The FReeper Foxhole Revisits The Cactus Air Force - Guadalcanal - October 27th, 2005

see educational sources | originally posted by SAMWolf 2/4/2003 | Don Hollway

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


...................................................................................... ...........................................

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The FReeper Foxhole Revisits

The Cactus Air Force

A small group of die-hard aviators fended off Japanese invaders at Guadalcanal, code-named "Cactus."

The Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter swept in low over the sweltering jungle of Guadalcanal, as if to land on the nearly completed, crushed-coral runway at Lunga Point. Once the air base was completed, the Japanese planned to fly long-range bombers from it to cut off Australia from the east.

But as the Zero buzzed the field, the pilot was startled to see enemy troops on the runway -- 10,000 U.S. Marines had landed the day before, August 7, 1942, and now held the field. He hastily climbed away, leaving this little clearing in the jungle to become the objective of the pivotal campaign of the war in the Pacific.

Birth Of The Cactus

Believing the amphibious assault to be a temporary, diversionary raid (and seeing that they were outnumbered 3-to-1), Japanese ground forces on Guadalcanal initially withdrew into the jungle, expecting air attacks to drive the Americans off. Over the next two days, land-based Japanese navy planes, including Mitsubishi G4M bombers (Allied code name "Betty") and Zero ("Zeke") fighters, downed 20 percent of the U.S. Navy fighters sent against them but lost nearly half their own. The loss of four cruisers and a destroyer in the sea battle of Savo on the night of August 9, combined with the continuing threat of daylight air attack, caused the U.S. Navy to withdraw. The Marines were left on "the Canal" with what they referred to as the only unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Solomon Islands -- the Guadalcanal airfield. They used captured construction equipment to finish the 2,600-foot runway, adding an extra 1,200 feet for good measure.


Major John L. Smith scored 19 aerial victories and earned the Medal of Honor over Guadalcanal. (National Archives)

Although bereft of taxiways, revetments, drainage and radar, the airfield -- christened Henderson Field after Marine Major Lofton Henderson, who died leading a dive-bomber attack in the June 4 Battle of Midway -- boasted Japanese hangars, machine shops and radio installations, a pagodalike control tower complete with a warning siren for air raids, and even an ice plant. But not until August 20 did Guadalcanal -- code-named "Cactus" -- take delivery of 12 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers and their escort of 19 Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat fighters, the advance squadrons of Marine Air Group (MAG) 23. "I was close to tears and I was not alone," said Maj. Gen. Archer Vandergrift, the Marine ground commander, "when the first SBD taxied up and this handsome and dashing aviator jumped to the ground. 'Thank God you have come,' I told him."

Within 12 hours the fledgling "Cactus Air Force" helped finish off a Japanese infantry assault. The next day, the American fliers gave an enemy bomber raid from Rabaul, New Britain, a rude welcome. In his first combat engagement, Captain John Lucien Smith, commanding Marine Fighter Squadron (VMF) 223, and four F4Fs met the fighter escort, 13 Zeros of the crack Tainan Kokutai (naval air group) led by Lieutenant Shiro Kawai, head-on. All four Wildcats survived, though two were badly damaged and one cracked up attempting a dead-stick landing. No Zeros were destroyed, but Smith thought the skirmish "did a great deal of good" by giving the Marines a better idea of the Zero's capabilities while giving them confidence in the performance and durability of their own Wildcats. Later that week, Captain Marion Carl, who had downed a Zero at Midway, got two Bettys and another Zero. Carl and Smith were to become friendly rivals.

Building Up The Fighter Force

The balance of power on Guadalcanal seesawed with the waxing and waning of fighter strength at Henderson. By the end of August the Cactus Air Force included 14 Bell P-400 Airacobra fighter-bombers (export versions of the company's P-39) of the 67th Fighter Squadron, U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF), and 19 F4Fs of VMF-224, under Major Robert E. Galer.

(In less than two weeks Galer would knock down four enemy planes, go down in the water and swim ashore. His gallantry would eventually garner him 13 kills and the Medal of Honor.)



By the afternoon of September 10, however, only three P-400s remained, with 22 SBDs and 11 F4Fs. (Among the missing was Marion Carl.) Two dozen Navy Wildcats hurriedly flew in to reinforce them; the Airacobras proved barely enough to help repulse an attack on Bloody Ridge, just south of the airfield.

During the course of the Bloody Ridge battle, Henderson received 60 planes, including 18 more F4Fs,12 SBDs and six Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers, but the Japanese reinforced Rabaul with 60 fighters and 72 medium bombers.

Stopping Them Cold

By mid-October, 224 Japanese planes had fallen to the Cactus Air Force, including 111 1/2 to VMF-223 and 19 to Smith, who, as the highest-scoring American airman to date, was awarded the Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor. His erstwhile opponent as top gun, Carl, had actually made it back to Henderson after spending five days with the natives, only to find that Smith had pulled ahead of him in victories. ("Dammit, General," he urged Brig. Gen. Roy S. Geiger, the Marine air commander, "ground him for five days!") Carl finished with 18 1/2 kills and a Navy Cross.


Joe Foss (standing second from left) and pilots of VMF-121 at Henderson Field in February 1943. By that time, Captain Foss was in command of the squadron and had earned the Medal of Honor. (National Archives)

Seven of the pilots who had arrived with Smith and Carl in August went out as aces; six were killed and six wounded. Of the Dauntless squadron, only the commander, Lt. Col. Richard C. Mangrum, was able to walk away when he was evacuated on October 12; all his men had been killed, wounded, or hospitalized.

"These guys had stopped [the Japanese] cold," said Captain Joseph J. Foss, who would become Cactus' premier ace, "and now it was our turn." Foss -- "Smokey Joe" for his cigar habit -- was executive officer of Major Leonard K. "Duke" Davis' VMF-121, which moved up to relieve VMF-223 on October 9.

Terrible Conditions

"We were fired upon by Japanese troops as we landed," recalled Lieutenant Jefferson J. DeBlanc of VMF- 112, some of whose pilots arrived a month later in transport planes. "We were always under fire on takeoffs and landings."

Pilots were quartered in mud-floored tents in the frequently flooded coconut grove called "Mosquito Grove," between the airstrip and the beach. The latrine was a trench, with a log for a seat; the bathtub was the Lunga River. There were only two meals a day -- dehydrated potatoes, Spam, cold hash and captured Japanese rice -- and cigarettes. Malaria, dysentery, dengue fever, beriberi and myriad lesser known tropical diseases stalked the garrison. No man could get out of duty with less than a 102-degree fever, but by October more than 2,000 had been hospitalized.



Working conditions were also daunting. Fuel had to be hand-pumped out of 55-gallon drums (and strained through chamois, since native porters sometimes cooled their feet in it) into 12-quart buckets before being poured into airplanes. There were plenty of bombs but no bomb hoists; the SBDs' 500-pounders had to be hand- loaded. The Wildcats' turbochargers, not to be engaged below 10,000 feet but wired open anyway, wore out the engines in 25 to 50 flying hours.

Enemy Strikes

"Almost daily," wrote the 67th Squadron historian, "and almost always at the same time -- noon, 'Tojo Time' -- the bombers came." Advance notice arrived from coastwatchers up the archipelago or, once incoming Japanese bombers learned to detour out of their sight, via Henderson's new long-range SCR (signal corps radio) 270 radar. The Wildcats, the Dauntlesses and the P-400s scrambled to take off two at a time -- through a blinding pall of dust or, if it had rained, through wheel-sucking mud -- on a treacherous runway pocked with half-filled bomb and shell craters and rutted by the solid rubber tail wheels of carrier aircraft. Almost invariably one or two planes failed to take off.

The "ground pounders," the SBDs and P-400s, scuttled off over the treetops to work over enemy ground positions -- or at least to keep out of the way of the impending airstrike. The Wildcat pilots had their work cut out for them just raising their landing gear (which took 29 turns of a hand crank), struggling to form up, trimming their aircraft and testing their guns. (Early Wildcat guns had a tendency to jam during hard maneuvers; furthermore, if the oil necessary to prevent rust on the guns in the humid sea-level air was not removed before takeoff, it froze at altitude, jamming the actions.) Most important, the pilots had to reach the Japanese bombers' altitude before the Zekes fell on them.



In his first combat mission, attempting to intercept bombers at 24,000 feet, Lieutenant James Percy of VMF-112 suffered a partial turbocharger failure 10,000 feet short of the enemy formation. "I continued to climb very slowly on low blower, but it was obvious I wasn't going to reach [the enemy's] altitude in time to intercept," Percy recalled. "As the bombers passed about 3,000 feet over me, I noticed their bomb bay doors were open. As I grasped what that meant, their bombs started falling toward me. All I could do was duck my head and pray. Bombs passed all around me, but I was not hit." (Percy's luck held; in June 1943 he survived a 2,000-foot fall with a shot-up parachute into the waters off the Russell Islands.)

Down below, a black flag would go up at the "Pagoda" -- air raid imminent -- and the triple-A (anti-aircraft artillery) would open up. Around the runway, slit trenches and bomb shelters rapidly filled (a sign over one shelter entrance read, "Beneath these portals pass the fastest men in the world") as the first bombs began to fall at one end of the field, and the explosions "walked" across to the other side.

Taking A Dive

Diving, whether to attack or to escape, was the one maneuver at which the Wildcat bested the Zero. "The Zeros had superior maneuverability," said 2nd Lt. Roger A. "Jughead" Haberman, a division leader in Foss' flight who ultimately scored seven victories. "In two-and-a-half turns against a Wildcat they could have you boresighted. But our planes were heavier than theirs, so if you got into trouble, you could dive earthward away from them."

Usually.



In Foss' first combat on October 13, he was jumped by a Zeke flown by Petty Officer 1st Class Kozaburo Yasui of the Tainan Kokutai. Foss later recalled: "That bird came by like a freight train and gave me a good sprinkling, but I knew I had him. I pulled up and gave him a short burst, and down he went." But while Foss was credited with the kill, Yasui in fact survived (he would bring his own score up to 11 before he was killed over Guam on June 19, 1944) -- and his two wingmen, Petty Officer 2nd Class Nobutaka Yanami and Seaman 1st Class Tadashi Yoneda, bounced Foss. Their bullets hit his oil cooler, and his engine seized. "The only thing I could do to get out -- I was right over the field -- was to just wheel over and dive straight down," Foss recalled. He plunged from 22,000 feet right down to the deck. "I'd read that a Zero couldn't follow such a dive; its wings would come off trying to pull out. Well, whoever wrote that was a fiction writer because those boys just kept on my tail, pumping lead!" Anti-aircraft gunners cleared the Zekes from his tail, and Foss coasted in to a dead-stick crash landing.

The Americans knew the Japanese had the edge in experience. Most Yanks were straight out of flying school, with less than 300 hours in training aircraft. "Some of the pilots," wrote Percy, "barely had enough time in the F4Fs to get safely airborne." Many Zero aces, veterans of the Sino-Japanese War, counted 800 hours of flying time even before the United States entered the war.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

((HUGS))

[GailA]

Good morning Snippy, Sam and every one.

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies and gents. Flag-o-Gram.

[Professional Engineer]

Hi miss Feather.

Izzit Friday yet? Please, please.

[w_over_w]

Morning Glory Folks~

Excellent read about the campaign for Guadalcanal. Thanks for the Foxhole ping . . . God's best to everyone. xoxoxo

[Soaring Feather]

Izzit Friday yet? Please, please.

Unfortunately PE, it is not Friday today!

[Soaring Feather]

Great Flag-o-Gram! Thank You.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on October 27:
1728 James Cook captain/explorer, discovered Sandwich Islands
1782 Niccolo Paganini Genoa It, composer/violin virtuoso (Princess Lucca)
1811 Issac Merrit Singer inventor (1st practical home sewing machine)
1844 Klas Arnoldson Sweden, politician/pacifist (Nobel 1908)
1850 Old Sarge born in small 2 up 1 down split-level log cabin. Lifer Extraordinaire (pardon my french) bane of 2nd Lt's know to cause Privates to....soil themselves with just a look. Inventor of SOS (the orginal breakfast of champions)
"Because time itself is like a spiral, something special happens on your birthday each year: The same energy that God invested in you at birth is present once again." ~Menachem Mendel Schneerson
1858 Theodore Roosevelt (R) 26th Pres (1901-09) (Nobel 1906)
1872 Emily Post authority on social behavior, writer (Etiquette)
1910 Fred de Cordova film/TV producer (The Tonight Show)
1910 Jack Carson Manitoba Canada, actor (Star is Born, Mildred Pierce)
1911 Leif Erickson Calif, actor (Invaders from Mars, On the Waterfront)
1914 Dylan Thomas Swansea, Wales, poet (Child's Christmas in Wales)
1917 Oliver Tambo leader of African National Congress
1918 Paul Dixon Earling Iowa, Ohio talk show host (Paul Dixon Show)
1920 Nanette Fabray San Diego Calif, actress (One Day at a Time)
1922 Ralph Kiner HR hitter (Pitts Pirates)/sportscaster (NY Mets)
1923 Roy Lichtenstein US, Pop art painter; painted comic book panels
1923 Ruby Dee Cleve Ohio, actress (Raisin in the Sun, Cat People)
1926 HR Haldeman former White House Chief of Staff-Watergate figure
1928 Kyle Rote football half-back (NY Giants 1951-61)
1932 Sylvia Plath American poet (Bell Jar)
1933 Floyd Cramer La, country pianist (Last Date, On the Rebound)
1939 (And now for something completly different) John Cleese comedian/actor (Monty Python, Fawlty Towers)
1940 Lee Greenwood country singer (God Bless the USA)
1945 Carrie Snodgress Park Ridge Ill, actress (Diary of Mad Housewife)
1946 Steven R Nagel Canton Ill, USAF/astr (STS 51-G, STS 61-A, STS 37)
1946 Terry J Hart Pittsburgh Penn, astronaut (STS 41C)
1953 Michael A Baker Memphis Tenn, Lt Cmdr USN/astronaut (STS 43)
1958 Simon Le Bon rocker (Duran, Duran-Hungry Like the Wolf)
1963 Deborah Moore London England, actress (Danielle=-Day of Our Lives)
1963 Marla Maples Dalton Ga, model/Donald Trump's main squeeze
2004 Jake aka grand high PooBah of Ranjaporr, Monarch of all he surveys, Potentate of poop, Czar of the Creamed Peas
(Mommy's sitting down. That means it's time for her to change my diaper!)
"Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat. Then fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher's mound. Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together. Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again."
Jimmy Piersal, on how to diaper a baby, 1968

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Deaths which occurred on October 27:
0925 Rhazes, [Abu Bakr Mohammed ibn Zakarijja al-Razi), Persian, dies
1439 Albrecht II von Habsburg, king of Bohemia/Hungary/Germany, dies at 42
1505 Ivan III The Great Russian tsar (1462-1505), dies
1553 Michael Servetus Spanish physician burns at stake for heresy. His last book “Christianismi Restitutio” included a chapter on the pulmonary circulation of blood.
1659 Marmaduke Stevenson Quaker in Boston, hanged
1944 Iman J Van de Bosch, Belgian resistance fighter, dies
1955 Clark Griffith baseball player/manager (NY Yankees), dies at 85
1962 Fatso Marco comedian (Milton Berle Show), dies at 56
1964 Sammee Tong actor (Bachelor Father, Mickey), dies at 63
1975 Rex Stout writer ("Nero Wolfe")
1988 S.B. Fuller founder of Fuller products, dies at 83
1990 Elliott Roosevelt son of FDR, dies at 80
1990 Xavier Cugart bandlander, dies from heart failure at 90
1996 Morey Amsterdam actor/comedian (Dick Van Dyke Show) at 74

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Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties

Iraq
27-Oct-2003 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Private Jonathan I. Falaniko Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - car bomb?/RP grenade?
US Sergeant Aubrey D. Bell Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

27-Oct-2004 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Staff Sergeant Jerome Lemon Sindiayah (near, nr. Balad) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - car bomb



Afghanistan
10/27/04 Gomez, Billy Corporal 25 Army 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Reg., 25th Infantry Div. Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack


http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
//////////
Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://soldiersangels.org/heroes/index.php

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On this day...
0097 To placate the Praetorians of Germany, Nerva of Rome adopts Trajan, the Spanish-born governor of lower Germany.
0625 Honorius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1644 2nd Battle at Newbury: King Charles I beats parliamentary armies
1787 Federalist letters start appearing in NY newspapers
1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo, provides free navigation of Mississippi
1809 President James Madison orders the annexation of the western part of West Florida. Settlers there had rebelled against Spanish authority
1858 RH Macy & Co opens 1st store, (6th Ave-NYC) Gross receipts $1106
1862 Confederate forces defeated at the Battle of Labadieville, near Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana
1864 Battle of Fair Oaks, Va.
1864 CSS Albemarle torpedoed and sunk
1867 Garibaldi marches on Rome.
1871 Boss Tweed (William Macy Tweed), Democratic leader of Tammany Hall, arrested after NY Times exposed his corruption (Corruption in the democrat party! I can't tell you how shocked I am!)
1880 Theodore Roosevelt marries Alice Lee, on his 22nd birthday
1886 Musical fantasy "Night on Bald Mountain," performed in Russia
1893 Hurricane hits coast between Savannah Ga & Charleston SC
1904 World's 1st subway, the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit), opens in NYC, subway/bus fare is set at one nickel
1913 Pres Wilson says US will never attack another country
1916 1st published reference to "jazz" appears (Variety)
1919 Axeman of New Orleans claims last victim
(He Came in the Night
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/axeman/)
1920 League of Nations moves headquarters in Geneva
1920 Westinghouse radio station in East Pittsburgh, KDKA begins
1922 1st commemoration of Navy Day
(I joined the Navy to see the world,
and what did I see?
I saw the sea.
I saw the Atlantic, it wasn't romantic,
I saw the Pacific, it wasn't terrific,
and the Caribbean, wasn't all it's cracked up to be.)
1924 The Uzbek SSR forms
1925 Water skis patented by Fred Waller
1931 Chuhei Numbu of Japan, sets then long jump record at 26' 2"
1938 DuPont announces its new synthetic fiber will be called "nylon"
1941 Chicago Daily Tribune editorialize there will not be war with Japan
1942 Starachowice, Poland, Nazi soldiers separated out weak Jews from the strong. The strong were sent to work and the weak were sent to the extermination camp at Treblinka
1947 "You Bet Your Life", with Groucho Marx, premieres on ABC radio
1948 Israel recaptures Nizzanim in the Negev
1954 Walt Disney's 1st TV show, "Disneyland," premieres on ABC
1959 Rare Pacific hurricane kills 2,000 in Western Mexico (And where was George Bush?)
1960 Singer Ben E King records "Spanish Harlem" & "Stand By Me"
1961 American Basketball League starts play
1961 Outer Mongolia & Mauritania become the 102nd & 103rd members of UN
1967 4 people from Baltimore pour blood on selective service records
1967 Expo '67 closes in Montreal, Canada
1969 Ralph Nader sets up a consumer organization known as Nader's Raiders
1971 Republic of the Congo becomes Republic of Zaire
1973 Alabama sets offensive record (828 yds), beats Virginia Tech 77-6
1977 NASA launches space vehicle S-200
1978 Begin & Sadat win the Nobel Peace prize
1978 President Carter signs Hawkins-Humphrey full employment bill
1979 St Vincent & the Grenadines becomes independent of UK (Nat'l Day)
1979 Voluntary Euthanasia Society publishes how-to-do-it suicide guide
1980 Dave Gryllis sets world bicycle speed record of 94.37 kph
1981 Andrew Young, former UN Ambassador, elected mayor of Atlanta, Georgia
1982 China announces its population at 1 billion people plus
1984 Wash State's Rueben Mayes sets col football rec of 357 yards rushing
1985 KC Royals beat St Louis Cards, 4 games to 3 in 82nd World Series
1985 Thieves steal 9 paintings, including 5 Monet's & 2 Renoir's
1986 NY Mets beat Boston Red Sox, 4 games to 3 in 83rd World Series
1987 South Korean voters overwhelmingly approved a new constitution
1988 "ET" released to home video (14 million presold)

1991 Minn Twins beat Altanta Braves 1-0 in 10 to win World Series in 7

1997 US releases a redesigned $50 bill
1998 Hurricane Mitch, one of the strongest Atlantic storms ever recorded, began its four-day siege of Central America, causing at least 10,000 deaths.
1999 The Clinton administration authorized the first direct military training for opponents of Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein
2001 Brian Robinson (40) of San Jose became the 1st person to hike the 3 major National Scenic Trails, 7,400 miles in 22 states, in a calendar year
2003 A new US stamp dedicated to Theodore Geisel (d.1991), creator of Dr. Seuss issued
2004 Stefan Jaronski, a Montana researcher, found that canola oil combined with a fungus can be used to get rid of grasshoppers

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Cuba : Discovery Day (1492)
Iran : Imam Reza's Birthday
St Vincent Islands : Statehood Day (1969)
US : Navy Day (1775)
US : Mother-in-Law's Day (Sunday)
National Magic Week (Day 4)
Computer Learning Month

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Religious Observances
RC : Comm of St Frumentius, bishop; founded Ethiopian church
Feast of St. Claudia, Pilate's wife (Eastern Church).

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Religious History
1553 In Switzerland, Spanish physician Michael Servetus, 42, convicted for promulgating anti-Trinitarianism, was condemned for heresy and blasphemy, and burned at the stake in Geneva.
1771 Landing at Philadelphia, pioneer bishop Francis Asbury, 26, first arrived in America. He had been sent from England by John Wesley to oversee Methodism in the American colonies, and stayed all of his remaining 45 years, till his death in 1816.
1889 The first Lithuanian Church in America was organized in Plymouth (near Wilkes-Barre), PA. Rev. Alexander Burba was its first pastor.
1963 One month before his death at age 65, English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'Autumn is really the best of the seasons; and I'm not sure that old age isn't the best part of life.'
1977 American missionary and apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'The unforgivable sin is not something done once and for all and which when done is without remedy. it is the constant, unremitting resistance of the gracious work of the Holy Spirit for salvation.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Alien abductees prone to false memories?

Oct 26, 12:36 PM (ET)


LONDON (Reuters) - Do you have memories of being abducted by aliens and whisked away in a spaceship?
You wouldn't be alone.

Several thousand people worldwide claim to have had such close encounters, researchers say. But in a new study, a psychology expert at London's Goldsmiths College says these experiences are proof of the frailty of the human memory, rather than evidence of life in other galaxies.
"Maybe what we're dealing with here is false memories, and not that people are actually being abducted and taken aboard spaceships," says Professor Chris French, who surveyed 19 self-proclaimed alien abductees.


Several of the abductees reported being snatched from their beds or cars by alien creatures around four feet high, with spindly arms and legs and oversized heads, French said.
Some men said they were subjected to painful medical examinations by the aliens, during which their sperm was extracted.

Many of the alien experiences could be explained by sleep paralysis, a condition in which a person is awake and aware of the surroundings but is unable to move.
Sleep paralysis often leads to hallucinations and 40 percent of people experience the state at least once in their lives, French said.

A rich imagination was also at play. Several of the alien abductees were already prone to fanaticizing and also claimed to have seen ghosts and have psychic or healing abilities.
"People have very rich fantasy lives," said French, who is due to present his findings at a public seminar at London's Science Museum Wednesday.
"So much so that they often mix up what's happening in their heads with what is going on in the real world."


(Or you could be NUTS)

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Thought for the day :
"Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it is awfully hard to get it back in."
H. R. Haldeman

[Valin]

Costliest Battles of the Civil War
Based on total casualties (killed, wounded, missing, and captured)

http://www.civilwarhome.com/Battles.htm

[Valin]

The War could have been lost in 1942 and the first months of 1943. I mean the whole shooting match.

The big shots really never saw what was happening there until about November 1st


?

[SAMWolf]

The Pagoda at Henderson Field, served as headquarters for Cactus Air Force throughout the first months of air operations on Guadalcanal. From this building, Allied planes were sent against Japanese troops on other islands of the Solomons.

Determined to knock out Henderson Field and protect their soldiers landing in strength west of Koli Point, the enemy commanders sent the battleships Kongo and Haruna into Ironbottom Sound to bombard the Marine positions. The usual Japanese flare planes heralded the bombardment, 80 minutes of sheer hell which had 14-inch shells exploding with such effect that the accompanying cruiser fire was scarcely noticed. No one was safe; no place was safe. No dugout had been built to withstand 14-inch shells. One witness, a seasoned veteran demonstrably cool under enemy fire, opined that there was nothing worse in war than helplessly being on the receiving end of naval gunfire. He remembered "huge trees being cut apart and flying about like toothpicks." And he was on the front lines, not the prime enemy target. The airfield and its environs were a shambles when dawn broke. The naval shelling, together with the night's artillery fire and bombing, had left Cactus Air Force's commander, General Geiger, with a handful of aircraft still flyable, and airfield thickly cratered by shells and bombs, and a death toll of 41. Still, from Henderson or Fighter One, which now became the main airstrip, the Cactus Flyers had to attack, for the morning also revealed a shore and sea full of inviting targets.

The expected enemy convoy had gotten through and Japanese transports and landing craft were everywhere near Tassafaronga. At sea the escorting cruisers and destroyers provided a formidable antiaircraft screen. Every American plane that could fly did. General Geiger's aide, Major Jack Cram, took off in the general's PBY, hastily rigged to carry two torpedoes, and put one of them into the side of an enemy transport as it was unloading. He landed the lumbering flying boat with enemy aircraft hot on his tail. A new squadron of F4Fs, VMF-212, commanded by Major Harold W. Bauer, flew in during the day's action, landed, refueled, and took off to join the fighting. An hour later, Bauer landed again, this time with four enemy bombers to his credit. Bauer, who added to his score of Japanese aircraft kills in later air battles, was subsequently lost in action. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, as were four other Marine pilots of the early Cactus Air Force: Captain Jefferson J. DeBlank (VMF-112); Captain Joseph J. Foss (VMF-121); Major Robert E. Galer (VMF-224); and Major John L. Smith (VMF-223).

Maj Harold W. Bauer, VMF-212 commander

Capt Jefferson J. DeBlanc

Maj Robert E. Galer

[snippy_about_it]

I should do some 1942 Pacific War pieces.

Yes you should. :-)

[Professional Engineer]

howdy ma'am

Great guys we had there.

[Professional Engineer]

hiya Sam

[alfa6]

Another "Ace-in-A-Day" of the Cactus Air Force was Marine Lt James E. Swett.

On April 7, 1943 Lt Swett while flying from Cactus shot down 7 Val divebombers, and possibly an eight in what was, for the Japanese the last major daylight raid on Guadacanal.

Four of the seven kills came after Swett's Wildcat had sustained damage to his left wing from friendly AA fire over Tulagi Harbor. The AA fire disabled the outboard .50 cal NG as well.

While in the process of trying to down VAL #8 the rear gunner on the VAL damaged Lt. Swett's aircraft. Unable to reach Cactus with his damaged engine, Lt Swett was once again forced to endure friendly flak while ditching his wounded F4F.

For his actions on April 7, 1943, Lt. James E Swett USMC was awarded his country highest honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, as a Division Leader in Marine Fighter Squadron 221 in action against enemy Japanese aerial forces in the Solomon Islands Area, April 7, 1943. In a daring flight to intercept a wave of 150 Japanese planes, First Lieutenant Swett unhesitatingly hurled his four-plane division into action against a formation of fifteen enemy bombers and during his dive personally exploded three hostile planes in mid-air with accurate and deadly fire. Although separated from his division while clearing the heavy concentration of anti-aircraft fire, he boldly attacked six enemy bombers, engaged the first four in turn, and unaided, shot them down in flames. Exhausting his ammunition as the closed the fifth Japanese bomber, he relentlessly drove his attack against terrific opposition which partially disabled his engine, shattered the windscreen and slashed his face. In spite of this, he brought his battered plane down with skillful precision in the water off Tulagi without further injury. The superb airmanship and tenacious fighting spirit which enabled First Lieutenant Swett to destroy seven enemy bombers in a single flight were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

For detailed info on Lt. Swett's exploits see...
(7 VALS)

Regards

alfa6 :>}

[alfa6]

A sign that the Apocalypse is near :-)

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[snippy_about_it]

Ok, it finally worked and you're a meanie. ;-)

[snippy_about_it]

Good afternoon feather.

[snippy_about_it]

Good afternoon EGC. ((HUGS))

[snippy_about_it]

Good afternoon Gail.