Posted on 02/08/2018 8:07:10 AM PST by DFG
One of the things that struck me was his statement about some of the sadistic Jap guards wherein he said that there were people in the USA that would be just like them
Sounds like authors embellishment.
Japanese bases in the Solomon islands were at the end of a very tenuous supply chain and once you're getting into 43' American supplied radios and their parts are in short supply.
Japanese radios were awful in that period. Their radar, when it even existed was worse. There was simply no quality control so if you turned on even a brand new set, it often didn't work.
Zero pilots would typically just remove their radio since it was also bulky and added weight to an aircraft that was already being outperformed by their opposition.
From what I’ve read of Pappy Boyington and his black sheep, fist fights were the order of the day. They had probably been a few before they graduated from high school.
That generation? Of course they were in some fistfights.
He didn't talk much about flying but had a few stories.....once was that they flew boring mission after boring mission, out, over, back in a grid, looking for Japanese vessels. Hours of boredom he'd say, punctuated by minutes of sheer panic under attack by the Zeroes.
Talked about how their feet dangled. There were no floors in the plane. Once in a while, when flying in formation, he'd see a guy flying upside down.....the guy would then motion to him with a cigarette pack or lighter in his hand. He'd dropped it on the floor of the place, flipped it over and picked the lighter/cigarette pack off the canopy and righted the place. I was stunned to learn they'd smoke in the cockpit.
He won a DFC at Peleliu for bombing runs he and a few others (not many apparently) made on Bloody Nose Ridge. The US controlled half the runway and at the far end of the runway, the Japanese had a big gun that was hidden in a cave with a steel door. The pilots would load one bomb under their plane and make a bombing run at the end of the runway trying to knock out that cannon. They never even raised their wheels he said. But the Japanese would wait after the run, open the steel door and blow the shit out of the runway. Then the Seabees would get out there in a caterpillar and smooth it out so the F4Us could land, reload a bomb and do it all over again. Pretty scary stuff.
He also talked about landing those suckers on a carrier and said because you had a tail wheel and when level, the prop would dig into the deck, you had to land with canopy open and look out the side in order to find the deck at the end. Pretty interesting man....cool as ice. Nothing ever rattled the guy. I guess that's because for three years he took off in a plane and never knew whether he'd be coming back.
We lived in Wisconsin and I asked him whether he'd ever want to go to Oshkosh and he said not really.....he'd flown enough in his day and didn't need to see what he already had lived. But when I asked him whether he thought he'd have any trouble flying a plane, he just laughed and said, ' not on your life.....I could fly a Corsair today without any lessons or refreshers. Hell, I lived in that damn thing for a few years. Flying it even in my 70s would be easy.'
He was a real gentleman.
Trying to recall the circumstances of Boyington’s downing. I thing he basically got into a low-speed turning fight with a Hamp (a land-based Zero-variant). Major No-No. That is playing into your opponent’s strengths.
“I was stunned to learn they’d smoke in the cockpit.”
Real warriors don’t sweat the petty crap. That’s why the perfumed princes go after them when peace breaks out.
My first trip overseas, back when Travis was packed 24 hours a day and you slept on your sea bag, there was an old, retiring Chief Petty Officer with two stars on his National Defense Service Medal ribbon. First I ever saw with two stars.
He was holding court for the boots, on his way into retirement, and I have never forgotten one thing he said. When peace breaks out, he told us, the military gets taken over by shiny-loafered REMFs. Then when war breaks out the military discovers that these guys are not warriors and must be replaced.
When peace breaks out once more, the political animals get rid of the warriors and start promoting each other again.
Your mileage may vary, but it’s always rung true to me.
That is awesome!
The biggest problem with the early Corsair (besides the limited visibility over the nose) was the ‘bouncy’ oleo struts of the main landing gear. The Corsairs would literally bounce over the arresting wires, and that could ruin your whole day.
The F6F Hellcat that was deployed to Navy fighter squadrons over the Corsair used the Oleo strut landing gear as well.
The main problem was poor visibility, the pilot wouldn't know his altitude over the carrier and tended to arrive high and couldn't see the LSO.
He might hit the area of the arresting wires but bounce. Or he would be too hot and when he actually hit the arresting wires he would nose forward and the prop would dig the wooden decks of the carrier.
The F6F Hellcat was good enough and more forgiving for an ensign just out of flight school.
The Corsair was a much heavier bird than the Hellcat. So while they shared the oleo struts, the Corsair needed a mod before it could attempt to gain carrier-qualification. The Brits showed us the rest, particularly the turning approach on final.
Amazing pictures, great find!
Did you see the episode with the gleaming P-38’s?
Man, those were some nice birds. I haven’t seen many episodes but caught that one on TV several months ago.
I wonder if that was the book I read in grade school?
I know I read one about Poppy Boyington.
I also remember him mentioning the Japs contacted him over the radio and tried to get his altitude. He told them he was lower than he actually was and they formed up underneath him and his men.
Read the book
I have read Boyington’s book.
I also have gone to the trouble of reading other sources about the South Pacific campaign.
Go look some up.
bttt
Maybe.
Seems more likely there was a lost American pilot trying to rejoin his formation. Weather in the South Pacific could go from good to awful quite quick with thunderstorms spooling up in minutes.
Shortly thereafter, a formation of Japanese planes show up.
Or maybe it's all sweetener for his autobiography that was published a few years after Audie Murphy's autobiography was turned into 'From Hell and Back' and Hollywood made him a millionaire and a movie star.
'From Hell and Back' hit the theatres at the end of 55', in 58' Boyington's autobiography is published. And he's trying to sell it to Hollywood.
Finally in the 70's, it's picked up as a lousy TV show that even he hated.
No. They specifically attacked a formation of Zero fighters, as I recall.
They formed several thousand feet over Boyington’s reported altitude, which placed them still well=below him and his men.
The book specifically stated that Boyington knew he was being played by a Japanese pilot requesting his FL.
Granted, it’s a book.
Maybe.
Sounds too much like him sweetening up a meeting engagement between 2 groups of aircraft for Hollywood. (”Wow, this would make for a great scene for my movie in Technicolor!”)
As 42’ turned into 43’-44’ the Japanese were more and more on the short end of the stick on those as American pilots and aircraft improved and Japanese quality plummeted.
There were incidents of that with the Luftwaffe, but they’re in Germany, not thousands of miles from home in the South Pacific
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