Also knocked down some German aircraft flying off RN carriers. So did the Corsair.
Posted on 06/26/2017 9:21:11 AM PDT by fugazi
1862: Confederate forces led by Gen. Robert E. Lee launch a counteroffensive against Maj. Gen. George McClellan's Army of the Potomac. Although the outnumbered Confederates suffer heavy casualties and subordinates fail to execute Lee's plans, McClellan will ultimately withdraw from Richmond following the Battle of Mechanicsburg - the first major engagement of the Seven Days Battles - and abandon the Peninsula Campaign.
1917: A convoy containing the first American Expeditionary Forces - members of the 5th Marine Regiment - land at the beaches of Saint-Nazaire France. The American troops will train for four months before entering combat. More than two million Americans will serve on the battlefields of Western Europe, and over 50,000 will lay down their lives in the "War to End All War."
1942: The Grumman F6F "Hellcat" - credited with the most aerial victories of any Allied naval aircraft during World War II - makes its first flight. Designed to compete with the agile Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighter, the Hellcat will come to dominate the skies over the Pacific. 34 Japanese warplanes are knocked out of the sky by top Navy ace and Medal of Honor recipient Capt. David McCampbell - one of an incredible 305 Hellcat aces in the war.
1944: U.S. 7th Corps captures the French port city of Cherbourg, taking the garrison commander Lt. General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben and the naval commander, Rear Admiral Walter Hennecke, prisoner. A pocket of Germans still control the vital port facilities, and Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Quentin R. Walsh leads a 53-man naval reconnaissance unit through hostile fire and assaults the naval arsenal, capturing 400 Germans. His force then moved to Fort Du Homet where he received the surrender of another 350 Germans, and released 52 American paratroopers that had been taken prisoner. For his heroic actions,
(Excerpt) Read more at victoryinstitute.net ...
the Battle of Mechanicsburg - the first major engagement of the Seven Days
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It’s Mechanicsville.
Also knocked down some German aircraft flying off RN carriers. So did the Corsair.
Retreat, Hell! We just got here!
Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?
I think the Hellcat was to the Wildcat about like the Super Hornet is to the Hornet.
I have read that he Wildcat could hold it’s own with Japan’s top fighters but did have some weaknesses. The Hellcat was superior to them.
I have also read that the P-40 was better than generally given credit. It had a faster roll rate than the zero. I guess that is how fast it can roll around 360 degrees but am not sure.
The P-40 was maligned due to lack of high-altitude performance, but most of that was negated by the nature of the enemy aircraft and the missions. The P-40 is one of my all-time favorites.
McCellan had the troops to take Richmond, but as usual, he froze and thought the Rebels were much larger than they were.
Great organizer.
Possibly the worst Army/Theater level commander in US Army history.
Also on June 26, 1941, 4 days after the start of Barbarossa, 3 Soviet TB-3's bombed Kassa, Hungary bring them into the war on Germany's side.
They were trying to bomb a city in Slovakia. Oops.
They were within sight of the steeples of Richmond.
They outnumbered the defenders and had every advantage except for leadership.
The Grumman F6F “Hellcat” - credited with the most aerial victories of any Allied naval aircraft during World War II
>I think I read somewhere that the Hellcat had the most aerial victories of ANY allied aircraft in WW2 period - not just naval aircraft. Or maybe it was the highest kill ratio of any allied aircraft I’m thinking of - again, not just naval. One would think the Spitfire or the Mustang in Europe would have had the most victories.
That’s a difficult plane to shoot down, because you’d laughing so hard.
Yabbut, that dude up front has a helluva view!
Employment of the Hellcat benefitted greatly from our recovery of a Zero shot down in the Aleutians. By the time it was salvaged and restored to flight status, the F6F had been designed. But flying the Zero highlighted deficiencies that could be exploited in combat, so when the Hellcat entered the fray, pilots not only had an aircraft that was much more powerful and almost as maneuverable, they also knew how to maximize their advantages against the Zero.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akutan_Zero
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