Happy to oblige:
Posted on 12/07/2018 6:50:20 AM PST by JLAGRAYFOX
Just a recalling of the "devastating" Japanese "sneak" attack on the USA Naval base located at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.
America was stunned, set back and unprepared, but, the USA military responded quickly with the B-24 bomber, bombing attacks on Tokyo, the aircraft being launched from the USN Aircraft Carrier "Yorktown", The Battle of the Coral Sea, and then the devastating defeat of the Japanese at the battle of Midway Island, where the USN destroyed four (4) Japanese aircraft carriers that changed the course of WWII in the Pacific Theater of Operations. All three of these brilliant USA attacks came in the arly months of 1942!!! Amazing!!!
God bless and keep all of our brave USA Military folks, especially the Army Air Force and Navy Seamen & Pilots. America remembers and, never forgets!!!
The Japanese hurt the US Navy but failed to take out critical infrastructure at Pearl Harbor, for example dry docks and fuel dumps.
Flying a B-24 from a carrier would have been quite a feat. Same with landing it aboard.
I posted this because in watching the news this morning on both FNC & FBN...they had not one word about this most historic tragic event. The present American TV News media is lost at sea...IMHO!!! Fox News should be ashamed of themselves!!!
Thank you again! My great uncle was on the USS Honolulu the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. We had a number of other friends and acquaintances who were there as well. All of them are now long gone, but we remember their sacrifices. The Hollywood rewrite of this tragic event will likely distort its meaning and the sacrifices made.
We have newspapers from the time period that show that the Roosevelt administration went on a witch hunt against the top Navy Brass after Pearl Harbor, blaming them for the damage that was done and the people who were killed.
Happy to oblige:
Admiral Kimmel and General Short were scapegoated for the losses at Pearl Harbor. Each knew a Jap attack was imminent & prepared defenses as best they could with the intel they had.
Their descendants are trying to clear their names to this day.
The Japs weren’t stupid.
The Germans weren't paying attention to the shift in power between the army and navy factions in Japan's military, back during the WWI and interwar periods. At one point, Japan's army was ascendant - and it wanted to secure a big chunk of Russian territory and eliminate the Russian threat on the Sea of Japan. The Russians and Chinese had some luck during two or three key land battles and the Japanese army lost ground.
With its Navy faction gaining power, Japan started formulating "Plan B" - securing the Pacific Rim to the south.
The Japs also got whupped in 1939 by some general named “Zhukov”.
If you overlook the typo in the original post, a B-25 was indeed landed on a carrier in an experiment on November 15, 1944. The Navy was considering the construction of a variant designed specifically for carrier use.
My wife used to keep our Piper Cherokee at Bremerton airport and a several defunct carriers were stored in the harbor that we flew over. They look extremely short from the air.
“The Japanese hurt the US Navy but failed to take out critical infrastructure at Pearl Harbor, for example dry docks and fuel dumps.”
Excellent points that must not be overlooked. Throw in the serendipitous fact that the carriers were at sea on December 7th with exercises and you have the reasons behind the previously mentioned successes at the Coral Sea and Midway Island which broke the back of the IJN in 1942. Damaged ships at Pearl were moved to the dry docks for repair/refit and returned to sea as part of carrier groups that hunted down the IJN while using the reserve bunker fuel from Pearl.
You can bet that ignorant bitch, Hirono, is celebrating the deaths of all of those American men this morning. Especially the white men who voted for Republicans.
There were many other officers who were smeared as well. It really was a disgusting display of a Democrat politician (Roosevelt) throwing a whole group of good men under the bus for political expediency. Every career WWII veteran we ever knew who was a member of the military before we got into the war viewed it this way. And we knew quite a few.
Yep, they landed one on the Shangri La and launched it again. Twice.
Wasn’t a B-24, though.
A Piper Cub would be Easy!
My mother who just recently passed away peacefully
at age 92 used to tell of her running to the back of
the farm to tell her dad of the Pearl Harbor attack.
A brother was a Marine who came back in one piece and
a husband who came back with a scar from his right shoulder
to below his left hip.
America at its finest saving sorry a**ed Europe.
If they had invaded they could have taken those facilities, and our carriers would not have had any place to dock. G-d was on our side that day. We were woefully unprepared, and fortunately, the Jappers were woefully stupid.
I remember it well——we were having Sunday dinner at an aunt’s house in MA when the news came over the radio.
.
Sorry to go off subject. In addition to the Cherokee we own 4 hang gliders and a plans built ultralight aircraft called a “skypup”. The skypup has a 28 hp Rotax 277 and can become airborne in less than 50 feet if you have any type of headwind at all. It can land in a short area as well depending on the surface, but it has no brakes except your feet which you can drag on the ground through a hole in the floor.
http://www.ultralightnews.com/plansbuyerguide/skypup-aircraftplans.html
Ours doesn't have a windshield like the one in the picture because they get in the way when entering and exiting the aircraft and the motor itself acts as a windshield. It is an absolutely amazing "little" craft. The wingspan is actually wider than our Cherokee. With the Rotax engine ours actually weighs in at a little over 200 pounds. It can stay in the air at a low throttle setting, sipping just over a gallon an hour. When the winds aloft are over 25mph you can fly it backwards. I sometimes used to "hover" over the water in an inlet in front of a restaurant in Purdy Washington. It was great fun.
I am blessed that my Mom is still with us at 98. In a nursing home, remembers little but to this day can tell me about a friend in Honolulu inviting her to come visit. This was in June 1941.
Asked her father for permission (Mom was living at home). Grandpa, a coal miner now boiler operator with a fifth grade education replied, “Hell, no! Those d@mn Japs are gonna bomb Hawaii any day now!”
My Dad’s unit in occupied Germany was reequipping to ship out to the Pacific theater when the atomic bombs were dropped. Dad said I could thank Harry Truman for my being on this Earth.
The past is never far away.
You must remember to give great credit to the USN intelligence groups that broke the Japanese communications code enabling the USA Army & Navy stationed at Midway Island to firmly know that the Japanese task force would attack Midway Island. The USA air arm based at Midway was ready, as was the aircraft carriers out at sea.
China has never forgotten, General Claire Chennault and his “Flying Tigers” American volunteers, known to the Chinese to this very day as the “AVG” (The American Volunteer Group). As such, they were prepared on the China mainland for the arrival of the “Jimmy Doolittle” B-25 Raid of Tokyo, aircraft who ran out of fuel near the China coast. Many Chinese died protecting the American Army Air Force Pilots after they ditched and parachuted to the China coast.
I was in Beijing in 1984 on business with CAAC, the Chinese national airline discussing a contract with the Deputy Director of Engineering and he was telling me that he was a mechanic working with General Chennault prior to WWII. He broke into tears when he recalled the young American pilots of the AVG (Flying Tigers)that died defending China. He told me China will never forget your young boys that volunteered to help China. He related that in Chinese schools the children still learn about the “AVG” (American Volunteer Group), the young American pilots, mechanics, nurses, etc. Much history & memories, good & bad!!! America is a great country...as are her people!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.