June 6, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, historian Roger McGrath returns with another installment of his “Hollywood Goes to War” series. We've already heard the wartime stories of Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, and Tyrone Power. This time, it’s the tale of Wayne Morris—a strapping, steely-eyed leading man who traded movie sets for the skies in World War II.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. And now it's
time for another one of Roger McGrath's Hollywood Goes to
Wars stories. Today, McGrath will be treating us to the
story of Hollywood's strapping, steely eyed leading man, Wayne Morris.
Here's McGrath with the story of Wayne Morris.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Wayne Morris was born and bred in California. Though he
didn't think about it, growing up, he looked like something
created for screen stardom. He was tall, athletic, and handsome.
He was also intelligent and good natured. It wasn't until college, though,
that he got the acting bug. Then the six foot
(00:50):
two and a half and well built two hundred pound
Morris began taking acting lessons and appearing in plays. The
blonde aired, blue eyed college boy was soon signed to
a Warner Brothers contract. Morris appeared in twenty nine movies
by the time Here's twenty seven years old, and starred
(01:10):
in most of them, including the Box office and critical
smash hit Kid Galahad. He then walked away from Hollywood
and stardom to serve as a Navy fighter pilot in
World War Two. Wayne Morris is born Burt Dwayne Morris,
junior in February nineteen fourteen in Los Angeles. His father,
(01:36):
Burt Dwayne Morris Senior, has New England roots by way
of the Upper Midwest. In Nebraska, there is a Morris
ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War as an officer.
Wayne Morris's mother is the former Anna Fitzgerald. From Texas,
there is a Fitzgerald ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary
(01:59):
War as an enlisted man. Wayne Morris will have a
younger brother, Richard Morris, who also becomes a pilot in
World War Two. When Wayne Morris is still a little boy,
the family moves to San Francisco and remains there before
returning to Los Angeles when he is almost seventeen. Morris
(02:23):
graduates from Los Angeles High School in nineteen thirty two
and begins college only a few miles away at Los
Angeles City College. There, he becomes a theater arts major
and starts studying with the then famous Passadena Playoffs. He
begins appearing on stage and attracts the attention of a
(02:44):
talent scout from Warner Brothers. A studio gives him a
screen test. The camera loves him, and he's signed to
a contract. Morris makes his screen debut in nineteen thirty
six in China Clipp starring Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart,
a fictional account of Pan American Airlines establishing the first
(03:09):
trans Pacific commercial flight service. The movie has Morris playing
a navigator on the Martin M one thirty C plane.
Making the movie gets Morris interested in aviation. In his
next seven movies, Morris has only two substantial roles, but
even as minor roles mark him for stardom. In nineteen
(03:33):
thirty seven, in Kid Galahad, he gets his chance for
the big time with the role of a heavyweight boxer
Kid Galahad. His co stars are Edward G. Robinson, Betty Davis,
and Humphrey Bogart. In that tough company, Morris holds his
own and his character makes him the favorite of audiences.
(03:53):
The film is a major success, and Morris is elevated
to the leading man. Morris stars in a variety of
roles in his next twenty movies. While making the movie
Flight Angels in nineteen forty, he begins taking flying lessons.
He's soon a licensed pilot, flying regularly and logging many
(04:16):
hours of flight time, with Japanese aggression in the Far
East and in the Pacific increasing, Morris joins a naval
reserve unit in nineteen forty one and his commissioned in ensign.
Following Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy activates
Morrison and sends him to flight school. By late summer
(04:39):
nineteen forty two, he has his wings. He desperately wants
to fly fighters in the Pacific, but the Navy wants
him here at home as an instructor so he can
also make public relation appearances. Moreover, the Navy considers him
too big to cram himself into the cockpit of a
(05:00):
a grum And Wildcat, a Navy's fighter at the time.
Now a Lieutenant j G. Morris is less than thrilled
when he's ordered to a Navy airfield at Hutchinson, Kansas
as a primary flight instructor. He begins his assignment with
resignation rather than enthusiasm, but the plot is about to thicken.
(05:25):
Morris is married to Patricia O'Rourke, a beautiful young actress.
Her mother has a younger brother, David mccampbell. Mccampbell is
a Lieutenant commander a combat veteran and one of the
Navy's top pilots. One day, mccampbell happens to fly in
the Hutchison on a cross country trip. Morris greets Uncle
(05:49):
Dave and pleads with him to pull some strings and
get him into the fight in the Pacific. Give me
a letter, says mcampbell. Mcampbell is able to push Morris's
letter of request through the chain of command and get
Morris transferred. However, Morris now finds himself training in Jacksonville, Florida,
(06:11):
in the PBYC plane. The Navy still thinks Morris is
too big for fighters. Morris reckons he will now make
it to the Pacific, but as a PBY pilot, he
will be flying reconnaissance and rescue missions. To Morris's rescue
(06:32):
comes Uncle Davi. A second time commander. Mccampbell has been
tasked with forming a fighter squadron and again tells Morris
to give him a letter of request. Mccampbell says he
picks only those men who have a burning desire to
fly fighters in combat. Mcampbell's squadron, designated VF fifteen, will
(06:55):
be flying the new grumm And Hellcat, which is a
far superior fire in every way to the Wildcat, but
it doesn't have much more cockpit room, and pilots still
have to sit on top of their parachute packs. It
will be a very tight fit for Morris. In the
(07:15):
spring of nineteen forty four, after many months of intense training,
mccampbell's squadron is assigned to the carrier Essex by May
Essex arrives in the Marshall Islands, now being used by
the Navy as a staging area for the invasion of
the Marianas. While waiting for the invasion, Essex launches raids
(07:39):
against Japanese held Marcus and Wake Islands. This gives Lieutenant
Morris his first tastes of combat. Morris and the others
encounter no aerial opposition from Japanese fighters, but are met
with intense anti aircraft fire. Several American planes are lost
in nearly all, including Morris's, suffer damage. During June, mccampbell's
(08:06):
boys begin hitting Saipan in the Marianas. Morris is in
a group of Hellcats that destroy several seaplane ramps and
nearly a dozen seaplanes on the ground. Then Morris cites
a MAVs that has gotten Nearborn MAVs is the US
Navy's identification code for the Kawa Nishy seaplane, a large
(08:29):
four engine plane with a crew of nine. The Kawashi
is armed with four thirty caliber machine guns and one
twenty millimeters cannon.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
Wayne Mars and what a story. Indeed has family roots
in battle that go back to the Revolutionary War. Not
one family member but two goes to La City College
studies acting. In the end, becomes a star. A kid
Galahad makes him a huge star. But what is you do?
(09:00):
He joins the military like so many other stars, and
an ironic twist, he pulls strings to get into battle,
not to get out of it, and not just any battle.
He wants to get into the air and this is
the most dangerous of all positions. When we come back,
more of Hollywood Goes to War and more of Wayne
Morris's story here on our American story and we continue
(09:39):
with our American stories and with Roger McGrath's Hollywood Goes
to Wars stories, this time capturing the story of Wayne Morris.
Let's return to McGrath with more of the story.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Morris dives on the Big Bird and opens up with
his Hillcats. Six fifty caliber Brownie machine guns ub or
slugs rock the Japanese seaplane and cause it to roll
out of control. It plummets into the ocean. Lieutenant Morris
has his first aerial victory. His next action comes a
(10:15):
week later in the Great Mariana's Turkey Shoot, which is
what Navy pilots call the airborne phase of the Battle
of the Philippine Sea. Morris and others of VIA fifteen
are flying cover for torpedo planes and die bombers. When
four zeros drop out of the clouds above and begin
(10:38):
a run on the bombers, Morris takes on the lead Zero.
They helcat in the Zero each bank and dive and roll,
but it's Morris's machine gun fire that takes effect. The
Zero begins smoking, noses over and plunge his straight down
(10:58):
thousands of feet into a layer of clouds. Morris follows
it down, but once he emerges below the clouds, the
Zero is nowhere to be seen. Morris soon spies an
oil slick on the water, indicating the Zero must have
plunged into the sea. However, since he didn't actually see
(11:20):
the Zero crash into the ocean, he can only count
what was surely an aerial victory as a probable. For
the next two months, Morris and the rest of VIA
fifteen it targets not only on Saipan, but also on
nearby Guamantinian. Most of the time the hillcuts, bomb and
streath their enemy is at aircraft fire. After the Turkey shoot,
(11:45):
the skies over the Marianas have been nearly cleared of
Japanese planes, so more aerial victories will have to wait.
In September, Essex and other American carriers begin launching strikes
against the Palau Islands, especially Peluloo. Mccampbell leads the first sweep.
Neither he nor any of his pilots are able to
(12:07):
under their kill totals because they catch the Japanese planes
on the ground. They destroyed dozens of them, but under
Navy and Marine Corps regulations, only planes destroyed in the
air count as kills. After several days of pounding the
Palau Islands, Essex and other carriers are ordered to sail
(12:27):
west to the Philippines and strike at Mindanao airfields. On
their first sweep over Mindanow, Morris and two other VIA
fifteen pilots spot a Japanese patrol plane and blow it
out of the sky. Later in the day, on a
second sweep, Morris sends a burst of machine gun fire
(12:49):
into a top sea the Navy's code name for Mitsubishi
twin engine troop transport plane. The transport's starboard wing tank
erupts in flames, and soon the entire plane is ablaze
and spiraling to the earth. It's Morris's second confirmed aerial victory.
(13:13):
Several days later, over Negros Island, Morris spies a zero
blow him. As Morris dives in banks to get in
behind the zero, the Zero goes into a steep spiral dive,
probably to the Japanese pilot's surprise. Morris is able to
put his Hellcat into an equally tight spiral dive and
(13:35):
fires several bursts into the zero. The Zero explodes in
a ball of flame, and Lieutenant Morris has his third
confirmed kill. Later the same day, Morris and ensign Ken
Flynn jump Anate, the Navy's code name for the Nakajima Fighter.
(13:56):
The Night is the Japanese Army's equivalent to the Japanese
Navy's Zero. Morris's first burst causes the Nakajima to begin smoking.
Flynn follows with a burst that causes the already badly
damaged fighter to erupt in flames and roll into a
spiral dive that ends in the ocean. Minutes later, Morris
(14:21):
and Flynn go after a Zero that's on the tail
of a Hellcat. Morris fires and the zero explodes in
a ball of flame. It's number four for Morris. Seconds later,
Morris finds himself flying directly into an oncoming Nakajima. He
hits the Nate with a single burst before banking steeply.
(14:44):
In the meantime, Flynn circles behind the Nate and finishes
off the already crippled fighter. During the rest of September,
Morris gets no more aerial victories, but together with his
wingman and other violets, he is credited with putting a
Japanese submarine out of action and sinking two freighters and
several patrol boats. Then in October, in a strike at Okinawa,
(15:09):
Morris dives on a Kawasaki Fighter, Japan's most modern fighter,
the Tony as US Navy code identifies the plane as
an inline liquid cooled engine that the Japanese copying from
the Dambler Benz engine that powers the German Meshischment fighter.
The Kawasaki fighter tries to outmaneuver Morris by turning inside him,
(15:33):
but Morris is able to stay behind the tony and
pour fire into him. The Kawasaki shakes and smokes and
loses altitude rapidly. It hits the ocean and cartwheels spectacularly
before sinking. Morris now has the big three of Japanese fighters,
(15:54):
the Mitsubishi Zero, the Nakajima K fifty seven, and the
Kawasaki key Is sixty one, but kidd Galahad is also
an ace. Later in October nineteen forty four comes the
epic Battle for Lee Ti Gulf. Dave mcamberlan's boys are
active in the air over the Cibulean Sea. Morris gets
(16:17):
one zero easily while making a high pass, giving him
six confirmed aerial victories. Later on the same day, Morris
fires at two oncoming zeros, but his rounds either miss
or have no effect. He then banks steeply to come
around and try again, but finds the zeros turning with him.
(16:41):
He doesn't think much of his chances in tight turns
against two zeros and ducks into a cloud. Instead of
going through the cloud and emerging on the other side,
Morris circles inside the cloud and comes out where he entered,
Just as he has hoped. He finds the Japanese fighters
(17:03):
waiting for him on the cloud's other side. This allows
Morris to come up behind the zeros. A burst from
Morris's machine gun sends one zero spiraling into the sea
and the other scurrying for home. Morris is in no
condition to pursue. His Helkat has been riddled with bullets,
(17:24):
the engine is coughing, an hydraulic fluid is running into
his cockpit. Nonetheless, he now has seven confirmed aerial victories.
By the end of November, Air Group fifteen completes its
tour and Morris's war is over. He returns home with
(17:46):
three rows of ribbons on his chest, among other decorations.
Has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross four times and
the Air Medal two times. Is Hollywood's only ace of
the war. He had no easy days. Three of the
Helcats he flew were sold badly damaged by Japanese fire.
(18:08):
They were stripped of their serviceable parts and pushed overboard. Yet,
said Morris, it wasn't the Japs I feared, but my
own shipmates. Every time they showed a picture of board Essex,
I was scared to death there would be one of mine.
That's something I never could have lived down back home,
(18:28):
Morris serves in a naval reserve unit and as promoter
to lieutenant commander. He also restarts his movie career in
nineteen forty seven after a six year interruption. He will
appear in thirty six movies and be cast in dozens
of television shows over the next thirteen years. In September
(18:50):
nineteen fifty nine, his World War II commander and his
wife's uncle, Dave mccampbell, now Captain mccampbell, takes command of
the carrier bon Hamers Yard. While the ship is in
San Francisco Bay. Mccampbell invites Morris and some other former
squadron mates to come aboard for a short cruise into
(19:10):
the Pacific, where the carrier will conduct air exercises. On
the way back into San Francisco Bay, he climbs a
series of ladders to the carrier's bridge for a good
view of the passage under the Golden gate Bridge. He
reaches the ship's bridge and collapses. A helicopter flies him
(19:32):
to Oakland Naval Hospital, but it's too late. He's pronounced
dead of a massive coronary. He was only forty five
years old. Hollywood lost one of her stars, the US
Navy lost one of races, and America lost one of
her heroes.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
And a great job like Greg Hangler is always on
the production of that piece. And a special thanks as
always to Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Human and Vigilantes,
also a U. S Marine and former history professor at UCLA.
The story of Wayne Morris here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. And now it's
time for another one of Roger McGrath's Hollywood Goes to
Wars stories. Today, McGrath will be treating us to the
story of Hollywood's strapping, steely eyed leading man, Wayne Morris.
Here's McGrath with the story of Wayne Morris.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Wayne Morris was born and bred in California. Though he
didn't think about it, growing up, he looked like something
created for screen stardom. He was tall, athletic, and handsome.
He was also intelligent and good natured. It wasn't until college, though,
that he got the acting bug. Then the six foot
(00:50):
two and a half and well built two hundred pound
Morris began taking acting lessons and appearing in plays. The
blonde aired, blue eyed college boy was soon signed to
a Warner Brothers contract. Morris appeared in twenty nine movies
by the time Here's twenty seven years old, and starred
(01:10):
in most of them, including the Box office and critical
smash hit Kid Galahad. He then walked away from Hollywood
and stardom to serve as a Navy fighter pilot in
World War Two. Wayne Morris is born Burt Dwayne Morris,
junior in February nineteen fourteen in Los Angeles. His father,
(01:36):
Burt Dwayne Morris Senior, has New England roots by way
of the Upper Midwest. In Nebraska, there is a Morris
ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War as an officer.
Wayne Morris's mother is the former Anna Fitzgerald. From Texas,
there is a Fitzgerald ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary
(01:59):
War as an enlisted man. Wayne Morris will have a
younger brother, Richard Morris, who also becomes a pilot in
World War Two. When Wayne Morris is still a little boy,
the family moves to San Francisco and remains there before
returning to Los Angeles when he is almost seventeen. Morris
(02:23):
graduates from Los Angeles High School in nineteen thirty two
and begins college only a few miles away at Los
Angeles City College. There, he becomes a theater arts major
and starts studying with the then famous Passadena Playoffs. He
begins appearing on stage and attracts the attention of a
(02:44):
talent scout from Warner Brothers. A studio gives him a
screen test. The camera loves him, and he's signed to
a contract. Morris makes his screen debut in nineteen thirty
six in China Clipp starring Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart,
a fictional account of Pan American Airlines establishing the first
(03:09):
trans Pacific commercial flight service. The movie has Morris playing
a navigator on the Martin M one thirty C plane.
Making the movie gets Morris interested in aviation. In his
next seven movies, Morris has only two substantial roles, but
even as minor roles mark him for stardom. In nineteen
(03:33):
thirty seven, in Kid Galahad, he gets his chance for
the big time with the role of a heavyweight boxer
Kid Galahad. His co stars are Edward G. Robinson, Betty Davis,
and Humphrey Bogart. In that tough company, Morris holds his
own and his character makes him the favorite of audiences.
(03:53):
The film is a major success, and Morris is elevated
to the leading man. Morris stars in a variety of
roles in his next twenty movies. While making the movie
Flight Angels in nineteen forty, he begins taking flying lessons.
He's soon a licensed pilot, flying regularly and logging many
(04:16):
hours of flight time, with Japanese aggression in the Far
East and in the Pacific increasing, Morris joins a naval
reserve unit in nineteen forty one and his commissioned in ensign.
Following Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy activates
Morrison and sends him to flight school. By late summer
(04:39):
nineteen forty two, he has his wings. He desperately wants
to fly fighters in the Pacific, but the Navy wants
him here at home as an instructor so he can
also make public relation appearances. Moreover, the Navy considers him
too big to cram himself into the cockpit of a
(05:00):
a grum And Wildcat, a Navy's fighter at the time.
Now a Lieutenant j G. Morris is less than thrilled
when he's ordered to a Navy airfield at Hutchinson, Kansas
as a primary flight instructor. He begins his assignment with
resignation rather than enthusiasm, but the plot is about to thicken.
(05:25):
Morris is married to Patricia O'Rourke, a beautiful young actress.
Her mother has a younger brother, David mccampbell. Mccampbell is
a Lieutenant commander a combat veteran and one of the
Navy's top pilots. One day, mccampbell happens to fly in
the Hutchison on a cross country trip. Morris greets Uncle
(05:49):
Dave and pleads with him to pull some strings and
get him into the fight in the Pacific. Give me
a letter, says mcampbell. Mcampbell is able to push Morris's
letter of request through the chain of command and get
Morris transferred. However, Morris now finds himself training in Jacksonville, Florida,
(06:11):
in the PBYC plane. The Navy still thinks Morris is
too big for fighters. Morris reckons he will now make
it to the Pacific, but as a PBY pilot, he
will be flying reconnaissance and rescue missions. To Morris's rescue
(06:32):
comes Uncle Davi. A second time commander. Mccampbell has been
tasked with forming a fighter squadron and again tells Morris
to give him a letter of request. Mccampbell says he
picks only those men who have a burning desire to
fly fighters in combat. Mcampbell's squadron, designated VF fifteen, will
(06:55):
be flying the new grumm And Hellcat, which is a
far superior fire in every way to the Wildcat, but
it doesn't have much more cockpit room, and pilots still
have to sit on top of their parachute packs. It
will be a very tight fit for Morris. In the
(07:15):
spring of nineteen forty four, after many months of intense training,
mccampbell's squadron is assigned to the carrier Essex by May
Essex arrives in the Marshall Islands, now being used by
the Navy as a staging area for the invasion of
the Marianas. While waiting for the invasion, Essex launches raids
(07:39):
against Japanese held Marcus and Wake Islands. This gives Lieutenant
Morris his first tastes of combat. Morris and the others
encounter no aerial opposition from Japanese fighters, but are met
with intense anti aircraft fire. Several American planes are lost
in nearly all, including Morris's, suffer damage. During June, mccampbell's
(08:06):
boys begin hitting Saipan in the Marianas. Morris is in
a group of Hellcats that destroy several seaplane ramps and
nearly a dozen seaplanes on the ground. Then Morris cites
a MAVs that has gotten Nearborn MAVs is the US
Navy's identification code for the Kawa Nishy seaplane, a large
(08:29):
four engine plane with a crew of nine. The Kawashi
is armed with four thirty caliber machine guns and one
twenty millimeters cannon.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
Wayne Mars and what a story. Indeed has family roots
in battle that go back to the Revolutionary War. Not
one family member but two goes to La City College
studies acting. In the end, becomes a star. A kid
Galahad makes him a huge star. But what is you do?
(09:00):
He joins the military like so many other stars, and
an ironic twist, he pulls strings to get into battle,
not to get out of it, and not just any battle.
He wants to get into the air and this is
the most dangerous of all positions. When we come back,
more of Hollywood Goes to War and more of Wayne
Morris's story here on our American story and we continue
(09:39):
with our American stories and with Roger McGrath's Hollywood Goes
to Wars stories, this time capturing the story of Wayne Morris.
Let's return to McGrath with more of the story.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Morris dives on the Big Bird and opens up with
his Hillcats. Six fifty caliber Brownie machine guns ub or
slugs rock the Japanese seaplane and cause it to roll
out of control. It plummets into the ocean. Lieutenant Morris
has his first aerial victory. His next action comes a
(10:15):
week later in the Great Mariana's Turkey Shoot, which is
what Navy pilots call the airborne phase of the Battle
of the Philippine Sea. Morris and others of VIA fifteen
are flying cover for torpedo planes and die bombers. When
four zeros drop out of the clouds above and begin
(10:38):
a run on the bombers, Morris takes on the lead Zero.
They helcat in the Zero each bank and dive and roll,
but it's Morris's machine gun fire that takes effect. The
Zero begins smoking, noses over and plunge his straight down
(10:58):
thousands of feet into a layer of clouds. Morris follows
it down, but once he emerges below the clouds, the
Zero is nowhere to be seen. Morris soon spies an
oil slick on the water, indicating the Zero must have
plunged into the sea. However, since he didn't actually see
(11:20):
the Zero crash into the ocean, he can only count
what was surely an aerial victory as a probable. For
the next two months, Morris and the rest of VIA
fifteen it targets not only on Saipan, but also on
nearby Guamantinian. Most of the time the hillcuts, bomb and
streath their enemy is at aircraft fire. After the Turkey shoot,
(11:45):
the skies over the Marianas have been nearly cleared of
Japanese planes, so more aerial victories will have to wait.
In September, Essex and other American carriers begin launching strikes
against the Palau Islands, especially Peluloo. Mccampbell leads the first sweep.
Neither he nor any of his pilots are able to
(12:07):
under their kill totals because they catch the Japanese planes
on the ground. They destroyed dozens of them, but under
Navy and Marine Corps regulations, only planes destroyed in the
air count as kills. After several days of pounding the
Palau Islands, Essex and other carriers are ordered to sail
(12:27):
west to the Philippines and strike at Mindanao airfields. On
their first sweep over Mindanow, Morris and two other VIA
fifteen pilots spot a Japanese patrol plane and blow it
out of the sky. Later in the day, on a
second sweep, Morris sends a burst of machine gun fire
(12:49):
into a top sea the Navy's code name for Mitsubishi
twin engine troop transport plane. The transport's starboard wing tank
erupts in flames, and soon the entire plane is ablaze
and spiraling to the earth. It's Morris's second confirmed aerial victory.
(13:13):
Several days later, over Negros Island, Morris spies a zero
blow him. As Morris dives in banks to get in
behind the zero, the Zero goes into a steep spiral dive,
probably to the Japanese pilot's surprise. Morris is able to
put his Hellcat into an equally tight spiral dive and
(13:35):
fires several bursts into the zero. The Zero explodes in
a ball of flame, and Lieutenant Morris has his third
confirmed kill. Later the same day, Morris and ensign Ken
Flynn jump Anate, the Navy's code name for the Nakajima Fighter.
(13:56):
The Night is the Japanese Army's equivalent to the Japanese
Navy's Zero. Morris's first burst causes the Nakajima to begin smoking.
Flynn follows with a burst that causes the already badly
damaged fighter to erupt in flames and roll into a
spiral dive that ends in the ocean. Minutes later, Morris
(14:21):
and Flynn go after a Zero that's on the tail
of a Hellcat. Morris fires and the zero explodes in
a ball of flame. It's number four for Morris. Seconds later,
Morris finds himself flying directly into an oncoming Nakajima. He
hits the Nate with a single burst before banking steeply.
(14:44):
In the meantime, Flynn circles behind the Nate and finishes
off the already crippled fighter. During the rest of September,
Morris gets no more aerial victories, but together with his
wingman and other violets, he is credited with putting a
Japanese submarine out of action and sinking two freighters and
several patrol boats. Then in October, in a strike at Okinawa,
(15:09):
Morris dives on a Kawasaki Fighter, Japan's most modern fighter,
the Tony as US Navy code identifies the plane as
an inline liquid cooled engine that the Japanese copying from
the Dambler Benz engine that powers the German Meshischment fighter.
The Kawasaki fighter tries to outmaneuver Morris by turning inside him,
(15:33):
but Morris is able to stay behind the tony and
pour fire into him. The Kawasaki shakes and smokes and
loses altitude rapidly. It hits the ocean and cartwheels spectacularly
before sinking. Morris now has the big three of Japanese fighters,
(15:54):
the Mitsubishi Zero, the Nakajima K fifty seven, and the
Kawasaki key Is sixty one, but kidd Galahad is also
an ace. Later in October nineteen forty four comes the
epic Battle for Lee Ti Gulf. Dave mcamberlan's boys are
active in the air over the Cibulean Sea. Morris gets
(16:17):
one zero easily while making a high pass, giving him
six confirmed aerial victories. Later on the same day, Morris
fires at two oncoming zeros, but his rounds either miss
or have no effect. He then banks steeply to come
around and try again, but finds the zeros turning with him.
(16:41):
He doesn't think much of his chances in tight turns
against two zeros and ducks into a cloud. Instead of
going through the cloud and emerging on the other side,
Morris circles inside the cloud and comes out where he entered,
Just as he has hoped. He finds the Japanese fighters
(17:03):
waiting for him on the cloud's other side. This allows
Morris to come up behind the zeros. A burst from
Morris's machine gun sends one zero spiraling into the sea
and the other scurrying for home. Morris is in no
condition to pursue. His Helkat has been riddled with bullets,
(17:24):
the engine is coughing, an hydraulic fluid is running into
his cockpit. Nonetheless, he now has seven confirmed aerial victories.
By the end of November, Air Group fifteen completes its
tour and Morris's war is over. He returns home with
(17:46):
three rows of ribbons on his chest, among other decorations.
Has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross four times and
the Air Medal two times. Is Hollywood's only ace of
the war. He had no easy days. Three of the
Helcats he flew were sold badly damaged by Japanese fire.
(18:08):
They were stripped of their serviceable parts and pushed overboard. Yet,
said Morris, it wasn't the Japs I feared, but my
own shipmates. Every time they showed a picture of board Essex,
I was scared to death there would be one of mine.
That's something I never could have lived down back home,
(18:28):
Morris serves in a naval reserve unit and as promoter
to lieutenant commander. He also restarts his movie career in
nineteen forty seven after a six year interruption. He will
appear in thirty six movies and be cast in dozens
of television shows over the next thirteen years. In September
(18:50):
nineteen fifty nine, his World War II commander and his
wife's uncle, Dave mccampbell, now Captain mccampbell, takes command of
the carrier bon Hamers Yard. While the ship is in
San Francisco Bay. Mccampbell invites Morris and some other former
squadron mates to come aboard for a short cruise into
(19:10):
the Pacific, where the carrier will conduct air exercises. On
the way back into San Francisco Bay, he climbs a
series of ladders to the carrier's bridge for a good
view of the passage under the Golden gate Bridge. He
reaches the ship's bridge and collapses. A helicopter flies him
(19:32):
to Oakland Naval Hospital, but it's too late. He's pronounced
dead of a massive coronary. He was only forty five
years old. Hollywood lost one of her stars, the US
Navy lost one of races, and America lost one of
her heroes.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
And a great job like Greg Hangler is always on
the production of that piece. And a special thanks as
always to Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Human and Vigilantes,
also a U. S Marine and former history professor at UCLA.
The story of Wayne Morris here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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