Presentation Date: September 24, 2004
CMDR Robert F. Rob Kanze USN (RET.)
* Earned Naval Aviator Wings in Summer of 1941 via Naval Aviator Program * Flew with VF-2 off USS LEXINGTON in Battle of the Coral Sea * Flew with VF-10 off USS ENTERPRISE in Battle of Santa Cruz * Shot-down by Japanese ground fire over Truk Lagoon; rescued by famous Submarine USS TANG and its Skipper LCDR Richard H. O'Kane * Splashed three Japanese aircraft June 1944 * Assigned to Patuxent Naval Air Test Center as Test Pilot * Enlisted in NAVY in 1935 as an Apprentice Seaman
* Served as an Aviation Machinists Mate (AMM) on various warships
* Earned Naval Aviator Wings in Summer of 1941 via Naval Aviator Program
* Flew with VF-2 off USS LEXINGTON in Battle of the Coral Sea
* Flew with VF-10 off USS ENTERPRISE in Battle of Santa Cruz
* Shot-down by Japanese ground fire over Truk Lagoon; rescued by famous Submarine USS TANG and its Skipper LCDR Richard H. O'Kane
* Splashed three Japanese aircraft June 1944
* Assigned to Patuxent Naval Air Test Center as Test Pilot
From Fabric to Afterburner
"The aircraft carrier I was assigned to was the Lexington... and later the Yorktown, Hornet and Enterprise... three were sunk, and the Big E was pretty badly damaged. I wondered about myself and the future, in this kind of business."
Few are the young men who were naval aviators before Pearl Harbor, who rose through the ranks, from an Apprentice Seaman to the rank of Commander. Fewer (less than two percent) were the young graduates of the Naval Aviator Program who earned their wings and flew fighter aircraft for the Navy. Robert Kanze was one of those young men.
Growing up near Lakehurst, New Jersey, Rob saw the dirigible airship Akron fly overhead, disgorging and recovering biplane fighters. On a trip to the base, he also discovered it was possible for enlisted men to become naval aviators, setting his sights on accomplishing that feat.
After enlisting in 1935, and fresh out of boot camp in Rhode Island as an apprentice seaman, Kanze had an historical assignment. He was placed on a crew to tar the rigging of the War of 1812 frigate USS Constellation , 'Old Ironsides.' Next, he spent a week testing torpedoes on a four-stack destroyer, followed by a trip through the Panama Canal.
"In that era, whenever you went from the East coast to the West coast, you went via the Canal. The Navy didn't have money to do otherwise, I guess. There I joined a four pipe cruiser, the USS Omaha. And in that era the Omaha didn't have a PA system. It was quite interesting because when the officer of the deck decided an activity to be done, like sweep a deck with brooms, the bosun's mate of each division would pick up that call and transfer the information around the ship, verbally by bosuns and bosun's pipes."
Kanze's next ship was the USS Tennessee, which he prized due to the three seaplanes on board the battleship. Unfortunately, though, aviation was not a priority in the 'black shoe navy.'
"I found that since I was mechanically inclined I would go to Machinist Mate's school. I didn't want that, obviously, because I wanted to stay in aviation. I was able to snivel out of that one. The next assignment was as a bean jockey, a mess cook."
When Robert went ashore, one of his fellow galley crew members 'overdid' his drinking until he was sick. He was discovered the next morning stuck to the third deck by the fire rooms, the dried fluids from his stomach baked with his hair to the deck. Fortunately, Kanze says he was soon able to migrate into the aviation unit as a crewman.
"At that time we had three O3U biplane seaplanes, with a catapult on the number three turret and another one on the main deck. These catapults were driven by black powder. They would accelerate the aircraft to 55 knots in 55 feet and the g-forces were rather significant, as you might imagine. The recovery was something else.
"In the open sea, the ship would put wind on one bow, turn to the eye of the wind ... and would stream a sea sled with a cargo net. On the main float we had a hook, and we would taxi up to that sea sled and cut the engine and the crane would pick us up. On a battleship, with a 100 foot beam and a boom coming over another 100 feet, the movement of that boom was probably 15 or 20 feet if the ship was rolling maybe two to three degrees, which was often the case."
The crewman then grabbed the hook and married it to the big ring attached to the plane, so the plane could be lifted aboard ship.
"What would often happen is - - you'd better marry the two together or else your arms got stretched quite a bit. Fortunately, I had pretty long arms."
One of the first service changes on any new O3U was to drill a hole in the aircraft's catapult fitting on the lower side of the main float. This created a shackling point for recovering the aircraft in the event it flipped over in the water. Kanze says a whaleboat would tow the plane to the ship's crane so it could be hoisted aboard.
"We then had to take the engine out, hose it down with fresh water and put it in a can with oil. And it went down to be rebuilt that way. Likewise we cut holes in all the fabric, drained all the water out of the bird and shipped it down to North Island for overhaul."
Kanze became an Assistant Plane Captain, performing maintenance on the airplanes and engines, and was also responsible for the monthly re-rigging of parachutes. That meant hanging chutes out overnight to dry and re-packing them.
Flight school in Pensacola was Rob's long-awaited, next stop, and was where he became personally acquainted with the "Yellow Peril", the Navy's N3N trainer.
Moving to the next squadron developed proficiency in formation flying, and brought time in O3U-1, OSU, and SBU types. That was followed by instrument time in the NJ, a predecessor to the low wing monoplane SNJ.
In Miami, Kanze again flew a variety of aircraft - - F2Fs, F3F,s BTs, SBC-3s and-4s.
Being the only enlisted student in the wing actually brought a special privilege. While aviation cadets spent a half day doing special drills, Kanze could fly engine run-ins on the biplane fighters.
"I wrung them out. I think I did everything that was considered possible. It's a wonder I didn't kill myself. But nevertheless, I think I learned everything about aircraft that was to know in that era."
By the summer of 1941, Kanze had earned his wings and was ready for the fleet. Yet with a shortage of carriers and an influx of pilots, training and qualifying for carrier operations was a challenge. It would soon be a deeper challenge after a torpedo damaging the USS Saratoga in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons.
By early 1942, though, Kanze was able to have 950 field carrier landing flights over a three to four month period, training he says was to prove invaluable.
"The first year of experiences I had in carriers, I never had a wave-off. Because of this background that was so thorough and so complete, I had an 'up' on everybody else, I thought."
Assignment to Fighting Two (VF-2) on board the USS Lexington, brought Kanze to the South Pacific, east of New Guinea. The first day of the Battle of the Coral Sea found Robert as fourth man in a flight of F4F Wildcats led by squadron skipper Paul Ramsey. They were escorting TBD torpedo planes to attack the Japanese fleet northeast of New Guinea.
"Right around 13-000 to-14,000 feet we saw this ship in the distance launching aircraft . A few Zeros came up to tangle with us. Fortunately, we had them outnumbered, so I got away with that. I was very, I suppose, pleased to see this Jap carrier being sunk. Two squadrons of TBDs and two squadrons of SBDs made a beautifully coordinated attack. The carrier never changed course. This was the Shoho. It just sailed under the water, but it was completely aflame. It was a very interesting experience."
Kanze admits that in watching the carrier sink, he momentarily forgot where he was - - alone in the sky off New Guinea - - until he found a returning TBD from Torpedo Five. Then Kanze spotted a seaplane with big round, red 'meatballs' on its wings.
"I was in beautiful position to make a high side run, which I did. We exchanged fire and I saw him splash. I didn't get a good look. It was kind of out of the side of my eye, but I did see him splash."
Kanze trapped his F4F aboard the Lexington, and while taxiing to his spot, the fighter's engine quit. His plane captain told him the Wildcat was out of fuel, and that he found a slug in its engine, a bullet from the float plane with Kanze had traded shots with.
A few days later, the crew of the TBD Kanze had formed up with to return to the fleet got ahold of the fighter pilot to confirm his victory.
"I read their report, and... so what."
Running out of fuel, though, did make an impact, as Kanze recalls he was "rather fuel conscious after that."
On May 8th, 1942, squadrons from the Lexington and Yorktown dueled with their counterparts from two IJN carriers, Shokaku and Zuikaku.
As the last scheduled fighter pilot to take off, Kanze says he was ordered to report back to the Lexington's ready room before departing. From there he experienced the Japanese attack.
"I felt three distinct shocks, indicating the ship was being hit by torpedoes, which was true. We took three torpedoes and one bomb hit. The bomb hit just outside the number one elevator, and ultimately sunk the ship.
"The ship did not have up-to-date firefighting equipment. What we did later was put inert gas over the tanks, but we did not (then) have that capability."
Despite a lack of adequate fire suppression for aviation fuel storage, Lexington got up to full speed of 24 knots after the attack, and launched the remaining aircraft. Rob says he was one of the last pilots to take off, yet did so without enough time to fully inspect his F4F.
"I found out later there was a little shrapnel hole in the lower part of the fuselage, penetrating the vacuum tank which actuated the flaps. Going off the bow, the flaps collapsed and my plane sunk significantly... it was a good situation to wash the tires with salt water! Fortunately, I got away with it."
By day's end, other explosions and unchecked fires doomed Lexington. She was evacuated and went down. Kanze ended up making his first night landing on CV-5, the USS Yorktown. For the next three or four days he flew with Yorktown's fighter squadrons, before being sent back to the United States on a tramp steamer.
There, Fighting Ten (VF-10, The Grim Reapers), the first replacement Navy Air Group was being formed. Jimmy Flatley had been designated to lead the Group on the USS Enterprise, and wanted Kanze on board. Kanze also says Flatley told him he was going to commission Kanze, whether he wanted it or not, as Flatley believed non-commissioned pilots, by not being in the officer's wardroom, were missing out on pilot talks about tactics.
Kanze says his commission did take another year and a half, during which time Rob flew from the Enterprise on a good number of missions, including helping Marine aviators defend Guadalcanal.
"This meant flying out of Henderson Field, living in tents, and diving in foxholes because the Japs were shooting at us at night. The poor Marines were living on Spam, for the most part, so I learned to enjoy Spam."
Rotated back to the States as a Chief Aviation Pilot, Kanze says he wondered what his future might hold. Most Petty Officer pilots were being assigned to multiengine aircraft.
But Rob found out Flatley wanted him to come along on his next assignment, as Fighting Ten was being re-formed in Seattle, equipping with the F6F Hellcat.
That combination delighted Kanze.
"This was a bucket of fun. Because in Seattle during the summer time, the weather was great from about noon until evening, which allows us to enjoy ourselves in the morning, after a busy evening ashore, often.'
Flying the Hellcat continued on Maui, as Fighting Ten prepared to be redeployed. While training in the skies above the Hawaiian islands, Kanze recalls fighters mingling with bombers and torpedo planes, in what were known as "group gropes".
In the next few months, Kanze flew some unique missions. The Navy was creating a teamwork system for night fighting. In the system, two fighters would fly off the wing of a radar-equipped torpedo plane. When a bogey was sighted on radar, the torpedo plane would guide the fighters to make visual contact so they could then shoot down the enemy aircraft. The loss of ace Butch O'Hare on such a night fighting mission ended that tactic.
Kanze says while flying a Hellcat he also experienced the aeronautical phenomenon of compressibility. It happened after Rob read an article about a P-47 reaching an airspeed of 700 mph. Kanze says he took an F6F to 40,000 feet and split-essed down until he felt a distinct jolt about 36,000 feet.
"I managed to squeeze the nose up and get out of that environment. The bird didn't feel right. I dropped down to about 3,000 feet and put the wheels and flaps down. The bird was abnormally controlled, but controllable. "
When Kanze landed, he and his crew found the Hellcat was twisted, the fuselage torqued, like a mop that had been wrung out. This was to become a problem symptom for many aircraft as newer propeller driven planes approached the speed of sound.
By January, 1944, Fighting Ten was headed back to combat in the Marshall Islands, Kwajalein and the first raid on Truk Island, then the Japanese Navy's main fleet base. Kanze was in one of the first flights, a fighter sweep.
"We cleared the air of any Japs at that time, no problems whatsoever. That afternoon my wingman and I were in the same area near Truk, and we found a Jap destroyer underway. We strafed him twice.
"Now when you strafe with a fighter you get six .50 caliber guns in each aircraft. You make two runs and you do a hell of a lot of damage. When we left the second run, that guy was dead in the water, the steam lines were all spewing steam, the bridge was shattered. We did a pretty good job there."
In the second raid on Truk, Rob was lucky to make it back aboard the Enterprise. The first F6F he was to fly wouldn't get off the deck. The second plane he took got airborne, butKanze says it was also a 'dud', and he was barely able to coax back it aboard the carrier after emptying its guns of all their ammunition.
Despite those edgy flights, Rob made a third trip that day, he and his wingman covering a torpedo bomber strike. This trip, he says, almost proved his undoing.
"My wingman found a Jap dive bomber approaching for a landing, at maybe 2000-3000 feet. He fired at this guy but he wouldn't torch, wouldn't burn. I said, 'Hell, I can do that.' "So I sneaked right up this guy's fanny and let go with my six .50s. About that time the Jap shore batteries let me have it. I really got bonked. My bird was afire, I had big holes in the wing. I knew I wasn't going very far. "
Kanze was inside Truk lagoon, maybe 40 miles from the reefs around the huge lagoon. Flying into the wind, Rob immediately did a chandelle and managed to turn around and land into the wind about 400 yards from a beach.
In the water, he inflated his raft and climbed into it, only to again become a target for Japanese gunners. He let some air out of the raft and drifted the rest of the day and night until the following morning, paddling out of the lagoon into open sea.
After firing tracers from his service pistol, Rob was spotted by a TBM pilot, who radioed float planes from the battleship North Carolina to come to his aid. When a pair of OS2U Kingfishers arrived, the first one landed in the water, and its over-eager pilot taxied right at Kanze.
"I wasn't about to come in through that propeller, so I was going to swim around the wing float, which I did. At the same time the pilot, in his eagerness to pick me up, sent his crewman out there and the plane did a slow roll. Well, it couldn't fly after a slow roll. So that put three of us in the water."
The second Kingfisher landed and towed the first seaplane, its two man crew and Kanze, to a submarine that had surfaced. That sub was the USS Tang, under the command of LCDR Richard H. O'Kane, and one of the most successful subs in US naval history. Before Kanze would be dropped off at Pearl Harbor three weeks later, the Tang had rescued a total of eighteen naval aviators on that war patrol.
Kanze returned to combat in time for the "Marianas Turkey Shoot", in which he shot down two Zero fighters and a dive bomber, victories for which he was never credited. "Later, off the coast of northern New Guinea, I saw this beautiful bird under me and thought it was a B-26. I looked again and said, 'it's got too many meatballs to be a B-26. It's a Betty.' Fortunately, I was able to I made a high side run on him. I caught both of his engines on fire, and he disappeared into the clouds. I'm sure he went further than the clouds. In any case, I'm sure I nailed him."
When Fighting Ten's tour ended, Kanze came home as a veteran of more than 100 combat missions in the Pacific. He remembers a beer bash held at NAS Alameda hosted by the Enterprise's dive bomber squadron, because it had never lost a plane while under the escort of the Grim Reapers (Fighting Ten).
Kanze's next assignment came as a test pilot at Patuxent River NAS. While there, Rob met Charles A. Lindbergh, who told him a few choice stories about his aviation career.
"On his first cross-Atlantic flight, in 1929, he got tired.... You may know he got very little sleep on the day before, but he did manage to stay awake, but not completely. What had happened was that the aircraft was so beautifully trimmed to level flight, that as it lost weight with fuel consumption, the nose came up. And when the nose came up it started to shudder getting ready for a stall. It had a very distinct shudder, and that woke him up. So he was actually able to sleep, not by design, but by circumstances."
Kanze worked on the F8F Bearcat project, taking delivery on Grumman's first aircraft. On one of the first takeoffs Rob made with a drop tank, the tank released on the plane's rollout, raising the Bearcat's tail and putting the huge propeller on the runway.
"I trimmed maybe 3/4 of an inch off each tip of the prop and was fortunate enough to get away with it. We grounded the Bearcat right then and there."
Kanze found the problem to be a microswitch which failed and dropped the tank. He suggested a more substantial lever that had to be pulled to release the drop tank, and though the change added extra weight to the Bearcat, his suggestion ultimately prevailed.
Kanze says the hot Navy fighter held the record for climbing to altitude - - 10,000 feet in 92 seconds - - due to its light weight of 8200 pounds and a radial engine delivering 2400 horsepower. Rob says the F8F drew the interest of the Blue Angels, who were then flying the Hellcat, and they came to be checked out in the latest Grumman ship.
"Butch Voris, the founder and CO of the Blues at that time, was very much impressed with the Bearcat and so they took the Bearcat as their bird. And they did a neat job, of course, over several years with it."
Test pilot school was the next assignment for Kanze at Patuxent Naval Air Test Center. Rob says the informal education included briefings by aerodynamacists and test pilots for various organizations. There was also a conference of allied air forces to make sure aircraft controls and instrumentation were standardized.
The peacetime Navy saw Kanze transferred to Jacksonville for a month and then to Pensacola to learn the fine art of being a Landing Signal Officer.
"It was a odd situation. The group consisted of a dozen F6s, a dozen Corsairs, a dozen Turkeys (TBMs) and a dozen Beasts (SB2C Helldivers)... and the availability was pretty horrible. As soon as the skipper found out I had been an enlisted mechanic, and had graduated form Pax River, he made me Maintenance Officer. So I spent most of my time hammering on aircraft and not too much waving aircraft."
Kanze said he was checked out and made six carrier landings in each aircraft. Then he went up to Norfolk to an anti-submarine (ASW) air group on board a CVE, USS MIndoro. The aircraft in the group were F6F-5Ns (night fighters with radar) and TBF-3Es. The task at hand was to revise anti-submarine tactics. Even though Kanze had not completed his Landing Signal Officer training, an accident to the senior LSO led to Rob becoming the replacement.
Between Rob's flying experience and his aerodynamics training, he wrote a letter suggesting a new device to warn pilots of a pending stall - - a tab on the upper leading edge of the wing, which would move "and indicate to the pilot by a stick-shaker that the plane was approaching a stall" - - be used instead of the approach light system.
The letter was sent to George Anderson at BuAer (Bureau of Aeronautics), who heartily endorsed the idea.
"It ultimately became the angle-of-attack indicator, which is installed in all carrier aircraft today. That didn't hurt my reputation, I guess."
Kanze became CO of the first Navy squadron flying the F3H Demon and one of the first COs of squadrons flying the A4 Skyhawk. Robert Kanze's experiences during the Korean War are the subject of another full chapter in his 29-year Navy career.