Subject: WWII-L Digest - 9 Aug 1993 to 10 Aug 1993

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1993 00:00:37 -0400

There are 6 messages totalling 234 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. USAAF 10 AUG 43
  2. NAV: A question about frigates (modern) (2)
  3. Victoria Cross clipart
  4. NOST: Airshow in Indiana. (2)

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Date:    Tue, 10 Aug 1993 07:07:36 -0400
From:    [email-masked]
Subject: USAAF 10 AUG 43

COMBAT CHRONOLOGY OF THE US ARMY AIR FORCES
TUESDAY, 10 AUGUST 1943
FTP SITES
  1. ftp.rutgers.edu in directory pub/wwii/usaf
  2. byrd.mu.wvnet.edu (129.71.32.152) in pub/history/military/airforce/
     wwii_chronology

AIRCRAFT MENTIONED IN THIS REPORT:
  A-20, Douglas Havoc
  A-24, Douglas Dauntless
  A-36, North American Apache
  B-17, Boeing Flying Fortress
  B-24, Consolidated Liberator
  B-25, North American Mitchell
  P-38, Lockheed Lightning
  P-39, Bell Airacobra
  P-40, Curtiss

AMERICAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS

  ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force)
    In the Aleutian Islands, P-38's, P-40's, A-24's, B-24's and B-25's bomb
and strafe various targets on Kiska Island; direct hits are scored on
revetments W of the Wheat Grove and on gun emplacements, as well as on
buildings on Little Kiska Island.
    HQ Eleventh Air Force transfers from Elmendorf Field, Anchorage to Adak
Island.

  ZONE OF INTERIOR (HQ AAF)
    Most Bombardment Groups/Squadrons (Dive) equipped with A-24's and
A-36's are redesignated Fighter-Bomber Groups/Squadrons.

  ANTISUBMARINE WARFARE (AAF Antisubmarine Command)
    The 14th Antisubmarine Squadron (Heavy), 25th Antisubmarine Wing,
ceases operating from Langley Field, Hampton, Virginia with B-24's and
returns to it's base at Camp Edwards Army Air Field, Falmouth, Massachu-
setts.

MEDITERRANEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS

  EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN (Ninth Air Force)
    B-25's attack Randazzo, Sicily while P-40's bomb and strafe shipping on
the SW coast of Italy and in the Straits of Messina.

  WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN (Northwest African Air Force)
    Brigadier General Ray A Dunn takes command of the Northwest African Air
Force Troop Carrier Command (Provisional). In Italy, Northwest African
Strategic Air Force (NASAF) P-38's bomb and strafe communications targets
on the toe of Italy; and bridges at Angitola and N of Locri are attacked.
Northwest African Tactical Air Force (NATAF) planes fly anti-shipping
sweeps over coastal areas of NE Sicily and the Straits of Messina, carry
out armored reconnaissance over the battle areas and toe of Italy, and bomb
Randazzo, Sicily.
    On the ground in Sicily, US Seventh Army forces pursue the enemy to a
point W of Naso near the N coast. During the night of 10/11 Aug, the US 3d
Infantry Division makes an amphibious landing on the coast, outflanking the
enemy E of Capo d'Orlando. The US 9th Infantry Division reaches a point N
of Bronte.
    HQ Twelfth Air Force transfers from Algeria to Tunisia.
    HQ 81st Fighter Group transfers from Monastir to Sidi Ahmed, Tunisia.
    The 84th Bombardment Squadron (Light), 47th Bombardment Group (Light),
transfers from Malta to Torrente Comunelli, Sicily with A-20's.
    The 342d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 97th Bombardment Group (Heavy),
transfers from Chateaudun-du-Rhumel, Algeria to Pont-du-Fahs, Tunisia with
B-17's.

SOUTH PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Thirteenth Air Force)
  In the Solomon Islands, Colonel William A Matheny becomes acting Command-
ing General, XIII Bomber Command, a position he is officially assigned to
on 30 Sep 43. P-40's and P-39's turn back about 40 fighters attacking US
bulldozers working on Munda Airfield on New Georgia Island.

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Fifth Air Force)
  In New Guinea, 20+ B-24's pound airfields in the Salamaua area; 12 B-25's
hit barges in the Lae area and AA positions W of Borgen Bay on New Britain
Island; and 6 A-20's bomb and strafe barges in Labu Lagoon and on Gasmata
Island in the Bismarck Archipelago.

SOURCES:
AIR FORCE COMBAT UNITS OF WORLD WAR II, Office of Air Force History,
  Headquarters USAF, 1961, ISBN 0-912799-02-1
COMBAT SQUADRONS OF THE AIR FORCE, WORLD WAR II, Office of Air Force
  History, Headquarters USAF 1982
THE ARMY AIR FORCES IN WORLD WAR II: COMBAT CHRONOLOGY, 1941-1945 by the
  Office of Air Force History, Headquarters USAF, 1973
THE MIGHTY EIGHTH WAR DIARY by Roger A. Freeman, ISBN 1-85409-071-2

Jack McKillop
USAF (Airways and Air Communications Service)
1955-59

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|  Jack McKillop      |  Those who have long enjoyed such privileges |
|  Bellcore           |  as we enjoy forget in time that men have    |
|  Piscataway, NJ     |  died to win them.     FDR                   |
|  USA                |  [email-masked]                        |
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Date:    Tue, 10 Aug 1993 11:01:38 MDT
From:    Steve Alvin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: NAV: A question about frigates (modern)

On friday, 6 August, Glenn Millard asked:

> The discussion strayed to a mention about a trip
> of his to the Northeast, New Hampshire or Vermont, where he visited the
> Bath Iron Works. They work on the new modern frigates for the US Navy.
> He heard there that the new frigates could do 60 knots and stop in their
> length from a speed like this. For a ship this seems extreme, even now days.
> Fact or Fiction?

Either your friend or someone at Bath is pulling you leg!  First, the
U. S. Navy is not building frigates right now.  The only surface
combatant under construction, other than carriers, are the Arleigh
Burke destroyers (and maybe the last of the Ticonderoga cruisers?).
The Burke can probably make about 35 knots (for security reasons the
navy won't give an exact speed), a far cry from 60!  The last U. S.
frigates were the O. H. Perry  class.  Their top speed was only about
29- 30 knots.

I apologize for going off the topic, but I thought others on the list
might be interested.

Steve Alvin
Dickinson State University
[email-masked]
**********************************************************************
*Those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat it.--Proverb*
*Those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat my class.-SA*
**********************************************************************

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Date:    Tue, 10 Aug 1993 13:30:42 -0300
From:    bechthold blain <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Victoria Cross clipart

I wonder if anyone out there can help me.  I'm working on a project in
which I need a graphic image of the Victoria Cross medal.  Can anyone tell
me where I can find such an image, or perhaps E-mail me one.

Thanks in advance

Mike Bechthold
Department of History
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Date:    Tue, 10 Aug 1993 12:36:57 EST
From:    Larry & Kim Jewell <[email-masked]>
Subject: NOST: Airshow in Indiana.

There will be "vintage" aircraft at the Mt. Comfort airshow near Indianapolis
the last weekend in August.  Your faithful list-tender intends to be there.
Anyone else going?  Will Miss Mitchell make an appearance?

Larry J

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Date:    Tue, 10 Aug 1993 12:50:52 CDT
From:    "Robert J. Granvin" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: NOST: Airshow in Indiana.

> There will be "vintage" aircraft at the Mt. Comfort airshow near Indianapolis
> the last weekend in August.  Your faithful list-tender intends to be there.
> Anyone else going?  Will Miss Mitchell make an appearance?

We're not scheduled to be at that show.

However, if anyone knows a contact promoting the show, we can make an
attempt since Miss Mitchell happens to be confirmed free that weekend...

(All it takes is money... :-)

--
Robert J. Granvin                                    Southern Minnesota Wing
[email-masked]                                       Confederate Air Force
  You know you've made a gear-up landing when it takes full power to taxi.

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Date:    Tue, 10 Aug 1993 16:32:26 EDT
From:    "William B. Thacker" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: NAV: A question about frigates (modern)

> He heard there that the new frigates could do 60 knots and stop in their
> length from a speed like this. For a ship this seems extreme, even now days.
> Fact or Fiction?

A little mathematics.  60 kts converts to about 90 feet per second.  We can
calculate the deceleration the ship undergoes.  Turns out that it's simply:

  a = 126/L     where L is the ship's length, "a" being deceleration in
G's.  A ship of length 126ft, halting from 60 kts in its own length,
experiences 1G.  Double the length, halve the gees.  Somebody care to plug
a Perry's length into this?

Gotta say I find it dubious.  I don't know of a ship that can even *turn*
in its own length at half that speed, let alone stop.

But then, there's the account I read in Proceedings about the Iowas.
During their latest mobilization, one of the New Jersey's officers wrote an
article about her handling characteristics.  He described an emergency halt
procedure in which the screws were set to full reverse and the ship's twin
rudders were turned independently.  The starboard rudder is turned hard
aport, the port rudder turned hard starboard, the two closing together like
a pair of saloon doors.  The officer referred to this as "closing the barn
doors" and claimed a tremendous braking effect, "like standing on a flatbed
truck as it locks up its brakes at 60 mph."  He claimed that an object
thrown off the bow would not have passed the ship's stern before she
halted, i.e., stopping from 30 kts in a shiplength.

I take that with a truckload of salt.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Bill Thacker             AT&T Network Systems       attmail!att!cbemf!wbt
(614) 860-5294           Columbus, Ohio              [email-masked]
          "Giving money and power to government is like giving
         whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." - P.J. O'Rourke

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End of WWII-L Digest - 9 Aug 1993 to 10 Aug 1993
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