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Home Town Gastonia, NC
Last Address La Jolla, California, age 85. Burial: Fort Roasecrans National Cemetery.
Date of Passing Jul 10, 2006
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Last Known Activity:
Captain Armistead "Chick" Smith U.S.N.
After the North African invasion of 1942, 'Chick' Smith transferred with VF-9 to the Pacific in 1943 flying Hellcats from U.S.S. Essex. He participated in the carrier strikes against Wake, Marcus, the invasions of Tarawa and the Marshalls; and in the first carrier attacks against Truk and Saipan/Tinian. Becoming an Ace in 1944 he transferred to VBF-12 flying F6Fs in strikes against Tokyo, and the invasion of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In 87 combat missions he recorded 11 victories. 'Chick' Smith retired in 1972.
Armistead Burwell Smith Jr. was born March 15, 1921, in Gastonia, North Carolina. He left the University of North Carolina after two years to join the Navy and was commissioned as an ensign in February 1942. In November 1942 in North Africa, he flew an F4F Wildcat off the carrier USS Ranger. Capt. Chick Smith over the course of the war, shot down 11 enemy aircraft during 87 combat missions. The first seven of the downed planes were during a 15-month period flying off the aircraft carrier Essex. Captain Smith flew F6F Hellcats with 9 squadron known as “the Ace maker” for its high success rate against Zeros. In the battle for Truk Lagoon in Micronesia, Capt. Smith's aircraft was shot down. After landing in the water, he was rescued by a destroyer. During the invasion of the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Capt. Smith operated from the US Carrier USS Randolph shooting down four Japanese aircraft. His decorations include four Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Silver Star, eight Air Medals, two Legions of Merit and a Navy Commendation Medal. After World War II, Capt. Smith commanded two fighter squadrons, a carrier air wing and the seaplane tender Pine Island. From 1967 to 1969, he commanded what was then the Miramar Naval Air Station he would continue in service and finally retire as Commander Fleet Fighter Squadrons in 1972. He passed away in July 2006.
Other Comments:
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Bismarck Archipelago Operation
From Month/Year
June / 1943
To Month/Year
May / 1944
Description Rabaul was the strategic key to the Bismarcks. The Japanese recognized the value of the port, and seized it with forces staged from Truk early in the Pacific War. Air attacks began on 4 January 1942 and elements of the South Seas Detachment began their landings on 23 January, rapidly driving back the 1390 men of the defending Australian 22 Battalion ("Lark Force") and taking the town and airfields. With Rabaul secured, the Japanese occupied the remainder of the Bismarcks more or less at their leisure. Kavieng was taken the same day as Rabaul, Bougainville was occuped on 30-31 March, and the Admiralties were occupied on 8 April 1942.
Allied strategy in the Southwest Pacific was initially focused on recapturing Rabaul. MacArthur envisioned a two-pronged counteroffensive (CARTWHEEL) with one prong coming up the Solomons and the other across the Dampier and Vitiaz Straits from New Guinea to New Britain. These operations began with the operations to secure Guadalcanal in the Solomons (7 August 1942) and to clear the northeast coast of New Guinea around Buna (19 November 1942.) Both tasks proved far more difficult than anticipated, becoming battles of attrition that lasted for months. The Buna area was not secured until 22 January 1943 and Guadalcanal was not secured until 9 February 1943.
At at the Pacific Military Conference of March 1943 in Washington, D.C., MacArthur's representative, Richard Sutherland, presented a revised plan for taking Rabaul (ELKTON III). This envisioned the capture of the Huon Peninsula in New Guinea and Munda on New Georgia, followed by the seizure of points in western New Britain and Bougainville. The Allies could then take Kavieng, if necessary, before the final assault on Rabaul. Japanese forces in the area were estimated at around 85,000 men and 383 aircraft, with another 11,000 men, 250 aircraft, and the main strength of Combined Fleet available for immediate reinforcement. In the longer term, the Japanese could dispatch another 615 aircraft and 10 to 15 divisions to the area if shipping could be found. (Japanese records show that this estimate was quite good, and that shipping available was about 300,000 tons to which perhaps another 100,000 tons could be added.) MacArthur demanded another five divisions and a tripling of the air strength in the theater in order to carry out his plan.
The Washington planners rejected any reinforcements beyond two or three divisions and a small number of aircraft, and the plan was scaled back accordingly. The final directive, issued 28 March 1943, called for Allied forces to advance as far as the Huon peninsula, western New Britain, and Bougainville by the end of 1943. Overall command would be given to MacArthur, with whom Halsey in the South Pacific would be expected to cooperate. Fortunately, there was enough mutual respect between the two men to make the plan work.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
June / 1943
To Month/Year
May / 1944
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
People You Remember VF-9 claimed 14 victories that morning, including two by Lieutenant Armistead B. Smith, Jr., and one by Lt. j.g. Eugene A. Valencia - the first of 23 that would make him the third-ranking U.S. Navy ace.
Memories World War II: Raids on Rabaul in November 1943
'We came in at 12,000 feet with the dive bombers,' recounted pilot Jim Shearer of VT-9, 'and then pushed over into the sea, so our division pulled up over a ridge where there was a hell of a lot of anti-aircraft, and then down to 300 feet to pick up those jokers as they cleared the harbor. Thank God for the weather! We broke out of a rain squall, dropped our fish on a Mogami-class cruiser and then went back into a rain squall again. Then we really tooled it down the channel and out of there.'
The target Shearer described was probably the light cruiser Agano, which suffered a damaging torpedo hit, as did the destroyer Naganami. Least fortunate of the Japanese ships was the destroyer Suzunami, which was loading torpedoes when VB-9's SBDs roared down on her. Her hull was split, and she sank near the harbor entrance. The light cruiser Yubari and destroyers Umikaze suffered slight damage from strafing.
Striving to protect the bombers, 12 Hellcats of VF-9 got into a wild free-for-all with 35 Zeros over the harbor mouth at 9:15 a.m. Lieutenant Junior Grade Hamilton McWhorter III, who had already earned the nickname of 'One Slug' after downing a Zero over Wake, added two more Zeros to his score and probably downed a third, but came back with 11 bullet holes in his fuselage and wing. Lieutenant Keenen 'Casey' Childers and his flight of F6Fs were jumped. 'I never did see who was shooting at us,' he reported, 'but one of them got behind my wingman and myself and my wingman pulled up ahead of me with his belly on fire. He waved that he was O.K., went on and landed in the water, and got out all right in his raft.' Behind him, Japanese fighters were trying unsuccessfully to drop small wing bombs on the SBDs. VF-9 claimed 14 victories that morning, including two by Lieutenant Armistead B. Smith, Jr., and one by Lt. j.g. Eugene A. Valencia - the first of 23 that would make him the third-ranking U.S. Navy ace.
Commander Michael P. Bagdanovich, leading Bunker Hill's Air Group 17, directed VB-17's new SB2Cs to attack the Japanese cruisers, to be followed by VT-17's Avengers. The Helldiver crews reported seeing bombs with time fuses bursting in midair, along with numerous Zeros. Four Zeros of the 253rd Kokutai attacked Lieutenant Robert B. Wood's SB2C-1C, which raced out of Simpson Harbor at maximum speed while his gunner, chief radioman W.O. Haynes, downed two of their attackers before being seriously wounded. At that point, F6F-3s of VF-18 came to the rescue, and Lieutenant James D. Billo and Ensign John J. Sargent, Jr., claimed the remaining two Zeros. Wood made it back to Bunker Hill, where 130 bullet holes were counted in his plane. The day's activities cost VB-17 one Helldiver to the Zeros, one to the flak and two operational losses.
Lieutenant William F. Krantz of VT-17 launched a torpedo at a heavy cruiser, but as he turned left he was bracketed by AA fire from the cruiser and a destroyer. 'One burst almost blew me upside down; as I passed near the destroyer, a heavy plume of smoke poured out of the right side of my engine,' he later recalled. 'I next fired my machine guns at the small enemy ship and headed for St. George Channel.'
At that point, Krantz came under attack by enemy fighters. 'I dropped to the top of the waves to prevent them from flying underneath me,' he said. 'My gunner, V.S. Case, accounted for two, and an F6F picked off one as he pulled away from my aircraft.'
Krantz's attackers may have included Seaman 1st Class Masajiro Kawato, an 18-year-old Zero pilot who had joined the 253rd Kokutai just a month earlier. Kawato claimed to have set a TBF on fire before being shot down and wounded in the leg by two Corsairs. He bailed out over Simpson Harbor and swam ashore. Actually, VF-17's F4Us did not take part in the raid, but Kawato may have been downed by one of VF-9's Hellcats. Meanwhile, Krantz tried to reach Empress Augusta Bay but was forced to ditch his Avenger near Buka Island. He, Case and O.L. Miller drifted on a life raft for 12 days before landing at Cape Orford on New Britain Island, from which they were finally rescued on March 26, 1944.