Besides mission-focussed persistence, evasive bomber maneuvering tactics exhausted enemy fighters fuel reserves. Importance of having reliable POL supply-chain logistics support was a WW2 critical success factor!
Wow....just wow. I have gone down the youtube rabbit hole on this one. Never heard of this mission before but....wow. The men of that aircraft forever had to carry around their "man parts" in a wheelbarrow after that!
The perseverance and skill and just plain guts the men displayed and Maj Zeamers comments that he wears the medal for all those who also did great acts but were never written up or observed....humble but courageous. Where are the men like that these days. They all came home after the war and carried on with their lives.
My father in law flew B-17s in WWII out of Polebrook, England. When the Norden bombsights were first being introduced, he volunteered to carry it on 24 missions. Problem was that in order for the sight to be successful, it had to be on the lead aircraft of the mission. They devised a plan to fly his plane in the body of the formation and slowly move up to the front as they approached the target. The Germans had realized that there was something special about the lead plane and used as much firepower against the leader as they could to mess up the bomb run.
The amazing part of all these stories about "the Greatest Generation", was that at the time he was a 24 year old First Lieutenant. I thank God daily that there is a Warrior Class in the USA who will step up when asked.
My dad was an 18 year old Missouri farm boy who enlisted into the USAAF in 1939 as a clerk. He volunteered to become a pilot and was commissioned in 1943. In the ETO he flew cargo and paratroopers, towed gliders, landed in grass fields with loads of jerry cans to gas up tanks pushing East, and medevaced prisoners from Nazi concentration camps. The crew of those planes carried a .38 revolver. The planes had no other guns. Dad was 23-24. Later dad flew SIGINT missions in the Korean War. I remember him coming home in 1953. He retired in 1961 after he had transitioned to helicopters and then the Jupiter C Missile program. After he retired from the USAF he worked on the Saturn V program and was project manager for the Army's M-60 tank upgrade program for 20 years. All that on a high school diploma. All of those USAAF and other WWII guys were heroes.
My dad got riffed back to Sergeant after WWII but was recommissioned for the Korean War. Dad said that many WWII glider pilots were crusty Warrant Officers. Their orders were to immediately head back to friendly lines after landing so that they could fly more missions. Most grabbed a rifle and headed to the front to fight with the troops.
Probably because fighting with the troops was much safer than flying and safely landing a glider. Losing a glider was akin to losing an entire infantry platoon.
Gliders were deadly aircraft at that time. In retrospect, vertical envelopment wasn't a new tactic in the '50s but much safer with a helicopter. I was a gator sailor initially. ;-)
As we march ever closer to a possible war with China, and as DC wrings out the warrior ethos from the military, I wonder how much more of this we will have left in our country. These guys are heroes. Warrior Ethos, Esprit de Corps, will to win, and a wee bit of gun nuttiness are keys to victory.
My uncle Eddie was a B-17 crew member as waist gunner, photographer with the 8th Air Force. His best pal was the tail gunner. The tail was shot off during one mission over Germany.
The article shows what the crews went through. I salute them all. Ed went into the war right out of high school, he never got over the war or the loss of his friend.
Besides mission-focussed persistence, evasive bomber maneuvering tactics exhausted enemy fighters fuel reserves. Importance of having reliable POL supply-chain logistics support was a WW2 critical success factor!
"And gentlemen in England now-a-bed"
Wow....just wow. I have gone down the youtube rabbit hole on this one. Never heard of this mission before but....wow. The men of that aircraft forever had to carry around their "man parts" in a wheelbarrow after that!
The perseverance and skill and just plain guts the men displayed and Maj Zeamers comments that he wears the medal for all those who also did great acts but were never written up or observed....humble but courageous. Where are the men like that these days. They all came home after the war and carried on with their lives.
I've read about this once or twice, but every time...respect.
We'd better mount Stingers on P-8s!
"you can never have enough guns"
actually, it should be:
"there is no such thing as too much ammo. Only too much ammo to carry."
Further, remember Rules for Gunfights #2.:
2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammunition is cheap – life is expensive.
Fuck, yeah.
Where is Old 666 now?
Great story.
My father in law flew B-17s in WWII out of Polebrook, England. When the Norden bombsights were first being introduced, he volunteered to carry it on 24 missions. Problem was that in order for the sight to be successful, it had to be on the lead aircraft of the mission. They devised a plan to fly his plane in the body of the formation and slowly move up to the front as they approached the target. The Germans had realized that there was something special about the lead plane and used as much firepower against the leader as they could to mess up the bomb run.
The amazing part of all these stories about "the Greatest Generation", was that at the time he was a 24 year old First Lieutenant. I thank God daily that there is a Warrior Class in the USA who will step up when asked.
My dad was an 18 year old Missouri farm boy who enlisted into the USAAF in 1939 as a clerk. He volunteered to become a pilot and was commissioned in 1943. In the ETO he flew cargo and paratroopers, towed gliders, landed in grass fields with loads of jerry cans to gas up tanks pushing East, and medevaced prisoners from Nazi concentration camps. The crew of those planes carried a .38 revolver. The planes had no other guns. Dad was 23-24. Later dad flew SIGINT missions in the Korean War. I remember him coming home in 1953. He retired in 1961 after he had transitioned to helicopters and then the Jupiter C Missile program. After he retired from the USAF he worked on the Saturn V program and was project manager for the Army's M-60 tank upgrade program for 20 years. All that on a high school diploma. All of those USAAF and other WWII guys were heroes.
At that time, the Marine Corps also had flying sergeants. The ones remaining in the service were commissioned during the Korean war.
My dad got riffed back to Sergeant after WWII but was recommissioned for the Korean War. Dad said that many WWII glider pilots were crusty Warrant Officers. Their orders were to immediately head back to friendly lines after landing so that they could fly more missions. Most grabbed a rifle and headed to the front to fight with the troops.
Probably because fighting with the troops was much safer than flying and safely landing a glider. Losing a glider was akin to losing an entire infantry platoon.
True enough, George. Dad say those Warrant Officers were some crusty old farts, many of them former infantry NCO's. Those guys probably wanted to go kill Germans more than fly. I can't imagine towing a glider was any more fun than flying one or being a passenger. This: https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/aug-1-1943-gliding-catastrophe-kills-the-st-louis-mayor-and-lambert-fields-co-founder/article_d5c6d58c-0cf1-56d9-97b2-b9b963d24d81.html
Gliders were deadly aircraft at that time. In retrospect, vertical envelopment wasn't a new tactic in the '50s but much safer with a helicopter. I was a gator sailor initially. ;-)
The first paragraphs scream early SWP theater before the author takes you to Guadalcanal. What a maw the New Guinea region turned into.
It appears that Yoshio Ooki might have been a Warrant Officer and from what I found died later that month.
It was the Solomons that destroyed the cream of the IJN pilots, not Midway.
As we march ever closer to a possible war with China, and as DC wrings out the warrior ethos from the military, I wonder how much more of this we will have left in our country. These guys are heroes. Warrior Ethos, Esprit de Corps, will to win, and a wee bit of gun nuttiness are keys to victory.
It probably helps to be young with something to prove too.
And a sense of immortality.
My uncle Eddie was a B-17 crew member as waist gunner, photographer with the 8th Air Force. His best pal was the tail gunner. The tail was shot off during one mission over Germany.
The article shows what the crews went through. I salute them all. Ed went into the war right out of high school, he never got over the war or the loss of his friend.
IIRC, Capt. Zeamer was narcoleptic, as well.