Military History/Weapons Questions

Richard S. wrote:2. Halsey?

I think Bull Halsey was stuck in the hospital with poison ivy or something like it during Midway.

[quote="BugsyR"]1. How many torpedo hits did we inflict on the 4 Jap carriers we sank? I want to say Zero...I believe all were sunk using dive bombers In case I'm wrong...my second guess is....just enough to sink them... If you want to say Zero...Go right ahead because you are right....Not one hit from any aircraft (B17's from Midway or any US Navy planes at all....until the Dauntless dive bombers sank all 4 Jap carriers!...Torpedo 8 was actually wiped out with a loss of all their planes & most pilots.

2. What US Admiral was the onsight force commander? This is a guess also...Adm Spruance
Spruance sticks in my head because there was a significant role he played in Midway that he thought he was not prepared or qualified to do the job because I believe he was just a Destroyer Squadron Commander prior. In other words the role Spruance played in Midway meant he was filling some very larger boondockers. Spruance (not a carrier admiral) was right.
5. What Jap attack was made as a ruse/fake to draw us away from Midway, as part of the overall Midway plan? This I would say was the attack on the Aleutian Islands[/quote]..You got it!

coaledsweat wrote:

Richard S. wrote:2. Halsey?

I think Bull Halsey was stuck in the hospital with poison ivy or something like it during Midway.

Yeah, Yeah,yeah.....Robert Mitchum, right? From the movie "Midway". .....& Glenn Ford played Spruance.

Devil5052 wrote:Not sure.....I'm thinking something about the speed of sound instability that Chuck Yeager solved but, since the ME-262 had swept wings & the P47 didn't, I would think the P47 would run into instabilty problems first??

Nothing in WWII could keep up with a P-47 in a dive. If the ME-262 tried, the wings would break off.

Devil5052 wrote:

coaledsweat wrote:

Richard S. wrote:2. Halsey?

I think Bull Halsey was stuck in the hospital with poison ivy or something like it during Midway.

Yeah, Yeah,yeah.....Robert Mitchum, right? From the movie "Midway". .....& Glenn Ford played Spruance.

Yeah, I think it was Mitchum. He wanted the tree cut down outside his window so he could see what was going on.

coaledsweat wrote:

Devil5052 wrote:Not sure.....I'm thinking something about the speed of sound instability that Chuck Yeager solved but, since the ME-262 had swept wings & the P47 didn't, I would think the P47 would run into instabilty problems first??

Nothing in WWII could keep up with a P-47 in a dive. If the ME-262 tried, the wings would break off.

A pretty plane that 262! (Hell....if it werent for the German scientists we & the Russians grabbed after the war, there would have been no jet aircraft or space programs for many years.

Devil5052 wrote:Torpedo 8 was actually wiped out with a loss of all their planes & most pilots.[/color]

An Ensign named Gay was one of the first shot down, they fished him out of the water the next day. He said he had the best seat in the house watching the Japs get their heads handed to them.

coaledsweat wrote:I think Bull Halsey was stuck in the hospital with poison ivy or something like it during Midway.

Yeah, Yeah,yeah.....Robert Mitchum, right? From the movie "Midway". .....& Glenn Ford played Spruance.[/quote]

Yeah, I think it was Mitchum. He wanted the tree cut down outside his window so he could see what was going on. [/quote]

LOL.....You're as bad as me!!
Does your wife know alot of this stuff too? (not voluntarily I might ad)

Another great Walter Lord book .... Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway (Classics of War) (Paperback)
by Walter Lord (Author) is available here http://www.amazon.com/Incredible-Victor ... 715&sr=1-1 if you interested.
I think the movie was based on this great book.

Devil5052 wrote:A pretty plane that 262! (Hell....if it werent for the German scientists we & the Russians grabbed after the war, there would have been no jet aircraft for space programs for many years.

When they first made them, they had a tail wheel like most planes at the time and the beast would not leave the ground no matter how hard they tried. It was something about the angle the engines were at. An ace who I think later was in command of the 262s figured out if you hit the brakes with a quick jab to tip the plane level on it's wing wheels, it could actually take off. Messershmidt put a nose wheel on them after that so they were level on the ground and they didn't have anymore trouble.

Another great plane that was problematic at take off was the P-51 Mustang. It was very light and had gobs of power. If you ramped the throttle up too quick, it wanted to roll over from the torque. That took a while to get used to.

Jumping back to the European Theater...... The British had broken the German codes & we could "read" alot of their plans. Here's a few questions on that:

1. Name of the German cypher machine?

2. Where was the British code breaking center, in England?

3. How did the US get it's hands on one of the German cypher machines?

4. What was our code word for any infomation coming from one of these (copied) code machines?

coaledsweat wrote:

Devil5052 wrote:A pretty plane that 262! (Hell....if it werent for the German scientists we & the Russians grabbed after the war, there would have been no jet aircraft for space programs for many years.

When they first made them, they had a tail wheel like most planes at the time and the beast would not leave the ground no matter how hard they tried. It was something about the angle the engines were at. An ace who I think later was in command of the 262s figured out if you hit the brakes with a quick jab to tip the plane level on it's wing wheels, it could actually take off. Messershmidt put a nose wheel on them after that so they were level on the ground and they didn't have anymore trouble. I think youj mean Adolf GallandAnother great plane that was problematic at take off was the P-51 Mustang. It was very light and had gobs of power. If you ramped the throttle up too quick, it wanted to roll over from the torque. That took a while to get used to.[/quote]...That was the plane that Chuck Yeager flew in WWII & was shot down in over France. (he made it back safely to England to fly more missions. A real hero...Chuck Yeager!

Devil5052 wrote:LOL.....You're as bad as me!!
Does your wife know alot of this stuff too? (not voluntarily I might ad)

She can't stand it. When my brother and I start, she leaves.

I guess I was blessed as a child, dad was a historian and I spent a lot of time in his study with his books when I was young. Of particular interest was a bunch of volumes by Rand McNally if I'm not mistaken, called The War Years, great stuff. Lots of photos and details, I think it ran into the mid '50s as it covered Korea too. There are not many photos of WWII that I have not seen because of this.

I read 2 books about about WW2 that I can recollect. I read '"The Rise and fall of Third Reich"...all 1250 pages...twice. The other was a fictional account called "Tales of the South Pacific" from James Michener which was alright but he does have few others based on WW2. It is based on his personal experiences while based there during WW2.. If you're unfamiliar with his work most of it drama/adventure type material. Much of it is researched extensively and will contain many scenes based on historical figures and actual events if not the event itself. Some of his later books like Alaska and Texas will take you through a journey starting from the cavemen until the present day, usually based on the decedents of the cavemen. It's quite an interesting approach.

While on the subject I'll mention the best book I've read by him was Chesapeake, if i remember correctly (its been a while) it starts out with an Indian being held captive by another tribe, again if remember correctly in lower New York where the Susquehanna begins. He escapes and makes his way to the Chesapeake... One great things about that particular book for me is a lot of scenes were placed in areas I know very well since I live a block from the river and have spent so much time on it. It was very easy to picture what the surroundings were like. The book will take you through the arrival of the white man, slavery, pirates, civil war etc. Another book I would recommend by him is called Journey, its not very long but great book nonetheless.

coaledsweat wrote:

Devil5052 wrote:LOL.....You're as bad as me!!
Does your wife know alot of this stuff too? (not voluntarily I might ad)

She can't stand it. When my brother and I start, she leaves.

I guess I was blessed as a child, dad was a historian and I spent a lot of time in his study with his books when I was young. Of particular interest was a bunch of volumes by Rand McNally if I'm not mistaken, called The War Years, great stuff. Lots of photos and details, I think it ran into the mid '50s as it covered Korea too. There are not many photos of WWII that I have not seen because of this.

Funny story:

When I was a young teen I was already really into Richard Rodgers score from the NBC TV series Victory At Sea (still one of the best TV shows ever on!) & one of the 3 album set I had, included photos. One of these photos showed the aft end of an aircraft carrier after it had been hit by a kamikaze. There are flames everywhere & there is a man in white, obviously directing the fire fighting in the photo. My uncle, who I knew had been a flight Deck officer during WWII , was over one night, & I was showing him these photos. (You know....to explain to him about the war) Anyway, he looked at me..pointed to the man in white & said..."I know.....That's me!"