Posted on 06/03/2009 8:55:27 PM PDT by TonyInOhio
Where do we get such men?
The best of the American spirit, dedicated to doing their task, scared but not wanting to flinch, ready to do their part for the ultimate victory, so help them God.
They are the reason we cannot let Obama succeed. Obama is not the king, and America is not his property.
It is ours.
Amen, brother.
The Japanese lost The Battle of Midway because of bad command decision. Nagumo didn’t know whether or not to attack Midway or the American aircraft carriers. He only found the American aircraft carriers because one of his scout planes had trouble launching from its’ crusier. The plane launced an hour and half late from when it was scheduled to take off when the American carriers weren’t even in the area at the time. He had intelligence where he could either destroy the Hornet, Enterprise, or Yorktown with torpedoes or attack Midway with bombs. What he should’ve done was take half to attack Midway and half to attack the carriers. The American dive-bombers attacked when the Japanese were re-arming and refueling their planes. And, the dive-bombers only found them because they got lost and luckily found a Japanese picket ship that was heading back to the carriers. Torpedo 8 didn’t know anything about it, and they got stuck flying lousy planes a drop of rain could shoot down. This notion that the Zeroes cleared the way for the dive-bombers is second guessing at best when the American dive-bombers didn’t even know where they were. It’s like when Nagumo failed to attack Pearl a third time and destroy the oil tanks and repair facilities. The Zero made mincemeat out of the Devastors, the Wildcat, and the Buffalo, and anything else that the Americans could throw up. It wasn’t until 1943 when the Hellcat, Corsair, and P-38 showed up that they could effectively take on a Zero.
And yes, John Ford was on Midway at the time of the attacks...
As Bismarck said, "God looks out for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America."
The ensign appears ready, willing, and able to take the young nurse camping and pitch one heckuva tent!
Even though Ensign Gay was the sole survivor of VT-8’s attack on the Japanese carrier fleet, he had a ringside seat to their destruction from the American dive bomber attacks as he bobbed on the water, awaiting and praying for his recovery.
Imagine being the only American to have a truly worm’s eye view as the carrier arm that smashed Pearl Harbor is smashed in turn by your compatriots before your very eyes barely six months later!
And a little help from the Big Guy Upstairs.If it had been cloudy that day,are intelligence planes would of never discovered what they did.I am no Jesus freak,but yeah He was on ourside that day. GO ISREAL
yes sir
That’s why I said the coordinated attack was purely dumb luck. The dive bombers and the torpedo planes had gotten separated, and the dive bombers were low on fuel, too. The torpedo bombers had gotten there first, and the Zekes were all at low altitude killing TBDs when the SBDs rolled in on target. The other big piece of luck was that (as you noted) Nagumo had been indecisive about aircraft loads, and was in the middle of loading planes for a raid when the bombs hit. All three of the hit Japanese carriers flamed up much like Franklin did several years later, but, Franklin survived. Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu did not.
For a good account of this from the viewpoint of Air Group 6 (Enterprise), find The Big E, or any one of a zillion books about Midway that use it as a source.
Hey, the Americans had the dime that day...
If you want to read a fascinating book on Midway, try “Inquest” a review of the battle, written by an American of WHY the Japanese failed. Nagumo doesn’t come out as bad as you’d think. And Yamamoto comes out as the principal cause of the defeat. the book is truly amazing. Just sent it to a buddy of mine [ex-Navy].
Battle of Midway: 2 clips about 18 minutes total. FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDvdrp4Uyy0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHfm7GX3tHY&feature=related
It was not a coordinated attack otherwise the torpedo squadrons would not been decimated. The Coral Sea battle was coordinated where all the elements (torpedo bombers, divebombers and fighters) arrived at the same time to overwhelm the defending fighters. It was dumb luck of timing for the dive-bombers. The other problem was the bad torpedoes which would not go boom. The failure at Midway doomed the TBMs to be used as high level bombers for the rest war with a few exceptions. Dad (now departed) flew 2-T-10 off the Lex but was transferred off a week before the Coral Sea battle otherwise, I wouldn’t be here. His ex-plane was the only one that didn’t make it back (ran out of gas). He directed gunsight and bombsight development for the rest of the war and was aware of the research that went into solving the torpedo problem. He loss a lot of friends at Midway.
A sobering reminder of the cost of freedom.
“Midway is a fascinating study in how the fog of war, screw ups, mistakes, heroism, bad decisions, miracles, etc. can all mix together to change the course of the war in the 15 minutes it took for the dive bombers to cripple 3 carriers”
despite The Japs had 4x more vessels, the lost the fleet’s pride and an invasion force of over 100,000 troops that resulted the tide to be in our favor. Amazing
God bless your dad , so glad it made it through .
Mine , who passed this last Apr. was USAAF in the ETO
from D-Day to V.E. Day
Few of us have any idea what they went through , and fewer still among the youth care anymore .
But I care and I believe that what they did back then still matters . It is the true light of freedom and strength and
the genuine American way that we can all be so proud of.
This spirit is not dead . It lives bright and strong in our men and women in the Armed Forces today .
God bless them all .
Thanks for your post , again , God bless your dad .....
so sorry!
So glad HE made it ......
sheesh
USS Torpedo Eight is a name for a CV that shines. Far better than naming them after dead politicians. Even desrving ones.
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