VMSB-143 & VMTB-143 | "Devildog Avengers"; "Rocket Raider" | Devildog and Flash Gordon patches

[walika]

VMSB-143 | VMTB-143

Commissioned: VMSB, 9-7-42; changed to VMTB 6-1-43
Date Deactivated: 3-10-46
Nickname of Unit: VMSB, circa 1943: "Devildog Avengers" | VMTB, circa 1945: "Rocket Raiders"
Aircraft: TBF-1, TBM-3

Date of Insignia: Bulldog riding a torpedo insignia: 1943 | Flash Gordon insignia: 1945
Authorization: Bulldog riding a torpedo insignia: HQMC | Flash Gordon insignia: local


Originally commissioned as a VMSB squadron the designation and mission was changed in June 1943 to VMTB. The insignia showing a bulldog riding a torpedo reflects the torpedo bomber mission. VMTB-143 returned to the United States in June 1944 for re-training and re-organization as a carrier squadron.

 

Type I (1943): Bulldog Riding A Torpedo - American embroidered on wool. Designed by Philip Miller.

 

 

On 12 April 1945 the squadron went aboard the USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107), a Commencement Bay-class Escort Carrier and departed for participation in the Okinawa campaign.

 

While on board the carrier a deployed member of the Marine Corps combat art program, Lt. Alex Raymond, who drew the Flash Gordon comic strip in civilian life, designed a new insignia for the squadron. He left King Features and his Flash Gordon / Jungle Jim strips in February, 1944 to join the Marines. Raymond, who made a famous mark for himself when he created Flash Gordon in 1934, enlisted in the Marine Corps in February, 1944 and completed Aviation Ground Officer's School before further training at the Marine Corps Air Station in Santa Barbara. He served in the Pacific theater on the 1945 cruise where he saw a period of intense combat in June, 1945.

The new design showed Flash Gordon standing on a HVAR rocket signifying the squadron's change in mission and ordinance, from torpedo bombing to ground support. The artwork was sent back to the United States where cloth insignia were manufactured. The patches were returned in time to be distributed to squadron flight personnel aboard the USS Gilbert Islands.

Type II (1945): Flash Gordon - American embroidered on wool. Designed by Lt. Alex Raymond.

 

After shakedown training, Gilbert Islands departed San Diego on 12 April 1945 for exercises in Hawaiian waters. She sailed on 2 May with an escort carrier force that closed Okinawa on 21 May. Her aircraft blasted and strafed concrete dugouts, troop concentrations, ammunition and fuel dumps on Okinawa from 24–31 May. In the following days she helped neutralize outlying Japanese airfields and installations with repeated bomb and rocket attacks. Four of her Marine pilots and three TBM Avenger gunners were killed in action in all of 1945. She departed Okinawa on 16 June to replenish at San Pedro Bay, thence to Balikpapan, Borneo. She gave air cover to Australians storming that shore 1 July and remained 4 days to attack all targets in sight. With the Australians securely established, she returned to Leyte on 6 July.

Gilbert Islands departed San Pedro Bay on 29 July to screen logistic ships replenishing 3rd Fleet striking forces along the coast of Japan. On that station 15 August she joined a task group that included nearly all the 3rd Fleet and heard Admiral Halsey's laconic direction: "Apparently the war is over and you are ordered to cease firing; so, if you see any Japanese planes in the air, you will just have to shoot them down in a friendly manner."

 

 

 

 

Sources

Millstein, Jeff. U. S. Marine Corps Aviation Unit Insignia 1941-1946.

Adamsplanes.com

Wikipedia (Alex Raymond)

 

[Thor996]

wow you have some amazing patches! Thanks for sharing

[jerry_k]

One of the best described USMC aviation squadron by Adam Lewis. http://www.adamsplanes.com/

 

Rare patches, thanks for pics

 

I have a leather tag named to VMTB-143 pilot Arthur "Bill" Patterson.

 

Regards,

Jerry