Download or read book Torpedo Squadron Four written by Gerald W. Thomas and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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 Target Hong Kong written by Steven K. Bailey and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-02-01 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brought to life by the personal accounts of six Navy pilots and one British POW, this is the history of the U.S. Navy airstrikes on Japanese-held Hong Kong. Commander John Lamade started the war in 1941 a nervous pilot of an antiquated biplane. Just over three years later he was in the cockpit of a cutting-edge Hellcat about to lead a strike force of 80 aircraft through the turbulent skies above the South China Sea. His target: Hong Kong. As a storm of antiaircraft fire darkened the sky, watching from below was POW Ray Jones. For three long years he and his fellow prisoners had endured near starvation conditions in a Japanese internment camp. Did these American aircraft, he wondered, herald freedom? Trawling through historic records, Steven K. Bailey discovered that the story of the U.S. Navy airstrikes on Japanese-held Hong Kong during the final year of World War II had never been told. Operation Gratitude involved nearly 100 U.S. Navy warships and close to a thousand planes. Target Hong Kong brings this massive operation down to a human scale by recounting the air raids through the experiences of seven men whose lives intersected at Hong Kong in January 1945: Commander John D. Lamade, five of his fellow U.S. Navy pilots and the POW Ray Jones. Drawing upon oral histories, diary transcripts, and U.S. Navy documents, this book expertly narrates the intertwined experiences of these servicemen to bring the history to life.
Download or read book The Battle of Iwo Jima written by Walt Sandberg and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2004-12-16 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with the Marine assault on February 19, 1945, the Battle for Iwo Jima quickly became the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history. Today this fierce battle remains high in our collective memories, not only for its terrors but for its indelible image of triumph: the raising of the flag on Mt. Suribachi. Much information exists about the Battle for Iwo Jima, but it is scattered and can be difficult to track down. This book draws the information together in two ways. It offers bibliographic listings to lead researchers to useful sources, and provides actual texts of documents related to the battle and its aftermath. Part One, “The Bibliography,” offers information on more than 800 books, magazines, official documents, audio-visual materials and online resources about the Battle of Iwo Jima. Each listing is annotated to assist researchers, historians, veterans and others seeking information. Part Two, “The Anthology,” offers the texts of hard-to-locate documents; a series of maps showing the day-by-day progression of the battle; and a selection of poetry inspired by the battle. Appendices provide details of the American chain of command and both the American and the Japanese orders of battle; describe some lingering mysteries about the Battle of Iwo Jima; and list Iwo Jima memorial sites around the world.
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 Flying against Fate written by S. P. MacKenzie and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2017-08-04 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, Allied casualty rates in the air were high. Of the roughly 125,000 who served as aircrew with Bomber Command, 59,423 were killed or missing and presumed killed—a fatality rate of 45.5%. With odds like that, it would be no surprise if there were as few atheists in cockpits as there were in foxholes; and indeed, many airmen faced their dangerous missions with beliefs and rituals ranging from the traditional to the outlandish. Military historian S. P. MacKenzie considers this phenomenon in Flying against Fate, a pioneering study of the important role that superstition played in combat flier morale among the Allies in World War II. Mining a wealth of documents as well as a trove of published and unpublished memoirs and diaries, MacKenzie examines the myriad forms combat fliers' superstitions assumed, from jinxes to premonitions. Most commonly, airmen carried amulets or talismans—lucky boots or a stuffed toy; a coin whose year numbers added up to thirteen; counterintuitively, a boomerang. Some performed rituals or avoided other acts, e.g., having a photo taken before a flight. Whatever seemed to work was worth sticking with, and a heightened risk often meant an upsurge in superstitious thought and behavior. MacKenzie delves into behavior analysis studies to help explain the psychology behind much of the behavior he documents—not slighting the large cohort of crew members and commanders who demurred. He also looks into the ways in which superstitious behavior was tolerated or even encouraged by those in command who saw it as a means of buttressing morale. The first in-depth exploration of just how varied and deeply felt superstitious beliefs were to tens of thousands of combat fliers, Flying against Fate expands our understanding of a major aspect of the psychology of war in the air and of World War II.
Download or read book The One Ship Fleet written by Phillip T. Parkerson and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2023-04-20 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If the doings of the U.S. Navy in World War II are of any interest to you, the book is worth a read." — PowerShips The Brooklyn-class light cruiser USS Boise (CL-47) was one of the most famous US combat ships of World War II, already internationally renowned following her participation in the naval battles in the Solomons in 1942. After repairs and modifications, in 1943 the Boise was sent to the Mediterranean theater, there to participate in the invasions of Sicily, Taranto, and Salerno, and enhancing her fame by destroying enemy tanks during armored counterattacks in both Sicily and Salerno. From the Mediterranean, Boise was sent to the Southwest Pacific theater to join the US 7th Fleet for the campaign in New Guinea in 1943–44 and then the invasion of the Philippines. She fought in the battle of Leyte Gulf, notably in the night engagement in the Surigao Strait, where battleships faced off against each other for the last time in maritime history. Boise was credited with helping to sink a Japanese battleship. She also fought off the suicide planes known as kamikazes at Leyte and later at Lingayen Gulf during the invasion of Luzon. MacArthur used her as his flagship for the Luzon attack, thereby adding to her already considerable fame, then after helping retake Corregidor and other islands in the Philippines, Boise carried the general on a triumphant tour of the islands. This tour was interrupted for the invasion of Borneo, but completed when the beach was secured. After MacArthur left the ship in June 1945, she returned to the US for overhaul which was just complete as the war ended, by which time she had been awarded 11 battle stars, more than any other light cruiser in her class. This full account of USS Boise’s war not only gives us an insight into how one ship navigated a global conflict, but also an insight into the experiences of the men who served on her, and a new perspective on the naval campaigns of the war.
Download or read book Corsair written by Raymond L. Ledesma and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2009-11-17 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This story is about the F4-U Corsair that was developed for the navy as a carrier plane by Chance Vought Aircraft in 1938. This plane was introduced into World War II in 1943 as a land based aircraft and was assigned to a Marine fighter squadron VMF-124. The aircraft was later accepted by the Navy as a carrier plane and VMF-124 retrained and took it aboard the Carrier USS Essex on Christmas day 1944. Ledesma the author weaves a warm story of love and war to provide the reader with an exciting action filled story. The characters Pete Martin and Bob Jones were created to tell the story. The remaining cast of characters and events are preserved in their rightful place in history.
Download or read book Occupying Force written by D. Charles Gossman and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2003-06-19 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A surprise attack on American soil and a holy war waged under the guise of an ancient religion-A nation of zealots indoctrinated to hate Western Civilization and a culture ignoring reason in favor of mindless violence-A cabal of militarists conditioned to elect suicide as a battle strategy and celebrate death for divine reward! Headlines from today's war on terrorism? No-these were the themes of America's war with twentieth-century Japan. Joining the Navy to face these fearsome enemies, seventeen-year-old Charlie misses the action in World War II by mere days. Then, directed to occupy the former foe's homeland instead, he remains behind when the war's heroes have all returned to a welcoming nation. Working and enduring through the months, Charlie records his daily thoughts while growing to respect the Japanese people-and does his best to find adventure along the way!
Download or read book Legendary Locals of Las Cruces written by Charlotte Tallman and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-23 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Las Cruces was founded 164 years ago near a group of crosses marking the graves of travelers and soldiers, a rawhide rope separated acreage for a church, a cemetery, and family lots. That rawhide rope brought to Las Cruces a new era filled with the exhilaration of the Wild West and the people who molded the City of the Crosses. Over the decades, the number of local men, women, and children who deserve recognition as heroes of history or champions of the present is infinite, including Dr. Nathan E. Boyd, entrepreneurial creator of the Boyd Sanitarium; Gov. Susana Martinez, the first female governor of New Mexico and the first female Hispanic governor in the United States; and Letticia Martinez, a legally blind swimmer who competed with the 2012 London Paralympics Swimming Team. Like thousands of others, theirs is a story of persistent hope, courage, and desire to make a difference.
Download or read book Congressional Record Index written by and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 1144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes history of bills and resolutions.
Download or read book Victory in World War II written by Gerald W. Thomas and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No state in the Union made any more significant contributions to victory in World War II than New Mexico. These contributions ranged from extensive strategic research to the sacrifices made in combat by individuals and military units. A disproportionate number of New Mexicans were killed in action or turned up on MIA or POW lists. The New Mexico National Guard was the first to fire on Japanese enemies in the Philippine Islands after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Many New Mexicans were forced into the Bataan Death March. Gen. Douglas MacArthur stated that New Mexican bravery accounted for slowing down the Japanese advance so that the nation had time to organize a massive counter offensive for victory. New Mexico and the Navajo Nation made another contribution to the war effort with the Navajo Code Talkers. A contingent of the U.S. Marines, they developed the only secret code that was never broken by enemy forces. The rocket experiments of Dr. Robert Goddard had a significant impact on both German and Allied warfare. The secret research at Los Alamos resulted in the development of the first atomic bomb, the single most important factor in bringing the war to an end. Established near the end of the war, the White Sands Missile Range tested the V-2 rocket and became strategically important in the Cold War and in developments in modern space technology. On the home front, New Mexicans made an all-out commitment to the war effort. The slogan Food Will Win the War was nowhere more relevant than in New Mexico, as that rural state more than doubled its agricultural production. Women worked in fields, factories, and military installations, and they planted victory gardens and savedprecious resources. Likewise, the state played a role in the stepped up production of strategic minerals and oil. These topics and more are covered in this book, providing a sampling of the diversity and extent of New Mexico's contributions to victory in World War II. This document
Download or read book Dispatches from the Pacific written by Ray E. Boomhower and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-08 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the fall of 1943, armed with only his notebooks and pencils, Time and Life correspondent Robert L. Sherrod leapt from the safety of a landing craft and waded through neck-deep water and a hail of bullets to reach the shores of the Tarawa Atoll with the US Marine Corps. Living shoulder to shoulder with the marines, Sherrod chronicled combat and the marines' day-to-day struggles as they leapfrogged across the Central Pacific, battling the Japanese on Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. While the marines courageously and doggedly confronted an enemy that at times seemed invincible, those left behind on the American home front desperately scanned Sherrod's columns for news of their loved ones. Following his death in 1994, the Washington Post heralded Sherrod's reporting as "some of the most vivid accounts of men at war ever produced by an American journalist." Now, for the first time, author Ray E. Boomhower tells the story of the journalist in Dispatches from the Pacific: The World War II Reporting of Robert L. Sherrod, an intimate account of the war efforts on the Pacific front.
Download or read book The Army Air Forces in World War II Men and planes written by and published by . This book was released on 1948 with total page 920 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Intrepid Aviators written by Gregory G. Fletcher and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-07-03 with total page 643 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of the World War II Pacific naval battle that pitted the USS Intrepid’s naval aviators against Japan’s superbattleship Musashi during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. October 24, 1944: As World War II raged, six young American bombers from Torpedo Squadron 18 were sent on a search-and-destroy mission in the Sibuyan Sea. Their target: the superbattleship Musashi, the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The pilots were tasked with preventing the immense enemy warship from inflicting damage on American supply ships. Little did these men know that they had embarked on the opening round of history’s greatest—and last—epic naval battle. Two bomber crews launched in the first wave of attackers were shot out of the sky. Only pilot Will Fletcher survived the crash landing. Adrift at sea, Will made his way to land and escaped into the jungles of the Philippines, where he eluded capture by the Japanese with the help of Filipino guerrillas, whose ranks he joined to fight against their common enemy. Intrepid Aviators is the thrilling true story of these brave bomber pilots, their daring duel with the Musashi, and Will Fletcher’s struggle to survive as a guerrilla soldier. The sinking of Musashi inflicted a crucial blow in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and marked the first time in history that aviators sank a Japanese battleship on the high seas.
Download or read book Life and Death Aboard the U S S Essex written by Richard W. Streb and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book New Mexico Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 720 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
