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Posted on 07/28/2004 10:52:03 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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Air Raid on Cavite The morning of December 10, 1941, would be to the Americans on Luzon what December 7 had been for those in Hawaii -- but without the element of surprise.  The Japanese aerial armada droned into view on December 10, 1941. In each bomber, seven-man crews tensed behind four 7.7mm machine guns and a single 20mm tail gun. Everyone scanned the skies for defending fighters. Americans in Manila shook their heads in disbelief. Despite the disasters of December 8, the defenders of the Philippines were still confident in their own strength and still amazed at the audacity of the Japanese. "We were Americans," Sergeant Sidney Stewart later wrote, "proud and sure and free. We had nothing but contempt for the stupid fools blackening the sky. The Japanese must be crazy to attack a city held by Americans."  Bombed Clark Field, south of Manilla, The Philippines"> Japanese destroyed half of the aircrafts of Clark Field Navy Base, south of Manila on the Philippines, 25 B17's-bombers and their fighters were destroyed. A substantial part of the defending American air force on the ground was destroyed. Monday, December 8, in the Philippines had been terrible. The main American bomber base at Clark Field had been bombed to rubble. Japanese attacks had reduced Lt. Gen. Douglas MacArthur's bomber fleet by 50 percent and his modern fighters by 37 percent. Japanese pilots flew triumphantly back to Formosa, having lost only seven fighters. Bad weather on Tuesday, December 9, had given the Americans a respite, but December 10 would be another very grim day. On Japanese-occupied Formosa, the weather threatened the morning's air operations. At 0300 hours a drizzling rain had begun, but the weather officer told his dubious colleagues that it would clear by 0830 and that flying conditions would be good.  Clark Field High winds and storms had scattered Japanese aircraft across Formosa that Tuesday night. This ill wind had done some good for Japanese pilots. They took advantage of local inns, soaked in hot tubs and got a good night's sleep. When they awoke on December 10, the weather remained bad but within tolerances if the Japanese were willing to accept some risk to pilots and planes. Because they had been so badly scattered, Japanese fighter aircraft spent early Wednesday morning reassembling at their proper bases, refueling and rearming. Pilots received new orders, new targets and briefings as to remaining American strength on Luzon.  G4M1 "Betty" Aircraft of the Tainan-based 1st and Tainan Kokutais (naval air groups) and the Takao-based Takao and 3rd Kokutais finally got airborne about 0900. Their targets for Wednesday were American airfields at Del Carmen in central Luzon (18 Mitsubishi A6M2 Zeros of the 3rd Kokutai), Nichols and Nielson adjacent to Manila (34 Zeros of the 3rd Kokutai and 27 twin-engine Mitsubishi G4M1 "Betty" bombers of the Takao Kokutai), shipping in Manila Bay (27 of the Takao Kokutai's G4M1s, switched from their original target of Del Carmen) and the Manila Bay naval base at Cavite (27 Mitsubishi G3M2 twin-engine "Nell" bombers of the 1st Kokutai, escorted by 22 Zeros of the Tainan Kokutai). Another 27 fighters of the Tainan Kokutai took off to cover minor amphibious landings against north Luzon. As the bombers and fighters assembled over Formosa, American radio-intercept personnel snatched Japanese ground-air radio calls from the air. These intercept specialists had identified possible bomber-fighter radio nets the day before. When the intercept people heard radio calls on the bomber net in the morning, they alerted the Air Warning Service that 100 bombers were headed for Luzon.  Aircraft in the Philippines, December 1941: Douglas B-18A "> "Very interesting," came the reply from an unimpressed Air Warning Service. Few people yet believed that important information could come from radio intercepts. Time passed. Then the Japanese fighter net came on the air. The radio intercept detachment called again. Based on the radio signal strength, Japanese planes were 15 minutes out, they warned. The Air Warning Service said that ground observers had not yet spotted anything, so no alert would be sounded. About 1115, roughly the same time as the American 20th Pursuit Squadron was returning to Clark Field from attacks against Japanese landings, ground observers told Interceptor Command headquarters at Nielson Field that a big formation of fighters and bombers was north of Clark, heading toward Manila and Nichols.  Cavite Naval Yard Clark's air-raid siren sounded when Japanese planes neared the field. Doctors, nurses and patients at the adjacent Fort Stotsenburg base hospital scrambled for the air raid shelter. Patients whom no one thought were ambulatory ripped the transfusion needles out of their arms and legs, jumped from their beds, and ran. Frightened litter bearers carried those who could not move. Pilots from different squadrons raced each other to claim the Curtiss P-40B Tomahawks and P-40E Kittyhawks remaining, then sortied without regard to each another's proximity. Lieutenant William E. Dyess was at lunch when he heard that Japanese bombers were due overhead in two minutes. He jumped into the luggage carrier of a passing motorcycle and hightailed it for his plane. In his haste, he forgot his goggles, helmet and parachute. He taxied his plane past bomb craters, took off blind through a dust storm raised by previous planes, and nearly collided with another P-40. Overhead, Clark's aircraft assembled above the field. Then the 17th Pursuit headed for Manila Bay, and the 21st Pursuit for Manila's port area. Not all the P-40s that got into the air necessarily threatened Japanese aircraft. When Dyess got to Manila, he found his guns were jammed and would not fire. Some Nichols Field pilots were already airborne, but they were about to come home from standing patrol shift. They were tired, and their fuel tanks were low, but they climbed after the bombers. The Americans from Nichols and Clark fought as best they could, but inoperable or jammed guns put plane after plane out of commission. Japanese bombers droned stolidly toward Nichols, Cavite and the shipping in Manila Bay.  Pearl Harbor wasn't the only place that was attacked on December 7th. Across the International Date Line - making it officially December 8th - lay Clark Field, which was pounded by Japanese "Betty" Bombers, then strafed by Zeroes. Some American pilots managed to counterattack, two such heroes, LT. General USAF (Ret.) Joseph Moore and Colonel USAF (Ret.) Sam Grashio,are pictured in "Too Little Too Late". A shortage of fuel forced the American pursuit planes to break away. One plane landed with only three gallons remaining. Three P-40s fell during the intercept attempt without inflicting any loss on the enemy. Japanese pilots reported that they were outnumbered two to one by the Americans, yet had shot down more than 43 P-40s and Seversky P-35s. The field hit hardest was Del Carmen, where five P-35s of the 34th Pursuit had just returned from their successful attacks against enemy landing forces. Another seven P-35s, scheduled for the anti-invasion mission, were on the ground because of mechanical failure. Blind luck was with the Japanese. The Americans had been on the ground about 10 minutes, and ground crews were refueling and rearming the planes. "Look," an airman called, "P-35s coming in for a landing." But the airman's aircraft identification expertise was poor. Ten Zeros arrived and caught the immobile P-35s. No revetments had yet been constructed to protect the planes, and the P-35s were lined up side by side. The field's only defense came from six Lewis .30-caliber machine guns. The men manning the guns were poorly trained, and all but one gun jammed after firing just a few rounds.  The Japanese destroyed or damaged 10 of the P-35s, yet failed to injure a single man. When strafing set a gasoline tank truck on fire, the driver disconnected his tractor from the flaming trailer and saved his vehicle. The Japanese also concentrated on two tanker trucks filled with molasses, used to dampen dust on the runway. Del Carmen radioed for help. A P-40 flown by Lieutenant Carl P. Gies jumped the last Zero as it pulled out of a strafing run, and shot it down. Gies' victim may have been Seaman 1st Class Masaharu Higa, the only member of the Tainan Kokutai killed that day. Farther south at Nichols, airmen scrambled for shelter. Ground crews dived for holes and ditches. More men were hurt piling atop one another than by enemy fire. The Americans had not been enthusiastic about digging shelters, but now they tried to get as deep as they could in the shallow holes they had dug. Enemy fire reversed the normal desire to strive for the top of the heap. Now the object was to get as low as possible.  Aircraft in the Philippines, December 1941: Curtiss P-40E Nichols Field had sent up all the P-40s that could fly and had scrambled everything else and sent them to hide. One old twin-engine Douglas B-18 that was being prepared for a bombing mission could not take off and remained in a revetment on the ground. The airmen at Nichols watched as 27 Japanese twin-engine bombers opened their bomb bay doors and released their loads. The bombs blew up a tent city and burned the field's main hangar and the Philippine Air Depot. Bombs hit the field's big fuel tanks and set them on fire. Men lying on open ground bounced into the air with each concussion. Explosions buried one airman in dirt and nearly smothered him before his friends could dig him out. Some men huddled in a bomb shelter reinforced by railroad irons. Bombs rocked the shelter and dropped concrete onto the irons but not onto the men.  As the P-40s engaged the incoming fighters, one American broke away and headed for Nichols. Lieutenant Forrest M. Hobrecht needed to land and have ground crewmen unjam his guns. A Zero followed him, fired at point-blank range and destroyed the P-40E. Hobrecht bailed out, hit the plane's stabilizer, and fell to the ground without his parachute opening. Another P-40 was on the tail of the Zero and shot it down.
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Hi, Neil and all --
Let me add a memory here too. :) I was at a military school when the war started. (I was 11). We wore WW1 type uniforms, complete with leggings and toted wooden rifles for drill. I can still hear the crusty old voice of the base commander announcing our next battalion parade: "Rain, snow, hail or blow," he'd bellow. And that we did, regardless of weather. I want to tell you, doing a battalion parade in the middle of winter in northern Illinois was like being at Valley Forge.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on July 29:
1758 Antonius van Gils, Dutch RC theologist (opposed Enlightenment)
1805 Alexis de Tocqueville France, statesman/writer (Democracy in America)
1817 - James Blair Steedman, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1883
1820 Clement Laird Vallandigham, MC (Union), died in 1871
1828 Cuvier Grover, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1885
1830 Alvan Cullem Gillem, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1875
1861 Alica Hathaway Lee Roosevelt 1st wife of Theodore Roosevelt
1869 Booth Tarkington US, novelist (17, Magnificent Ambersons)
1871 [Gregory Efimovich] Rasputin the mad Russian monk
1878 Don Marquis Ill, journalist/poet (archy & mehitabel)
1883 Benito Mussolini [Il Duce], Fascist Italian dictator (1922-43)
1887 Sigmund Romberg Nagykanizsa Hungary, operetta composer (Blossom Time)
1892 William Powell actor (Thin Man, My Man Godfrey)
1898 Isidor Isaac Rabi Poland, physicist (explored atom-Nobel-1944)
1905 Clara Bow silent screen actress (It, Saturday Night Kid)
1905 Dag Hammarskjold 2nd UN Secretary-General (1953-61) (Nobel 1961)
1907 Melvin Belli Sonora Calif, lawyer, SF's "King of Torts"
1913 Stephen McNally NYC, actor (Split Second, 30 Seconds over Tokyo)
1914 "Professor Irwin Corey comedian (Car Wash)
1924 Robert Horton LA Calif, actor (Kings Row, Wagon Train, Arena)
1930 Paul Taylor dancer & choreographer (Paul Taylor Dance Company)
1932 Nancy Kassebaum (Sen-R-Ks)
1933 Robert Fuller Troy NY, actor (Laramie, Wagon Train)
1936 Elizabeth Dole US Secretary of Transportation (1983-87)
1938 Peter Jennings Toronto Canada, news anchor (ABC Evening News)
1941 David Warner Manchester NH, actor (Holocaust)
1953 Geddy Lee lead singer (Rush-Tom Sawyer)
1972 Wil Wheaton actor (Star Trek Next Generation-Wesley, Stand By Me)
1981 Jennie Thompson, Wichita Falls TX, gymnast (Jr Natl-champ-93, Oly-96)
Morning Gator Navy.
Is there anyone in the Navy that wasn't at Subic Bay at least once?
Morning Aeronaut.
Morning E.G.C.
Thanks for your daily "BTTT!" on the previous day's thread. :-)
| The Dyess Name: Dyess Air Force Base, known as Abilene Army Airfield from 1942-1948 and Abilene Air Force Base until Dec. 6, 1956, was named after Lt. Col. William E. Dyess. He was born Aug. 9, 1916, in Albany, Texas. As a young boy, he loved powered flight. He was thrilled when Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic in 1927, and he jumped at the opportunity to fly when entering pilot training at Randolph and Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas. The only son of Judge Richard T. and Hallie Graham Dyess, young Edwin took his first airplane ride in a barnstorming World War I aircraft that came through Albany in 1920. His love for flying was a part of him until his death. During his school days, Colonel Dyess excelled in track and football. He graduated from John Tarleton College in Stephenville, Texas, and then became a flying cadet at Randolph Field, Texas, the West Point of the air. Following Pearl Harbor, the colonel was stationed in the Philippines with the 21st Pursuit Squadron flying P-40s. He led his vastly outnumbered pilots in many successful attacks on the enemy. The beleaguered, small group of intrepid airmen, suffering constant attrition of both men and material, finally found themselves penned up on Bataan with neither the planes nor facilities and equipment required for carrying on a war in the air. The colonel then assumed the role of infantry commander and led his men in ground assaults against the Japanese. When supplies and equipment ran low, he ordered the evacuation of "his" officers and men from the Philippines, but when they didn't have the means, he stayed with them. He was captured by the Japanese April 8, 1942. When the hopelessly outnumbered, exhausted and sick heroes on Bataan were taken prisoner after their epic struggle, Dyess and what remained of his command were part of the column of Americans who made the infamous Bataan Death March -- He survived the 85-mile trek. After a brutal year as a prisoner of war, in three different camps plus a prison ship, he escaped, fought alongside Filipino guerrillas. In company with fellow Americans and native Filipinos, Dyess waged such fierce guerrilla warfare against the enemy he came to be called "The One-Man Scourge" of the Japanese. The colonel eventually made it back to the U.S. He recuperated in a hospital at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. Dyess later testified, in an interview, to the Japanese atrocities he and thousands of Americans endured. Though he had already given a full and overflowing measure of service, a safe assignment in the interior held no attraction for him while his country was still at war. He began again to train for overseas combat. It was at this time that the tragic crash occurred. His pursuit aircraft caught fire while he was flying over a heavily populated area. Even with ample opportunity to abandon the burning aircraft, Colonel Dyess chose to sacrifice his own life rather than risk the lives of others. He remained with the P-38 and died after guiding it onto a vacant lot. Colonel Dyess did not lose his life - he gave it. He was an authentic hero in the finest American tradition. For his bravery, leadership, and intrepidity in battle, Dyess was recommended for the nations highest decoration for heroism -- the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was not awarded the CMH but he did earn two Distinguished Service Crosses (the second highest honor at that time), two Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and the Soldiers Medal. He is buried in Albany, Texas. |
Beginning a day without power was simply an inconvenience and a disruption of routine
IMHO, if anyone ever figures out a way to stop electricity from "working", Western civilazation would collapse.
Last day of vacation :-(
Good Morning Feather. Nice to see you here every morning.
Morning PE.
There's something about a soldier raising our flag that gets to me deep inside.
has hanoi john or breck girl been to Walter Reed to do a photo op of them 'visitin' our injured Troops
I don't think so or I'm sure we would have heard about it over and over and over.
Morning tomball.
Hard to believe that the P-26 was a "Fighter"
The middle of winter in northern Illinois is miserable no matter what your're doing. ;-)
A phrase to remember for all those who gave all. Thank you CJ for posting this today.
The USS Indianapolis (CA-35) was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 15 November 1932. The ship served with honor from Pearl Harbor through the last campaign of World War II, sinking in action two weeks before the end of the war. On 30 July 1945, while sailing from Guam to Leyte, Indianapolis was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-58. The ship capsized and sank in twelve minutes. Survivors were spotted by a patrol aircraft on 2 August. All air and surface units capable of rescue operations were dispatched to the scene at once, and the surrounding waters were thoroughly searched for survivors. Upon completion of the day and night search on 8 August, 316 men were rescued out of the crew of 1,199.
Thanks for another interesting read today Sam.
I kept saying outloud "Geez" and "oh my". Seems that everything that could go wrong did and the frantic pace of it all was well told.
Colonel Dyess did not lose his life - he gave it. He was an authentic hero in the finest American tradition.
Thanks for the biography Ed Dyess.
Good morning Aeronaut.
Morning EGC.
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