Posted on 03/13/2019 8:31:12 AM PDT by Coronal
On July 1, 1942, the U.S.S. Wasp, an aircraft carrier holding 71 planes, 2,247 sailors and a journalist, sailed from San Diego to the western Pacific to join the battle against the Japanese. On board was a naval officer named Lt. Cmdr. John Joseph Shea. Two days before he left San Diego, Shea wrote his 5-year-old son a letter.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
When I was only fifty yards away, the Wildcat broke out of his loop and astonished me by flying straight and level. At this distance I would not need the cannon; I pumped 200 rounds into the Grumman's cockpit, watching the bullets chewing up the thin metal skin and shattering the glass.
I could not believe what I saw; the Wildcat continued flying almost as if nothing had happened. A Zero which had taken that many bullets into its vital cockpit would have been a ball of fire by now. I could not understand it. I slammed the throttle forward and closed in to the American plane, just as the enemy fighter lost speed. In a moment I was ten yards ahead of the Wildcat, trying to slow down. I hunched my shoulders, prepared for the onslaught of his guns, I was trapped.
The Wildcat was a shambles. Bullet holes had cut the fuselage and wings up from one end to the other. The skin of the rudder was gone, and the metal ribs stuck out like a skeleton.
© Pacific Wrecks - Dogfight between Saburo Sakai and James Southerland August 7, 1942 Source: https://www.pacificwrecks.com/people/veterans/sakai/samurai/southerland.html © Pacific Wrecks - Dogfight between Saburo Sakai and James Southerland August 7, 1942
Bushido?
The Zero was a premier fighter going into WWII. As we’ve been discussing, it was not a defensive aircraft.
The Zero weighed about as much as a modern SUV. The radial engine it sported put out about 950 HP. Can you imagine handling a 950 HP SUV?
The design was astonishingly bad. IIRC, they had their fire mains set up so that a hit on one side of the ship in the right place could knock out the ENTIRE firefighting infrastructure on that side, stem to stern!
Our ships consistently were designed with ways to isolate and limit the damage to critical things like fire mains, we could drain avgas pipes and pump CO2 into them if the ship was under attack, things like that.
Even the passageways they had to go through, they had to bend double in many of them. Of course, we had some passageways like that too, but not to the extent they did.
I am sure those sailors had a lot of guts and moxy, but if your tools suck...they suck!
Whew. I wonder how many G’s the driver pulled...
Actually empty it weighed 6,000 pounds. How much does an SUV weigh?
I’m just tellin’ you what I read.
Couple of years ago we were riding our bicycles down a trail in Central Florida a day before the Fun and Sun Fly-In at Lakeland airport.
From just up the trail a little over tree height came 2 Zeroes directly towards us...
I thought...”Wow! So this is what being caught in a strafing run is like!” Bone-chilling!
Then 2 Corsairs appeared and we whooped and yelled as they “shot” the Zeroes who then dropped “smoke” on us!
Stinky stuff!
They we rehearsing for a reenactment dogfight the next day at the fly-in.
Wow, A Chevy suburban weighs about 5,700 lbs so very close!
We ran a bunch of PT boats at then as well. They did a bit of damage, but more important, probably like your grandfather’s tin can, kept them busy while our big boys ranged them in.
My father served on the sub USS Bream. She entered the war after we cleared up the bad torpedos we were using. The USS Tang sank 24 Jap ships, but in the end was taken out by her own torpedo, which did a u-turn and right back into her. Very sad day for the Silent Service.
My father came back with a battle flag from the Bream; it had 17 Jap ships stitched on it. The US Navy only gave them credit for 3 official kills.
I was lucky enough to serve on the USS Ault, DD 698. I was discharged from the Navy as lead navigator on the Ault and almost extended my enlistment to go to the Med on her.
Great ship officers and crew. The Ault was present in Tokyo Bay at the surrender.
I always believed that the Tin Can Navy was the purest of sea service.
One of my favorite books is: The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James D. Hornfischer.
All his books are excellent reads.
It’s the stuff of the Alamo & Wake Island defenders — and it basically is not taught in American History. I know I read about it on my own... and I’m a baby boomer. American youth today have no concept of going into a brawl from which you have zero expectation of survival.
Yes, they did.
The Douglas TBD Devastator was ineffectual at Midway not just because it was a first-generation monoplane torpedo bomber - the Nakajima B5N Kate was not very much faster (228 MPH top versus 206 MPH top: both much slower than opposing fighters) - but because its torpedo was slow and erratic.
The Grumman TBF Avenger and Martin B-26 Marauder were also ineffectual due to the inferior American torpedoes.
Agreed.
Wow. Incredible story.
As much as I hate the NYT, I have to say that article along with the comments and links in this thread have been outstanding. Thanks to all!
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