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To: Twotone
Japanese attacks during World War II Earhart Light, pictured here showing damage it sustained during World War II, was named for Amelia Earhart during the late 1930s.A Japanese air attack on December 8, 1941 by 14 twin-engined bombers killed two of the Kamehameha School colonists: Richard "Dicky" Kanani Whaley, and Joseph Kealoha Keliʻhananui. The raid came one day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and damaged the three airstrips of Kamakaiwi Field. Two days later a Japanese submarine shelled what was left of the colony's few buildings into ruins.[15] A single bomber returned twice during the following weeks and dropped more bombs on the rubble of tiny Itascatown. The two survivors were finally evacuated by a U.S. Navy destroyer on January 31, 1942. Howland was occupied by a battalion of the United States Marine Corps in September 1943 and known as Howland Naval Air Station until May 1944. All attempts at habitation were abandoned after 1944. Colonization projects on the other four islands were also disrupted by the war and ended at this time.[16] On 10 June 1944 a U.S. Navy Martin PBM-3-D Mariner flying boat (BuNo 48199),piloted by William Hines, had an engine fire and made a forced landing in the ocean offshore of Howland. Hines beached the aircraft and although it burned, the crew escaped unharmed, was rescued by the USCGC Balsam (the same ship that later took Unit 92 to Gardner Island), transferred to a sub chaser and taken to Canton Island.[17] Kamakaiwi Field suffered additional damage during World War II and all but disappeared. Ironically, while Howland Island was colonized in 1935 as a future aviation facility and is known in popular culture mostly because of its association with the last flight of Earhart and Noonan, no aircraft is known to have ever landed there, although anchorages nearby could be used by floatplanes and flying boats during World War II.
6 posted on 03/20/2012 10:50:46 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: All

Previous post is from wiki..didn’t know it wouldn’t self reference.


9 posted on 03/20/2012 10:54:00 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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