other fliers prepared themselves to see combat at Wake but the task group withdrew before engaging any Japanese forces. On 11 Jan 1942, Saratoga was torpedoed southwest of Hawaii by Japanese submarine I-6 and returned to Pearl Harbor. Certain members of the Saratoga air squadrons transferred to USS Lexington (Lexington-class), including Scoop Vorse.

ww2dbaseLexington became part of a small force sent to bombard the Japanese supply base at Rabaul, New Britain. On 20 Feb 1942 during their final approach for the attack, the force was discovered by Japanese reconnaissance planes and an aerial battle was joined that saw several "firsts" for Vorse and the Lexington airmen. Flying the Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters, the pilots of VF-3 saw their first aerial combat during this battle. While Vorse was not the first to engage the enemy, he did record his first air-to-air kill by shooting down a Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bomber that had been among a group of 17 sent out to attack the American force. Several other VF-3 pilots also recorded their first kill during this engagement with a total of 15 Japanese bombers destroyed plus two of the three reconnaissance aircraft. The most conspicuous "first" came once the squadron's final two available fighters that had been held back as emergency reserves were launched against another element of eight attacking Betty bombers. The two pilots, Lieutenant Edward "Butch" O'Hare and Lieutenant (junior-grade) Marion "Duff" Dufilho, engaged the bombers but Dufilho's guns jammed. All Dufilho could do was cover his wingman as O'Hare attacked. O'Hare made sweeping side-to-side attacks and shot down three bombers while damaging three others. O'Hare was originally credited with five planes shot down, which would have made him the Navy's first Ace, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Vorse and several of the other squadron pilots received the Distinguished Flying Cross for their parts in this battle.

ww2dbaseAfter a brief return to Pearl Harbor, Lexington sailed once more, this time to join USS Yorktown (Yorktown-class) advancing on the Solomon Islands. On 4 May 1942, Vorse flew with planes from both carriers in strikes against the Japanese landing force on Tulagi in the Solomon Islands in the preliminary shots of the Battle of the Coral Sea. Four days later, bad weather separated Vorse and his wingman from the bombers they were escorting and they began heading back toward Lexington. As they approached the carrier, they found themselves in the middle of a Japanese air attack on both Lexington and Yorktown. Immediately as Vorse arrived on the scene, he found himself on the tail of an Aichi D3A "Val" dive bomber beginning its dive on Yorktown. Vorse immediately attacked and shot off one of the Val's wings. Later in this same engagement, after Vorse was back aboard Lexington, the ship was hit by two bombs and two torpedoes causing severe fires that could not be controlled. Later that same day, the ship was abandoned and scuttled. Vorse survived, having been transferred to one of the destroyers.

ww2dbaseFor his performance in the Battle of the Coral Sea, Vorse received a Letter of Commendation and his second Distinguished Flying Cross.

ww2dbaseWhile the records are not completely clear on this point, the portion of VF-3 that stayed in Hawaii during the Battle of the Coral Sea shipped out aboard Yorktown for the Battle of Midway while Vorse and the Lexington contingent began training in Hawaii. Once the full squadron reformed, Commander Thach was recalled to Washington and Butch O'Hare was appointed squadron commander. O'Hare appointed Vorse as squadron executive officer.

ww2dbaseThat job did not last long, however. With Lexington and Yorktown sunk and the damaged Saratoga barely finished with her repairs, there was a wholesale reorganization of fighter squadron personnel and Vorse found himself flying with the VF-6 "Shooting Stars" from USS Enterprise beginning 6 Jul 1942. Mid-month, Enterprise sailed with USS Wasp (Wasp-class) and the freshly refitted Saratoga for what was the United States' first real counter-offensive since the Pearl Harbor Attack - against the Solomon Islands generally and Guadalcanal in particular. The American force arrived before Japanese defenses were fully prepared and Vorse's air squadron flew aerial support for the United States Marine landings on Guadalcanal on 7 Aug 1942. On the first day of the landings, on Vorse's third sortie of the day, his four-fighter element intercepted an incoming bomber raid on Tulagi. Vorse shot down one of the dive bombers before the plane could release its bomb.

ww2dbaseVorse and the "Shooting Stars" flew several more missions over the next several days, including being among the first American planes to land at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, but then the carriers were withdrawn farther south to keep them out of range of Japanese air attacks. Flying combat cover missions over the fleet, Vorse intercepted a Kawanishi H6K4 "Mavis" flying boat reconnaissance plane and shot it down before it got within 25 miles of the fleet. On 24 Aug 1942, the opposing naval forces located one another and the Battle of the Eastern Solomons was joined. Vorse was leading an element of four F4F Wildcat fighters when a formation of approaching Japanese bombers was detected. Japanese fighter escorts kept Vorse's planes from engaging the bombers but each of Vorse's pilots, including Vorse himself, downed one Zero each with no casualties of their own. During the bombing attack, Enterprise was struck by three bombs that caused sufficient damage to halt flight operations. Out of ammunition and low on fuel, Vorse and his element had to fly on toward Saratoga. The other three pilots of his element landed safely aboard but because of fuel exhaustion, Vorse was forced to make a water landing in the carrier's wake. He was picked up by a destroyer and later returned to Enterprise.

ww2dbaseEnterprise's damage required her withdrawal to Tonga. While en route, the entire air echelon disembarked and Vorse received orders to return to the United States. He assumed duties as Training Officer at Naval Air Station Melbourne, Florida just as the Navy was beginning its transition from the F4F Wildcat to the F6F Hellcat as the fleet's primary fighter. Vorse spent just over a year at Melbourne training new pilots and learning the new aircraft himself.

ww2dbaseBy this point in the war, the United States Navy had finally begun to catch up with enough new pilots, new airplanes, and new carriers. The Navy had the resources to begin creating new aviation squadrons out of thin air. Three such squadrons were formed to create Air Group 80, a fighting squadron, a bombing squadron, and a torpedo squadron. Vorse was given command of the fighting squadron, VF-80.

ww2dbaseFighting Squadron 80 was commissioned 1 Feb 1944 at NAS Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States with 18 F6F Hellcat fighters and 36 pilots. Intense training began immediately. Within a month, the squadron ranks had swelled to 24 aircraft and 49 pilots. Training initially involved squadron work only but increasingly, exercises included joint training with the bombing and torpedo squadrons. Air Group 80's training was paced to coincide with the commissioning of a new Essex-class aircraft carrier out of Norfolk, the USS Ticonderoga. All members of the air group attended the ship's commissioning on 8 May 1944 and came aboard with their airplanes on 9 Jun 1944 for the shakedown cruise to Trinidad. Training continued intensively as Vorse did his best to pass on the benefit of his combat experience to his group of pilots who generally had little to none.

ww2dbaseSoon, Ticonderoga was steaming into the Pacific toward the combat area. By this time, a certain esprit de corps developed among the pilots of Fighting 80 along with pride in their leader. As was customary, the squadron took a name for itself. Officially, they were "The Vipers" but when spoken aloud by anyone in the squadron, they were "Vorse's Vipers."

ww2dbaseTiconderoga laid over in Hawaii for two weeks while Vorse and the Fighting Squadron trained at Kaneohe Air Station. On 16 Oct 1944, the Air Group's commanding officer, Commander John Counihan, rotated out and Vorse was elevated from Squadron Commander to Air Group Commander. The next day, the air group reboarded Ticonderoga and they steamed west to join the fleet. As the great Battle of Leyte Gulf was raging on 25 Oct 1944, Ticonderoga was still four days away. Once Ticonderoga arrived at Ulithi in the Caroline Islands, she became a part of John McCain's Fast Carrier Task Force. Vorse was again flying with the front-line units.

ww2dbaseVorse's new airmen saw their first combat on 5 Nov 1944 when Air Group 80 made four strikes with a total of 127 sorties alongside aircraft from carriers USS Essex, Lexington (Essex-class), and Langley. Their targets were airfields on the Philippine island of Luzon and shipping and harbor facilities in and around Manila. Vorse, of course, led the strikes that day and was awarded the Air Medal for his actions. During one sortie, Vorse had five of his six machine guns jam. Despite this, he was credited with one Japanese plane shot down, a testament to his marksmanship.

ww2dbaseThe Battle of Leyte Gulf had seen the Japanese introduce "kamikaze" special attacks against Allied ships. This created a larger responsibility for Vorse and all the fighting squadrons to be on the lookout for special attack planes approaching the fleet. On 25 Nov 1944 however, one of these special attacks resulted in a peculiar casualty, and it happened to Albert Vorse. As Ticonderoga was launching her fighters for a combat air patrol, a Japanese airplane was seen to be beginning its dive on the ship. Just as Lieutenant Commander Vorse was beginning his take-off roll, the ship made an abrupt right turn causing the deck to rotate right out from under Vorse's Hellcat. The plane veered off the flightdeck portside and crashed into the water. The attacking airplane barely missed the ship and Vorse was picked up by the destroyer USS Cassin Young.

ww2dbaseVorse and Ticonderoga continued their missions in support of the Philippine operations for the next several weeks. All of the Air Groups aboard the many carriers then with the fleet were tasked with suppressing the Japanese aerial attacks on the landing beaches and the fleet. They attempted this by attacking their bases of operation, the Japanese airfields on Luzon and Formosa (Taiwan). These strikes continued into Jan 1945.

ww2dbaseOn 10 Jan 1945, the carrier task force made an unusual course change and entered the South China Sea, the first time in the war that an American force of this magnitude sailed west of the Philippines. Also on this date, Ticonderoga's fighting squadron was split in two; half of Fighting 80 was split off to form Fighting-Bombing 80 (VBF-80) and thus the Air Group went from three squadrons to four. These were largely administrative differences that mildly affected Vorse's paperwork as Air Group Commander but actually mattered little to the tasks at hand. The fleet had entered the South China Sea in an attempt to interdict the vital Japanese supply lines stretching 3,000 miles from Singapore to Japan. Secrecy was paramount for the first two days as the force crossed the South China Sea but then on 12 Jan 1945, the US Navy sprung their trap. In a running attack along 450 miles of coastline in French Indo-China (Vietnam), 46 Japanese ships totaling 150,000 tons were sunk. Ticonderoga airmen alone claimed credit for a third of that tonnage. Vorse himself flew several of these sorties and acted as overall strike coordinator for some of them.

ww2dbaseAs the fleet withdrew back toward the Philippine Sea, strikes were organized against other targets. On 15 Jan 1945, Ticonderoga planes launched two bombing strikes against shipping in the harbors of Takao-Toshien (Kaohsiung) on Formosa (Taiwan). Vorse led the second strike consisting of eight Hellcat fighters and 13 Helldiver dive bombers. The flight fought bad weather and strong headwinds all 135 miles to the target. On arrival, the overcast ceiling was so low that the planes had no alternative but to fly directly into the face of well-organized anti-aircraft fire. The Japanese destroyer Hatakaze was seen steaming north near the coast and Vorse led his eight fighters in a masthead attack. Hatakaze took evasive action but Vorse was able to place a 1,000-pound bomb against the destroyer's side right at the waterline. The ship fought back with accurate anti-aircraft fire that blew off the outboard third of Vorse's starboard wing. As Vorse fought to keep his airplane under control, the remaining fighters made their attacks with similar results. Just as Vorse regained level flight at a mere 200 feet above the water, the Hatakaze exploded in a great sheet of flame and sank immediately. Vorse, accompanied by his wingman struggled with his plane as the two of them made their way back toward their launch point. Vorse was only able to maintain level flight at relatively high speed while holding the stick hard left with both hands. Unable to land aboard a carrier or climb high enough to bail out, Vorse had only one option available to him, a high-speed water landing. This was a maneuver that killed one his pilots a week earlier but Vorse was left with no choice. When Vorse got within sight of the destroyer screen, he made his landing at 160 knots into a 30-knot headwind. As he got out of the cockpit to deploy his life raft, he received a small cut on his knee, the only injury he sustained all day. After spending 25 minutes in his raft, Vorse was picked up by the destroyer USS Caperton. For his leadership, marksmanship, and airmanship this day, Vorse was awarded the Navy Cross.

ww2dbaseLess than a week later, on 21 Jan 1945 while Vorse was leading a strike against airfields in northern Taiwan, Ticonderoga was struck by two special attack aircraft within an hour. The fires and structural damage were enough to force the ship out of action for shipyard repairs. Ticonderoga's sister-ship Hancock was seeing her air group rotate home so Vorse and Air Group 80 was able to take their place.

ww2dbaseHancock then sailed with the carrier task force in support of the Iwo Jima landings. As they had in the Philippines, the strategy was to attack the Japanese airfields that would be supporting the Japanese efforts on Iwo Jima. In this case, however, those airfields were on the Japanese home islands. And so it was, that on 16 Feb 1945, Albert Vorse and Air Group 80 took part in the first carrier-borne air attack on Japan since the Doolittle Raid three years before. Vorse did not bear this honor alone, to be sure, since by this point in the war the US fleet had twenty-two carrier air groups off the coast of Japan and they all took part in this bit of history. Vorse and his airmen found another way to leave their mark on that day, however, because as the Japanese fighters flew up to meet the approaching threat, Air Group 80 was officially credited with shooting down 71 enemy aircraft in a that single day. This is a single-day record for one Air Group that stands to this day. Vorse recorded four of those kills plus two on the ground. For his skill and leadership that day, Vorse was awarded the Silver Star.

ww2dbaseBad weather chased the task force away from Japan after two days of strikes. The fleet airmen shifted to flying close air support for the Marines fighting on Iwo Jima. As weather permitted, Vorse led raids on the other Bonin islands as well as returning to Japan and Amami Oshima in the Ryukyu Islands. Air Group 80's time aboard Hancock lasted only for the month of Feb 1945 but they were able to launch 512 aircraft sorties during that time.

ww2dbaseVorse and his Hancock airmen flew their last combat mission on 1 Mar 1945 before the Air Group began its rotation back to the United States. They disembarked Hancock at Ulithi on 9 Mar 1945 and it fell to their leader to make arrangements for their transportation east. Vorse secured passage aboard the escort carrier USS Copahee bound for the United States by way of Guam. Once at Guam, however, Copahee's orders changed and she was no longer destined for the United States so Vorse's group got marooned on Guam. After a week, Air Group 80 hitched a ride on the British escort carrier HMS Ranee bound for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Once in Hawaii, it only took Vorse three days to secure passage to San Francisco, California aboard what had been the luxury liner SS Matsonia before her wartime conversion to a troop ship. Thus, on Easter Sunday, 1 Apr 1945, Vorse delivered his Air Group under the Golden Gate Bridge in brilliant sunshine and thence to the Naval Air Station at Alameda. Once at Alameda, the Air Group was effectively dissolved as everyone scattered with the leave that was due them before taking new assignments. Air Group 80 existed on paper only during this period but was reconstituted a couple of months later.

ww2dbaseCommander Vorse was not with the reconstituted air group, however. After his leave, he took his new assignment as Air Officer and Navigator aboard the light carrier USS Cabot. Cabot was just completing an overhaul at San Francisco's Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and Vorse sailed with her to Pearl Harbor ferrying aircraft and personnel. Cabot embarked Air Group 32 at Pearl Harbor and began a week of work-up training around Hawaii. On 24 Jul 1945, Cabot departed Pearl Harbor bound for Japanese waters. On 1 Aug 1945, Cabot's airmen executed an air strike on Japanese installations on Wake Island. This turned out to be the only combat mission Vorse administered as a carrier Air Officer. While Cabot was laying over at Eniwetok on her way to Japan, the war ended. Vorse and Cabot continued west, however, and joined the fleet at Okinawa. During the surrender ceremonies in Tokyo Bay on 2 Sep 1945, Cabot was at sea with the rest of the carrier task force laying off Japan. Cabot spent the next several weeks in the Yellow Sea off the coast of China before returning to the United States in early Nov 1945.

ww2dbaseVorse spent the next several years in a variety of post-war Naval assignments including in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air, executive officer of an air transport squadron based on Guam, a year at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, Administrative Officer at the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland, United States, on the staff of the Commander in Chief, Naval Forces, Southern Europe (Logistics Section), in Naples, Italy, an instructor at the Naval War College, commanding officer of the Naval Air Facility, Naha, Okinawa, and finally staff officer at the Twelfth Naval District Headquarters in San Francisco. He remained in San Francisco until he retired on 1 Jan 1959 at the rank of Rear Admiral.

ww2dbaseAlbert Vorse passed away 27 Oct 1979 at the age of 65. He spent 22 years in the Navy receiving the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Air Medal, two Navy Unit Commendations, the American Defense Medal with fleet clasp, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with nine battle stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the Occupation Medal, the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, and the Philippine Liberation Medal with bronze star. He was also a double-ace, officially credited with 11.5 combat kills, he survived four water landings, and he flew combat missions from five different fleet carriers.

Albert O. Vorse, Jr. Interactive Map

Photographs

Albert O. Vorse, Jr. Timeline