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.
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.
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.
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.