Posted on 07/27/2005 9:00:37 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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![]() are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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After months of minor raiding, the U.S. Navy's new aircraft carriers took on a major target when they attacked Japan's key bastion in the Solomons in November 1943. ![]() It was from Rabaul that Japanese warships and aircraft were staged before being hurled south against the advancing Allies. Rabaul in turn was frequently the target of air raids by the U.S. Army's Fifth and Thirteenth air forces, the U.S. Marines, and the Royal Australian and Royal New Zealand air forces. Regardless of the outcome of such attacks, the Allies could almost invariably count on a hot reception from air groups, or kokutais, of Mitsubishi A6M Zeros, flown by the best pilots in the Japanese navy, and from scores of anti-aircraft (AA) positions. By November 1943, however, the constant attrition of fighting over the Solomons was taking its toll on Rabaul's capabilities. And at that point, a new threat appeared. A new generation of U.S. naval aircraft carriers, built to replace those lost in 1942, were ready to join the offensive, manned by sailors and airmen who had been intensely trained by the combat-seasoned survivors of the battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, the eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz. ![]() Joining the surviving carriers Saratoga and Enterprise were new 27,000-ton Essex-class fleet carriers and 11,000-ton Independence-class light carriers. Along with the veteran Grumman TBF-1 Avenger torpedo bombers and Douglas SDB-4 Dauntless dive bombers on their decks were two new aircraftthe Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat fighter and a new dive bomber, the Curtiss SB2C-1 Helldiver. ![]() Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat While his fleet buildup and the Allied advance up the Solomons proceeded, the American commander in chief in the Pacific (CINCPAC), Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, decided on an alternate plan to advance on Japan by seizing strategically selected island groups. The first targets would be Makin and Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati), but before those invasions commenced, Nimitz sent his new task forces on a series of minor raids. The first occurred on August 31, 1943, when aircraft of Task Force 15.5, built around the carriers Yorktown, Essex and Independence, attacked Marcus Island in the North Pacific. That was followed by strikes against Tarawa and Makin by the carriers Lexington, Princeton and Belleau Wood from September 17 to 19. Wake Island was next, hit by planes from Essex, Yorktown, Lexington, Cowpens, Independence and Belleau Wood on October 5 and 6. The Wake strike saw the first confrontation between carrier-based F6F-3s and A6M2 Zeroswith the Hellcat coming away the victorand the first successful use of a submarine, Skate, to rescue downed carrier airmen. ![]() SB2C Helldiver The damage inflicted in the raids was hardly crippling to the Japanese, but it gave the U.S. Navy airmen and sailors experienceand even more valuable self-confidencefor the greater campaigns to come. The first major operation for Nimitz's new carriers came not in the Central Pacific, however, but in the Solomons to the southwest. And their first real challenge would come from Rabaul. On November 1, 1943, U.S. Marines landed in Empress Augusta Bay on the island of Bougainville, bringing American forces to the upper region of the Solomons. The Japanese reacted by sending a force of cruisers and destroyers to annihilate the beachhead, but it was intercepted by an American cruiser-destroyer force on the early morning of November 2 and repulsed with the loss of the light cruiser Sendai and the destroyer Hatsukaze. ![]() SBD Dauntless Later that day, 78 Fifth Air Force planesNorth American B-25s of the 3rd, 38th and 345th bombardment groups, escorted by Lockheed P-38s from the 39th and 80th fighter squadrons and the 475th Fighter Groupattacked Rabaul and were intercepted by 112 Zeros. Rabaul's air defenses, under the overall command of Rear Adm. Jinichi Kusaka, included three carrier groups that had been dispatched there just the day before, while their ships underwent refit in Japan. The caliber of the pilots was reflected in their performance. Warrant Officer Kazuo Sugino from the carrier Zuikaku's air group was credited with shooting down three enemy planes. Shokaku's carrier group included Warrant Officer Kenji Okabe, famed for scoring seven victories in one day during the Battle of the Coral Sea, but its star in the November 2 air battle was Petty Officer 1st Class (PO1C) Takeo Tanimizu, who scored his first of an eventual 32 victories by downing two P-38s. From light carrier Zuiho, Ensign Yoshio Fukui downed a B-25 but was then himself shot down, possibly by Captain Marion Kirby of the 475th Group's 431st Squadron. Fukui survived with a burned right foot and insisted on returning to action. The loss of nine B-25s and nine P-38s earned the November 2 raid a place in Fifth Air Force annals as "Bloody Tuesday," but the Japanese recorded 18 Zeros destroyed or damaged in addition to bomb damage to Rabaul's ground installations. ![]() Admiral William "Bull" Halsey The Japanese needed a more powerful naval force to destroy the American beachhead. Admiral Mineichi Koga, commander of the Combined Fleet, dispatched Vice Adm. Takeo Kurita's Second Fleet, comprised of the heavy cruisers Takao, Maya, Atago, Suzuya, Mogami, Chikuma and Chokai, the light cruiser Noshiro and four destroyers, from Japan to Rabaul. Chokai and a destroyer had to be detached on November 4 to tow two transports that had been crippled by American air attacks to the northwestern Pacific base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. A Consolidated B-24 spotted the rest of Kurita's fleet off the Admiralty Islands and duly reported 19 ships heading toward the western entrance of St. George's Channel at Rabaul. The Second Fleet's arrival was bad news to Admiral William F. Halsey, commander of U.S. Navy forces in the Southwest Pacific. With most of the U.S. fleet preparing to invade the Gilberts, he did not have one heavy cruiser to oppose Kurita's powerful veterans. He did, however, have a small carrier detachment, Rear Adm. Frederick C. Sherman's Task Force (TF) 38, which had supported the bombardment of Buka and Bonis. The carriers Saratoga and Princeton were fueling from the tanker Kankakee northwest of Rennell Island when Halsey sent them a dispatch on November 4, ordering, "Task Force 38 proceed maximum formation speed [to] launch all-out strike on shipping in Rabaul and north thereof (order of targets: cruisers, destroyers). Retire thereafter...."
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Very nice and revealing comment. I knew I liked you. :-)
Do I recollect wrongly, or did the AD have something like that "hinged bomb rack, or crutch" so that a bomb would clear the propeller?
I assume you are refering to the venerable Skyraider :-) I do not ever recall seeing a "bomb crutch" on a Skyraider. You might recall that the AD series was envisioned as a strike aircraft and not as a dive bomber. The Skyraider was even fortunate enough to get credti for air to air Mig kills in both Korea and Vietnam if my memory does not fail me.
A couple of contempary pic of Skyraiders and a restored Able Dog as well.
A nice underside shot of a restored AD
No sign of a bomb crutch on any of these pics.
Gotta go as the Mrs has requested the computer. I have to be nice as she has a cane and knows how to use it:-)
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
I would tie the Fourth to the Gang of Four. Viet Nam war era, Fonda, etc.
Fifth is attempting a take over of the Democratic Party, looks like they will succeed. Still hiding fairly well.
I hear you. I wonder if there will ever be a time we can truly take back our country.
"I hear you. I wonder if there will ever be a time we can truly take back our country."
I am more hopeful than I was in 1970-2000. Most important, defeat is in your heart and in your mind. Your mind is by far, by far, your most important weapon. Your heart knows the Devil's work, your heart and your mind seek The Way. As MacArthur put it, "The Way, and The Light."
Might be a long fight. The Adversary never sleeps.
"Victory" means to prevail. "Defeat" means to accept defeat, to be their slave in your heart.
Oh, yeah, how about "War is a team sport!" Well, not sport, but instead life and death. Still, war is won as a team and lost by individuals running and hiding, giving up. What Those People want most is for us not to work together.
There are no atheists in foxholes. This is true.
Hope I helped some. Always here. We are going to kick their butts.
The first A6M the Japanese put together and back into the air after the War was in about 1957. It was only flown a few times.
I saw it come over a tree line at about 60-75 feet altitude, distance about a half mile, wag the wings, make a turn to port and go back the way it came. Saw it for about five, six seconds. I was in a school bus, of all places! Tokyo, of course.
Extremely agile. Looking back, it seems to me that the controls were way to sensitive for anyone like me to fly it. Fast. No meatballs, just that wartime paint.
When you have a few minutes with nothing to do check out...
http://www.abledogs.com/
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Great stuff. I saw a ad for a program on the New Guinea campaign which was shown on the History channel last year. I missed the program but wonder if any of our Military minded folks might have seen it and could tell the name.
My Dad was a Army Air Corp vet who served there but died too young for me to ask him much about his experiences. He was a radio operation on one of the air bases there. Any idea of how his service records could be looked up?
There is a dingus called an "ejector foot" which pushes the bomb away from the airplane sort of like the SBD bomb release yoke did.
The AD-4 was made to deliver nuclear weapons and had a special "Douglas Ejector Foot" to pop those babies out with on time delivery. There are a very few photos of an AD-4 carrying a MARK 7 60 kt device, and I can find but one, and that one will not let me copy image location. Maybe A6 has one? I'll try again tomorrow.
I don't feel defeated, I just want the fight to be more aggressive. I want people in the streets.
You are always most helpful. :-)
Folks more interested in ordered liberty than license are pretty rare.
Boy, are the Lefties capitalizing on human nature nowadays! On the other hand, watch the President. An amazing master at work. Good work can be done these days, just as good work could be done in 1776 (or 1715, or 1688, or 1640, etc.)
Just don't expect much, if anything, from 90% of the people. More like 98% of the people.
You are always the sensible one. Thanks for keeping me grounded in that arena.
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