[ARC5] Naming t..b.'s...

[jcoward5452 at aol.com]

And it was the sacrifice of the slow TBD's attack that brought down the Japanese Combat Air Patrol from altitude and frustrated the Japanese command to convert their mission in the middle of the fight,leaving bombs,torpedoes, and fueling operations in a somewhat chaotic state when SBD's arrived on scene and changed the whole course of the Pacific war.As far as I can tell, this was a Divine Accident as the whole effort on the part of us (U.S.) was a brute force effort; i.e. throw everything you got at them and prey like hell something works.
 The rest is History.
  Jay
 PS  Good reads for the layman are Herman Wouk's "Winds of War" and "War and Rememberance".The video is well done too, but he did a very decent job of novelizing a fairly accurate, but broad, history of WWII in the written novels.There are several pages devoted to remembering those airmen who participated in the Battle of Midway.
 And while your at it, read the Cain Mutiny by Wouk..There is no actual reference to the TCS, but the radio guy ,I think "Keefer" .was always copying Harbor Traffic and most likly on a WWII (read converted WWI destroyer) mine sweeper, it was a TCS.The movie starred Humphrey Bogart and is a classic of his ability to portray/acheive "character". Scary...





-----Original Message-----
From: Kludge <wh7hg.hi at gmail.com>
To: 'Discussion of AN/ARC-5 military radio equipment.' <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wed, Sep 8, 2010 4:47 pm
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Naming torpedo bombers


-----Original Message-----
rom: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
ehalf Of Michael Bittner
 It's SBD; Scout, Bomber, Douglas.
This is true.  The SBD was a scout dive bomber that was quite good at
efending itself.  The bombers that went out unescorted were TBDs (Torpedo
omber, Douglas) which were slow and essentially defenseless against the AA
uns aboard the Japanese ships.  They suffered an 80% loss with some
quadrons like VT-8 from the HORNET (CV-8) being completely wiped out.  Not
ne TBD scored a hit.
The fighters that failed to link up with the TBDs were Grumman F4Fs which
ere vastly outclassed by the A6M Zero.  
Dr. Drake had a personal distaste for crystal control & VHF until he saw it
emonstrated at which point he became a True Believer.
Best regards,

ichael, WH7HG BL01xh
ttp://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/NTH/index.aspx 
ttp://wh7hg.blogspot.com/ 
ttp://kludges-other-blog.blogspot.com 
iki Nô! 
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