The
Swamp Corsair 
In
1994, my Palauan guide, Xavier, mentioned that he knew a fellow who, while
hunting crabs near Koror, had found an airplane wreck in some mangrove
swamps. After some effort, I convinced my guide's friend to take us to
the wreck (many Palauans believe these sites have ghosts attached and
do not like to get near them). It took two attempts after wading chest
high in mangrove mud and a detour around an honest-to-God, forgotten-but-still-live
sea mine, but we found a Corsair with the cockpit and nose missing. A
large debris field, including the wings, stretched for 30 yards to the
front and sides around the fuselage. It was clear that the fuselage had
been on fire when it crashed. Multiple attempts to find identification
plates were unsuccessful until I read an Ocala newspaper article in a
Peleliu museum, which told of a Marine Corsair aviator, Lt.Walter Brown
from VMF-121, who had been shot down over Koror. The following photos
show Walter Brown, ca. 1944-5, and Pat Scannon with Walter at Walter's
home in 1998.
After contacting him, he, in turn, led me to Bill Cantrell, a former Corsair pilot from VMF-114. Between the two of them a story emerged, which resulted in the identification of this Corsair.
Two Marine Corsairs, flown by Maj. Stout and
Lt. Brown, went down to Japanese antiaircraft fire in this immediate area
on 4 March 1945; they had been part of a massive raid on Battery Hill
in Koror to knock out those guns. The lack of identifiable Bureau numbers
had made it difficult to distinguish which aviator had flown this plane.
But after reviewing a number of different reports and photos and interviewing
a number of surviving Marine aviators, including a never-to-be-forgotten
one with Walter Brown, it is clear that this plane belonged to VMF-121
and, hence, the wreck is what's left of Lt. Brown's Corsair. Evidence
for this includes
1) the presence of a white band just forward of the empennage and aft
of the star and bar, which identifies the plane as belonging to VMF-121,
2) the burn pattern on the fuselage, which is consistent with a hit to
the underside of the cockpit with flames moving rearward, igniting the
starboard side of the vertical stabilizer, and 3) the absence of certain
markings known to be on Cowboy Stout's plane (i.e., a cowgirl emblem on
the fuselage star). On that day, Lt. Brown was hit under his cockpit with
white phosphorus by AA fire from Battery Hill while starting a bomb run
on Battery Hill. With the cockpit on fire (made worse when he ejected
the canopy), he miraculously escaped after first freeing himself, badly
wounded, burned and with a broken leg, from the rapidly descending plane.
He opened his parachute at almost 400 knots (something parachutes and
humans are not supposed to survive) and, with less than 2000 feet of altitude,
he managed to side-slip his parachute away from the enemy fire continuing
from Battery Hill.
Under the direction of Major Walter Meyer, his squadron members formed a Lufberry circle around him to strafe enemy positions allowing him to land in open water. [The photos above show Majors Walter Meyer and Claude Welch, ca. 1944-5, and Walter and fans in 1999 (L-R: Chip Lambert, Pat Scannon, Walter Meyer, and B. Brown).] This was immediately followed by a very courageous U. S. Naval aviator, Lt. Comdr. Fred Mamer landing his amphibian PBY nearby, again under heavy gunfire. After three passes, the plane crew finally dragged the waterlogged and injured aviator on board and flew away to safety. Amazing.