Posted on 06/04/2003 5:33:59 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.
Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different veteran each Wednesday. The "ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us - Our Veterans.
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Torpedo 8 at The Battle of Midway John C. Waldron was born at Fort Pierre, South Dakota, on 24 August 1900. Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1924, he became a Naval Aviator in 1927. During the years prior to World War II, he served in several air units, was an instructor at the Naval Academy and at Pensacola, Florida, and performed other duties connected with aviation. In 1941, LCdr. Waldron became Commanding Officer of Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8), which was to serve on the new aircraft carrier Hornet (CV-8). He led that unit during the Battle of Midway, when all fifteen of its planes were lost to overwhelming enemy fighter opposition while making an unsupported attack on the Japanese aircraft carrier force. Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron was killed during that action. Lieutenant Commander John Charles Waldron, USN (1900-1942) John Waldron was commanding officer of Torpedo Squadron 8 which the lost the entire squadron of 15 TBD's at the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. His body was not recovered. As reported in Captain M. A. Mitscher's report to the Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Fleet on June 13, 1942: "Torpedo 8 led by Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron was lost in its entirety. This squadron flew at 100 knots below the clouds while the remainder of the group flew at 110 knots, climbing to 19,000 feet. Lieutenant Commander Waldron, a highly aggressive officer, leading a well trained squadron, found his target and attacked.... This squadron is deserving of the highest honors for finding the enemy, pressing home the attack, without fighter protection and without diverting dive bomber attacks to draw the enemy fire. Ensign G. H. Gay, A-V (N), U. S. N. R. is worthy of additional praise for making a torpedo hit and for the presence of mind he showed in hiding under his seat cushion, after being shot down, for several hours, thereby probably saving his own life and giving us an excellent eye-witness picture of the damage caused by the attack on the enemy carriers". The last of Torpedo Eight's TBDs, T-16 (BuNo 1506), flown by LCDR John C. Waldron with Horace Franklin Dobbs, CRMP, in the rear seat, taking off Hornet on 4 June 1942. Notice the unstowed twin .30 cal. Photo courtesy Mark Horan Captain Mitscher later added in his report the following , making reference to recommended awards: "In particular, the Commanding Officer feels that the conduct of Torpedo Squadron Eight, led by an indomitable Squadron Commander, is one of the most outstanding exhibitions of personal bravery and gallantry that has ever come to his attention in the records of the past or present". Commander Waldron was awarded the Navy Cross for heroism posthumously. The Battle of Midway has been termed the turning point in the Pacific Theatre in WW II and was the subject of an epic motion picture film. Waldron Field was named 5 March 1943, prior to establishing of station, in honor of Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron, killed in action leading the attack of Torpedo Squadron 8 in the Battle of Midway; 4 June 1942. The former NAAS now an OLF to NAS Corpus Christi. On August 10, 1941, Waldron became commander of Torpedo Squadron 8, based on the USS Hornet. Waldron was forty-one when he was killed in the Battle of Midway, the turning point of the war in the Pacific. Flying without fighter protection and without sufficient fuel in which to make it back to his carrier, Waldron, leading the rest of his Torpedo Squadron 8, delivered an attack against the Japanese on June 4, 1942. Battling fierce Japanese fire, Waldrons squadron had little chance. He and others tried to escape their planes as they were hit, but few were successful. Of the fifteen planes and thirty men, only one officer lived to tell of the heroic leadership of Lt. Cmdr. Waldron. It is apparent that Waldrons outstanding leadership motivated his men to die for him and with him and the cause for which they stood. John Waldron (left), and Horace Dobbs (right) during Coral Sea An airfield at Corpus Christi, Texas, was named for Cmdr. Waldron in April of 1943. A destroyer, USS Waldron, also became his namesake. In addition, a street in Ft. Pierre, South Dakota is named for John Waldron, WW II hero.
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We should have let them keep it.
For 67 out of the more than 80 crewmen it would be their final mission.
Welcome Home 3rd Infantry
Justin Sefo, right, helps Shandra Brown, center, and Trisha Davis place a banner at Cottrell Field at Fort Stewart, Ga., Tuesday, June 3, 2003, that welcomes home Brown's husband from a year deployment to the Middle East. Brown's husband is one of 300 soldiers from the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division to return from the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Stephen Morton) David Gray, center, waits Tuesday, June 3, 2003, with his daughter in-law Myra Gray, right, and his granddaughter, Katelyn Gray, at Ft. Stewart, Ga., for more than 300 soldiers from the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division to return from deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Fredom. They were waiting for Spc. David Gray Jr. (AP Photo/Stephen Morton) Shannon Mosley, right, and her 6-month-old son Blake, left, waits Tuesday, June 3, 2003, for her husband to return from the war in Iraq along with other family members and friends at Ft. Stewart, Ga. Mosley's husband, and Blakes father, Spc. Anthony Mosley, was deployed in August 2002 to Kuwait and has only seen his son during a short leave in January. Shannon Mosley, left, and her 6-month-old son, Blake, greets husband and father Spc. Anthony Mosley Tuesday, June 3, 2003, during a homecoming ceremony for more than 300 soldiers at Ft. Stewart, Ga. Spc. Anthony Mosley, right, Shannon, left, and their son Blake Tuesday, June 3, 2003, during a homecoming for more than 300 soldiers at Ft. Stewart, Ga. Mosley was deployed in August 2002 to Kuwait but was fortunate to see his son briefly during a short leave in January. Karma Wheeler, left, and her son Caleb wait for her husband, and Caleb's father, Staff Sgt. Brian Wheeler, to get off the bus after Brian returned with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division Tuesday, June 3, 2003, at Ft. Stewart, Ga., after the division was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. (AP Photo/Stephen Morton)
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Air Power
Douglas TBD-1 Devastator
(by Earl Swinhart)
The XTBD-1 first flew on April 15, 1935 and nine days later was delivered to Navy for testing. It was designed to a specification for aircraft operating from a new class of carriers the Navy was launching, the first of which was the USS Ranger. On June 25, 1937 Douglas began delivery of 114 TBD-1s and by 1938 the type had proved very successful in trials and combat exercises. There was an additional order for 15 aircraft in 1938 to replenish operational losses.
Upon its introduction, the Devastator was the most modern and effective torpedo bomber perhaps in the world, the design often referred to as "radical". There were a number of "firsts" associated with the TBD; the "Devastator" was the first monoplane design ordered for service with the US Navy; it was the first with hydraulic (as opposed to "manual") folding wings; it was the first "all metal" aircraft ordered by the Navy. The carriers Saratoga, Enterprise, Lexington, Wasp, Hornet, Yorktown and Ranger were all equipped with the Devastator as the standard torpedo bomber. And, although Devastator production totaled only 129 aircraft, it achieved a notoriety completely out of proportion to its numbers (as we shall see).
It had a crew of three; a pilot, a gunner facing aft and a bombardier who sat in between. In combat, the bombardier lay prone just behind the engine, peering through a window in the bottom of the fuselage to release the torpedo or bomb. The Devastator was furnished with one forward firing Colt/Browning .30 caliber machine gun operated by the pilot. Depending on the circumstances (and the CO) the forward gun was replaced with a .50 caliber. Exterior indications of which gun was mounted could be determined by the presence of a blister behind the air intake on the starboard side. This blister was a breech fairing for the Colt/Browning .50 caliber M2. Another .30 caliber Colt/Browning was mounted in the rear gunners position. The engine was the Pratt-Whitney 1830-64 Twin Wasp rated at 850 hp. (634 kW). Its wings spanned 50 feet (15.24 m), taking up a lot of room in the cramped innards of a carrier. So, Douglas designed them to fold upwards reducing the space to 26 feet (7.92 m). The wheels folded backwards into the wing, though they were designed to protrude about 10" (254 mm) below the wing just in case the TBD had to make a wheels-up landing. The sleek 35 (10.67 m) fuselage was covered with a "greenhouse" canopy reaching over halfway to the tail.
Near the beginning of the new decade (1940), naval intelligence indicated the TBD might be losing its combat edge to foreign designs and wheels were set in (slow) motion to find a replacement. There seemed to be no rush in spite of the wars heating up in Asia and Europe. A mere 3 years earlier, the Devastator had been state-of-the-art and it couldnt have become totally obsolete in that short of period, or so the thinking went.
Two years later the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. At that time the Navy still had a hundred TBDs on the rosters, spread out among the aircraft carriers. By chance, the aircraft carriers were not in Pearl Harbor and escaped destruction when the Japanese assaulted "Battleship Row" on December 7, 1941.
But the Navys squadron commanders were beginning to worry about some of the planes their men would take into battle, particularly the TBD with its top speed of 206 mph (332 km/h). Intelligence reports on the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero-Sen (Zero) indicated its top speed was well over 325 mph (523 km/h). The fact Japan had such a fast and nimble aircraft came as a great shock to American military planners who had been led to believe the Japanese had only inferior copies of European designs. The Devastator was scheduled to be replaced by the Grumman TBF Avenger. The question was; when? During this initial phase of WWII, the development and delivery of new aircraft was agonizingly slow.
During the first five months of 1942, the TBD seemed to lead a charmed life. By February 1942, the carriers were making raids on island bastions in the Marshalls and Gilberts held by the Japanese which were largely successful and the Devastator gave a good account of itself during these battles. On May 7, TBDs were instrumental in the sinking of the Japanese carrier "Shoho" in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
It was during this time when defects were first noted in the Mark XIII torpedo used by the TBD. Many of these torpedoes were seen to strike the target yet fail to explode. Submariners were having the same problems with the Mark XIV Field ordinance men attempted to modify the weapon until the Navy Bureau of Ordinance in Washington sent a direct order forbidding any modifications and assuring everyone the Mk XIII torpedo was faultless. BurOrd stuck with this position in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It seems the carrier groups took it at face value and looked for solutions in the maintenance and delivery of the weapon. Fortunately, the submariners persisted. Several problems with the torpedoes were eventually located. One problem was incredibly similar to the recent Mars Space Vehicle which "landed" 20 feet (6.1 m) after it impacted the surface due to a failure of technicians to convert altitude to metric units in the guidance computer programming.
The torpedoes had been tested with dummy warheads, that is, the space for the warhead had been filled with water when the torpedo was tested. No one apparently thought to ask how heavy the actual warhead would be, and the cost of the torpedoes entered the picture as a reason to curtail further testing of the torpedo. Due to the difference in weight of the dummy warhead and the actual warhead, the torpedo ran eleven to 14 feet below set depth. Several other problems prevented the weapon from working properly. These problems persisted for over two years because of the bone-headed attitude of BurOrd. Eventually, the top man in the Navy, Admiral Ernest King ordered BurOrd to get off its butt and test live torpedoes.
However, long before the torpedo problem could be solved, operational problems doomed the TBD on the basis of a single mission. The mission began on June 4, 1942 when the TBDs were sent to attack the Japanese Imperial Fleet north of Midway Island and quite suddenly, the worst suspicions of Navy squadron commanders were confirmed.
At 0700 hrs., Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8) of the aircraft carrier Hornet launched 15 TBDs, VT-6 of the Enterprise launched 14. VT-3 on the Yorktown launched 12. Due to cloudy weather they lost their fighter escort and arrived at the scene of the battle without "top cover". Japanese A6M "Zeros" immediately attacked from the rear while the Imperial Fleet ships put up a wall of anti-aircraft fire from the front. The Zeros attacked while the TBDs were still more than 12 miles from the Imperial Fleet boats and one by one the TBDs splashed in. Not a single torpedo from these planes found a target. Of the 41 Devastators launched by the US Navy aircraft carriers, 37 failed to return to their ships. A loss rate of over 90%! After the Battle of Midway, the Navy struck the Douglas TBD "Devastator" from combat roles and it was relegated to training and communications roles.
Specifications:
Type: Three seat naval torpedo bomber
Accommodation: Pilot, bombardier and radioman/ rear gunner in enclosed greenhouse canopy
Dimensions:
Wing span: 50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
Length: 35 ft 0 in (10.69 m)
Height: 15 ft 1 in (4.59 m)
Weights:
Empty: 6,182 lbs (2,804 kg)
Gross: 9,862 lbs (4,473 kg)
Max T/O: 10,194 lbs (4,623 kg)
Performance:
Maximum Speed: 206 mph (331 km/hr) @ 8,000 ft (2,438 m)
Cruising Speed: 128 mph (205 km/hr)
Landing Speed: 68 mph (109 km/hr)
Service Ceiling: 19,700 ft (6004 m)
Range: 435 mi (700 km) with Mk XIII Torpedo 716 mi (1,152 km) with 1,000 lbs (453 kg) bombs
Powerplant: Pratt-Whitney R-1830-64 "Double Wasp" air-cooled radial. 900 hp (671 kW) take-off 850 hp (634 kW) at 8,000 ft. (2,438 m)
Armament:
1 Mk XIII Torpedo - Diameter: 21 in (533 mm), Length: 15 ft. (4.57 m)
Weight: 1,200 lb (544 kg) or 1,000 lbs. (453 kg) bombs
VT-6 in "V" formation, 1938.
TBD-1 over Wake Island on 24th February, 1942.
A TBD of VT-8 taxiing into position at Coral Sea.
All photos Copyright of WWII Tech - History
Air Power
Douglas SBD-6 Dauntless
The right plane at the right time. That's what the "Slow But Deadly" SBD Dauntless was. When the US Navy was forced to go to war it did so in an aircraft that was considered by many to be obsolete.
By the end of the war this "obsolete" plane was responsible for sinking more enemy ships than any other aircraft in the US inventory.
The first version of the Dauntless was the dash one and was found to be unsuitable for Navy service. As was Navy tradition, these first 50 aircraft were destroyed on the gound at Pearl Harbor.
The most produced versions were the improved dash three and dash five aircraft. These planes ranged from the skies over the Coral Sea to the final victory flight over the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay
and are now recognized as treasured museum pieces.
The SBD Dauntless was a two-place, low-wing Navy scout bomber, powered by a single Wright R1820, 1200-horsepower engine. The Dauntless became a mainstay of the Navy's air fleet in the Pacific,
with the lowest loss ration of any U.S. carrier aircraft. A total of 5,936 SBDs were delivered between first delivery in 1940 and the end of production in July 1944.
The Dauntless was the standard shipborne dive-bomber of the US Navy from mid-1940 until November 1943, when the first Curtiss Helldivers arrived to replace it. The SBD was gradually phased out during 1944,
and the June 20 strike against the Japanese Mobile Fleet - in the Battle of the Philippine Sea - was therefore its last major action. In 1942-43, in the Battle of the Coral Sea, in the bitter Guadalcanal campaign
and - most of all - at the decisive Battle of Midway, the Dauntless did more than any other aircraft to turn the tide of the Pacific War. At Midway it wrecked all four Japanese carriers, and later in the battle sank
a heavy cruiser and severely damaged another. From 1942 to 1944, in addition to its shipboard service, the SBD saw much action with the Marine Corps flying from island bases.
In the Guadalcanal Campaign the Dauntless - operating from US carriers and from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal itself - took a huge toll of Japanese shipping.
It sank the carrier Ryujo in the battle of the Eastern Solomons, and damaged three other Japanese carriers at Eastern Solomons and in the Battle of Santa Cruz. In the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal SBDs sank the heavy
cruiser Kinugasa and, in company with TBD Avengers, sank nine Japanese transports
The Dauntless was older and slower than its Japanese opposite number, the Aichi D3A2 "Val" - but the SBD was far more resistant to battle damage, and its flying qualities perfectly suited it to its role.
In particular - as Dauntless pilots testified - it was very steady in a dive. When the more modern and powerful Helldiver went into action alongside the SBD it was soon realized - particularly at Philippine Sea -
that the new aircraft was inferior to the Dauntless. However, the Helldiver was already well into large-scale production, and it was too late to reverse the decision that it should supplant the SBD.
Specifications:
Type: Two-seat carrier-based and land-based dive-bomber
Dimensions:
Wing span: 41 ft 6 in (12.65 m)
Length: 33 ft 0 in (10.06 m)
Height: 12 ft 11 in (3.94 m)
Weights: Empty: 6,535 lb (2,964 kg) Max T/O: 9,519 lb (4,318 kg)
Performance:
Maximum Speed: 255 mph (410 km/h) @ 14,000 ft (4,265 m)
Service Ceiling: 25,200 ft (7,680 m)
Range: 773 miles (1,244 km)
Powerplant: One Wright R-1820-66 Cyclone , 1,350 hp (1007 kw), 9-cylinder radial, air cooled engine.
Armament:
Two forward firing .50 inch (12.7 mm) machine guns
and two 0.30 inch (7.62 mm) machine guns on flexible mounts.
Fuselage mount for up to 1,600 lbs (726 kg) of bombs plus,
up to a total of 650 lbs (295 kg) of bombs carried on the wings.
All photos Copyright of their respective websites.
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