[Milsurplus] Thought I would send this along

[Al Klase]

Charlie,

I built a plastic model of an Avenger back about 1960, and thought it 
was a pretty cool aircraft.
Look here for more that you want to know: 
https://www.historynet.com/tough-turkey-why-grummans-tbf-avenger-was-the-ultimate-torpedo-bomber/

Thanks, ES 73
AL

On 6/17/2025 12:13 PM, Charlie L. wrote:
> 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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-- 
ARK Sig Block Al Klase - N3FRQ
Jersey City, NJ
http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/
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