December 7, 1941

[Milosh]

Crumbs, it's no wonder they won...

View attachment 605059F-4F

There was F-14s tho.

 

[SaparotRob]

Crumbs, it's no wonder they won...

View attachment 605059F-4F

I was just checking to see if you were paying attention.

 

[SaparotRob]

But they would have really helped at Malaya.

 

[swampyankee]

Crumbs, it's no wonder they won...

View attachment 605059F-4F

What a difference a hyphen makes....F4F.

Although having McDonnell/Douglas F4D's in 1944 could be interesting....

(eta) I meant to write McD/D F4H, but wrote F4D instead. Skyrays would be interesting, but not quite so much so as F4H Phantoms.

 

[SaparotRob]

Hey c'mon, I got it right in that Midway CGI thread!

 

[SaparotRob]

I think.

 

[MIflyer]

On 7 Dec 1941 my high school physics teacher was in command of a small USN seaplane tender in the process of transiting the Panama Canal enroute to Pearl Harbor. He stepped off the ship to get a pack of cigarettes and before he could pay for them his radioman started yelling and waving at him. He ran back to the ship without paying for the smokes.

They had received a radio message that was something like "General Order No.8." They opened the safe and unsealed General Order No. 8, which said, "You are to assume the entire United States Navy has been destroyed and are to proceed on that basis,"

They sailed into Pearl Harbor a few days later, guns manned and ready to fight their way in. The ship may have only been 800 tons, but they were going to relieve Pearl.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Crumbs, it's no wonder they won...

View attachment 605059F-4F

Ship at full 33 knots, 40 knot WOD and afterburner from right aft and they'll get airborne. Better put down some metal sheeting first.

 

[bdefen]

When I was in jr. high and high school, most of my male teachers had been involved in the war, either in it, or in production. My 9th grade history teacher had flown P-40s and that is how I learned about gun convergence. He did not talk of any thing else. One of my gym teachers had been on destroyers in the North Atlantic. When anyone complained about cold weather, he would say "You don't know cold until you are chipping ice in the Atlantic". My wood shop teacher had Malaria one day and then I knew he had been in the Pacific, but he didn't discuss it.

My late father-in-law served as a radio operator on a "Patrol Craft" in the Aleutians during WW2. He didn't talk much about it, but he did speak a time or two of the constant fear of being bombed or torpedoed. That never happened. He had an emotional meltdown at our dinner table one time as he recalled how scared he was. My mother-in-law had never seen him do that before. Maybe a bit of PTSD. USN Patrol Craft were much smaller than a destroyer, and probably much more vulnerable.

He also spoke rather frankly (and more "cheerfully") about chipping ice from the upper structure. Would be sitting drinking coffee with the other guys, presumably in the mess or somewhere. During rough weather (probably most of the time) they'd watch what he described as an inclinometer's needle swing back and forth as the ship rolled. Invariably, the needle would peg one way or the other. Within moments, the chief would show up, order a detail to go topside, and start chipping ice. They'd bundle up, go outside, hook up with safety ropes, grab pickaxes and sledgehammers, and start wailing away. Not sure how high up he ever got during that activity, but he did say it's really quite a ride up high when that ship rolls back and forth.

My wife remembers she and her brother and sister playing with their dad's sailor hats, and we have this "commemorative" pillow that was her dad's.

 

[rmark]

My late Seabee father in law told me that in 1944 he helped clean up debris still left from the Pearl harbor attack while awaiting transport out in the Pacific. After arriving in Hawaii the Navy sort of lost track of him - men came and went but he had no assignment - so on days without clean up duty he'd go visit his brother in the Army Air Force office that assigned flights into the Pacific. (one night they planned to steal a plane to go to a party but the MPs were in the area) Eventually he told the officer in charge that he'd been there longer than anyone and that maybe his file was lost. He was told to keep quiet about the mix up, pack his bags and leave now. He swam ashore at Guam on Christmas day 1944. The ship (maybe the ROI) forgot to drop him off at Eniwetok so they put him and several other guys in a landing craft and dropped them off near the beach in neck deep water. They slept on the the beach until morning and were flown back a few days later.

There's a photo online of the CBMU 577 Christmas tree on Eniwetok. I showed him the photo, he pointed to the tent behind and said 'thats my tent' and that the photographer was standing near the water.

 

[bdefen]

Interesting he went for so long "unnoticed". I assume he was being paid. Seems that would help the USN find him and keep track of him. Maybe it was fortunate for him that he was "lost". Sounds like he had plenty of adventure. And lived in beachfront property during the holidays!

My dad had a good friend in the U.S. Navy who ended up at Okinawa. He had some of the stress and worry that everyone in combat must have had. And then spent a lot of time guarding a garbage dump.

 

[rmark]

Earlier in the war he was a civilian employee of an Army contractor. His first cruise was a rusty freighter loaded with construction equipment to island 51W off Alaska, Pye island I think, to build a radar station. On arrival you'd jump from a landing craft to large rock on the up swell, then the landing craft would drop away. On the next up swell someone would toss your bag to you. Repeat drill until boat was unloaded. They shortly built a ramp to unload the heavy equipment.

When they arrived there was a Captain, and lieutenant, and a private on the island- the captain held the binoculars, the lieutenant operated the radio, the private tried them keep them fed and warm. They were the early warning system.

 

[rmark]

Also if your brother is scheduling transport planes to the pacific he knows where to send the contraband cigars. My father in law said plane would land and the pilot would ask around to find him. FIL made sure his commander always got a cigar when he divvied up the supply.

 

[rmark]

To the left of the Xmas tree is the native style operations office for the airstrip which was further to the left. He said P47s were using it.

 

[chipieal]

Look at the real reason. Schools no longer teach anything about WW II and the bravery and courage it took on all sides to fight what was essentially the first complex technological war. I heard some snowflakes talking on the street on 12/7/20. They did not know anything about what led up to WWII and were not even sure who the combatants were. One actually said that we started WWII by bombing Tokyo with Atomic bombs. Sad very sad.

 

[pbehn]

Look at the real reason. Schools no longer teach anything about WW II and the bravery and courage it took on all sides to fight what was essentially the first complex technological war. I heard some snowflakes talking on the street on 12/7/20. They did not know anything about what led up to WWII and were not even sure who the combatants were. One actually said that we started WWII by bombing Tokyo with Atomic bombs. Sad very sad.

25 years ago in Hamm, Germany I had an Irishman bending my ears about the British bombing Dresden in 1946 after the Nazis surrendered.

 

[Greg Boeser]

Interesting he went for so long "unnoticed". I assume he was being paid. Seems that would help the USN find him and keep track of him. Maybe it was fortunate for him that he was "lost". Sounds like he had plenty of adventure. And lived in beachfront property during the holidays!

My dad had a good friend in the U.S. Navy who ended up at Okinawa. He had some of the stress and worry that everyone in combat must have had. And then spent a lot of time guarding a garbage dump.

I was in Iraq in '03. We had some guys from the IRR (Individual Ready Reserve, aka inactive reserve) just sort of dumped in our laps. About a few weeks before there orders were to expire someone realized that they didn't have orders to go home. I learned a lot about the Fog of War during that deployment.

 

[Koopernic]

Seems that WW2 is fading from the minds of many Americans. Today's generation view WW2 as simply a video game or a movie subject.

It's not fading from the minds. The Americans are now a different people. The descendants of the American men and women who were alive pearl harbour are now a minority. Honestly why should the others care? No one even teaches civics i.e. how the Government works anymore. We have a disaster boiling in the South China sea and Japan is not the problem though it is a similar problem.

 

[windhund116]

It's not fading from the minds. The Americans are now a different people. The descendants of the American men and women who were alive pearl harbour are now a minority. Honestly why should the others care? No one even teaches civics i.e. how the Government works anymore. We have a disaster boiling in the South China sea and Japan is not the problem though it is a similar problem.

Sure hope this isn't, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

 

[Vincenzo]

It's not fading from the minds. The Americans are now a different people. The descendants of the American men and women who were alive pearl harbour are now a minority. Honestly why should the others care? No one even teaches civics i.e. how the Government works anymore. We have a disaster boiling in the South China sea and Japan is not the problem though it is a similar problem.

and so? in the 1940 the descendent of americans that were alive during the civil war were a much smaller minority, 75/80 years are not few