[Milsurplus] Thought I would send this along

[Charlie L.]

I initially posted this on my Old Friends group chain, we are a bunch of
vintage and milsurp operators that meet 3 times a week on 3715 and once a
month for lunch, and we are primarily in the NC/SC area.

OK, I am 72 and still love to build models just as I did as a kid.  I
recently picked up an AMT Models, an actual model maker still in the US, of
the Grumman TBF-1 Avenger.  This AC actually made its first debut during
the Battle of Midway, but in just about all movies, if not all, they never
show you the radioman/bombardier and tell you there is actually a 3 man
crew.  Only 6 Avengers were dispatched in that battle and only one came
back, plane shot full of holes, radioman wounded and the rear gunner dead.
It did go on to achieve excellent results in surface ship and submarine
hunting the rest of the war and into many years later.  The Avenger was so
heavy, even with the carrier at max speed, the most takeoff velocity they
could get to was 90 knots, remember no catapults then, just barely enough,
and in movies and pix, the Avenger is the one that when launched, dropped
below the flight deck as soon as it cleared it, such that you think it went
in the sea.

The word doc is an X-ray view, the radioman at the bottom behind the wing,
the two pics show the radiomans position, the seat above him is the rear or
ventral gunner.  He had two windows to look out of, and he entered, looking
at the 3rd pic, in a hatch just behind his starboard window.  As in all
aircraft with crews, for example, the B17 with more shot down than any
other bomber, you have to think about being in that spot, the plane shot to
pieces, maybe both pilot and co pilot dead,  you stuck by centrifugal
forces such that you can not get out as the plane plunges to the ground.
In a B17, that could take 5 minutes falling from 30,000 feet, guessing your
only thing you could do was to pray and be calm, or totally terrified
knowing the inevitable could be measured in minutes.

Forgot to mention, magnify the radio op photo, and notice the ART 13 under
the rear gunners seat.  In the Word Doc, you can blow it up and see it is
labelled  'ATC transmitter'.  The question is, what was there before the
ART 13 since the 13 did not make its debut until later in the war,
definitely not during Midway.

Charlie, W4MEC in NC
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