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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2012 - 01:39pm PT
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I was a little worried there. I was afraid that they just used brass wrenches to match the pilots' balls.
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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To be honest I kept wondering why brass, thinking about how malleable it is; it wouldn't be a strong wrench maybe corrosiveness? I never considered sparks.
Fat dad, thanks for the video link. It wasn't too long ago I streamed the whole documentary.
I discovered this link at the end of the Midway video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlGI0vX14vU
Battle 360° ~ Battle of Leyte Gulf
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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Ron... nice topic.
We owe a greater debt, then we could ever pay back, to our brave Fathers and Mothers who
sacrificed it all.
Victory at Midway goes way back in our history.
Billy Mitchell proved you could sink capital ships with 1,000 lb bombs.
His success and the way he conducted his demonstration, created some bad feelings within the congress.
Congress showed Billy and the Army Air Corps and cut their budget.
The Navy got the money and some smart forward thinking types got behind the idea of the Aircraft Carrier.
All the other nations that had ACs thought of them as floting airfields.
The US Navy saw them as weapons of war, for offense.
During the 1930s our cash strapped nation built the best Carriers, they went way over budget, ever.
Our were made to survive.
All other Nations ACs were built on the cheap, ESP the Japaneese ones.
"Kindling wood soaked in gasoline" was a quote I recall.
At the onset of WW2 these AC were the only "state of the art" weapons we had. Every thing else was obsolete and outclassed by our foes.
So lucky for US we had brave men willing to fly crappy airplanes and use faulty torpedodes on a vastly superior enemy fleet.
These men died wholesale.
I think that the lesson we learned at Midway is this.
Never be unprepared and weak.
Something that is becoming forgotten today.
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Guyman,
Great Carriers, lousy torpedoes!
Thanks Ron!
James D. Hornfischer published a new book in March, Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal. Anyone read it?
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2012 - 02:18pm PT
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Yeah, its weird. The Japanese had great planes (offensively) and great torpedoes, but really crappy small arms.
Of course they went from fighting with swords and armor to trouncing the Russian fleet in less than 40 years!
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zBrown
Ice climber
mercenario de merced
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++ Unbroken
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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What they were lacking in small arms they sure made up with nerve!
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2012 - 02:24pm PT
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Yeah, or they were brainwashed into believing that they had already given their lives to the Emperor.
Like I said; Carnage And Culture. Give it a read.
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ME Climb
climber
Behind the Orange Curtain
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This is slightly OT but, I just finished reading "With the Old Breed" a great read about some of the USMC battles in the Pacific. It was one of the books that "The Pacific" was based on.
It was amazing to read about the bravery and tenacity on both sides.
Eric
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ME Climb
climber
Behind the Orange Curtain
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Cragman- I thought so too. I had an uncle who was there, but he died prior to me discovering my interest in history. How I would have loved to talk to him about his time in the Pacific.
The men and women of that generation were amazing. I am still in awe of everything they did. Eric
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2012 - 02:42pm PT
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Too bad that the way most Americans thank them is by becoming fat and stupid.
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clode
Trad climber
portland, or
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While perhaps not as important as the battle of Midway, my father was radar operator on a troop transport at the battles of Iwa Jima and Okinawa. This month he turns 91! Gotaq love these guys!
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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My late Aunt Grayce's BF in Seattle is still entombed down in the USS Arizona at Pearl.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2012 - 03:32pm PT
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I read Ghost Soldiers because I was so impressed with Blood And Thunder.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Social climber
Retired in Appalachia
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Naval Aviation.... Nothing else quite like it.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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ME Climb, that book by Eugene Sledge is absolutely brilliant!
There are very few men like that anymore.
Got my copy signed by one that is still around.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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My Uncle Joe (USMC) Sawyer was captured in the south Pacific, I am not sure were. He, like many others were treated extremely poorly and contracted malaria which ended up taking him years later.
I know it is the European Theatre, but Uncle Bill Casey (Army) was captured in North Africa, and later he and two Canadian commandoes escaped from German POW camp in Italy and made their way back to Allied (British) lines.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2012 - 08:01pm PT
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I always liked brass pipes.
Anybody catch the cameo appearances of Tom Selleck and that CHIPs guy?
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Thanks for the pic Ron. Not something you see everyday; or hear of for that matter.
Eugene Sledge was the good friend of one my hommies dad, AC Levi. They grew up together in Mobile. Mr. Levi was trained as an aviator but never flew in combat.
Although Sledgehammer came home and became a biology professor he struggled with his experiences from the war.
Imagine that. I think dying in combat would have been easier.
SL Rat: did you fly off of Carriers?
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Drifting way inland but "the Chief" would be proud for me to post his picture.
Another friend's dad, who on his first mission as a bombardier, was shot down and spent the remainder of the war in a German POW camp. His dental fillings popped out with his parachute at high altitude due to the extreme temperatures.
Unlike his compatriots in the Pacific, his captors provided good care for him as a POW. With the survival rate of B-17 crews being what they were, he said he more than likely would not have made it home. The German doctors replaced his fillings; but did not provide any numbing agent.
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