This Intrepid pilot went from zero to ace in 13 minutes

Navy Lt. j.g. Alfred Lerch had a relatively short career for a naval aviator, earning his naval wings in 1944 and serving aboard the USS Intrepid in 1945 with, as he described it, only one “really good crack at” the Imperial Japanese Navy. But in that good crack, on April 16, 1945, Alfred Lerch went from zero enemy downs to seven in just 13 minutes, making him one of the fastest fighter aces of all time.

The USS Intrepid in World War II’s Pacific Theater

Lerch’s ship, the USS Intrepid, was one of the Essex-class fast carriers of World War II. These ships could go twice the speed of the Navy’s first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley. When the U.S. gained the ability to read nearly all of Japan’s classified transmissions, it was these fast carriers that enabled American forces to pivot so effectively to real-time military intelligence. Essex-class carriers like Intrepid played key roles in amphibious assaults and naval battles, such as at Okinawa, providing air support for Marine landings, fighting back Japanese bombers and torpedo planes, and hunting ships and submarines.

The Essex class had a few serious tradeoffs for this speed, including that its deck armor was on the hangar deck, that’s one level below the flight deck, meaning bombs and kamikaze planes could pierce the upper, wooden deck with little resistance.

The USS Intrepid, specifically, was commissioned on August 16, 1943, and proceeded to Pearl Harbor, arriving in January 1944. The ship took part in a raid on Kwajalein Atoll, supported an amphibious assault on the lagoon there, and attacked merchant shipping. But in February, it was hit by a torpedo, sending it back to California for repairs.

The ship returned to the action in September, hitting Japanese positions on Palau and the Philippines, and then proceeded to Okinawa and Formosa, eliminating many air threats for the coming Battle of Leyte Gulf. At Leyte Gulf, Intrepid took part in the attacks that sank the battleship Musashi, damaged the Yamato and other battleships and light carriers, and sank the destroyer Ayitsuki.

But that was when kamikaze aircraft began to assault the American Navy. Japanese planes, often piloted by men with minimal training who were forced into the cockpit on pain of death and dishonor, were sent to crash their aircraft into American ships. One kamikaze attack reached the ship on Oct. 30, killing 10 members of a gun crew. Two kamikazes hit the Intrepid on Nov. 25, killing 65 crew members. Intrepid remained at her post and managed to put out the fires in just two hours. It was relieved and again returned to California for repairs.

Alfred Lerch Joins the Intrepid

So when Ens. Alfred Lerch joined the ship in early 1945, the Intrepid was already a legend. The ship returned to the front lines of the Pacific and quickly re-entered the fray, suffering more damage when a near-miss from a kamikaze bomber showered the ship with burning fuel on March 18.

According to Lerch in a later interview, he flew in some of the Intrepid’s actions during this time. But he flew on the edges of the fight as a sort of reserve force, ready to be tagged in if the division leader ordered it. He didn’t directly engage in most of the fighting. Until April 16.

That was when the Intrepid, which had already suffered three kamikaze hits and a near miss, suddenly came under attack by a massive swarm of kamikaze aircraft. The flight crews up when the cloud of death arrived estimated that 30 aircraft were swarming in, nearly all of them with bombs and other munitions attached.

When Lerch and his division leader, Lt. Phillip Kirkwood, turned and began firing into the mass of planes, none of them dropped their bombs or attempted to run. That confirmed the ship faced a massive kamikaze attack.

The Fateful 13 Minutes

So the young pilot, with little experience to his name, suddenly had the lives of over 3,000 Intrepid crewmembers on his shoulders as he aimed the guns of his Corsair at the Imperial Japanese.

The iconic plane featured six M2 Browning machine guns that could rip targets to shreds. And the doomed pilots of kamikaze planes suffered from a lack of experience or training. Lerch’s ammo was limited, and every shot had to count to minimize the remaining threat to the ship.

But Lerch was surprisingly sanguine about the situation in a 1945 radio interview. For 13 minutes, Lerch sent controlled bursts into bombers and other planes that could sink his home and kill his friends.

“Well, the best I can say is that there were two of us,” Lerch said, “and we just sighted about 30 of them, piled into them, and just kept shooting until they were all disappearing, and we ran out of ammunition. I got seven of them before I ran out of ammunition, or I might have been able to get more.”

The initial estimate was that Lerch’s division downed 13 aircraft, but later analysis credited them with 14, half of which were credited to Lerch personally. Unfortunately, in the massive attack, one plane did crash into the Intrepid.

Again, the Intrepid suffered a loss of crew, with eight dying.

The Intrepid, with Lerch still aboard, had to head back to the West Coast for more repairs. Lerch received the Navy Cross on July 6, 1945, for his heroics. Kirkwood received the same medal. Kirkwood earned the rare distinction of double ace with 12 victories to his name in the war.

The Intrepid Still Honors Lerch in Its Museum

The USS Intrepid is now the Intrepid Museum, a floating museum in New York City on Pier 86, opposite the former USS Growler, one of America’s first nuclear-armed submarines.

On the hangar deck, the museum has an FG-1D Corsair fighter painted with the markings of Alfred Lerch’s F4U-1D, in which he made his fateful flight. While Lerch’s F4U-1D was made by the primary manufacturer, Chance Vought, the FG designation on the museum’s model means that it was manufactured by Goodyear.

Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty

• ‘Psspsspss:’ American sailors enlisted a cat aboard a battleship during World War II
• How a volcano in Indonesia helped Napoleon get wrecked at Waterloo
• The first ‘walkie-talkie’ saved thousands of Allied lives

Military News

Venezuela might try to enlist Putin to resist American pressure

Steve Gutterman, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Military Life

This is how 12 other countries celebrate their version of Veterans Day

By Blake Stilwell

Movies

‘In Waves and War’ doc explores psychedelic healing among Navy SEALS

By Shannon Corbeil

Movies

‘Nuremberg’ pits a notorious Nazi war criminal against a US Army psychiatrist

By Blake Stilwell

Sports

The namesake for hockey’s most prestigious trophy fought in both World Wars

By Matt Ward