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Posted on 04/18/2003 12:09:46 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. We hope to provide an ongoing source of information about issues and problems that are specific to Veterans and resources that are available to Veterans and their families. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.
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April 18, 1942 In the wake of shock and anger following Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt pressed his military planners for a strike against Tokyo. Intended as revenge for Pearl Harbor, and an act of defiance in the face of a triumphant Japanese military, such a raid presented acute problems in execution. No working Allied air base was close enough to Japan. A carrier would have to approach within three hundred miles of the home islands for its planes to reach. Sending surface ships so close to Japan at that time would practically assure their destruction, if not from Japan's own surface forces, then from her ground-based planes or submarine forces.  The first piece of the puzzle fell into place in the second week of January 1942. Captain Francis Lowe, attached to the Admiral Ernest King's staff in Washington, paid a visit to Norfolk, Virginia, to inspect the new carrier USS Hornet CV-8. There, on a nearby airfield, was painted the outline of a carrier, inspiring Lowe to pursue the possibility of launching ground-based bombers - large planes, with far greater range than carrier-based bombers - from the deck of an aircraft carrier. By January 16, Lowe's air operations officer, Captain Donald Duncan, had developed a proposal: North American B-25 medium bombers, with capacity for a ton of bombs and capable of flying 2000 miles with additional fuel tanks, could take off in the short distance of a carrier deck, attack Japanese cities, and continue on to land on friendly airfields in mainland China. Under a heavy veil of secrecy, Duncan and Captain Marc Mitscher, Hornet's commanding officer, tested the concept off the Virginia coast in early February, discovering the B-25s could be airborne in as little as 500 feet of deck space. The plan now began to develop into action. On April 8, 1942, the same day that the Americans and Filipinos defending Bataan Peninsula surrendered, Enterprise steamed slowly out of Pearl Harbor. With her escorts - the cruisers Salt Lake City and Northampton, four destroyers and a tanker - she turned northwest and set course for a point in the north Pacific, well north of Midway, and squarely on the International Date Line.  Six days earlier, Enterprise's sister ship Hornet had sailed from San Francisco, also accompanied by a cruiser and destroyer screen. Ploughing westwards, Hornet carried a somewhat unusual cargo. Arrayed across her aft flight deck, in two parallel rows, sat 16 Mitchell B-25 bombers: Army Air Force medium bombers. By all appearances, the bombers were too large to possibly take off from a carrier deck. Certainly, this is what the men in Enterprise's task force thought when Hornet and her escorts hove into view early April 12. Rumors spread about the force's mission: some thought the bombers were being delivered to a base in the Aleutians, while others speculated they were destined for a Russian airfield on the Kamchatka peninsula. When the Task Force Commander, Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, announced "This force is bound for Tokyo" Enterprise rang with a roar of enthusiasm and disbelief. The plan was more daring than most could imagine. After refueling on April 17, Hornet, Enterprise - the force's Flagship - and four cruisers would leave the destroyers and tankers behind, to make a high speed dash west, towards the Japanese home islands. The next afternoon, Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle and his crew would take off alone, arrive over Tokyo at dusk, and drop incendiary bombs, setting fires to guide the remaining bombers to their targets. Three hours behind Doolittle, the remaining fifteen B-25s would be launched, just 500 miles from Tokyo. Navigating in darkness over open ocean, they'd be guided in by Doolittle's blazing incendiaries, and bomb selected military and industrial targets in Tokyo, as well as Osaka, Nagoya and Kobe.  Though the bombers could take off from a carrier deck, they couldn't land on a carrier. Instead of returning to Hornet, they'd escape to the southwest, flying over the Yellow Sea, then some 600 miles into China, to land at the friendly airfield at Chuchow (Zhuzhou). If all went well, the bombers would have a reserve of perhaps 20 minutes of fuel. Success depended on the carriers being able to approach within 500 miles of Japan undetected, and survival on the airmens' ability to evade the formidable air defenses expected near the target areas. Things went according to plan until early April 18. Shortly after 0300, Enterprise's radar made two surface contacts, just ten miles from the task force. As the force went to general quarters, Halsey turned his ships north to evade the contacts, resuming the course west an hour later. Then, a little past 0600, LT Osborne B. Wiseman of Bombing Six flew low over Enterprise's deck, his radioman dropping a weighted message: a Japanese picket ship had been spotted 42 miles ahead, and Wiseman suspected his own plane had been sighted. Halsey, however, forged ahead, the carriers and cruisers slamming through heavy seas at 23 knots. Still nearly two hundred miles short of the planned launching point, Halsey strove to give the Army pilots every possible advantage by carrying them as close to Tokyo as he dared.  Ninety minutes later, however, the gig was up. At 0738, Hornet lookouts spotted the masts of another Japanese picket. At the same time, radio operators intercepted broadcasts from the picket reporting the task force's presence. Halsey ordered the cruiser Nashville to dispose of the picket, and launched Doolittle's bombers into the air: GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS YOU - HALSEY
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And isn't it nice to know that hasn't changed!
"But the lethality of the military is not just organizational or a dividend of high-technology. Moral and group cohesion explain more still. The general critique of the 1990s was that we had raised a generation with peroxide hair and tongue rings, general illiterates who lounged at malls, occasionally muttering "like" and "you know" in Sean Penn or Valley Girl cadences. But somehow the military has married the familiarity and dynamism of crass popular culture to 19th-century notions of heroism, self-sacrifice, patriotism, and audacity.
The result is that the energy of our soldiers arises from the ranks rather than is imposed from above. What, after all, is the world to make of Marines shooting their way into Baathist houses with Ray-Bans, or shaggy special forces who look like they are strolling in Greenwich Village with M-16s, or tankers with music blaring and logos like "Bad Moon Rising?" The troops look sometimes like cynical American teenagers but they fight and die like Leathernecks on Okinawa. The Arab street may put on shows of goose-stepping suicide bombers, noisy pajama-clad killers, and shrill, masked assassins, but in real battle against gum-chewing American adolescents with sunglasses these street toughs prove to be little more than toy soldiers.
By the same token, officers talk and act like a mixture of college professors and professional boxers. Ram-road straight they brave fire alongside their troops — seconds later to give brief interviews about the intricacies of tactics and the psychology of civilian onlookers. Somehow the military inculcated among its officer corps the truth that education and learning were not antithetical to risking one's life at the front; a strange sight was an interview with a young officer offering greetings to his fellow alumni — of Harvard Business School. So besides a new organization and new technologies, there is a new soldier of sorts as well."
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82nd Airborne at Work
 A paratrooper assigned to the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division hands out humanitarian rations to Iraqi citizens in central Iraq, in this April 5 photo made available Monday April 7, 2003. (AP Photo/Stf. Sgt. Eric Foltz/U.S. Army, HO)  A U.S. Army paratrooper from 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division keeps watch over Afghans traveling through his defensive perimeter position during 'Operation Resolute Strike,' in Sangin, Afghanistan, Tuesday April 8, 2003. 'Operation Resolute Strike' which concluded Wednesday was conducted based on intelligence from ambush that left two U.S. service members dead and one seriously injured March 29. (AP Photo/U.S. Military, Spc. Jim Wagner, HO)  A paratrooper of 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, searches the basement of a home for hidden weapons Wednesday in the village of Khar Bolah, Afghanistan, Wednesday, April 16, 2003. Eighteen months after U.S.-led forces drove out the Taliban regime, search missions like this one, dubbed Operation Crackdown, show that dangers still lurk in the barren Afghan landscape. (AP Photo/HO, Charles D. Meseke, U.S. Army)  Paratroopers of 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division radio command that they have found munitions that could be used by anti-coalition forces while searching the village of Khar Bolah, Afghanistan, Wednesday, April 16, 2003.
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Just in case the Commander-In-Chief decides to recall any of us retiree's, I have been trying on the old uniforms.
I want to be ready.
So far only the socks fit.
FRegards, Vets
Thanks for the ping and comments.
Some history detail concerning Heavy crusier USS Tuscaloosa post by Amagorat.
In the article is listed Tuscaloosa's joining the carrier battle group of USS Ranger.
Researching the History of USS Isherwood along with testimony from the crew revealed some info which does not show up in most of the history narratives .
Info was confirmed via a book on U-boats I had read..with a testimony by an ex U Boat commander that period.
USS Isherwood and USS Bell where assigned to USS Ranger..they provided screen coverage for Troop deployments from U.S. to England.
The return leg was a high speed dash thru a nautical zone known as the "Black pit"....a several hour run at 30knots to cross.
Black pit was beyond aircoverage..and was a known U-boat pack lurking site.
Primeminister Wisnton CHurchill was headed stateside to meet President Roosevelt..the meeting was the first serious draft for the D-DAY planning.
German opperatives knew of the crossing..a bounty was offered by Hitler of some 50,000 pounds to any U-BOAT commander who could kill Winston.
During chats with the crew of USS Isherwood ,learned that they went to high speed...basically a race vs U Boat targeting skills.
Several ships in the vanguard were left to defend each other due to the speed factor.
Winstons ship could do over 30 knots..the new fletcher destroyers drive trains could handle 33 knots for several hours run.
Weeks later the same battlegroup formed up with the British home fleet...they brought out several of their Biggy warwagons...HMS King George..the group was huge .
German intel made sure Tirpitz stayed in some Fjord ...she would not come out to fight.
In October USS Isherwood was released ..her Captian was promoted to a new offensive in the med...the DD got a new captian allong with a Commodore..also made Flag of a Destroyer Division.
They escorted newly commissioned Battleship USS Boston to the Pacific...
In a period of time tracking near this..another US Destroyer was getting her first assignment..to screen the fast Battleship USS Iowa with President Roosevelt aboard to North Africa.
USS Wiliam D Porter had a series of career ending events unfold with this assignment.
Pulling away from the dock...Porters anchor raked the side of a ship moored beside her..causing considerable damage.
A day out...a crewman dissapears..goes overboard in the night...Captain of Porter is seeing his career slide down the lou.
With President Roosevelt looking on...Porters captain decides on impressing him with a mock torpedo attack.
Panic sweeps the Porter when it is learned that one of the torpedoes is live..the safety was not set.
Porter breaks naval protocals by warning IOWA via radio....
In one account.."Secret service" with Roosevelt pulled thier sidearms on IOWA thinking an asssassination attempt was occuring.
William D Porter was ordered to Guantonimo and impounded...the crew where interviewed..then farmed out around the fleet...the captian..his career ruined.
USS William D Porter would get a new crew and captian..assigned to USS Isherwood's Division in the Pacific.
During a stop in at Pearl Harbor ..USS William D Porter was challenged at Pearls approaches...
"Don't shoot ...were Republicans"!
"Willie D's" record of mayhem would continue...she was lost off Okinawa when a kamikaze exploded under her keel.
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Thank you Britain
 Squadron leader Rolfie Dunne holds up his young daughter Alice on his return to RAF (Royal Air Force) Leuchars in Scotland April 11, 2003. Eight crewmembers of 111 squadron returned home from operations in the Gulf. REUTERS/Jeff J Mitchell  Flight Lieutenant Paul Mounsey, a Harrier pilot, of 3 Squadron Royal Air Force (RAF), holds a child at RAF Cottesmore in Leicestershire, Britain, April 18, 2003. Members of 3 Squadron were met by their families upon returning to the UK on Friday after carrying out operations in the Gulf. REUTERS/POOL/Jack Pritchard-MoD  British Squadron Leader Harvey Smith (L), a Harrier pilot of 3 Squadron at RAF (Royal Air Force) Cottesmore in Leicestershire, Britain, holds his daughter Chloe at the base, April 18, 2003. Members of 3 Squadron were met by their families upon returning to the UK on Friday after carrying out operations in the Gulf. REUTERS/POOL/Jack Pritchard-MoD  Prime Minister Tony Blair meets aircrewmen with their families at RAF Leuchars, in Scotland, Tuesday April 15, 2003. (AP Photos/Andrew Milligan).
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Have you watched any of the new documentaries on Bismarck?
Have watched and recorded 2 now...one is 2 hours..the other is actually better being 1 hour..but enhanced focus on the problems with Lutjens and Hitler's admin.
The computer animations in both documentaries are excellent.
The honorable life & career of Admiral Gunther Lutjens
His last radio message was actually a death message, which was informing the Kriegs Marine Group West, about their situation, "we will fight to the last shell". This was completely true... Admiral Lutjens and all the brave sailors of Bismarck fought to the last shell, and died with their great honor aboard the giant battleship. Their hopeless fight was unforgettable and legendary.
Admiral Gunther Lutjens was a quiet, humourless, inflexible and rather forbidding man, with a forceful character, given to fatalism.. According to some sailors of Deutsche Kriegsmarine, he was that kind of interesting man. Some of them were nicknamed Admiral Lutjens the "Black Devil". But according to Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, he was an effective and intrepid leader and a perfect commander. His belief was not wrong.
Admiral Lutjens was a brave commander who dedicated his whole life to German Naval Forces both the Kaiserliche Marine and Kriegsmarine. Actually, his life was not only interesting, but mixed with some secrets too. When he died aboard DKM Bismarck as the fleet commander, he was 52 years old, who left many questions behind his life and decisions as well. According to some of his friends, he was aware about this "death journey" and hopeless operation Rheinubung.
It is not possible to learn his true ideas and beliefs today, but everyone knows that he tried to do his best againist impossible odds. He lived as a gentleman, fought as a gentleman and died with honor. Lutjens was one of the last representatives of an elegant era, which was completely ended many years ago.
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