It almost made the B-29 look like a toy:
Posted on 08/11/2014 4:07:31 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Almost like he’s sick or something.
The B-32 wasn’t needed; the B-29 was doing just fine. This would be the one of the few times the United States didn’t build something it could have just to show off. Some B-32’s were delivered to George Kenney’s 5th AF in the Philippines and saw limited combat.
But American designers were already looking past the B-29. The replacement was already in development; the “Big Stick,” the B-36. They have one at the Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton. Gawd, that’s a big plane...
Formosa is very mountainous. Almost all the population lives in a fairly narrow coastal plain. It was very defensible and could have dragged us into a quagmire that could have seriously delayed the Pacific timetable.
Plus, the idea all along was to take Formosa, or at least southern Formosa, in conjunction with a Chinese port. The situation in the interior of China is now so bad that seizing a port wouldn't help much because someone would have to fight to link it up with Chaing - a task the Chinese forces were not up to. So, one of the main reasons the Navy wanted to seize Formosa no longer applied.
It almost made the B-29 look like a toy:
a B-17 in that picture would look like a sub-compact.
Two hundred Marines fought to the last.
How the heck Chief Radioman George Tweed evaded the japs for two and half years and lived to talk about it should be a movie.
Starting at about 0.20, I don't know if it a reenactment of Tweed's rescue or the real thing. Pretty cool listening to Ben Cartwright narrate. I didn't know he lived so long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C48CqGJyvxc
Here's a multipart 1985 interview with Tweed:
Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4ChrqynmGs
Part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o4EVSFJwmA
Part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX1jBKGJe8s
Part 4
The thing that got me about his story is that he had to hide in the bush for that time. So long as he kept his head down, the Japanese were not going where he was. His greatest danger probably came when he was about the be liberated. As the Americans were hunting the Japanese, they were now the ones going into hiding. Right in the places where he was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frV3Y3VNtJk
Tweed's experience is similar to that of Americans who refused to surrender in the Philippines with the possible exception that in the Philippines there was enough space to conduct guerrilla operations.
On July 10, 1944, he was able to signal two destroyers involved in preparations for the impending US invasion, with a mirror and semaphore.[1]:240 Tweed conveyed information about Japanese defenses that he had gathered from his vantage point overlooking the west coast of the island.[1]:240 He was rescued by a whaleboat from the USS McCall (DD-400).
For his heroism, Tweed was awarded the Legion of Merit and promoted to Chief.[1]:248 Tweed returned to Guam in Sept. to thanks those still alive who had helped him.[1]:256 He retired as a Lieutenant in 1948.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ray_Tweed
Yes, I remember seeing the movie on TV when I was a kid; can’t remember the name of the film.
OOPS, posted too soon. Here it is:
No Man Is An Island - 1962.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056283/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Canada Ping!
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