Download or read book Torpedo Squadron Four A Cockpit View of World War II written by Gerald W. Thomas and published by Doc45 Publications. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas, in the only combat account of World War II Torpedo Bomber pilot ever published, relates his 25 months of service with Torpedo Squadron 4 (VT-4) on the USS RANGER, USS BUNKER HILL, and USS ESSEX. Thomas served in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters, and in some of the most important World War II battles. While on the RANGER, he participated in OPERATION LEADER, the most significant attack on Northern Europe by a US carrier during the war. During LEADER, while attacking a freight barge carrying 40 tons of ammunition, Thomas' plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. Surprisingly, in spite of the considerable engine damage, the plane made it back to the RANGER, where Thomas crash-landed. That landing was his 13th official carrier landing. In the Pacific, Thomas participated in the numerous actions against Japanese targets in the Philippines, including strikes on Ormoc Bay, Cavite, Manilla, Santa Cruz, San Fernando, Lingayen, Mindoro, Clark Field and Aparri. Following these actions, Thomas' squadron made strikes on Formosa, French Indo-China, Saigon, Pescadores, Hainan, Amami O Shima, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Japan. The attack on Japan was the first attack on Japan from an aircraft carrier since the "Doolittle Raid." While on the ESSEX, just after Thomas had returned from a strike on Santa Cruz, the ship was hit by a Kamikaze piloted by Yoshinori Yamaguchi, Yoshino Special Attack Corps. Yamaguchi was flying a Yokosuba D4Y3 dive bomber. The Kamikaze attack killed 16 crewman and wounded 44. Returning from a strike on Hainan, off the Chinese coast, Thomas' plane ran out of fuel. After a harrowing water landing, Thomas and squadron photographer Montague succeeded in inflating and launching one rubber boat and his crewman Gress another. After a long day in pre-Typhoon weather with 40 foot swells, the three were rescued by the USS SULLIVANS. In recounting the events in this book, Thomas draws upon his daily journal, his letters home, and extensive interviews and research conducted over 40 years with fellow pilots and crewman. The book cites 20 interviews and 5 combat journals, and contains 209 photos documenting the ships, planes, men, and combat actions of Torpedo Squadron 4. Many of the photographs were collected by Thomas during the war and include gun photo shots, recon photos, and, remarkably, a picture of the tail of Thomas' Torpedo plane as it sinks in the China Sea following his water crash landing.

Download or read book The Unknown Battle of Midway written by Alvin Kernan and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2005-11-11 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A memoir and more . . . Kernan brings this maritime battle superbly to life. . . . And he narrates the air assault in gripping detail” (The Wall Street Journal). The Battle of Midway is considered the greatest US naval victory, but behind the luster is the devastation of the American torpedo squadrons. Of the 51 planes sent to attack Japanese carriers only 7 returned, and of the 127 aircrew only 29 survived. Not a single torpedo hit its target. A story of avoidable mistakes and flawed planning, The Unknown Battle of Midway reveals the enormous failures that led to the destruction of four torpedo squadrons but were omitted from official naval reports: the planes that ran out of gas, the torpedoes that didn’t work, the pilots who had never dropped torpedoes, and the breakdown of the attack plan. Alvin Kernan, who was present at the battle, has written a troubling but persuasive analysis of these and other little-publicized aspects of this great battle. The standard navy tactics for carrier warfare are revealed in tragic contrast to the actual conduct of the battle and the after-action reports of the ships and squadrons involved. “An incisive and laconic writer, Kernan knows his facts and presents them with deep feeling. A World War II must-read.” —Booklist “I read The Unknown Battle of Midway in one sitting. It is a momentous piece of work, reeking of the authenticity of carrier warfare as experienced by the flight crews.” —Sir John Keegan, author of A History of Warfare “An emotionally powerful story, not merely one of war but of its lasting effects.” —The Times Literary Supplement

Download or read book A Dawn Like Thunder written by Robert J. Mrazek and published by Little Brown. This book was released on 2008 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the contributions of World War II's Torpedo Squadron Eight traces their role in key U.S. victories at Midway and Guadalcanal, citing the honors achieved, and losses suffered, by its thirty-five members.

Download or read book A Dawn Like Thunder written by Robert J. Mrazek and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2008-11-25 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the great untold stories of World War II finally comes to light in this thrilling account of Torpedo Squadron Eight and their heroic efforts in helping an outmatched U.S. fleet win critical victories at Midway and Guadalcanal. Thirty-five American men -- many flying outmoded aircraft -- changed the course of the war, going on to become the war's most decorated naval air squadron, while suffering the heaviest losses in U.S. naval aviation history. Mrazek paints moving portraits of the men in the squadron, and exposes a shocking cover-up that cost many lives. Filled with thrilling scenes of battle, betrayal, and sacrifice, A Dawn Like Thunder is destined to become a classic in the literature of World War II.

Download or read book TORPEDO 8 The Story Of Swede Larsen s Bomber Squadron Illustrated Edition written by Ira Wolfert and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes the Island War In The Pacific Illustration Pack – 152 maps, plans and photos. The epic story of the death and rebirth of the famous Torpedo Squadron 8, destroyed at the Battle of Midway and rose again to become a crack outfit under the leadership of “Swede” Larsen. “THE JAPS WIPED OUT THE UNITED STATES NAVY Torpedo Squadron 8 in a few minutes at the Battle of Midway. The minutes were hot and rough. The squadron was like a raw egg thrown into an electric fan, and only three men came out of the action alive. One of these is no longer fit for combat duty. His nerves are gone. They became unstrung in those few minutes, and in the ten months since then he has not been able to get them working again normally, although he has been out on the line trying his best, refusing painfully to give up. So, when Torpedo 8 was wiped out on Thursday morning, June 4, 1942, in about the time it takes to stamp out a pile of ants, it looked to those of us on the outside as if torpedo bombing were about to become a lost art. But the Navy did not agree. Nor did Torpedo 8 agree. The Navy seemed to know without asking that Torpedo 8 would not feel this way, for, without being asked, Torpedo 8 was thrown directly from Midway into the Battle for the Solomons — a series of engagements into which the Japs put about five times the naval strength they used at Midway, and much more naval strength than they used against the Malay Peninsula and Java. Torpedo 8 went into the battle with two veterans of Midway, plus remnants of the old squadron who had not got into the action there, and plus ‘replacements,’ as they are called. They did not, as the Japs do, blame their dead for having died. They wanted revenge for them. Up to Midway, the slogan of the squadron had been ‘Attack.’ On June 12, eight days after the holocaust at Midway, the squadron commander in an official squadron memorandum changed the slogan to: ‘Attack— and Vengeance!’”-Introduction

Download or read book TBM TBF Avenger in Action written by Charles L. Scrivner and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Winding Road to the Land of Enchantment written by Gerald W. Thomas and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2010-07-28 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Thomas recounts growing up on a ranch in Idaho during the Great Depression, playing baseball with Jackie and Mack Robinson, joining the Navy after Pearl Harbor, and serving as a TBM Torpedo Bomber pilot on aircraft carriers in the Atlantic and Pacific.

Download or read book Mtbstc written by Charles B. Jones and published by Nimble Books. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first comprehensive history of an important, but mostly overlooked, element of the World War II Patrol Torpedo (PT) boats: the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center (MTBSTC) in Melville, Rhode Island. While not every sailor who served on PT boats went through the training at MTBSTC, every PT sailor was affected by what went on there. The MTBSTC created the PT boats' operational policies and tactics, as well as weapons and equipment experimentation and development. Even the orders the men received for their PT boat assignment were dictated by the MTBSTC. Most of the books written about PT boats have only a passing reference to the MTBSTC. This lack of detailed information on the Training Center has left a large hole in the overall printed history of PT boats. This book fills that gap. This book documents the Training Center from its beginnings when the land was undeveloped swampland, through its growing pains during construction and expansion during the war. It traces the problems of developing a training curriculum from scratch, the struggles to keep the training current, up through the point when the training reached its peak of proficiency just as the war ended. It provides insight into what life was like for the sailors that spent two to three months going through the training program and of those who were stationed at the Training Center as instructors or staff personnel. This book also details the Training Center's post-war career and its current development as a thriving marina and boat building enterprise. This book is culled from the MTBSTC's wartime correspondence files and other deck logs, published and unpublished books, articles, and reports; and interviews with PT boat veterans who underwent the training at the MTBSTC. It is lavishly illustrated with archival, private, and public photographs, most of which have never been published before. This book completes the written history of the PT boats in World War II.

Download or read book Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons written by Roy A. Grossnick and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Torpedo Squadron 17 written by United States. Navy. Torpedo Squadron Seventeen and published by . This book was released on 1945* with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Command Of The Air written by General Giulio Douhet and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the pantheon of air power spokesmen, Giulio Douhet holds center stage. His writings, more often cited than perhaps actually read, appear as excerpts and aphorisms in the writings of numerous other air power spokesmen, advocates-and critics. Though a highly controversial figure, the very controversy that surrounds him offers to us a testimonial of the value and depth of his work, and the need for airmen today to become familiar with his thought. The progressive development of air power to the point where, today, it is more correct to refer to aerospace power has not outdated the notions of Douhet in the slightest In fact, in many ways, the kinds of technological capabilities that we enjoy as a global air power provider attest to the breadth of his vision. Douhet, together with Hugh “Boom” Trenchard of Great Britain and William “Billy” Mitchell of the United States, is justly recognized as one of the three great spokesmen of the early air power era. This reprint is offered in the spirit of continuing the dialogue that Douhet himself so perceptively began with the first edition of this book, published in 1921. Readers may well find much that they disagree with in this book, but also much that is of enduring value. The vital necessity of Douhet’s central vision-that command of the air is all important in modern warfare-has been proven throughout the history of wars in this century, from the fighting over the Somme to the air war over Kuwait and Iraq.

Download or read book Avenger at War written by Barrett Tillman and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book General Information Series written by and published by . This book was released on 1899 with total page 986 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Torpedo Bombers written by Peter C. Smith and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2008-03-27 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a highly illustrated history one of the most deadly types of atta aircraft. The torpedo bomber first appeared during the later years of World War One but served their most useful role in the Second World War. The most famous attas include Taranto, where Fairey Swordfish destroyed the Italian Battle fleet and the infamous surprise atta on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. In both these cases the attas were against ships laying in harbor and therefore stationary. Heavy defensive anti-aircraft fire was the greatest danger to the torpedo bombers in those circumstances but ships under way in the open sea had far more room to take evasive action. The lengthy time it took a torpedo to reach its target allowed many ships to escape destruction. However notable exceptions were the sinking HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse by the Japanese during the early stages of the war in the Far East. During the hunt for the Bismar it was an air-launched torpedo from a Swordfish that severely damaged the ships steering gear and enabled the Royal Navy to close in for the final kill. Some of the types included are the Fairey Swordfish, Bristol Beaufort, Fairey Albacore, Bristol Beaufighter, Heinkell He 115, Marchetti SM.79, Fokker T.VIII, Grumman Avenger and the Nakajima B5N.

Download or read book Never Call Me a Hero written by N. Jack Kleiss and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-05-23 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hailed as "the single most effective pilot at Midway" (World War II magazine), Dusty Kleiss struck and sank three Japanese warships at the Battle of Midway, including two aircraft carriers, helping turn the tide of the Second World War. This is his extraordinary memoir. NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "AN INSTANT CLASSIC" —Dallas Morning News On the morning of June 4, 1942, high above the tiny Pacific atoll of Midway, Lt. (j.g.) "Dusty" Kleiss burst out of the clouds and piloted his SBD Dauntless into a near-vertical dive aimed at the heart of Japan’s Imperial Navy, which six months earlier had ruthlessly struck Pearl Harbor. The greatest naval battle in history raged around him, its outcome hanging in the balance as the U.S. desperately searched for its first major victory of the Second World War. Then, in a matter of seconds, Dusty Kleiss’s daring 20,000-foot dive helped forever alter the war’s trajectory. Plummeting through the air at 240 knots amid blistering anti-aircraft fire, the twenty-six-year-old pilot from USS Enterprise’s elite Scouting Squadron Six fixed on an invaluable target—the aircraft carrier Kaga, one of Japan’s most important capital ships. He released three bombs at the last possible instant, then desperately pulled out of his gut-wrenching 9-g dive. As his plane leveled out just above the roiling Pacific Ocean, Dusty’s perfectly placed bombs struck the carrier’s deck, and Kaga erupted into an inferno from which it would never recover. Arriving safely back at Enterprise, Dusty was met with heartbreaking news: his best friend was missing and presumed dead along with two dozen of their fellow naval aviators. Unbowed, Dusty returned to the air that same afternoon and, remarkably, would fatally strike another enemy carrier, Hiryu. Two days later, his deadeye aim contributed to the destruction of a third Japanese warship, the cruiser Mikuma, thereby making Dusty the only pilot from either side to land hits on three different ships, all of which sank—losses that crippled the once-fearsome Japanese fleet. By battle’s end, the humble young sailor from Kansas had earned his place in history—and yet he stayed silent for decades, living quietly with his children and his wife, Jean, whom he married less than a month after Midway. Now his extraordinary and long-awaited memoir, Never Call Me a Hero, tells the Navy Cross recipient’s full story for the first time, offering an unprecedentedly intimate look at the "the decisive contest for control of the Pacific in World War II" (New York Times)—and one man’s essential role in helping secure its outcome. Dusty worked on this book for years with naval historians Timothy and Laura Orr, aiming to publish Never Call Me a Hero for Midway’s seventy-fifth anniversary in June 2017. Sadly, as the book neared completion in 2016, Dusty Kleiss passed away at age 100, one of the last surviving dive-bomber pilots to have fought at Midway. And yet the publication of Never Call Me a Hero is a cause for celebration: these pages are Dusty’s remarkable legacy, providing a riveting eyewitness account of the Battle of Midway, and an inspiring testimony to the brave men who fought, died, and shaped history during those four extraordinary days in June, seventy-five years ago.

Download or read book They Were Expendable written by William Lindsay White and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A national bestseller when it was originally published in 1942 and the subject of a 1945 John Ford film featuring John Wayne, this book offers a thrilling account of the role of the U.S. Navy's Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three during the disastrous Philippine campaign early in World War II. The author uses an unusual, but thorough, spellbinding format to tell the story: an interview with four heroic young participants. Ranked "with the great tales of war" by the Saturday Review of Literature, it is a deeply moving book that describes the four officers' extraordinary exploits from the first appearance of Japanese planes over Manila Bay to the squadron's calamitous end-including getting Gen. Douglas MacArthur safely to Australia. Filled with action, drama, and history, this unique portrayal of "America's little Dunkirk" was described by the New York Times as being "almost unbearably painful at times, yet so engrossing that few who begin it will be able to put it down until they have finished its adventure-packed pages."

Download or read book The United States Navy in World War II written by Mark Stille and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-11 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive overview of the strategy, operations and vessels of the United States Navy from 1941 to 1945. Although slowly building its navy while neutral during the early years of World War II, the US was struck a serious blow when its battleships, the lynchpin of US naval doctrine, were the target of the dramatic attack at Pearl Harbor. In the Pacific Theatre, the US was thereafter locked into a head to head struggle with the impressive Imperial Japanese Navy, fighting a series of major battles in the Coral Sea, at Midway, the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf and Okinawa in the struggle for supremacy over Japan. Having avoided the decisive defeat sought by the IJN, the US increased industrial production and by the end of the war, the US Navy was larger than any other in the world. Meanwhile in the west, the US Navy operated on a second front, supporting landings in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, and in 1944 played a significant part in the D-Day landings, the largest and most complex amphibious operation of all time. Written by an acknowledged expert and incorporating extensive illustrations including photographs, maps and colour artwork, this book offers a detailed look at the strategy, operations and vessels of the US Navy in World War II.