fly from Henderson Field. The bomber and torpedo planes conducted patrol, search, spotting, strike, and night mine-laying operations. On 8 June 1943 the Air Group suffered a great loss. The men of VT-11 were granted a leave to Australia. While leaving New Caledonia, one of the three transport planes crashed killing all 24 men on board. Included in the casualties were Air Group Commander Weldon L. Hamilton and 16 pilots and aircrew from VT-11. On 16 June 1943 twenty eight pilots of VF-11 engaged an estimated 120 Japanese planes and shot down 31. On 1 August 1943 CVG-11 left Guadalcanal and boarded USS Chenango, USS St. Louis and USS Honolulu. They arrived back at NAS Alameda two weeks later. Upon return to the US, CVG-11 trained for their next assignment: carrier operations. Three air groups flew into combat on board during World War II. Air Group Eleven replaced Air Group Two on 29 September 1944. While on board USS Hornet, CVG-11 attacked targets on Okinawa, Formosa, the Philippines, French Indo China and Hong Kong. The Air Group was tested daily by threat of kamikaze attacks against the ship, foul weather and intense anti-aircraft fire over the intended targets. The pilots of VF-11 were most proud of the fact that no VB-11 or VT-11 aircraft were lost to enemy fighter planes. Their top ace was Charles R. Stimpson with 16 victories. By the end of January 1945 the pilots and aircrews of Air Group Eleven claimed the following: 105 enemy planes shot down, 272 planes destroyed on the ground, over 100,000 tons of enemy shipping sunk, and over 100 Japanese ships damaged. These great accomplishments did not come without a price. In four months of flying. CVG-11 lost over 50 aircraft and had more than 60 men killed, missing-in-action or wounded. Air Group Eleven was replaced by Air Group Seventeen on 1 February 1945. They arrived back in Alameda on 24 February 1945. For these operations, CVG-11 was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. An exhibit honoring Carrier Air Group Eleven (CVG-11) is on board the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California. Its grand opening to the public was on Veterans Day of 11 November 2014. In 2014 filmmaker George Retelas released the documentary Eleven which described the operation of CVG-11 via interviews with eleven of its surviving World War II veterans. After the war, the navy changed the designation scheme for