June 4, 1942

[SIXFOOTERsez]

This is from a friend on another forum. Hats off and Thank You to all the vets from both sides of the pond.

Perhaps the greatest day for the Greatest Generation started to day in 1942 as the battle of Midway began. The battle would last four days and see four of the six Japanese big aircraft carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor sunk; including Akagi the flag ship for that attack. Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu would all find the bottom, but not before Hiryu's torpedo bombers would find USS Yorktown and destroy her. Shokaku and Zuikaku (Flying Crane and Fortunate Crane) sister ships escaped and continued to cause problems in the pacific. Shokaku was sunk by a sub in the Philippine Sea; but Zuikaku survived until October of 1944 when planes of USS Hornet and USS Enterprise finally caught her at Leyte Bay and sent the last of the Pearl Raiders to the bottom.

Midway was an expensive battle costing the Japanese the 4 capital carriers, a cruiser, 300 plus aircraft, and 2500 men. The Americans counted the Yorktown, USS Hammann (a destroyer), 145 aircraft, and 300 men lost. The loses were high, but this most decisive American victory ended Japan?s domination of the air and sea of the Pacific, and the island hopping could commence in earnest with relative safety from air and sea counterattacks.

Today it is little more than a footnote in history books, but in 1942 it was a major turning point in the second war to end all wars.

[Midwest Spy]

This is from a friend on another forum. Hats off and Thank You to all the vets from both sides of the pond.

Perhaps the greatest day for the Greatest Generation started to day in 1942 as the battle of Midway began. The battle would last four days and see four of the six Japanese big aircraft carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor sunk; including Akagi the flag ship for that attack. Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu would all find the bottom, but not before Hiryu's torpedo bombers would find USS Yorktown and destroy her. Shokaku and Zuikaku (Flying Crane and Fortunate Crane) sister ships escaped and continued to cause problems in the pacific. Shokaku was sunk by a sub in the Philippine Sea; but Zuikaku survived until October of 1944 when planes of USS Hornet and USS Enterprise finally caught her at Leyte Bay and sent the last of the Pearl Raiders to the bottom.

Midway was an expensive battle costing the Japanese the 4 capital carriers, a cruiser, 300 plus aircraft, and 2500 men. The Americans counted the Yorktown, USS Hammann (a destroyer), 145 aircraft, and 300 men lost. The loses were high, but this most decisive American victory ended Japan?s domination of the air and sea of the Pacific, and the island hopping could commence in earnest with relative safety from air and sea counterattacks.

Today it is little more than a footnote in history books, but in 1942 it was a major turning point in the second war to end all wars.

Bingo, Six!

I've read many accounts of that day, and how it was pure luck that we spotted their ships before they saw ours.

The first naval airmen to go in and attack were piloting very slow aircraft, right at water level, to drop torpedos. They were sitting ducks and did little damage, and were pretty much all killed. But, they provided a diversion to the divebombers above who did the real damage.

To me, that's what is so amazing about the 'Greatest Generation'.

To fly into a virtual suicide mission and know that there's a bigger picture for your country and family.

Truly heroic.

[Cynical Ninja]

Yeah you really paid the nips back for their cowardly attack on Pearl Harbour at Midway.

Bravo.

[username]

If any of you haven't read Unbroken, I highly recommend it! I don't typically enjoy war novels but this true story was riveting. Loved the book.


On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.