The US Airforce didn’t exist in WWII.
“During World War 2 you were more likely to die as a member of the U.S. Air Force than as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps...”
later
#1 The B17 really sucked. The Mosquito could have done a much better job. But that’s war business.
#2 The Japanese’s fate was sealed after Coral Sea and Midway. They didn’t have a ghosts chance in hell. They were just stubborn little bastards.
Interesting. To think too that just the other day Joe Biden said “200 million US citizens died from Covid-19” and that was just during his talk. lol
There where hardly any heavy bomber ETO missions in 1942. By 1944 they upped the mission tour to 35 because 25 was doable.
4. Bomber crews were signed on to do 25 mission tours but what most didn’t know was that from 1942-1943 air losses were so common that it became statistically impossible for a bomber to complete a full tour
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Not true!!
Stepdad (USAAF, languages: English, French, Italian, Lithuanian) as Bombardier completed several full missions including Ploesti raids. B-24, 343 Bomb Squadron , 98th Bomb Group, Pyramidiers with Colonel John ‘Killer’ Kane, assigned 9th, 12th and 15th AF. 43 combat missions, 247 combat hours. Many medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Shot down twice - once repatriated by Serb Resistance, another time rescued after floating on raft in the Med for a week. Sole survivor both times.
Buried Arlington, full honors:
At burial service: one chaplain, one personal representative, one Arlington Lady, one Arlington Lady escort, one Observer, one Guard at attention on site, eight Flag bearers (six flag bearers, or head bearer, and one Air Force honor bearer), 21 marching band soldiers, 1 caisson pulled by 7 horses, 4 horsemen, 8 body bearers,and one bugler to play Taps.
Over 70,000 USAAF were killed in WWII.
There is so much more to this story. The pilot then tried to take over the island and held it's inhabitants at gunpoint with the help of collaborators that were ethnic Japanese but living on the island.
This is one of the events that convince president Roosevelt to issue the executive order interning the Japanese.
Here's the details:
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor-japanese-pilot-crash-landed-hawaiian-island-tried-occupy.html
This is absolute BS. The crews quickly figured out that they couldn't statistically survive 25 missions. The morale was plummeting.
That is one reason why Jimmy Doolittle was sent to take over the 8th Air Force from Eaker.
Doolittle changed tactics and the air war changed in favor of the bomber crews to the point where the mission count for rotation was upped to 30 then 35 missions by the end of the war
Those were members of Penal Battalions - you screw up: show cowardice, political non-compliance, etc. and you were sent to them. They went in first to set off the anti-personnel mines and other no-chance operations. Those that survived one battle were sent back to the "relative safety" of front-line infantry.
In the '80s I worked with some anti-Khomeini Iranians who had a bootleg tape about the Iraq-Iran war. It showed Australian doctors trying to fix hundreds of children blinded in the war.
Khomeini sent them, with their parents' blessings, to fight the Iraquis. They went in ahead of the infantry, waving their little green books of Khomeini's sayings, tripping the ping mines as they went along. The ping mines were set to explode waist high on a man, so the kids, being shorter, caught the blast in their upper bodies, hence all the blindness.
Not sure this is accurate. I don't usually cite Wikipedia as a source, but you can read its account of the "Niihau Incident" here.
“2. Another horrific face when the Russians moved through open fields they would force convicts to walk ahead of the troops and tanks. This often cost the convicts their lives but it would spare the Russian army and allow them to continue to advance.”
Nope. Per Russian and Ukrainian sources it was common practice to empty towns and cities of all civilians and force them to march in front of the Soviet army to clear mine fields and expend German ammo. The CCP used this same tactic in Korea with their ‘volunteer army’ advancing in from of the PLA.
After the war. The US and USSR agreed to share captured Japanese technology. When the time came for the sub to be examined by the Soviets, it had an "accident" at sea, and sank.
bkm
I’ve read that Hitler stopped at Dunkirk allowing for the evacuation as a peace overture to Churchill. Any thoughts?
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/operation-cherry-blossoms-night.html
Planned attack on San Diego.
Not to be picky, but IIRK, there was no U.S. Air Force during WWII. It was the U.S.A.A.F.
The Arsenal of Democracy Flyover is scheduled to happen around 11:30 a.m. this Friday, Sept. 25. The WWII aircraft will fly down the Potomac from the north, over the Key, Roosevelt and Memorial bridges, and down the National Mall.