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Correct. I had to look it up.IIRC, 18 April, 1943, was the date that Yamamoto met his demise, just one year after the Doolittle raid.
IIRC, 18 April, 1943, was the date that Yamamoto met his demise, just one year after the Doolittle raid.
IIRC, 18 April, 1943, was the date that Yamamoto met his demise, just one year after the Doolittle raid.
As fighter aces secretary I dealt with about half of the 400 members we had in the 80s. I already knew Rex Barber from Oregon and was friendly John Mitchell. Tom Lanphier not so much......................... But in discussing memorabilia for display at the Champlin Fighter Museum, John said he still had the strip map from The Mission. He said "I couldn't navigate like that again if my life depended on it."UHotPW YT channel put this up last year regarding Yamamoto's demise:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fScnmA2jI3w&list=PLvwPt9MhP599uw-MIOt9rmNGmSl7k014i&index=9
What is your source on no bullet holes in his plane, I had not heard that. Just want to read up on it.A few facts about that mission:
1. One of the "Shooters" that were to go in and get the Admiral was a P-40 pilot with no combat time in the P-38. He filled in when a "Shooter" blew a tire on takeoff. And he was the one that did not come back.
2. None of the escorting Zeros were shot down, although all of them were claimed.
3. Most of the P-38's were away from the "Shooters," preparing to pounce on the 80 Zeros expected to boil up out of the base in response to the attack on the Bettys.
4. The 80 Zeros had no idea what was going on and did not boil up out of the base to defend the Admiral. Just like Midway, most of the fighters on both sides were with the cheerleaders or in the locker room.
5. Three Betty kills were credited, although there was no third Betty.
6. A Japanese expedition to the Admiral's Betty crash site many years later revealed that there were no bullet holes in the Betty, just as the recovery of his body had shown no bullet holes. Nobody shot down Yamamoto. The Betty crashed either due to frantic low flying or structural failure from frantic low flying.
7. Lamphier wrote the action report himself, immediately after the mission. He had been a reporter before the war and thus was an excellent typist as well as experienced at assembling a story.
A book, entitled "The Reluctant Admiral." Shot from that expedition below.What is your source on no bullet holes in his plane, I had not heard that. Just want to read up on it.
I wonder if he'd lived to receive the Emperor's order to surrender, would Yamamoto have been tried and executed after the war? Yamamoto was not a political leader like Hideki Tojo, but others were also executed like Admiral Shigetarō Shimada.IIRC, 18 April, 1943, was the date that Yamamoto met his demise, just one year after the Doolittle raid.
Yamamoto was almost executed before the war. He was not enthused over the idea of war with the USA and the Japanese Army was plotting to kill him. He managed to redeem himself, though, by talking tough. You have to wonder if he would have not pushed for a peace treaty much sooner than 6 Aug 1945, although if he very well might not have survived that effort. As it was, even after 9 Aug 1945 radicals in the Army even tried to stop the Emperor's announcement, but they were foiled in part by a B-29 raid in the middle of their attempted coup.I wonder if he'd lived to receive the Emperor's order to surrender, would Yamamoto have been tried and executed after the war?
Here is an article by Rex Barber.
View attachment 775718View attachment 775719View attachment 775720
I hate to be argumentative but number 6 there is highly suspect. I thought it was established that the admiral had two bullet wounds, one in the shoulder/back and one to the jaw/eye socket. Also Barber's account of hitting the Betty with his guns, perhaps there were no bullet holes in whatever was left of the fuselage and they mistakenly extrapolated from that.A few facts about that mission:
1. One of the "Shooters" that were to go in and get the Admiral was a P-40 pilot with no combat time in the P-38. He filled in when a "Shooter" blew a tire on takeoff. And he was the one that did not come back.
2. None of the escorting Zeros were shot down, although all of them were claimed.
3. Most of the P-38's were away from the "Shooters," preparing to pounce on the 80 Zeros expected to boil up out of the base in response to the attack on the Bettys.
4. The 80 Zeros had no idea what was going on and did not boil up out of the base to defend the Admiral. Just like Midway, most of the fighters on both sides were with the cheerleaders or in the locker room.
5. Three Betty kills were credited, although there was no third Betty.
6. A Japanese expedition to the Admiral's Betty crash site many years later revealed that there were no bullet holes in the Betty, just as the recovery of his body had shown no bullet holes. Nobody shot down Yamamoto. The Betty crashed either due to frantic low flying or structural failure from frantic low flying.
7. Lamphier wrote the action report himself, immediately after the mission. He had been a reporter before the war and thus was an excellent typist as well as experienced at assembling a story.
By this account, both Bettys were holed.