[Milsurplus] Yamamoto Mission: P-38 Radio Navigation

[john p hutchins]

All -

Reading the web page : http://www.southernoregonwarbirds.us/fa0.html "To 
help Mitchell in his over water navigation the Navy had installed a 
special compass in his plane."   No mention of a ships compass.

Sorry to say wikipedia has been known to scant on the facts, while the 
article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Isoroku_Yamamoto
does state " ...the P-38s fitted with a Navy ship's compass at the 
request of Major John W. Mitchell 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_W._Mitchell&action=edit>, 
commanding officer of the 339th, to aid in navigation"
I think we need to find what type of  "ships compass" was used. PT boats 
had a smaller ships compass.  I seem to recall that ships compass had to 
be calibrated to each vessel do to inherent magnetic fields.  Since most 
of the flight was "level" to the intercept point it is quite possible 
that a smaller ships compass was used?

Later
Hutch