A Marine Dive-bomber Pilot at Guadalcanal

A Marine Dive-bomber Pilot at Guadalcanal PDF Author: John Howard McEniry
Publisher: University Alabama Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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A Marine Dive-bomber Pilot at Guadalcanal

A Marine Dive-bomber Pilot at Guadalcanal PDF Author: John Howard McEniry
Publisher: University Alabama Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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A Marine Dive-Bomber Pilot at Guadalcanal

A Marine Dive-Bomber Pilot at Guadalcanal PDF Author: John H. McEniry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780608016740
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Dauntless Marine

Dauntless Marine PDF Author: Alexander S. White
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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The Guadalcanal Air War

The Guadalcanal Air War PDF Author: Jefferson J. DeBlanc
Publisher: Pelican Publishing
ISBN: 9781455605385
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
A Marine flying ace and Medal of Honor recipient’s firsthand account of aerial combat in World War II’s Pacific theater. Young Jefferson J. DeBlanc always played cowboys and Indians dressed in a Captain Eddie Rickenbacker flying suit and Sam Browne belt and goggles. From his early childhood, he was fascinated with planes, and when he enrolled in Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette), he studied and excelled in pilot training. DeBlanc first saw action in World War II at the island of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. From his very first day there, he proved himself as a talented fighter pilot. He shot down two Betty bombers on his first day and soon began to lead his own squadron in the air. Within weeks, he was part of the flying elite, the Marine Fighter Aces. The Guadalcanal Air War is DeBlanc’s firsthand account of his training and the events on Guadalcanal. It is DeBlanc’s journey as a man as he discovers the value of life, including his own. Because of the efforts of men like DeBlanc, the battles fought on and above Guadalcanal marked a turning point in the war and ended Japanese expansion. “A gallant officer, a superb airman, and an indomitable fighter . . . [He] rendered decisive assistance during a critical stage of operations.” —Harry S. Truman, Medal of Honor Citation

The Battle for Hell's Island

The Battle for Hell's Island PDF Author: Stephen L. Moore
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451473760
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
From the author of Pacific Payback, the true story of how a patchwork band of aviators saved Guadalcanal during WWII. November 1942: Japanese and American forces fight for control of Guadalcanal, a small but pivotal island in the South Pacific. The Japanese call it Jigoku no Shima—Hell's Island. Amid a seeming stalemate, a small group of U.S. Navy dive-bombers is called upon to help determine the island’s fate. When their carriers are lost, they are forced to operate from Henderson Field, a small dirt-and-gravel airstrip on Guadalcanal. They help form the Cactus Air Force, tasked with making dangerous flights from their jungle airfield while holding the line against Japanese air assaults, warship bombardments, and sniper attacks from the jungle. When the Japanese launch a final offensive to take the island, these dive-bomber jocks answer the call of duty—turning back an enemy warship armada, fighter planes, and a convoy of troop transports. The Battle for Hell's Island reveals how command of the South Pacific, and the outcome of the Pacific War, depended on control of a single dirt airstrip—and the small group of battle-weary aviators sent to protect it with their lives. INCLUDES PHOTOS

Time of the Aces

Time of the Aces PDF Author: Peter B. Mersky
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Never Call Me a Hero

Never Call Me a Hero PDF Author: N. Jack Kleiss
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062692364
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
Hailed as "the single most effective pilot at Midway" (World War II magazine), Dusty Kleiss struck and sank three Japanese warships at the Battle of Midway, including two aircraft carriers, helping turn the tide of the Second World War. This is his extraordinary memoir. NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "AN INSTANT CLASSIC" —Dallas Morning News On the morning of June 4, 1942, high above the tiny Pacific atoll of Midway, Lt. (j.g.) "Dusty" Kleiss burst out of the clouds and piloted his SBD Dauntless into a near-vertical dive aimed at the heart of Japan’s Imperial Navy, which six months earlier had ruthlessly struck Pearl Harbor. The greatest naval battle in history raged around him, its outcome hanging in the balance as the U.S. desperately searched for its first major victory of the Second World War. Then, in a matter of seconds, Dusty Kleiss’s daring 20,000-foot dive helped forever alter the war’s trajectory. Plummeting through the air at 240 knots amid blistering anti-aircraft fire, the twenty-six-year-old pilot from USS Enterprise’s elite Scouting Squadron Six fixed on an invaluable target—the aircraft carrier Kaga, one of Japan’s most important capital ships. He released three bombs at the last possible instant, then desperately pulled out of his gut-wrenching 9-g dive. As his plane leveled out just above the roiling Pacific Ocean, Dusty’s perfectly placed bombs struck the carrier’s deck, and Kaga erupted into an inferno from which it would never recover. Arriving safely back at Enterprise, Dusty was met with heartbreaking news: his best friend was missing and presumed dead along with two dozen of their fellow naval aviators. Unbowed, Dusty returned to the air that same afternoon and, remarkably, would fatally strike another enemy carrier, Hiryu. Two days later, his deadeye aim contributed to the destruction of a third Japanese warship, the cruiser Mikuma, thereby making Dusty the only pilot from either side to land hits on three different ships, all of which sank—losses that crippled the once-fearsome Japanese fleet. By battle’s end, the humble young sailor from Kansas had earned his place in history—and yet he stayed silent for decades, living quietly with his children and his wife, Jean, whom he married less than a month after Midway. Now his extraordinary and long-awaited memoir, Never Call Me a Hero, tells the Navy Cross recipient’s full story for the first time, offering an unprecedentedly intimate look at the "the decisive contest for control of the Pacific in World War II" (New York Times)—and one man’s essential role in helping secure its outcome. Dusty worked on this book for years with naval historians Timothy and Laura Orr, aiming to publish Never Call Me a Hero for Midway’s seventy-fifth anniversary in June 2017. Sadly, as the book neared completion in 2016, Dusty Kleiss passed away at age 100, one of the last surviving dive-bomber pilots to have fought at Midway. And yet the publication of Never Call Me a Hero is a cause for celebration: these pages are Dusty’s remarkable legacy, providing a riveting eyewitness account of the Battle of Midway, and an inspiring testimony to the brave men who fought, died, and shaped history during those four extraordinary days in June, seventy-five years ago.

Douglas Sbd Dauntless Pilot's Flight Operating Instructions

Douglas Sbd Dauntless Pilot's Flight Operating Instructions PDF Author: United States Navy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781935327905
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
The Douglas SBD Dauntless served as the U.S. Navy's front line dive bomber from the outbreak of WWII thru 1943. The aircraft proved its mettle at the battles of Coral Sea and Midway, where its crews accounted for four Japanese carriers. The plane also saw action in support of the Marines at Guadalcanal. Their last combat stint was at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in 1944. Originally printed by Douglas and the U.S. Navy during WWII, this SBD-6 flight operating handbook taught pilots everything they needed to know before entering the cockpit. Originally classified "Restricted," the manual was declassified long ago and is here reprinted in book form. This affordable facsimile has been slightly reformatted and some color images appear in black and white. Care has been taken however to preserve the integrity of the text.

Guadalcanal--the Island of Fire

Guadalcanal--the Island of Fire PDF Author: Robert Lawrence Ferguson
Publisher: T A B-Aero
ISBN:
Category : Guadalcanal, Battle of, Solomon Islands, 1942-1943
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Here is one fighter pilot's view of the bitterly fought struggle that began just eight months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Poorly equipped and low on rations, with low fuel supplies, inferior equipment, and uncertain support from the rear, the beleaguered Americans somehow maintained a precarious toehold on this strategically located island. A gripping account of the "six desperate months of combat" at Guadalcanal, Robert Lawrence Ferguson tells the story of the Army's 67th Fighter Squadron, the "Fighting Cocks, " or "Game Cocks." Eventually becoming the 347th Fighter Group, the squadron was attached to the last 1st Marine Corps division. These pilots gave air support to Marine and Army infantry forces with bombing and staffing runs that led to defeat of the Japanese at Guadalcanal over several months in 1942.

The Threadbare Buzzard

The Threadbare Buzzard PDF Author: Thomas M. Tomlinson
Publisher: Zenith Imprint
ISBN: 9780760320556
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
In this hilarious and heartbreaking story, the author - the so-called "Threadbare Buzzard" among what he saw as the preening fliers of WWII - tells the stories of dogfights and fighter planes used by the Marine Corps in the Pacific. Before the United States entered World War II, Tomlinson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force to get into action and flying. Following Pearl Harbor, he and most of the other Americans serving in the RCAF were "repatriated" into the U.S. military, most into the Army Air Corps. Tomlinson was one of the few who chose the Marine Corps and after training, he was off to the Southwest Pacific and Guadalcanal with VMF-214, the squadron that became the Black Sheep. Late in the war, while flying off a carrier during raids against Japan, Tomlinson's four-plane division was assigned to be a high-altitude radio relay for the attacking forces. During this mission they encountered the jet stream, at that time a little-known phenomena, especially among fighter pilots accustomed to lower, less hostile altitudes. Hours later, lost, out of radio range, and out of fuel, they ditched in the northwest Pacific. Three of the four were rescued by the Sea Devil (SS 400). Tomlinson ended up in the naval hospital at Pearl Harbor for the closing months of the war. Filled with details about flying the Corsair.