Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come not to bury a TBM-3, but raise a TBF-1 from its ashes!.
OK so I won, at some expenses, the KMC update set for the TBF-1 for the AM TBM-1C which included the Yellow Hammer decals for BuNo 00380 one of the very first production aircraft delivered to the US Navy. VT-8 received the first deliveries of the new Avenger but they arrived at Pearl Harbor two days after the USS Hornet departed for Midway. Of the delivered aircraft, which were to replaced the ageing TBD Devastators, six were ordered to fly from Ewa field Hawaii to Midway to participated in the battle. As with the Devastators it was almost a total wipe out. All the TBD were lost with not hits to any ships and only the sole survivor Ens George (Tex) Gay, of the six Avengers launched from Midway that fateful day, only one came back. Ens Albert K. "Bert" Earnest and Airman Third Class Harry Ferrier, both wounded, and the aircraft a wright off, but none the less brought them back to Midway. Thus, the truth is that there was not as often proclaimed, one survivor from VT-8, but indeed three.
With the Judges approval I'd like to complete this as that one aircraft, steed, ridden into battle from the "six hundred"
by Alfred Tennyson.
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not,
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!