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Douglas R4D-6A
Lil Meaties Meat Chopper, #20, VMA-133 Dragons, US Marine Corps
Oki, Dogo Island, Allied-occupied Japan
April 1946

The idea of engaging surface targets using side-firing machine guns on aircraft flying pylons turns wasn’t new. It had been tested and proven in 1927, when US Army 1st Lt. Fred Nelson shot up a ground target with a single .30 cal machine gun mounted on a DH-4 biplane. Rejected as being too radical, the concept was all but forgotten until 1942, when a proposal to arm patrol bombers with side-firing .50 cal Brownings to attack surfaced submarines was made. While rejected, the promoter of the concept, Lieutenant Chester Allen of the US Navy, persisted and submitted a revised proposal to the USMC for use against ground troops after reading about the Japanese night assaults against Marines on Guadalcanal. A series of tests using a single and later two .30 cal Brownings firing through the open rear door of a Douglas R2D against simulated infantry targets demonstrated the concept’s value.

VMA-133 was established in May 1943 to operate the USMC’s first operational gunship, the Douglas R4D-5A. These aircraft featured four .50 cal Brownings, all firing through portside windows. In combat from September, the unit maintained a training flight in America while deploying detachments to Marine Corps combat zones throughout the Pacific. Initially specialising in defending perimeters against Japanese night infantry assaults, more offensive nocturnal missions were gradually added to the squadron’s duties, such as firing on active enemy artillery positions and conducting interdiction sorties against tactical logistic centres.

Wherever the Marines went, a detachment from VMA-133 was sure to go. This pattern earned the unit a widespread and well-deserved reputation of ubiquity with the grunts. Playing on this, VMA-133 adopted flight callsigns inspired by the nursery rhyme Mary Had A Little Lamb, but on the other side, their night fires earned them the nickname Ryūjin, who in Japanese mythology was a sea dragon god. After Tokyo Rose dedicated a song to the “American night dragons” in July 1944, VMA-133 switched to dragon-inspired callsigns and adopted Dragons as the unit’s official nickname.

VMA-133’s gunships were camouflaged differently to the USMC’s R4D transports. During night firing trails, ground observers noted not just the visibility of the machine gun flash and their tracer rounds, but of the aircraft itself when maneuvering at low altitude, even with all of its lights out. Finished in the standard tri-colour camouflage of Ensign White, Intermediate Blue and Sea Blue, the paler paints were too reflective for night operations over the battlefield and subsequently replaced with Dark Gull Grey, a color normally associated with the Atlantic ASW schemes (ironically, as a top surface paint over the white side- and under-surfaces). This unique camouflage would be retained on the USMC’s R4D gunships until the end of the war.

During 1945, the USMC was preparing for the anticipated invasion of Japan. For VMA-133, this meant mentoring the establishment of VMAT-202 as a gunship training squadron and supporting the creation of second gunship combat squadron, VMA-543. The latter unit was to maintain the Corps’ gunship capabilities on the many partially-occupied islands scattered through the Pacific while VMA-133 concentrated on operations close to Japan. This saw VMA-133 in action at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, while passing on its R4D-5As to VMAT-202 and VMA-543 as it re-equipped with the new R4D-6A. Based on the C-47B Skytrain, the R4D-6A featured a ventrally-mounted AN/APS-6 radar, which was deemed necessary for operations over the mountainous Japanese Home Islands.

VMA-133’s #20, Lil Meaties Meat Chopper, was named after the plane’s crew chief, Master Technical Sergeant Joseph Burger, who, as the short, beefy son of a small-town butcher, was known as Lil’ Meaty. The aircraft saw combat from September 1945 over southern Korea and was subsequently deployed to Dogoshima (Dogo Island) and, during Operation Downfall, Oshima and finally Haneda Airfield, near Tokyo. It is seen here with 33 mission markings while deployed to Dogoshima.

Description

Link: www.whatifmodellers.com/index.…

Douglas R4D-6A
Lil Meaties Meat Chopper, #20, VMA-133 Dragons, US Marine Corps
Oki, Dogo Island, Allied-occupied Japan
April 1946

The idea of engaging surface targets using side-firing machine guns on aircraft flying pylons turns wasn’t new. It had been tested and proven in 1927, when US Army 1st Lt. Fred Nelson shot up a ground target with a single .30 cal machine gun mounted on a DH-4 biplane. Rejected as being too radical, the concept was all but forgotten until 1942, when a proposal to arm patrol bombers with side-firing .50 cal Brownings to attack surfaced submarines was made. While rejected, the promoter of the concept, Lieutenant Chester Allen of the US Navy, persisted and submitted a revised proposal to the USMC for use against ground troops after reading about the Japanese night assaults against Marines on Guadalcanal. A series of tests using a single and later two .30 cal Brownings firing through the open rear door of a Douglas R2D against simulated infantry targets demonstrated the concept’s value.

VMA-133 was established in May 1943 to operate the USMC’s first operational gunship, the Douglas R4D-5A. These aircraft featured four .50 cal Brownings, all firing through portside windows. In combat from September, the unit maintained a training flight in America while deploying detachments to Marine Corps combat zones throughout the Pacific. Initially specialising in defending perimeters against Japanese night infantry assaults, more offensive nocturnal missions were gradually added to the squadron’s duties, such as firing on active enemy artillery positions and conducting interdiction sorties against tactical logistic centres.

Wherever the Marines went, a detachment from VMA-133 was sure to go. This pattern earned the unit a widespread and well-deserved reputation of ubiquity with the grunts. Playing on this, VMA-133 adopted flight callsigns inspired by the nursery rhyme Mary Had A Little Lamb, but on the other side, their night fires earned them the nickname Ryūjin, who in Japanese mythology was a sea dragon god. After Tokyo Rose dedicated a song to the “American night dragons” in July 1944, VMA-133 switched to dragon-inspired callsigns and adopted Dragons as the unit’s official nickname.

VMA-133’s gunships were camouflaged differently to the USMC’s R4D transports. During night firing trails, ground observers noted not just the visibility of the machine gun flash and their tracer rounds, but of the aircraft itself when maneuvering at low altitude, even with all of its lights out. Finished in the standard tri-colour camouflage of Ensign White, Intermediate Blue and Sea Blue, the paler paints were too reflective for night operations over the battlefield and subsequently replaced with Dark Gull Grey, a color normally associated with the Atlantic ASW schemes (ironically, as a top surface paint over the white side- and under-surfaces). This unique camouflage would be retained on the USMC’s R4D gunships until the end of the war.

During 1945, the USMC was preparing for the anticipated invasion of Japan. For VMA-133, this meant mentoring the establishment of VMAT-202 as a gunship training squadron and supporting the creation of second gunship combat squadron, VMA-543. The latter unit was to maintain the Corps’ gunship capabilities on the many partially-occupied islands scattered through the Pacific while VMA-133 concentrated on operations close to Japan. This saw VMA-133 in action at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, while passing on its R4D-5As to VMAT-202 and VMA-543 as it re-equipped with the new R4D-6A. Based on the C-47B Skytrain, the R4D-6A featured a ventrally-mounted AN/APS-6 radar, which was deemed necessary for operations over the mountainous Japanese Home Islands.

VMA-133’s #20, Lil Meaties Meat Chopper, was named after the plane’s crew chief, Master Technical Sergeant Joseph Burger, who, as the short, beefy son of a small-town butcher, was known as Lil’ Meaty. The aircraft saw combat from September 1945 over southern Korea and was subsequently deployed to Dogoshima (Dogo Island) and, during Operation Downfall, Oshima and finally Haneda Airfield, near Tokyo. It is seen here with 33 mission markings while deployed to Dogoshima.