Download or read book Wake Island Pilot written by John F. Kinney and published by Potomac Books. This book was released on 1995 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within hours of the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese struck the small U.S. garrison on Wake Island. As his squadron's engineering officer, Marine pilot John F. Kinney oversaw the repair of damaged planes when he himself was not in the air fighting off the Japanese assault. After the Americans held out for an incredible two weeks, Kinney was captured by the Japanese but eventually escaped in China. Wake Island Pilot is the memoir of a remarkable hero of one of World War II's epic struggles. Book jacket.
Download or read book Wake Island Wildcat written by William L. Ramsey and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-08-20 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Japanese attacked Wake Island in December 1941—the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor—Marine pilot Henry T. Elrod took to the skies in his F4F Wildcat fighter to defend the American military base on the tiny Pacific atoll, battling swarms of enemy planes and ships with rare courage and skill for the next two weeks. Captain Elrod, who had attended Yale and spent his freshman year playing football at the University of Georgia, had arrived mere days before as part of a fighter squadron of twelve pilots. On December 10 and 11, Elrod had two of the most remarkable days of the war for any pilot in any theater: he took on a group of twenty-two Japanese planes—shooting down two—and then bombed and strafed the destroyer Kisaragi, sinking the vessel with all hands and becoming the first American pilot to sink a warship with small caliber bombs delivered by a fighter plane in World War II. Then, once American aircraft were too damaged to fly, the pilots joined the ground defense against Japanese invasion forces. Elrod assumed command of one sector of the beach and led the repulse of repeated enemy assaults until he was killed on the last day of the battle, just before the American surrender. Though unsuccessful, the against-the-odds battle for Wake Island buoyed American morale during a dark period of World War II. Elrod, who became known as “Hammerin’ Hank,” was a key figure in the defense. For his gallantry, he was posthumously promoted to major and awarded the Medal of Honor. A US Navy frigate and a street at Marine Base Quantico were named for him, and a piece of his plane is on display at the National Air and Space Museum. Drawing on research in military archives and materials from Elrod’s family, William L. Ramsey tells Hammerin’ Hank’s full story—which is not only the history of the battle for Wake Island but also the experiences that led him to become a Marine fighter pilot—with drama and verve.
Download or read book Victory in Defeat written by Gregory Urwin and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2010-11-15 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Told here for the first time in vivid detail is the story of the defenders of Wake Island following their surrender to the Japanese on December 23, 1941. The highly regarded military historian Gregory Urwin spent decades researching what happened and now offers a revealing look at the U.S. Marines, sailors, soldiers, and civilian volunteers in captivity. In addition to exhaustive archival research, he interviewed dozens of POWs and even some of their Japanese captors. He also had access to diaries secretly kept by the prisoners. This information has allowed Urwin to provide a nuanced look at the Japanese guards and how the Americans survived three-and-a-half years in captivity and emerged with a much lower death rate than most other Allies captured in the Pacific. In part, Urwin says, the answer lies in the Wake Islanders’ establishment of life-saving communities that kept their dignity intact. Their mutual-help networks encouraged those who faltered under the physical and psychological torture, including what is today called water boarding. The book notes that the Japanese camp official responsible for that war crime was sentenced to life imprisonment by an American military tribunal. Most spent the war at a camp just outside Shanghai, one of the few places where Japanese authorities permitted the Red Cross to aid prisoners of war. The author also calls attention to the generosity of civilians in Shanghai, including Swiss diplomats and the American and British residents of the fabled International Settlement, who provided food and clothing to the prisoners. In addition, some of the guards proved to be less vicious than those stationed at other POW camps and occasionally went out of their way to aid the men. As the first historical work to fully explore the captivity of Wake Island’s defenders, the book offers information not found in other World War II historie
Download or read book Last Man Off Wake Island written by Walter Lewis John Bayler and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author's experiences in the defense of the islands of Wake, Midway and Guadalcanal.
Download or read book Given Up for Dead written by Bill Sloan and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2008-01-29 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping narrative of unprecedented valor and personal courage, here is the story of the first American battle of World War II: the battle for Wake Island. Based on firsthand accounts from long-lost survivors who have emerged to tell about it, this stirring tale of the “Alamo of the Pacific” will reverberate for generations to come. On December 8, 1941, just five hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes attacked a remote U.S. outpost in the westernmost reaches of the Pacific. It was the beginning of an incredible sixteen-day fight for Wake Island, a tiny but strategically valuable dot in the ocean. Unprepared for the stunning assault, the small battalion was dangerously outnumbered and outgunned. But they compensated with a surplus of bravery and perseverance, waging an extraordinary battle against all odds. When it was over, a few hundred American Marines, sailors, and soldiers, along with a small army of heroic civilian laborers, had repulsed enemy forces several thousand strong––but it was still not enough. Among the Marines was twenty-year-old PFC Wiley Sloman. By Christmas Day, he lay semiconscious in the sand, struck by enemy fire. Another day would pass before he was found—stripped of his rifle and his uniform. Shocked to realize he hadn’t awakened to victory, Sloman wondered: Had he been given up for dead—and had the Marines simply given up? In this riveting account, veteran journalist Bill Sloan re-creates this history-making battle, the crushing surrender, and the stories of the uncommonly gutsy men who fought it. From the civilians who served as gunmen, medics, and even preachers, to the daily grind of life on an isolated island—literally at the ends of the earth—to the agony of POW camps, here we meet our heroes and confront the enemy face-to-face, bayonet to bayonet.
Download or read book The Flying Guns written by Clarence Earle Dickinson and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Story of Wake Island written by James Patrick Sinnott Devereux and published by . This book was released on 1947 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This account of the defense of Wake Island was written after five years without benefit of notes and records, which were destroyed by the Japanese or by us to prevent capture. This account is as accurate as the author could make it from his own recollection, available records and the recollection of other Wake Island veterans, both officers and men. The Navy Department is in no way responsible for any points of view expressed nor for the factual accuracy of statements made." --Page [6] Author's Note.
Download or read book Pacific Islands Pilot written by Great Britain. Hydrographic Department and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page 696 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hell Wouldn t Stop written by Chet Cunningham and published by . This book was released on 2002-10-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forty-four months later, liberated at last from the cruel indignities and grim torture of their captors, they would return home unheralded and largely forgotten."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Enlisted Naval Aviation Pilots written by and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2002 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The early 1890s through the late 1920s saw an explosion in serious long fiction by women in the United States. Considering a wide range of authors--African American, Asian American, white American, and Native American--this book looks at the work of seventeen writers from that period: FrancesEllen Harper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sarah Orne Jewett, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Kate Chopin, Pauline Hopkins, Gertrude Stein, Mary Austin, Sui Sin Far, Willa Cather, Humishuma, Jessie Fauset, Edith Wharton, Ellen Glasgow, Anzia Yezierska, Edith Summers Kelley, and Nella Larsen. The discussionfocuses on the differences in their work and the similarities that unite them, particularly their determination to experiment with narrative form as they explored and voiced issues of power for women. Analyzing the historical context that both enabled and limited American women writers at the turnof the century, Ammons provides detailed readings of many texts and offers extensive commentary on the interaction between race and gender. This book joins the deepening discussion of modern women writers' creation of themselves as artists and raises fundamental questions about the shape of Americanliterary history as it has been constructed in the academy.
Download or read book The Early Air War in the Pacific written by Ralph F. Wetterhahn and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-11-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the first 10 months of the war in the Pacific, Japan achieved air supremacy with its carrier and land-based forces. But after major setbacks at Midway and Guadalcanal, the empire's expansion stalled, in part due to flaws in aircraft design, strategy and command. This book offers a fresh analysis of the air war in the Pacific during the early phases of World War II. Details are included from two expeditions conducted by the author that reveal the location of an American pilot missing in the Philippines since 1942 and clear up a controversial account involving famed Japanese ace Saburo Sakai and U.S. Navy pilot James "Pug" Southerland.
Download or read book Wake Island Command written by Winfield Scott Cunningham and published by . This book was released on 1961 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Commanding officer at Wake Island tells the story of its defense and surrender in 1941 and what later happened to its defenders.
Download or read book The Battle of Wake Island written by United States. Navy Department. Library and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Marine Fighter Pilot at the Jugular of the Solomons written by Capt. Wallace B. Thomson and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2017-12-19 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Could an unobtrusive, skinny, bookish teacher who loves classical music and poetry become a fighter pilot in one of the bloodiest theaters of war our country has known? Could this modest self-described dreamer become the pilot of a Corsair F4U, the fastest plane built—equipped with six menacing, Browning .50 caliber machine guns, a primitive navigation system and a 16-cylinder engine so powerful that it could spin the plane over and crash if accelerated too fast? How far did Wally Thomson, the teacher, travel to become Captain Wallace B. Thomson the war hero of his hometown, Hackensack, New Jersey? In this memoir, Wally describes vivid wartime details that are often insightful, humorous or critical to a life or death decision. He also stands back to provide context for his role in the war effort, describing some of the most relevant battles preceding his arrival in the Pacific. And he reflects on some of the strategies, tactics, mistakes and successes of the Allies and the Japanese while he explains the tasks at hand—flying a powerful aircraft to carry out his missions, leading his men to attack the enemy and to survive to fly another day. Through his telling, we recognize the friendships, fears, romance, humor and the courage he witnessed in the Pacific. Wally’s is just one of the remarkable stories about the countless ordinary men and women who were asked to act in extraordinary ways during World War II. But each story is unique and each one deserves telling. This is Wally’s story—the story of Captain Wallace B. Thomson, a Marine Pilot at the Jugular of the Solomons.
Download or read book Navy Department Communiques 1 624 written by United States. Navy Department. Office of Public Relations and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Spirit of Attack written by Bruce Gordon and published by Author House. This book was released on 2014 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SCRAMBLE! In a couple of minutes my wingman and I would be airborne on another adventure. Sometimes we intercepted an airliner, sometimes a misplaced B-52 bomber, and sometimes Russian bombers probing our defenses; Russian warships; MIG fighters; or "troops in contact" in Vietnam, calling for napalm only yards from their positions. Twice it was UFOs - Unidentified Flying Objects! This book is a series of short stories, supported by more than 90 photographs. The first part has my own stories; later stories were contributed by my fellow pilots. The last story is from WW II of our P-38 fighters attacking the Romanian oil fields and getting badly mauled by defending Romanian fighters - and a Romanian pilot's view of the battle! "Only the spirit of attack borne in a brave heart will bring success to any fighter aircraft, to matter how highly developed the aircraft may be." That quote from Adolf Galland, an Ace of the German Luftwaffe in WW II, was the motto of our 317th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in Alaska. The fighter pilot is a hunter, and his quarry is the most dangerous in the world - men who want to kill him! The best defense is a good offense - ATTACK! The US Air Force had a program called "Every Man a Tiger". A tiger does not kill impulsively or in anger, but plans his attack carefully and strikes with cool ferocity. We were tigers! Fighter pilots tell stories around the bar, but they seldom write them down. These stories were written by the fighter pilots themselves! Come with me and hear of the beauty of flight, the mortal danger of electrical power failure at night in a snowstorm, and the thrill of attack with 20mm cannons firing right under your feet!
Download or read book BuNos Disposition of World War II USN USMC and USCG Aircraft Listed by Bureau Number written by Douglas E. Campbell and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A snapshot in time. After thousands of hours of research and data entry over a 35-year period, the information on the disposition of some 25,000 US Navy, US Marine Corps and US Coast Guard aircraft needs to be published. These aircraft mainly represent those built and lost during World War II - between 7 December 1941 and 15 August 1945 - but this book also contains aircraft built before WWII that were lost during WWII or disposed of after WWII (lost during the Korean War, lost on training exercises, sold to private investors, currently located in museums and even some still proudly sitting as "gate guards" across the US, etc.).
