Black Cat Raiders of WW II by Richard C. Knott

Author:Richard C. Knott
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781612512419
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2012-10-10T21:00:00+00:00

VP-12 was the Navy’s first official Black Cat squadron. (VP-12 cruise book)

On the night of February 1–2 the Japanese made their move to evacuate Guadalcanal. About twenty enemy destroyers made a high-speed run down the Slot under cover of aircraft for most of the way. American dive bombers and torpedo planes attacked the force and damaged one destroyer off the southeastern end of the New Georgia group of islands. After dark, PT boats made a brave attempt to stop the Japanese task force as they moved closer to Guadalcanal, but to no avail. One enemy destroyer hit a mine and was lost but the others picked up their cargoes of half-starved and demoralized troops and headed north.

They tried it again two days later and again they were met by U.S. dive bombers and attack planes which disabled one ship but only slightly damaged a few others. That night a Black Cat dropped flares on the enemy task force so Dauntless dive bombers could make their attacks. But there were no hits. The Japanese were again successful.

On the night of February 7–8 the last evacuation run took place, and on the 9th American ground forces were able to report that the enemy had pulled up stakes completely and was gone. The Japanese had lost about 25,000 men on Guadalcanal. They had also lost their forward momentum and, much worse, they had allowed the Americans to reverse its direction. The movement of the fighting was now proceeding to the northwest, up the Solomons chain toward their major stronghold—Rabaul!

But the work of the Black Cats was only beginning. The Japanese would now have to supply and support their new bases at Vila and Munda and several other key points among the islands by night. The Catalinas continued to disrupt these logistics runs. And they also carried out bombing and harassment missions, rescue flights, and spotting for surface gunfire as well.

By March 27, VP-12 had flown 236 missions, mostly at night, for a total of 1,660 hours. These included bombing, torpedo, gunfire spotting, search, convoy, antisubmarine, and rescue operations. Officers and men received personal decorations for their performance, and the squadron as a whole was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation as “The first Catalina squadron to operate from Guadalcanal and the originator of the highly effective night tactics peculiar to ‘Black Cats’. . . . Outstanding for its indomitable fighting spirit, Patrol Squadron Twelve established a standard for subsequent Catalina squadrons and achieved a gallant record of service which reflects the highest credit upon its pilots and crews and the United States Naval Service.”12

It was a good beginning.

*Despite the searing heat of the day, leather flight jackets were usually worn at altitude (10,000 feet or more) during night gunfire-spotting missions.

**When VP-12 returned to the U.S., Aviation Ordnanceman Eugene L. Davies took the cat back to California with him.

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