Subject: WWII-L Digest - 19 Nov 1994 to 20 Nov 1994

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 1994 00:00:55 -0500

There are 41 messages totalling 2831 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Enola Gay Again
  2. ENOLA GAY (2)
  3. INF: USN Chronology 11-20-94
  4. GEN: JOHN WAYNE CONTINUED (2)
  5. INF: 50 Years Ago - 21-NOV-1944 (3)
  6. 99th Inf. Div. Reunion
  7. WWII exhibit
  8. Medals (4)
  9. [INF] USAAF 19 NOV 44
 10. [INF] USAAF 20 NOV 44
 11. [INF] USAAF 21 NOV 44
 12. WHAT-IF YAMAMOTO
 13. GEN: HOLLYWOOD AT WAR-JOHN WAYNE (2)
 14. WEAP:  BB-39 Arizona
 15. Korea Post WWII, was ENOLA GAY (5)
 16. book-in-work "Rocket Fighters of the Luftwaffe" (3)
 17. <No subject given>
 18. Eighth
 19. ACES: (2)
 20. Kim Il Sung
 21. INF: 50 YEARS AGO - 21
 22. MEDALS (2)
 23. Query: Aces of the Pacific computer game
 24. Aces of the Pacific
 25. Sorry Guys

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 01:59:31 EST
From:    William Lippert <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Enola Gay Again

I've been reading about the Enola Gay controversy for quite some time now
in the Washington Post.  It seems to me that most of the persons on this
list are very critical of the Revisionists.  I am with those who are
gravely enraged by what those bunch of crooks trying to do.  Does anyone
have any idea where they are getting their wild ideas?  Are they using
facts (such as archival memos, reports, minutes, etc.) to back up their
claims?

I think, that as somewhat educated WWII historians (some more than others,
of course, but we all have a good grasp of the war) it is our duty to
preserve the honor, dignity, and righteousness of those who fought and
died in the Pacific.   What can we do to stop these destroyers of American
sacrifice?  Any ideas?  I'd be more than happy to assist in our fight -
a fight that we owe to those who suffered - Japanese and Americans alike -
so that it may never happen again.

William Lippert
The American University

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 02:58:08 EST
From:    William Lippert <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: ENOLA GAY

On Sun, 20 Nov 1994 09:15:12 +0700 Peter E. Beal said:
>
>Your point about North and South Japan is well taken- we have a North and
>South Korea.  However, the Russians were not going to get troops into
>Japan without the agreement of the U.S. and their suggestion that they
>participate in the occupation of Japan was brushed aside by MacArthur.

    If I recall, the division of North Korea was not due to the Russians,
but because of competing ideologies and more particularly different people
wanting to be in charge (Kim-Il Sung and someone else in the south).   The
eventual war in Korea was not because of competing US or Russian ideologies,
but a simple power struggle which the North and South exploited the super-
powers for their support.  Seems like a lot of people pulled that on us for
50 years.

William Lippert

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 04:00:12 PST
From:    "Keller, Theron P." <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: USN Chronology 11-20-94

UNITED STATES NAVY CHRONOLOGY
from:
//byrd.mu.wvnet.edu/pub/history/military/wwii/naval_chronology/chr4(4,5).txt

1944
11/20 Mon. Submarine GAR (SS-206) lands supplies on north coast
           of Mindoro, P. I.
            United States naval vessel sunk:
             Oiler MISSISSINEWA (A0-59), by submarine torpedo,
              Marianas Islands area,
              10 d. 06'N., 139 d. 43'E.
            Japanese naval vessel sunk:
             Minesweeper NO. 38, by submarine ATULE (SS-403),
             South CHINA Sea,
             21 d. 21'N., 119 d. 45'E.

Information compiled by U.S. Navy Historians.  For more information,
contact the Naval Historical Center at (202) 433-3940.
Archived by: Larry Jewell <[email-masked]>
Posted by:
Theron P. Keller
Logicon, Inc.
Dahlgren, VA  22448 USA
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 07:31:16 -0500
From:    Michael Andrew Turton <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: ENOLA GAY

>   If I recall, the division of North Korea was not due to the Russians,
deologies and more particularly different people
>wanting to be in charge (Kim-Il Sung and someone else in the south).   The
>eventual war in Korea was not because of competing US or Russian ideologies,
>but a simple power struggle which the North and South exploited the super-
>powers for their support.  Seems like a lot of people pulled that on us for
>50 years.

You are correct.  The division was due to the Americans, who selected
the 38th parallel as the line because it put the capital in the
southern zone.  By the time we moved in, a Korean People's Republic
had been established throughout Korean (born Sept. 6, 1945) but we
slowly set up a repressive police state there after we were allowed
into the South by the Russians.  The establishment of the new
gov't by the Americans provoked a major rebellion in '46 followed by
peasant revolts and union activity which matured in a serious guerilla
war from '48-50.  This conflict eventually merged with the war.

Mike Turton
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 10:16:36 +0100
From:    JOHN AUSLAND <[email-masked]>
Subject: GEN: JOHN WAYNE CONTINUED

  November 20, 1994
  There have now been two suggestions regarding why John Wayne did no military
service: that he was over age and that he had flat feet.  As to over age, he was
born in 1907, which would have made him 34 in 1941.  I knew a number of non-
career officers and enlisted men who were older than that.  My father accepted a
commission to go to China as an adviser to the Chinese on railway construction
in 1940, when he was 44.
  I have heard that flat feet were a reason for keeping people out of the
military service but wonder if this is true.  There are a lot of jobs which do
not require marching.
  I find there are several books about Wayne in Norwegian libraries and will
see if they shed any light on this great mystery.  If anyone else wants to
join the hunt, he or she is welcome.
  Regards, John Ausland/Oslo Norway

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 05:39:16 -0800
From:    John Davis <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 50 Years Ago - 21-NOV-1944

On 21-NOV-1944, the following occurred -

World War II - The Battlefronts
-------------------------------
Western Front - Two divisions of the British 2nd Army (XII Corps), the 49th
and 51st, advance towards Venlo. In the US 9th Army sector, the XIX Corps
begins the final phase of the attack on the Rur. In the US 3rd Army sector,
the 10th Armoured Division (XX Corps) is attacking towards Saarbourg with
task forces "Standish" and "Chamberlain". The Germans halt their attack on
the Orscholz defensive line. The 80th Division (XII Corps) expands its
bridgehead over the Nied and connect up with units of the XX Corps.
Albestroff is captured by the 26th Division.

Eastern Front - Albanian resistance fighters capture Tirana and Durazzo.

Italian Front - In the British 8th Army sector, the Polish 3rd Division
begins an offensive south of Faenze, capturing Monte Fortino.

Philippines (Leyte) - The 32nd Division (X Corps) is still held up in the
Ormoc Valley. The 7th Division begins to slowly advance towards Ormoc from
Baybay, on the southwest coast of the island.

Pacific - The Japanese battleship Kongo and the destroyer Urakaze is sunk
by the submarine Sealion, northwest of Formosa. The Japanese naval airbase
on Matsuwa Island, in the Kurils, is shelled by US cruisers and destroyers.

The Homefront
-------------
Bob Hope - Bob Hope, who returned two months ago from a 30,000 mile tour of
the South Pacific, has been suspended by Paramount for failing to show up
to work on a new movie. Hope replied he had "suspended" Paramount because
"the boys come first ... If sombody would supend the war, I'll be very
happy to start a new picture."

Army & Navy
-----------
Robot Bomb Developed - Army Air Force Headquarters at Wright Field in
Dayton, Ohio has announced that the robot bomb on which American experts
have been working on is a "good" one and has been test flown successfully.
The US launching ramp is better than the one used by the Germans and can be
built in four days as compared to two weeks for the Germans. The Army has
no plans for using the bomb but says "if we do need it, we've got a good
one." (Note: anyone have more details about this? Was it ever used in
combat? I assume it was more comparable to the V1 rather than the V2. JD)

Marine Generals Named - President Roosevelt has nominated these four
brigadier generals of the Marine Corps to become major general: Earl O.
Long, Pedro DelValle, Louis E. Woods and Field Harris. He has also
nominated Marine Cols. William T. Clement, Joeseph F. Fellows and Louis R.
Jones to become brigadier generals.

B-29 Superfortress - The Army has announced this week contracts for 1,700
more B-29's. The B-29 is one and a half times larger than the B-17 and
twice as heavy. It cruises at more than 300 miles an hour and is
pressurized to operate between 30,000 and 40,000 ft. It can carry a bomb
load almost equal to its own weight.

Ace Race - Major Richard I. Bong has knocked down two more Japanese
fighters over Ormoc on Leyte, bringing his score to 36. Navy Commander David
McCampbell has shot down two more Japanese planes over Manila, making his
score 32. Near Cebu, Army Major Thomas McGuire has shot down two Japanese
fighter bombers, making his score 28.

=============================================================================

Sources: "2194 Days of War" by Cesare Salmaggi and Alfredo Pallavisimi, "The
World Almanac Book Of WW II" by Peter Young, "Facts On File Yearbook 1944,
Person's Index Of World Events" edited by R.L. Lapica and "Time" magazine.

Previous articles are archived at ftp.webcom.com in directory /pub/jbd/www
and can be accessed via the WWW by URL: http://www.webcom.com/~jbd/ww2.html.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Davis     [email-masked]
Cary, N.C.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 08:46:30 -0500
From:    "Arthur D. Venzin" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: 99th Inf. Div. Reunion

Greg, just spotted your msg on 99th.  My father was in the 11th Armored Div
and fought in the Bulge.  We have had our 32nd Reunion this past Sept and
will be having another in Sept '95 in Minnasota.

If you are looking for Reunion type info check with the VFW and its
magazine.  They have listing each month.  Also, you may wish to check with
the Army to see if rthey know anything.  Good luck on your endeavor
and if you wish to attend our Reunion let me know.  Over the last few
years we have had a number of men join because they can't find their own
Reunion or they don't have many left.

Take Care
Art Venzin

(3rd Platoon whenever there's a dirty detail ... Movie BATTLEGROUND)

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 08:54:17 -0500
From:    "Arthur D. Venzin" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: WWII exhibit

John, my dad's outfit will be having its Reunion in your area in Sept '95
will this still be available in others areas?  Please let me know.

Art venzin

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 09:23:09 EDT
From:    "Steve L. New" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Medals

     Mary,

     I've enclosed a brief ID of most of the DoD medals.  Hope this helps.
     Note:  I didn't do all this work, I simply took it off the net.

     Steve New

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Description:

   Medal of Honor (Air Force)

   For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity of the risk of life,
   above and beyond the call of duty, in action involving actual
   conflict with an opposing armed force.

=======================================================
Description:

   Medal of Honor (Army)

   For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity of the risk of life,
   above and beyond the call of duty, in action involving actual
   conflict with an opposing armed force.

===================================================================
Description:

   Medal of Honor (Navy-Marine-Coast Guard)

   For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity of the risk of life,
   above and beyond the call of duty, in action involving actual
   conflict with an opposing armed force.

==================================================================
Description:

   Distinguished Service Cross  (Army)

   For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations
   against an opposing armed force. For service members serving in any
   capacity with the Army.

=================================================================
Description:

   Navy Cross  (Navy-Marine Corps-Coast Guard)

   For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations
   against an opposing armed force.

=================================================
Description:

   Air Force Cross

   For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations
   against an opposing armed force.

=================================================================
Description:

   Defense Distinguished Service Medal

   For award by the Secretary of Defense for execptionally meritorious
   service in a duty of great responsibility.

===================================================
Description:

   Distinguished Service Medal (Army)

   For exceptionallyt meritorious service to the government in
   a duty of great responsibility.

=======================================================
Description:

   Distinguished Service Medal (Navy-Marine Corps)

   For exceptionally meritorious service to the government in a
   duty of great responsibility.

============================================================
Description:

   Distinguished Service Medal (Air Force)

   For exceptionally meritorious service to the government in a duty
   of great responsibility.

=========================================================
Description:

   Distinguished Service Medal (Coast Guard)

   For exceptionally meritorious service to the government in a duty
   of great responsibility.

=============================================================
Description:

   Silver Star

   For gallantry in action against an opposing armed force.

=======================================================
Description:

   Defense Superior Service Medal

   Awarded by the Secretary of Defense for superior meritorious service
   while in a postion of significant responsibility while assigned to a
   joint activity.

===========================================================
Description:

   Legion Of Merit

   For exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance
   of outstanding service.

==========================================================
Description:

   Distinguished Flying Cross

   For heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating
   in aerial flight, Bronz "V" device worn to denote valor.

===========================================================
Description:

   Soldier's Medal

   For heroism by those serving with the Army in any capacity that
   involves the voluntary risk of life under conditions other than
   those of conflict with an opposing armed force.

==================================================================
Description:

   Navy And Marine Corps Medal

   For acts of heroism not involving actual conflict with
   and opposing armed force.

==================================================================
Description:

   Airman's Medal

   For heroism that involves the voluntary risk of life under conditions
   other than those of conflict with an opposing armed force.

===================================================================
Description:

   Coast Guard Medal

   For acts of heroism not involving actual conflict with an
   opposing armed force.

=============================================================
Description:

   Bronze Star Medal

   For heroic or meritorious achievement of service, not involving aerial
   flight in connection with operations against an opposing armed force.
   Bronze "V" device worn to denote valor.

================================================================
Description:

   Purple Heart

   Awarded for wounds or death as result of an act of any opposing
   armed force, as a result of an international terrorist attack or
   as a result of military operations while serving as part of a
   peacekeeping force.

===============================================================
Description:

   Defense Meritorious Service Medal

   Awarded in the name of the Secretary of Defense for recognition
   of non-combat meritorious achievement service while serving in
   a joint activity.

=============================================================
Description:

   Meritorious Service Medal

   For outstanding non-combat meritorious achievement or service
   to the United States.

=================================================================
Description:

   Air Medal

   For meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.
   Bronze "V" device worn to denote valor.

=================================================================
Description:

   Joint Service Commendation Medal

   For meritorious achievement or service while assigned to a
   joint activity.

=====================================================
Description:

   Army Commendation Medal

   Awarded by the Army for heroism, meritorisous achievement or
   meritorious service.

========================================================
Description:

   Navy Commendation Medal

   Awarded by the Navy and Marine Corps for heroic or meritorious
   achievement or service. Bronze "V" device worn to denote valor.

=========================================================
Description:

   Air Force Commendation Medal

   Awarded by the Air Force for outstanding achievement, meritorious
   service or acts of courage.

==============================================
Description:

   Coast Guard Commendation Medal

   Awarded by the Coast Guard for meritorious service resulting in
   unusual or outstanding achievement.

==========================================================
Description:

   Joint Service Achievement Medal

   For meritorious achievement or service while assigned to a joing
   activity after Aug. 3, 1983.

============================================================
Description:

   POW Medal

   Awarded to any person who was taken prisoner of war and held
   captive after April 5, 1917, during World Wars I & II, and
   Korea and Vietnam conflicts.

=========================================================
Description:

   Combat Readiness Medal (Air Force)

   Awarded for completion of an aggregate of two years of sustained
   individual combat or mission readiness or preparedness for direct
   weapon system deployment.

============================================================
Description:

   Good Conduct Medal (Army)

   Awarded for exemplary behavior, efficiency and fidelity while on
   active duty.

==============================================================
Description:

   Good Conduct Medal (Navy)

   Based on conduct for four-year periods of continuous active service.

===============================================================
Description:

   Good Conduct Medal (Marine Corps)

   Based on conduct for three-year periods of continous active service.

===========================================================
Description:

   Good Conduct Medal (Air Force)

   Awarded for exemplary behavior, efficiency and fidelity during a
   three-year period of service.

===============================================================
Description:

   Good Conduct Medal (Coast Guard)

   Based on conduct for three-year periods (after Jan. 1, 1980) of
   continous active service.

===========================================================
Description:

   Coast Guard Reserve Good Conduct Medal

   Based on conduct for three-year periods of continuous Reserve service.
   Replaces the Coast Guard Reserve Meritorious Service Ribbon.

=========================================================
Description:

   Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal

   For exemplary behavior, efficiency and fidelity while serving as a
   member of an Army National Guard or Reserve Troop Program Unit.

==========================================================
Description:

   Naval Reserve Meritorious Service Medal

   Awarded to Navy reservists who fulfill with distinction the
   obligations of inactive reservists during any four years.

=======================================================
Description:

   Air Reserve Forces Meritorious Service Medal (Air Force)

   Awarded for exemplary behavior, efficiency, and fidelity during a
   four-year period while serving in an enlisted status in the Air
   Force reserve Forces.

============================================================
Description:

   Selected Marine Corps Reserve Medal

   Awarded for four consective years service in Selected Marine
   Corps Reserve.

========================================================
Description:

   Navy Expeditionary Medal

   For opposed landing on foreign territory or operations deserving
   special recognition for which service no other campaign medal has
   been awarded.

==========================================================
Description:

   Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal

   For opposed landing on foreign territory or operations deserving
   special recognition for which service no other campaign medal has
   been awarded.

=============================================================
Description:

   Army Of Occupation Medal

   For 30 consecutive days service after World War II at a normal post
   of duty while assigned to an army of occupation.

====================================================
Description:

   Naval Occupation Service Medal (Navy-Marine Corps-Coast Guard)

   For occupation service during and after World War II.

====================================================================
Description:

   China Service Medal (Navy-Marine Corps-Coast Guard)

   For service in China, July 7, 1937, to Sept. 7, 1939,
   (Navy-Marine Corps) and Sept. 2, 1945, to Aril 1, 1957
   (Navy-Marine Corps-Coast Guard).

===================================================================
Description:

   National Defense Service Medal

   For active federal service in the armed forces, including the
   Coast Guard, between June 27, 1950, and July 27, 1954, and from
   Jan. 1, 1961 to aug. 14, 1974.

=================================================================
Description:

   Korean Service Medal

   For participation in operations in the Korean area between June 27,
   1950, and July 27, 1954.

================================================================
Description:

   Antarctica Service Medal

   For participating in an expedition, operation or support of a U.S.
   operation in Antarctica after Jan. 1, 1946, to date to be announced.

=====================================================================
Description:

   Coast Guard Artic Service Medal

   For participating in an expedition, operation or support of an
   operation in excess of 21 consecutive days in the Artic.

=========================================================================
Description:

   Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal

   For participating in designated operations after July 1, 1958.

====================================================================
Description:

   Vietnam Service Medal

   For service in Southeast Asia and contiguous waters or air
   space thereover from July 4, 1965, through March 28, 1973.

==============================================================
Description:

   Humanitarian Service Medal

   For meritorious direct paraticipation in a significant military
   act or operation of a humanitarian nature performed after Apri1
   1, 1975.

=======================================================
Description:

   Armed Forces Reserve Medal

   For 10 years of honorable service in Reserve components of the
   armed forces.

==========================================================
Description:

   Naval Reserve Medal

   Awarded for 10 years of honorable service in the Naval Reserve
   (prior to Sept. 12, 1958).

==============================================================
Description:

   United Nations Service Medal (Korea)

   For service in the Korean area in support of UN action from June 22,
   1950, to July 27, 1954; and those who are also eligible for the
   Korean Service Medal.

================================================================
Description:

   Inter-American Defense Board Medal

   Awarded for at least one year of service on the IADB in
   selected positions.

=============================================================
Description:

   United Nations Medal

   Awarded to personnel for not less than six months service with one of
   the following United Nations' units:

      UN Truce Observers Group in Lebanon
      UN Truce Supervisory Organization in Palestine
      UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan
      UN Security Forces, Hollandia.

====================================================================
Description:

   Multinational Force And Observers Medal

   Awarded for service with the Multinational Force and Observers
   Organization for at least 90 consecutive days.

==================================================================
Description:

   Republic Of Vietnam Campaign Medal

   For six months direct combat support or service in South Vietnam
   between March 1, 1961, and March 28, 1973. Also for those wounded,
   captured or killed in action or in the line of duty during the same
   time period.

===============================================================

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 09:33:08 EDT
From:    "Steve L. New" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: INF: 50 Years Ago - 21-NOV-1944

On 21-NOV-1944, the following occurred -

     (Material deleted)

>Army & Navy
>-----------
>Robot Bomb Developed - Army Air Force Headquarters at Wright Field in
>Dayton, Ohio has announced that the robot bomb on which American experts
>have been working on is a "good" one and has been test flown successfully.
>The US launching ramp is better than the one used by the Germans and can
>be built in four days as compared to two weeks for the Germans. The Army
>has no plans for using the bomb but says "if we do need it, we've got a
>good one."

>(Note: anyone have more details about this? Was it ever used in combat? I
>assume it was more comparable to the V1 rather than the V2. JD)

     (Material deleted)

>John Davis     [email-masked]
>Cary, N.C.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

     John,

     This was an American copy of the V-1, which we called the Loon.  They
     were only used in the US for test and research purposes.  None were
     used in combat.  Our version had the same fault as the V-1 (and the
     Scud).  Once you launched it, you didn't know where it would crash.

     Steve New

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 09:59:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: [INF] USAAF 19 NOV 44

COMBAT CHRONOLOGY OF THE US ARMY AIR FORCES
SUNDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 1944
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-26, Douglas Invader
  B-24, Consolidated Liberator
  B-25, North American Mitchell
  B-26, Martin Marauder
  F-5, Lockheed Lightning
  P-38, Lockheed Lightning
  P-40, Curtiss
  P-47, Republic Thunderbolt
  P-51, North American Mustang

NOTE: A number in parenthesis after a target name indicates the number of
bombers attacking.

CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER

  CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): 3 B-24s bomb Samah Bay docks on
Hainan Island. In China, 10 B-25s damage 2 buildings N of Chefang and score
hits on bridges at Tingka and Wan Lai-Kam, Burma; 8 P-40s and P-38s hit
targets of opportunity S of Tingka and Chefang; 19 P-40s blast troops and
river, rail, and road traffic in the Hankow area; 27 P-40s, P-51s, and P-38s
hit numerous targets of opportunity in the Mangshih area. The 35th
Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, Fourteenth AF, based at Chanyi, sends a
flight to operate from Suichwan with F-5s.

  INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, 15 P-47s support ground
forces attacking Bhamo and fighting in the Pinwe area; 36 P-47s pound enemy
concentrations at Man Mao, Sekang, and Manlu. Transports fly 290 sorties to
forward areas.

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): 450+ A-20s, A-26s, and B-26s bomb
storage depots, bridge, junction, ordnance depots, and defended positions in
or near 10 German towns and cities; fighters escort the bombers, carry out
patrols, and fly armed reconnaissance hitting rail facilities and other
targets over W German areas including Euskirchen, Trier, Saarbrucken, Julich,
and Cologne; the IX, XIX, and XXIX Tactical Air Commands support the US VII,
XII, XIX, and XX Corps areas E of Aachen and near Hurtgen, Germany, between
Metz, France and Saarlautern, Germany and near Sarreguemines, France. In
Belgium, HQ 366th Fighter Group moves from Couvron Airfield at Laon, France
to Assche.

MEDITERRANEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (MTO)

  STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Fifteenth Air Force): 500+ B-24s and B-17s bomb the
Schwechat and Vosendorf oil refineries, Winterhafen oil depot and Lobau oil
plant in Vienna, Wiener-Neudorf aircraft factory, Linz benzol plant, and
Horsching Airfield, Austria; Gyor, Hungary and Maribor, Yugoslavia
marshalling yards, plus several scattered targets of opportunity; 19 P-38s
dive-bomb troop concentrations at Prijepolje and Novi Pazar, Yugoslavia,
while 126 P-51s strafe roads and railroads between Esztergom and Veszprem,
Hungary and Vienna, Austria, and also attack Veszprem and Tapolcza Airfields
in Hungary; other fighters cover heavy bomber and reconnaissance missions.

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Twelfth Air Force): In Italy, fog and low clouds force
cancellation of missions against W Po Valley targets and limit fighter-
bombers to a midday attack on rail lines, guns, troop concentrations, motor
transport, and other military targets in and near the battle area S of
Bologna. During the night of 18/19 Nov A-20s on armed reconnaissance bomb
Ghedi Airfield and targets in the Bologna, Ferrara, Mantua, Cremona, and
Parma areas.

PACIFIC OCEAN AREA (POA)

  AAFPOA (Seventh Air Force): 5 B-24s from Guam Island, on armed
reconnaissance over Iwo Jima Island and the Bonin Islands, bomb airfields on
Iwo Jima while 15 hit shipping at Chichi Jima and Haha Jima Islands. 1 B-24
from Angaur Island in the Palau Islands bombs Legaspi Airfield on Luzon
Island.

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: In the Philippine
Islands, B-24s bomb Alicante on Negros Island and Palompon on Leyte Island
while P-47s hit the Valencia, Mindanao Island and Ormoc, Leyte Island areas.
On Mindanao Island B-24s hit Libby Airfield; others bomb airfields at Sasa on
Mindanao Island, and Sidate, Mapanget, and Borebore on Celebes Island. B-25s
and A-20s hit airfields and shipping in the Ceram Island-Ambon Island-Boeroe
Island area. B-25s and A-20s hit targets on Asia Island, New Guinea. Units
moving to Leyte Island: HQ 312th Bombardment Group (Light) and the 386th,
387th, 388th and 389th Bombardment Squadrons (Light) from Hollandia, New
Guinea with A-20s; 2d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 22d Bombardment Group
(Heavy), from Owi, Schouten Islands with B-24s; 39th Troop Carrier Squadron,
317th Troop Carrier Group, from Hollandia; 403d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy),
43d Bombardment Group (Heavy) from Owi, Schouten Islands with B-24s.

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Jack McKillop         |  Those who have long enjoyed such      |
|  Bellcore              |  privileges as we enjoy forget in      |
|  Piscataway, NJ USA    |  time that men have died to win them.  |
|  [email-masked]  |                       FDR              |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

20/1459Z NOV

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 10:05:03 -0500
From:    Michael Andrew Turton <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: INF: 50 Years Ago - 21-NOV-1944

>Robot Bomb Developed - Army Air Force Headquarters at Wright Field in
>Dayton, Ohio has announced that the robot bomb on which American experts
>have been working on is a "good" one and has been test flown successfully.
>The US launching ramp is better than the one used by the Germans and can be
>built in four days as compared to two weeks for the Germans. The Army has
>no plans for using the bomb but says "if we do need it, we've got a good
>one." (Note: anyone have more details about this? Was it ever used in
>combat? I assume it was more comparable to the V1 rather than the V2. JD)

The early development of the robot bomb, then called an aerial torpedo
actually began during the First World War and was pioneered in this
country by the great Elmer Sperry, who did so much for gyroscopes
and automatic feedback controls.  Sperry is the "Sperry" of Sperry-Rand.
The story of Sperry's work can be found in Thomas Parke Hughes'
_Elmer Sperry_ and is well worth reading.  Sperry was vitally important
not only in the development of gyroscopes, automatic pilots and other
gyrostabilized cybernetic devices, but was a key figure in the gradual
realization by the armed services that research and technical input
from scientists and inventors could improve the nation's weapons.
Along with Edison and the Wright brothers he was instrumental in the
development of America's nascent military-industrial complex during
the first three decades of the century.  I believe that the concept
of a guided, ramp-launched flying bomb is Sperry's, but I'm not sure.

Mike Turton
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 10:06:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: [INF] USAAF 20 NOV 44

COMBAT CHRONOLOGY OF THE US ARMY AIR FORCES
MONDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 1944
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
  B-17, Boeing Flying Fortress
  B-24, Consolidated Liberator
  B-25, North American Mitchell
  B-26, Martin Marauder
  F-5, Lockheed Lightning
  P-38, Lockheed Lightning
  P-40, Curtiss
  P-47, Republic Thunderbolt
  P-51, North American Mustang

NOTE: A number in parenthesis after a target name indicates the number of
bombers attacking.

AMERICAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS

  ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force): 3 B-24s fly an air cover mission for the US
Navy.

CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER

  CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): 8 B-25s hit the barracks area at
Lashio, Burma; 60+ P-38s, P-40s, and P-51s on armed reconnaissance over parts
of SE and SW China and French Indochina attack shipping--especially severely
in the Chiuchiang, China area--and barracks, radio stations, villages, and
other targets of opportunity. In China, the flight of the 21st Photographic
Reconnaissance Squadron, Fourteenth AF, operating from Kanchow with F-5s,
returns to base at Kunming.

  INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, 7 B-25s knock out the
Hsipaw road bridge; 4 others fail to damage the Bawgyo bridge; 12 P-47s
support ground forces in the Pinwe sector; 20+ others hit defenses at Mong
Nge, a horse transport unit at Selan, bomb storage areas at Kyungon and
Kyakataing, Japanese HQ and troop concentration at Man Mao, and several
scattered targets of opportunity. Transports maintain continuous flights to
forward bases and frontline areas.

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

  STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 2 missions are flown.
  Mission 718: 172 B-17s are sent to hit the Schowen oil plant at
Gelsenkirchen (61); 93 hit the secondary, the marshalling yard at Munster; 25
B-17s are damaged. Escort is 214 P-47s and P-51s; no losses.
  Other flights:
    12 of 12 B-17s fly a screening mission.
    310 P-47s and P-51s make fighter-bomber strikes agains miscellaneous
targets in W Germany; 1 P-47 and 7 P-51s are lost (pilots MIA) and 1 P-51 is
damaged beyond repair.
   12 of 12 P-51s fly a scouting mission.
  Mission 719: 6 B-17s and 7 B-24s drop leaflets on the Netherlands, France
and Germany during the night.

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS

    [First Tactical Air Force (Provisional)]: HQ 17th Bombardment Group
(Medium) and the 34th and 37th Bombardment Squadrons Medium) move from
Corsica to Dijon, France with B-26s.

    (Ninth Air Force): Bad weather prevents bomber operations; fighters fly
sweeps and night patrols over broad areas of W Germany and strafe and bomb
numerous railroads, trains, buildings and various military targets. In
France, the 365th, 366th and 367th Fighter Squadrons, 358th Fighter Group,
move from Mourmelon to Toul with P-47s. In Belgium, the 389th Fighter
Squadron, 366th Fighter Group, moves from Couvron, France to Asch with P-47s.

MEDITERRANEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (MTO)

  STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Fifteenth Air Force): 192 B-24s and B-17s bomb the
Blechhammer S oil refinery in Germany and the town of Prerov, Czechoslovakia,
a target of opportunity; 284 others encounter bad weather and attack several
alternate targets and targets of opportunity in Czechoslovakia including the
town of Zlin and marshalling yards at Brno, Hodonin, and Breclav and other
targets of opportunity in C and SE Europe. In Yugoslavia, 92 B-24s attack
the Sarajevo marshalling yard, and railroad bridges at Doboj, Zenica, and
Fojnica and 11 P-38s divebomb a marshalling yard at Brod, while 43 others
strafe communications between Esztergom and Veszprem, Hungary, and Vienna,
Austria; other fighters fly bomber escort, reconnaissance, and reconnaissance
escort.

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Twelfth Air Force): In Italy during the night of 19/20
Nov 44 A-20s attack Po River crossings, airfields and lights in the Po
Valley. During the day bad weather prevents medium bombers from successfully
attacking targets; fighter-bombers able to operate during the late morning
destroy 2 factories E of Modena, and supply dumps near Parma, and cause large
explosions in a dump near San Felice del Benaeo.

PACIFIC OCEAN AREA (POA)

  AAFPOA (Seventh Air Force): Bad weather cancels all bombing missions.

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: B-25s bomb Haroekoe
Airfield on Haroekoe Island and Laha Airfield on Amon Island. On Celebes
Island, P-38s hit targets of opportunity over Sidate and in the Makassar
areas. Units moving to Leyte Island: HQ Fifth AF moves from Owi, Schouten
Islands; 13th Bombardment Squadron (Light), 3d Bombardment Group (Light),
from Hollandia, New Guinea to Dulag with A-20s. The 371st Bombardment
Squadron (Heavy), 307th Bombardment Group (Heavy), ceases operating form
Noemfoor Island with B-24s and moves forward to Morotai Island.

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Jack McKillop         |  Those who have long enjoyed such      |
|  Bellcore              |  privileges as we enjoy forget in      |
|  Piscataway, NJ USA    |  time that men have died to win them.  |
|  [email-masked]  |                       FDR              |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

20/1507Z NOV

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 10:19:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: [INF] USAAF 21 NOV 44

COMBAT CHRONOLOGY OF THE US ARMY AIR FORCES
TUESDAY, 21 NOVEMBER 1944
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:
  B-17, Boeing Flying Fortress
  B-24, Consolidated Liberator
  B-25, North American Mitchell
  B-26, Martin Marauder
  B-29, Boeing Superfortress
  P-38, Lockheed Lightning
  P-47, Republic Thunderbolt
  P-51, North American Mustang

NOTE: A number in parenthesis after a target name indicates the number of
bombers attacking.

AMERICAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS

  ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force): Advance HQ Eleventh AF is established on
Shemya Island, Aleutian Islands with Brigadier General Harry A Johnson as
Deputy Commander. 5 B-24s fly air coverage for naval units; another fleet
coverage mission by 10 B-25s is cancelled due to weather; before clearance
can be obtained from the Soviets through diplomatic channels, a B-24 air-
drops provisions to a marooned crew of a B-24 which forcelanded on Kamchatka
Island on 17 Nov 44.

CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER

  CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): In China, 42 P-51s and P-38s on armed
reconnaissance attack fuel supplies and the town area at Ishan and road and
rail traffic and other targets of opportunity N of Wanling, Burma and in the
Chiuchiang area, S of Foochow, and at Hsuchang, Sincheng, and Sheklung.

  HQ AAF (Twentieth Air Force): 61 B-29s from Chengtu, China bomb an aircraft
plant at Omura, Kyushu Island, Japan; 13 B-29s bomb Shanghai, China, and
several others hit alternates and targets of opportunity; the B-29s claim 27
fighters downed, the highest Twentieth AF claim to date.

  INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, 28 P-47s support ground
forces in the Pinwe and Bhamo areas; 37 others hit supply areas, troop
concentrations and strongholds at Langwa, Pinmalut, Hlebwe, Mutawng, and
Nawnghkem; 15 P-47s hit targets of opportunity while sweeping the Kyaukme-
Namyao road; 10 B-25s knock out bridges at Hsipaw and Bawgyo. Transports fly
280+ sorties to forward areas.

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

  STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 2 missions are flown.
  Mission 720: 1,291 bombers and 954 fighters are dispatched to make PFF
attacks using H2X on oil targets in Germany; they claim 73-7-25 Luftwaffe
aircraft; 25 bombers and 15 fighters are lost:
  1. 421 B-17s are sent to hit the Leuna synthetic oil plant at Merseburg
(200); targets of opportunity are Meppen (24), Friedburg (21), Hersfeld (12)
and Hunfeld (12) marshalling yards, flak gun batteries at Merseburg (12),
Leeuwarden Airfield (11), Apolda (10) the Autobahn at Hersfeld (10),
Quakenbruck (10), and other (69); the AAF claims 1-0-1 aircraft; 14 B-17s are
lost, 3 damaged beyond repair and 205 damaged; 1 airman is KIA, 16 WIA and
129 MIA. Escort is 268 of 310 P-51s; they claim 63-7-20 aircraft in the air
and 3-0-2 on the ground; 9 P-51s are lost (pilots MIA).
  2. 402 B-17s are sent to Sterkrade, Lendorf and Hamburg but hit the
secondary, the Osnarbruck marshalling yard (166) and last resort targets,
i.e., Giessen marshalling yard (77), Wetzlar (62), Lingen (24), Koblenz
marshalling yard (23), Bielefeld marshalling yard (9), and targets of
opportunity (35); 7 B-17s are lost, 3 damaged beyond repair and 142 damaged;
2 airmen are KIA, 6 WIA and 65 MIA. Escort is 382 of 420 P-51s; 4 P-51s are
lost (pilots MIA).
  3. 366 B-24s are sent to hit the Dpag (178) and Rhenania (171) oil plants
at Hamburg; 4 B-24s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 220 damaged; 19
airmen are KIA, 8 WIA and 89 MIA. Escort is 177 P-47s and P-51s; they claim
5-0-2 aircraft in the air and 2-0-1 on the ground; 1 P-47 and 1 P-51 are lost
(pilots MIA).
  4. 12 of 12 B-17s fly a screening mission.
  5. 31 of 33 P-51s fly a scouting mission.
  Mission 721: 7 B-17s and 5 B-24s drop leaflets in France, the Netherlands
and Germany during the night.

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS

    First Tactical Air Force (Provisional): The 95th Bombardment Squadron
(Medium), 17th Bombardment Group (Medium), moves from Poretta, Corsica to
Dijon, France with B-26s.

    Ninth Air Force: In Germany, the 9th Bombardment Division hits rail
bridges and defended areas at several points including Bergstein, Echtz,
Sinzig, Neuwied, and Derichsweiler; fighters escort the B-26s and also Eighth
AF B-17s (to Merseburg), fly area cover, sweeps, and dive-bombing missions in
W Germany, and support the US 1st, 8th, and 104th Infantry Divisions in
the Hurtgen area and the XII and XX Corps between Merzig and Sarreguemines,
France. The 378th Fighter Squadron, 362d Fighter Group, moves from Prosnes to
Rouvres, France with P-47s.

MEDITERRANEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (MTO)

  STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Fifteenth Air Force): 25 B-24s bomb troop
concentrations, railroad, and highways at Novi Pazar and Cacak, Yugoslavia.
155 P-38s dive-bomb communications lines in S Yugoslavia, destroying several
vehicles, blasting roads at Vucitrn, Rogatica, Tvrdosevo, and Duga Poljana,
hitting bridges at Vrbasici, and Kukavica and causing a landslide at Pavlica;
87 P-51s strafe communications over wide areas of S Yugoslavia; other
fighters fly reconnaissance missions.

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Twelfth Air Force): In Italy, B-25s blast defenses and
troop concentrations in the Faenza area as the British Eighth Army's 5 Corps
opens a general offensive N towards that town; fighter-bombers hit targets in
the US Fifth Army battle area S of Bolonga, in the Po Valley, and in NE
Italy; particularly good results are achieved against supply dumps and a rail
line in the Brenner Pass is cut in 3 places.

PACIFIC OCEAN AREA (POA)

  AAFPOA (Seventh Air Force): Seventh AF service groups are reassigned from
the VII Air Service Area Command to the VII Bomber Command and VII Fighter
Command, with one service group to support each tactical group in the field.
  B-24s from Guam Island bomb shipping and naval shore installations at
Chichi Jima and Haha Jima Islands. During the night of 21/22 Nov a lone B-24
on a snooper mission bombs Iwo Jima Island.

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: In the Philippine
Islands, B-24s bomb Matina and Lumbia Airfields on Mindanao Island; on Leyte
Island, fighter-bombers hit troop barges and supply dumps in Ormoc Bay and
numerous targets of opportunity throughout the C Philippine Islands. On
Celebes Island, B-25s hit Langoan and Mapanget Airfields while B-24s in the
Kendari area bomb Ambesia Airfield.

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Jack McKillop         |  Those who have long enjoyed such      |
|  Bellcore              |  privileges as we enjoy forget in      |
|  Piscataway, NJ USA    |  time that men have died to win them.  |
|  [email-masked]  |                       FDR              |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

20/1520Z NOV

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 10:30:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: WHAT-IF YAMAMOTO

 >Ludwig Goller <[email-masked]> writes:
 >
 >> AFAIK, the evil thing about Pearl Harbour was, that the attack occurred
 >> _before_ an official declaration of war. Yamamotos plan was to declare
 >> war and _then_ to attack PH, giving the US such a heavy blow that they
 >> would be demoralized. Unfortunately for Y., the declaration was delayed
 >> and the result was the adverse of what Y. had anticipated.
 >
 >If I am correct the Japanese plan was to declare war to the U.S. just a few
 >hours before the attack, thus leaving them no time to react and protect
 >Pearl, while maintaining the illusion of legality.
 >Personally I see little difference between this method, and declaring war
 >afterwards. The essential is that you have stabbed somebody without leaving
 >him time to defend himself. This is exactly what Nelson did at Copenhagen in
 >1807.
 >
 >Arnaud.

If I remember correctly, the plan was that the Japanese Embassy in
Washington would deliver the declaration of war no later than 1300
hours Washington time (0730 hours in Hawaii).  The attack began at
1325 hours Washington time (0755 hours in Hawaii).

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Jack McKillop              |  Those who have long enjoyed such |
|  Bellcore                   |  privileges as we enjoy forget in |
|  Piscataway, NJ USA         |  time that men have died to win   |
|  [email-masked]  |  them.                     FDR    |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 10:42:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: GEN: HOLLYWOOD AT WAR-JOHN WAYNE

 >  With all the discussion of Hollywood and the war, I would like to ask again if
 >anyone knows why John Wayne was not in the military.  I am sure there was a good
 >reason but am just curious as to what it was.
 >  Regards, John Ausland/Oslo Norway

John,

I will try to be objective because the Duke is my favorite male
actor.

John Wayne DID NOT serve in the military during WWII.  One story
has it that he wanted a commission but could not get it so he used
his children as an excuse to get an exemption.  There is no doubt
that he was entitled to an exemption because of his children and he
was classified as exempt.  Now, what is the truth or will we ever
know the truth.

One story I heard about the Duke is that he went to Vietnam to
entertain the troops.  While entertaining them outdoors, "Charlie"
opened up with machine guns and everyone, except one guy, hit the
dirt.  Yup, John Wayne was still standing because he did not
recognize the sound of the machine guns and had to be pulled down.

I read a book about him several years ago and one of the
photographs in the book was very interesting.  Wayne was in the
Philippines making a movie (don't know which one) when he heard
there was a group of Marines that were in the vicinty.  So on
Sunday, he went over to talk to them.  The picture in the book
shows him talking to the Marines, who were TDY from Japan, in a
tent.  One of the Marines was none other than Lee Harvey Oswald.
Small world!!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Jack McKillop              |  Those who have long enjoyed such |
|  Bellcore                   |  privileges as we enjoy forget in |
|  Piscataway, NJ USA         |  time that men have died to win   |
|  [email-masked]  |  them.                     FDR    |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 10:53:09 EDT
From:    "Steve L. New" <[email-masked]>
Subject: WEAP:  BB-39 Arizona

ARIZONA
Battleship No. 39:

From: DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN NAVAL FIGHTING SHIPS, James L.
Mooney, ed., Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy,
Washington, DC., 1991

displacement. 31,400 tons
length. 608'
beam. 97'1"
draft. 28'10"  (mean)
speed. 21 k.
complement. 1,081
armament. 12x14", 22x5", 4x3", 2x21" torpedo tubes.;
class. "PENNSYLVANIA"

The second ARIZONA (Battleship No. 39) was laid down on 16 March
1914 at the New York Navy Yard; launched on 19 June 1915;
sponsored by Miss Esther Ross, daughter of a prominent ARIZONA
pioneer citizen, Mr. W. W. Ross of Prescott, Ariz.; and
commissioned at her builder's yard on 17 October 1916, Capt.
John D. McDonald in command.

ARIZONA departed New York on 16 November 1918 for shakedown
training off the Virginia capes and Newport, proceeding thence
to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Returning north to Norfolk on 16
December to test fire her battery and to  conduct torpedo-
defense exercises in Tangier Sound. The battleship returned to
her builders yard the day before Christmas of 1916 for post-
shakedown overhaul. Completing these repairs and  alterations on
3 April 1917, she cleared the yard on that date for Norfolk,
arriving there on the following day to join Battleship Division
8.

Within days, the United States forsook its tenuous neutrality in
the global conflict then raging and entered World War I. The new
battleship operated out of Norfolk throughout the war, serving
as a gunnery training ship and patrolling the waters of the
eastern seaboard from the Virginia Capes to New York. An oil-
burner, she had not been deployed to European waters owning to a
scarcity of fuel oil in the British Isles-the base of other
American battleships sent to aid the Grand Fleet.

A week after the armistice of 11 November 1918 stilled the guns
on the western front, ARIZONA stood out of Hampton Roads for
Portland, England, and reached her destination on 30 November
1918, putting to sea with her division on 12 December to
rendezvous with the transport GEORGE WASHINGTON, the ship
carrying President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference.
ARIZONA, one of the newest and most powerful American
dreadnoughts, served as part of the honor escort  convoying the
American President to Brest, France, on 13  December 1918.

Embarking 238 homeward-bound veterans in the precursor of a
"Magic Carpet" operation of a later war, ARIZONA sailed from
Brest for New York on 14 December, and arrived off Ambrose Light
on the afternoon of Christmas Day, 1918. The next day, she
passed in review before Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels,
who was embarked in the yacht MAYFLOWER off the Statue of
Liberty, before entering New York Harbor in a great  homecoming
celebration. The battleship then sailed for Hampton Roads on 22
January 1919, returning to her base at Norfolk on the following
day.

ARIZONA sailed for Guantanamo Bay with the Fleet on 4 February
1919, and arrived on the 8th. After engaging in battle practices
and maneuvers there, the battleship sailed for Trinidad on 17
March, arriving there five days later or a three-day port visit.
She then returned to Guantanamo Bay on 29 March or a brief
period, sailing for Hampton Roads on 9 April. Arriving at her
destination on the morning of the 12th, she got underway late
that afternoon for Brest, France, ultimately making arrival
there on 21 April 1919.

The battleship stood out of Brest harbor on 3 May, bound for
Asia Minor, and arrived at the port of Smyrna eight days later
to protect American lives there during the Greek occupation of
that port-an occupation resisted by gunfire from Turkish
nationals. ARIZONA provided temporary shelter on board for a
party of Greek nationals, while the battleship's marine
detachment guarded the American consulate; a number of American
citizens also remained on board ARIZONA until conditions
permitted them to return ashore. Departing Smyrna on 9 June for
Constantinople, Turkey, the battleship carried the United States
consul-at-large, Leland E. Morris, to that port before sailing
for New York on 15 June. Proceeding via Gibraltar, ARIZONA
reached her destination on 30 June.

Entering the New York Navy Yard for upkeep soon thereafter, the
battleship cleared that port on 6 January 1920 to join
Battleship Division 7 for winter and spring maneuvers in the
Caribbean. She operated out of Guantanamo Bay during this
period, and also visited Bridgetown, Barbadoes, in the British
West Indies, and Colon, in the Canal Zone, before she sailed
north for New York, arriving there on 1 May 1920. Departing New
York on 17 May, ARIZONA operated on the Southern Drill Grounds,
and then visited Norfolk and Annapolis, before returning to New
York on 25 June. Over the next six months, the ship operated
locally out of New York. During this time she was given the
alphanumeric hull designation, BB-39, on 17 July 1920, and, on
23 August, she became flag ship for Commander Battleship
Division 7, Rear Admiral Edward V. Eberle. Sailing from New York
on 4 January 1921, ARIZONA joined the feet as it sailed for
Guantanamo Bay and the Panama Canal Zone. Arriving at Colon, on
the Atlantic side of the isthmuian waterway, on 19 January,
ARIZONA transited the Panama Canal for the first time on that
day, arriving at Panama Bay on the 20th. Underway for Callao,
Peru, on the 22d, the fleet arrived there nine days later, on
the 31st, for a six-day visit. While she was there ARIZONA was
visited by the President of Peru. Under way for Balboa on 5
February 1921, ARIZONA arrived at he destination on the 14th;
transiting the canal again the day after Washington's Birthday,
the battleship reached Guantanamo Bay on the 6th. She operated
thence until 24 April 1921, when she sailed for New York,
steaming via Hampton Roads.

ARIZONA reached New York on 29 April, and remained under
overhaul there until 15 June. She steamed thence for Hampton
Roads on the latter date, and on the 21st steamed off Cape
Charles with Army and Navy observers to witness the experimental
bombings of the ex-German submarine U-117. Proceeding thence
back to New York, the battleship there broke the flag of Vice
Admiral John D. McDonald (who, as a captain, had been ARIZONA's
first commanding officer) on 1 July and sailed for Panama and
Peru on 9 July. She arrived at the port of Callao on 22 July as
flagship for the Battle Force, Atlantic Fleet, to observe the
celebrations accompanying the centennial year of Peruvian
independence. On 27 July, Vice Admiral McDonald went ashore and
represented the United States at the unveiling of a monument
commemorating the accomplishments of San Martin, who had
liberated Peru from the Spanish yoke a century before.

Sailing for Panama Bay on 9 August, ARIZONA became flagship for
Battleship Division 7 when Vice Admiral McDonald transferred his
flag to WYOMING (BB-33) and Rear Admiral Josiah S. McKean broke
his flag on board as commander of the division on 10 August at
Balboa. The following day, the battleship sailed for San Diego
arriving there on 21 August 1921.

Over the next 14 years, ARIZONA alternately served as flagship
for Battleship Divisions 2, 9 or 4. Based at San Pedro, during
this period, ARIZONA operated with the fleet in the operating
areas off the coast of southern California or in the Caribbean
during fleet concentrations there. She participated in a
succession of fleet problems (the annual maneuvers of the fleet
that served as the culmination of the training year), ranging
from the Caribbean to the waters off the west coast of central
America and the Canal Zone; from the West Indies to the waters
between Hawaii and the west coast.

Following her participation in Fleet Problem IX (January 1929),
ARIZONA transited the Panama Canal on 7 February for Guantanamo
Bay, whence she operated through April. She then proceeded to
Norfolk Navy Yard, entering it on 4 May 1929 to prepare for
modernization.

Placed in reduced commission on 15 July 1929, ARIZONA remained
in yard hands for the next 20 months; tripod masts, surmounted
by three-tiered fire control tops, replaced the old cage masts;
5-inch, 25-caliber antiaircraft guns replaced the 3-inch, 50s
with which she had been equipped. She also received additional
armor to protect her vitals from the fall of shot and blisters
to protect her from torpedo or near-miss damage from bombs. In
addition, she received new boilers as well as new main and
cruising turbines. Ultimately, she was placed in full commission
on 1 March 1931.

A little over two weeks later, on 19 March 1931, President
Herbert C. Hoover embarked on board the recently modernized
battleship, and sailed for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,
standing out to sea from Hampton Roads that day. Returning on 29
March, ARIZONA disembarked the Chief Executive and his party at
Hampton Roads, and then proceeded north to Rockland, Maine, to
run her post-modernization standardization trials. After a visit
to Boston, the battleship dropped down to Norfolk, whence she
sailed for San Pedro on 1 August 1931, assigned to Battleship
Division 3, Battle Force.

Over the next decade, ARIZONA continued to operate with the
Battle Fleet, and took part in the succession of fleet problems
that took the fleet from the waters of the northern Pacific and
Alaska to those surrounding the West Indies, and into the waters
east of the lesser Antilles.

On 17 September 1938, ARIZONA became the flagship for
Battleship Division 1, when Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
(later to become Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet) broke his
flag on board. Detached 27 May 1939 to become Chief of the
Bureau of Navigation, Nimitz was  relieved on that day by Rear
Admiral Russell Willson.

ARIZONA's last fleet problem was XXI. At its conclusion, the
United States Fleet was retained in Hawaiian waters, based at
Pearl Harbor. She operated in the Hawaiian Operating Area until
late that summer, when she returned to Long Beach on 30
September 1940. She was then overhauled at the Puget Sound Navy
Yard, Bremerton Wash., into the following year. Her last flag
change-of-command occurred on 23 January 1941, when Rear Admiral
Wilson was relieved as Commander, Battleship  Division 1 by Rear
Admiral Isaac C. Kidd.

The battleship returned to Pearl Harbor on 3 February 1941 to
resume the intensive training maintained by the Pacific Fleet.
She made one last visit to the West coast, clearing "Pearl" on
11  June 1941 for Long Beach, ultimately returning to her
Hawaiian base on 8 July. Over the next five months, she
continued  exercises and battle problems of various kinds on
type training and tactical exercises in the Hawaiian operating
area. She  underwent a brief overhaul at the Pearl Harbor Navy
Yard  commencing on 27 October 1941, receiving the foundation
for a search radar atop her foremast. She conducted her last
training in  company with her division mates NEVADA (BB-36) and
OKLAHOMA (BB-37), conducting a night firing exercise on the
night of 4  December 1941. All three ships moored at quays
("keys") along Ford Island on the 5th.

Scheduled to receive tender availability, ARIZONA took the
repair ship VESTAL (AR-4) along side on Saturday, the 6th. The
two ships were thus moored together on the morning of 7
December; among the men on board ARIZONA that morning were Rear
Admiral Kidd and the battleship's captain, Capt. Franklin van
Valkenburgh.

Shortly before 0800, Japanese aircraft from six fleet carriers
struck the Pacific Fleet as it lay in port at Pearl Harbor, and
in the ensuing two attack waves, wrought devastation on the
Battle Line and on air and military facilities defending Pearl
Harbor.

On board ARIZONA, the ship's air raid alarm went off about 0755
and the ship went to general quarters soon thereafter. Insofar
as it could be determined soon after the attack, the ship
sustained eight bomb hits; one hit on the forecastle, glancing
off the face plate of turret II to penetrating the deck to
explode in the black powder magazine, which in turn set off
adjacent  smokeless power magazines. A cataclysmic explosion
ripped through the forward part of the ship, touching off fierce
fires that burned for two days; debris showered down on Ford
Island in the vicinity.

Acts of heroism on the part of ARIZONA's officers and men were
many, headed by those of Lt. Comdr. Samuel G. Fuqua, the ship's
damage control officer, whose coolness in attempting to quell
the fires and get survivors off the ship earned him the Medal of
Honor. Posthumous awards of the Medal of Honor also went to Rear
Admiral Isaac Kidd, the first flag officer to be killed in the
Pacific war, and to Capt. Van Valkenburgh, who reached the
bridge and was attempting to fight his ship when the bomb hit on
the magazines destroyed her.

The blast that destroyed ARIZONA and sank her at her berth
alongside of Ford Island consumed the lives of 1,103 of the
1,400 on board at the time-over half of the casualties suffered
by the entire fleet on the "Day of Infamy ."

Placed "in ordinary" at Pearl Harbor on 29 December 1941,
ARIZONA was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 December
1942. Her wreck was cut down so that very little of the
superstructure lay above water; her after main battery turrets
and guns were removed to be emplaced as coast defense guns.
ARIZONA's wreck remains at Pearl Harbor, a memorial to the men
of her crew lost that December morn in 1941. On 7 March 1950,
Admiral Arthur W. Radford, Commander in Chief of the Pacific
Fleet at that time, instituted the raising of colors over
ARIZONA's remains, and legislation during the  administrations
of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy
designated the wreck a national shrine. A memorial was built; it
was dedicated on 30 May 1962.

ARIZONA (BB-39) was awarded one battle star for her service in
World War II.

Transcribed and edited by:
Larry W. Jewell
[email-masked]

     Jorge,

     From the last pair of .BMP sets you sent me, the one titled CV7.BMP
     (not CV7.BM) works perfectly, without any need of translation at my
     end at all.  Here, I was looking for a way to transcribe it from ASCII
     to HEX, because everything I had read regarding E:Mail said that you
     can only send ASCII code through the mails.

     Well, it just goes to show you how a little knowledge can be a
     dangerous thing.  You know what they say on television "the mind is a
     terrible thing."

     Thanks again for the picture, and feel free to send me anything else
     you feel I may be interested in.

     Steve New

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 10:57:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: GEN: HOLLYWOOD AT WAR-JOHN WAYNE

 >>With all the discussion of Hollywood and the war, I would like to ask
 >>again if anyone knows why John Wayne was not in the military.  I am sure
 >>there was a good reason but am just curious as to what it was.
 >  Regards, John Ausland/Oslo Norway
 >
 >
 >  John,
 >
 >  I'm not sure, but I suspect that Wayne was above draft age, and felt that
 >  he could do more for the war effort as an actor, you know, patriotic films,
 >  War Bonds drives, USO shows. I don't know if JW, like Ronald Reagan, did
 >  any training films (Reagan, as an over eager P-40 pilot is a real scream).
 >
 >  Steve New

John Ford was born 1 Feb 95 and served in the USN.
Henry Fonda was born 16 May 05 and served in the USN.
Wayne was born 26 May 07.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr was born 9 Dec 09 and served in the USN.
Reagen was born 6 Feb 11 and served in the USAAF.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Jack McKillop              |  Those who have long enjoyed such |
|  Bellcore                   |  privileges as we enjoy forget in |
|  Piscataway, NJ USA         |  time that men have died to win   |
|  [email-masked]  |  them.                     FDR    |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 10:59:14 -0600
From:    "Robert J. Granvin" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Medals

The discussion of medals brings up a question I've had for only about a week
now --

Does anyone have any experience in convincing the government to award
earned medals long after the fact?  As an example, there is a local resident
PBY pilot (who was a St. Paul native and still lives here) who rescued a
downed flyer while under surface attack.  His actions gained him a nomination
for the SIlver Star.

However, this was right at the end of the war and by the time they got around
to considering his nomination, the war was over and all he got was a letter
of commendation.

How would one start the process to see if his silver star will still be
awarded, 50 years later...?

--
Robert J. Granvin
Southern Minnesota Wing Confederate Air Force

------------------------------

Date:    Mon, 21 Nov 1994 00:14:13 +0700
From:    "Peter E. Beal" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Korea Post WWII, was ENOLA GAY

On Sun, 20 Nov 1994, Michael Andrew Turton wrote:

> >   If I recall, the division of North Korea was not due to the Russians,
> deologies and more particularly different people
> >wanting to be in charge (Kim-Il Sung and someone else in the south).   The
> >eventual war in Korea was not because of competing US or Russian ideologies,
> >but a simple power struggle which the North and South exploited the super-
> >powers for their support.  Seems like a lot of people pulled that on us for
> >50 years.
>
>
> You are correct.  The division was due to the Americans, who selected
> the 38th parallel as the line because it put the capital in the
> southern zone.

This was a unilateral decision?  If we were "allowed into the South by
the Russians" as you state below, they had something to do with it.  I
think this was decided upon a Potsdam  (but let me check).

By the time we moved in, a Korean People's Republic
> had been established throughout Korean (born Sept. 6, 1945)

"Througout Korean (sic)"?  In other words, this was an independent
govern0ment exercising civil authority over the entire peninsula?  And
just +who "established" this government.  My understanding is that the
Russians called rally in Pyongyang and introduced KKim Il Sung as the
pre+sident of a "people's republic" and that was it.  More-over, it is
li0kely that Kim Il Sung had appropriated that name from another and
b+etter known person and was, himself, unknown to almost all Koreans.

 but we
> 0slowly set up a repressive police state there after we were allowed
>+ into the South by the Russians.

Sygmon Rhee was no angel, but are you, by comparison, implying that North
Korea was a liberal democracy?

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 13:50:16 -0500
From:    chris garcia <[email-masked]>
Subject: book-in-work "Rocket Fighters of the Luftwaffe"

  This message is in MIME format.  The first part should be readable text,
  while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.
  Send mail to [email-masked] for more info.

--1430404836-126972939-785357416=:3710
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

--1430404836-126972939-785357416=:3710
Content-Type: APPLICATION/octet-stream; name="rocket1d.os"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: BASE64
Content-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Description: The text of Rocket Man I

GhoaGhoaGhoaGhoa
--1430404836-126972939-785357416=:3710--

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 15:01:44 -0500
From:    Michael Andrew Turton <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Korea Post WWII, was ENOLA GAY

Sygmon Rhee was no angel, but are you, by comparison, implying that North
Korea was a liberal democracy?

Why no, I'm not.

The chronology according to Cummings, whose short work _Korea:The
Unknown War_ is sitting in front of me, is that the U.S.S.R. didn't
protest the introduction of U.S. forces into the south.  Remeber that
the Russians had been fighting in Korea since 8 August 1945.  The Korean
People's Republic was established in early September NOT under Kim Il Sung.
Later that same month the right-wingers formed the Korean Democratic
Party.  "and so the occupation spent much of its first year dismantling
the committees in the South, which culminated in a major rebellion in
October 1946 that spread over several provinces."
        In October the rival camps brought in Rhee in the south and
Kim in the North.  It is important to note that the U.S. did not set
out to erect a police state in the South (we were more innocent in
those days).  Clearly from the chronology Kim was brought in a month
after the formation of a pensula-wide popular gov't.

I have never heard that Kim was a fake.  I'd love to hear that story.

Mike Turton
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 15:04:57 -0500
From:    Michael Andrew Turton <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: book-in-work "Rocket Fighters of the Luftwaffe"

That long, long post, in a format some of us don't have,
was truly obnoxious.

[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 15:21:55 -0600
From:    Cheryl Kaye Bryant <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Medals

On Sun, 20 Nov 1994, Robert J. Granvin wrote:

> How would one start the process to see if his silver star will still be
> awarded, 50 years later...?

I would also be interested in knowing this.  My grandfather was shot
while in Belgium, but he never received his Purple Heart.  I have the
original X-Ray with his dogtags and date of the wound.  I think that he
would get a kick out of my going through the trouble to get it for him
after so many years.

Thanx,

C.K.

P.S.  I will be out of town and away from my e-mail until next Saturday,
so if someone addresses anything specifically to me, I won't be able to
respond until I return.  Have a good Thanksgiving all.

*******************************************************************
"The Riskier the road, the greater the profit."    / C.K. Bryant
        The 62nd Rule of Acquisition               / W.I.U. English
*******************************************************************

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 16:43:42 -0500
From:    Christopher Morton <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Korea Post WWII, was ENOLA GAY

> "Througout Korean (sic)"?  In other words, this was an independent
> govern0ment exercising civil authority over the entire peninsula?  And
> just +who "established" this government.  My understanding is that the
> Russians called rally in Pyongyang and introduced KKim Il Sung as the
> pre+sident of a "people's republic" and that was it.  More-over, it is
> li0kely that Kim Il Sung had appropriated that name from another and
> b+etter known person and was, himself, unknown to almost all Koreans.

Korea was in considerable turmoil, nothing like what IndoChina was like
before the French returned.  There were a few popular leaders, communist
and otherwise in the North and South, none of whom was Kim Il Sung.

Kim was in fact an artillery officer in the Red Army.  I believe he saw
action at Stalingrad or Leningrad.

There WAS a truly popular communist leader in the South, whom Kim saw as a
rival.  Kim eliminated him by selling him out to the ROK secret police.  He
was tried and executed.

>  but we
> > 0slowly set up a repressive police state there after we were allowed
> >+ into the South by the Russians.
>
> Sygmon Rhee was no angel, but are you, by comparison, implying that North
> Korea was a liberal democracy?
>
Trying to compare Rhee and Kim is like comparing Admiral Horthy and Hitler.
There's just no similarity at all, apart from them both being Koreans who
lived abroad.

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 17:15:01 -0500
From:    chris garcia <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: book-in-work "Rocket Fighters of the Luftwaffe"

Please don't flame me!  I agree- pretty obnoxious, but it wasn't my
fault!  I sent it out as an ASCII text anyone can read, but the UNIX
server where I sent it from automatically encoded it without consulting
or notifying me.  Give me a break guys, it wasn't my idea and I'm trying
to straighten it out.  Once I find a way I'll send it up again.

On Sun, 20 Nov 1994, Michael Andrew Turton wrote:

> That long, long post, in a format some of us don't have,
> was truly obnoxious.
>
> [email-masked]
>

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 17:30:14 -0500
From:    chris garcia <[email-masked]>
Subject: <No subject given>

(Here it goes again, third times the charm.  I hope.  I think there's
acurse on this manuscript, I first uploaded it from AOL and found out
later that half the file didn't get there.  Then I uploaded it from a
UNIX server, but I'm still a Newbie and accidently uploaded it as a
binary file so it arrived in MIME text, and I got some nasty mail.  Here
it goes again- let me know it shows up okay this time.  I feel like that
scientist in that movie "The Fly"...)
                            ********

   I am reposting this opening vignette to a book I'm writing.  It was
brought to my attention by one of you that my first upload only uploaded
the first half of the article and the second half dropped off somehow.  I
originally uploaded it from my americ a OnLine account, and they have file
limitations for E-Mail.  If a file is too big AOL automatically breaks it
to size, and it's up to you to make sure all the pieces get sent up.  So
not all my pieces made it.  I'll try it through Internet and hope it wo
rks this time.
    Again- my book is a non-fiction history of the Me163 Komet, and the
european air war from the Luftwaffe's side.  There are a series of six
vignettes preceding the six chapters.  The fictional vignettes are called
"Rocket Man I" etc and depict the depl oyment and air battle of a Rotte of
three Komets attacking a group of B-17s and fighter escorts.  They are
told from the viewpoint of the Komet pilot Kramer on the attack, and the
crew of B-17 "Lucky Bastard" on the defense.  (German words and slang are
s hown in CAPITAL LETTERS) Here is the first vignette of the Rocket Man
series.  I'm uploading it to receive your comments, and I'm especially
interesting in weeding out any historical inaccuracies or dramatic flaws
that I may be unable to see.  You are my
 Beta Testers, and I'm waiting to hear from you.  Thank you.
                        ***************

         Rocket Man 1: Alarmstart!

        "ALARMSTART!" yells the german radio ops man, running from the
radio shack waving a clipboard.  An air raid siren begins to howl at the
other end of the airfield.
        The three pilots on duty have been lounging in deck chairs on the
immaculately groomed grass of the airfield in Brandis.
        Feldwebel Reinhardt Fehrmann has been dozing.  He doesn't sleep
well at night, and when he sits down for five minutes he nods right off.
At the sound of the siren, his eyes snap open, instantly awake.
        Feldwebel Paul Dufke has been staring into space for the past half
hour, thinking about skis.  His birthday is coming up, and his parents
will want to know what to send him.  Cross country or downhill?  Which
should it be?  It's unbelieveable that somewh ere people are sitting in
kitchens, working in offices, doing the ordinary things of life.  His
father continues his dentistry.  His mother attends mass every morning and
has probabbly lit a 1000 candles for him by now.  Maybe the candles are
good luck.  He'll take all the good luck he can get.  But when the siren
howls he remembers why he's here.
        Oberleutnant Hermann Kramer has been browsing through a back issue
of "Der Adler", the Luftwaffe's party magazine, and sipping at cold coffee
from a chunky white Wermacht coffee mug, his lucky cup with a thumbnail
chip out of the rim.  They make it sound
 like we're winning, he thinks, when the skies are so full of american
bombers even the birds are walking.  Here is a photo of the Reichsmarshall
shaking hands with a man in the hospital.  A night fighter out of Hamburg,
it says. Everyone smiles for the c amera.  Kramer landed in a hospital in
less than two weeks after graduating from fighter training.  A pair of
Spitfires had caught him during a ground attack mission over Dunkirk and
worked him over.  He'd gone over the side of his Messerschmidt 109 with
his left jacket sleeve on fire and had barely gotten his parachute open
before he hit the ground.  He'd rolled around in the sand trying to get
the flames out.  Finally he'd stopped paniking and just took his jacket
off.  The burn ward of the hospital had
 shown him the real face of war.  No talk of "chivalry" or "knights of the
air" there, which had been filled almost entirely with pilots and bomber
crewmen.  The worst thing about the burn ward had been the time lying in
bed with nothing to do but think.
  Mostly he kept thinking about the ground attack.  The whole business had
shocked him.  His flight leader had swung down to an altitude of less than
a hundred feet above the ground and opened up on the french soldiers
cowering in a drainage ditch.  They
 jumped up and ran as the machine gun bullets caught them.  In the movies
men sank to the ground, hands over their hearts, gasping out speeches.
This had been nothing like that.  As Kramer followed his flight leader in
and squeezed the gun button, his sh ells snatched at the men, chopped
them, cut them to pieces, and flung them thru the air in a whirr of bone
and blood.  It had been wonderful and horrible.  The sheer power of it
stunned him.  Shaking all over, he firewalled the throttle, pulled back
the stick and rose away from the carnage he had made.  He had felt
dammned.  He was 21 years old and it was the first time he had killed
anyone.  Now he was a breed apart from the boys he had grown up with,
having just done something no one at home would ever
 do or imagine.  He had killed other men.  He was so possessed by the
ghosts of these men disintegrating under his guns that he never saw the
Spitfires coming until their bullets were rattling into his fuselage.  He
had even lost his flight leader, which was really unforgiveable. At the
wail of the air raid siren he tosses down the magazine and jumps from the
deck chair.
        "How long?" says Fehrmann, eagerly.
     "About ten minutes." says the radio ops man.
     "That's all right, then." says Fehrman.
        Kramer examines the sky to the northwest.  That's where they come from
most of the time.  He points at the white trails coming over the pale
horizon.  "There."
        Behind him, the ground crews are yanking off the canvas tarps from
three fat, squat little planes with enormous boomerang shaped wings.  The
armoured nose cones of these rocket planes have tiny, ridiculous
propellers which look as though they were stuck there as a joke on these,
the fastest aircraft in the world.
     Dufke holds his hand above his eyes.  "JA, that's them.  No doubt.
Ten reichsmarks says it's Leipzig."
     "They think it's Berlin." says the radio ops man.
        A simple iron ladder is leaning against the open cockpit of the
three planes.  On the nose of each plane is the squadron emblem of Staffel
2, Jadgeschwader 400, a black shield frameing the black profile of a
jumping flea with a fiery rocket trail coming out of it's tail.  Around
the flea is a piece of german doggerel:

        "Wie ein floh          ("Like a flea..)
                aber OHO!"  (..but OHO!")

        As Kramer approaches his plane, his mechanic is connecting the
cables to the starter truck.  Worndl was with him in Sicily when the
British and the Americans overwhelmed their crude airbases with the
bombers that are now as common as sausage.  More commo n.  He had gotten
Worndl out by stuffing him into the recess behind the seat in his
Messerschmidt Bf 109. They called it "the poor man's Lufthansa".
    "Ready Herr Oberleutnant." says Worndl, and grabs Kramer's "acid
proof" neoprine flight suit and holds out the overalls for him to step
into.  Kramer glances back at the sky.  The bomber trails are plainly
visible, orderly white streaks crawling slowl y from from northwest to
southeast.  He steps into the legs of the special flight suit.  Worndl
pulls them up snugly.  He zips them and looks around for the fur lined
boots.
        Hacker comes hobbling up with a walking cast on his right foot.
"I know why you boys aren't taking me along this time." he says, grinning
wolfishly, "It's because the trains aren't running anymore."
        Kramer laughs.  On his last two combat flights, the luckless
Hacker has been bounced by the Ammies in P-38 Lightnings on the gliding
descent to the air field. Both times he bailed out, came down by parachute
and found his way back by train.
        Worndl finds the boots and passes them to Hacker.  Hacker gives
them to Kramer one at a time.  After the boots Kramer puts on the acid
proof gloves, and then the leather flight helmet.  He tucks in his bushy
hair, and centers the internal headphones over
 his ears.  Worndl hands him his oxygen mask which Kramer pulls down over
his flight helmet, then his goggles which he places around his head.  The
oxygen pipe and radio cables dangle down past his shoulders.
        "You look like something from Mars." says Hacker.
     As Kramer climbs up to the cockpit he sees Fehrmann standing behind
the wing of the other plane.  Fehrmann is bending over the grass, and his
mechanic is looking the other way, embarrassed.  The mechanic confided in
Kramer that when Fehrmann got sick
 last time, there was blood in the mess.  That means an ulcer.  Something
will have to be done about Fehrmann.  "He's all flown out." said the
mechanic.  "He's pushing his luck and he can't stop.  He scares me."  He's
not a coward, although the old men wh o fly the desks will never believe
that.  He's earned the Knight's Cross of The Iron Cross, and he did it the
hard way, here on the western front.  That's really his problem, his
nerves are shot.  Fehrmann is a decent soul who has just killed too much.
    Kramer leans into the open cockpit and picks up the parachute pack on
the seat.  Pulling the straps over his shoulders, he wrestles the thing
around tight and snaps the saftey catch together. Each aircraft has it's
own special smell.  The Messerschmid t 109 he had flown over the english
channel and later over Sicily smelled of paint, glycol coolant, wing dope
and especially gasoline when the sun was high and hot. This Komet is very
clean.  There is the smell of leather, the brassy smell of metal cleane r
and sometimes gun powder, but otherwise fresh as a hospital room.
Sometimes you might smell the sour pickle odor of rocket fuel.  But if
you're smelling that, you're going to be dead in a minute anyway.
    He grips the rim of the cockpit tightly and lifts himself up, then
lowers himself down like a fat man getting into a bath tub.  He stands on
the leather seat and squeezes in.  Stuffing his feet inside the rudder
pedal straps, he positions the parachut e pack under his behind like a
seat cushion.  Worndl clatters up the ladder and leans in. He tosses the
shoulder straps over him and pops the strap buckle together.  So many
straps and buckles to look after.  Worndl grabs the the oxygen pipe to
Kramer's f ace mask and shoves it into the receptacle on the right side of
the cockpit.  Kramer gropes for the radio cables, then plugs them into the
instrument board.  With all this junk piled on him, he can hardly move.  A
puff of sweet, cool oxygen blows into Kra mer's nose and mouth.  Switch
on.  Static.
        "Hans und breinbruch!" shouts Worndl and slams down the plexiglass
canopy.  The traditional Luftwaffe good luck send off- "May you break both
arms and legs!"
        Kramer slaps the canopy latch levers over.  He's now sealed tight
into a silent soap bubble of steel and glass.
        "Viktor!  Viktor!" shouts the radio headphones.  "Three minutes
warning.  Answer."
        "Eichhorsen eins answering.  Read you." says Kramer.  "Viktor."
        "Bluebell to Rotte One." shouts the headphones.  "Pantechnicons at
8000 meters.  Heading degrees 1..2..0. The Schlageter boys in JG26 engaged
them over Abbeville.  They say it's a three level box formation, and they
left three kills and two cripples on f ire.  There is a fighter escort
above and below of mustangs and thunderbolts.  Lots of fun."
        Thunderbolts.
     SCHIESSE!
     Of all the luck.  The fat ugly Thunderbolts are as hard to kill as
the VIERMOTS.  He can use up all his 30mm shells just beating them off his
ass.
     Worndl scurrys down the ladder, disappears and then the ladder
dissappears.
        "One minute to take off.  PANTECHNICONS still heading 1..2..0.
Doesn't look like they're coming for us.  So far no fighters are reported
near the airfield..." shouts the headphones.  "Good hunting, you
cockatoos."
        Schubert told them all about it, standing at the bar the night
after he returned from the great meeting at the Reichsluftschutzschule
(Imperial Air Defence School).  Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering had
screamed and ranted at the Jagdwaffe flight officers,
 shaming them in front of the entire Wehrmacht.  Calling them cowards,
jaded drunks ..and cockatoos of all the silly things.  "The bombers are
flying overhead at will, and the german people want to know; where are the
fighters?" he had shouted in his high
 voice.  "Fatty's out of touch." said Schubert.  "He has no idea of the
kind of unbearable fear a man has to fight down in himself in order to
fling his lonely little airplane at a formation of VIERMOTS, and fly into
the massed defensive fire of a hundred
 machine guns.  And over and over until you kick the bucket.  There was no
such thing when he was a pilot.  And anyway, there's just too many of
them."
        "Take off Rotte One!" yells the headphones. Worndl starts the
turbine, firing it from the starter truck.  It whines and clean white
steam billows under the tailpipe.  Kramer takes the control stick in his
right hand, feeling the rough grip of gnurled steel through his glove.  He
flips the gun switc h button down.  Yellow light.  Guns okay.  Just then a
ground crewman runs past the front of the plane, right in front of the
guns.  Stupid son of a bitch.  These new boys are so badly trained you
just want to spank them.  He flips the switch back, and th e yellow lamp
goes out.  On the right hand side of the cockpit, just ahead of the oxygen
regulator, is a small tin box, like a tobbaco tin, a home made gizmo that
one of the radio shack boys knocked together on a hobby bench.  It has
been taped and screwe d, and all but nailed to the side of the cockpit.
There are a couple of lights and a toggle switch and a snake's nest of
colored wires running down to the underside of the instrument board.  This
is a untested new toy and so far only Kramer's warbird has it.  The box is
connected to the electical system, which is jury rigged to a series of
explosive rockets in the wing roots.  The rocket tubes point up at an
angle, and are connected to an electric eye, the radio man's proud little
invention.  They're real ly a bunch of anti-tank rockets someone got a
hold of and these days Kramer will try just about anything.
     Kramer puts his left hand to the throttle quadrant.  The quadrant is
at the first of four positions, exposing through a hole a large black
button.  Kramer mashes down the start button.  A gurgle like water running
down a drain.  A crack like a rifle shot as the two fuels meet eachother
in the combustion chamber and explode.
        "EICHHORSCHEN EINS AN BODEN!." he says into the radio.  "I'm off!"

   *****

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 16:56:15 -0600
From:    "Robert J. Granvin" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Medals

In message <[email-masked]> Cheryl Kaye
Bryant writes:
> On Sun, 20 Nov 1994, Robert J. Granvin wrote:
>
> > How would one start the process to see if his silver star will still be
> > awarded, 50 years later...?
>
>
> I would also be interested in knowing this.  My grandfather was shot
> while in Belgium, but he never received his Purple Heart.  I have the
> original X-Ray with his dogtags and date of the wound.  I think that he
> would get a kick out of my going through the trouble to get it for him
> after so many years.

My guess is that Purple Hearts are both easier and harder to get after the
fact.

Easier, because there is little to debate.  He was wounded and therefore is
entitled to the award.  A Silver Star nomination is just that -- a nomination.
In this case, the award never went through, but almost certainly because the
end of the war got in the way and big awards weren't as important anymore and
probably just got buried in the rush.

Harder, perhaps, because there are likely many people who never received their
due award.  Every time someone gets one 50 years later, it may remind many
more of the same thing... Who knows what kind of bureaucratic nightmare it
would create?  (Personally, I'm all for it... People gave and suffered a lot
and if due an award, I believe they should get it no matter what difficulties
it causes people -- this is why I'm amazed that some awards, including the
distinctly clear ones like the Purple Heart can take _years_ to get.

--
Robert J. Granvin
Southern Minnesota Wing Confederate Air Force

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 18:35:51 -0500
From:    Scott C Stathis <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Eighth

Here's the rest of what I found out Mary.
8--))

    According to the book "The Mighty Eighth" the 858nd bomber squadron

grew out of the 422nd bombardment squadron which was redesignated the

858th bombarment squadron on 24 June, 1944. This squadron was a special

one because thier assignment was not to drop explosive bombs but propoganda

bombs. It was part of what was termed at the time as the Carpetbaggers. The

B-24 would drop leaflets on the enemy at night. In 319 days of operations

the total dropped for the group was 1,493,760,000. That a lot of paper!

The squadron was listed as inactive by late 1945. Having had thier last

propaganda flight on Oct 23, 1945.

    Sorry, there wasn't anything on the 409th except some listing as to when

it reorganized.

    However, there is a list of personnel in the back of the book if you

what I can look up a name for you.

Hope this helps.
                 8--))

Scott
Umass-Amherst

------------------------------

Date:    Mon, 21 Nov 1994 10:59:04 EST
From:    David Murnain <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: ACES:

>        Canada  George Buerling  31.5  Spitfire
>        Australia  Clive Caldwell 28.5   Spitfire
>        New Zealand  Colin Grey  27    Spitfire

Very small correction - Clive Caldwell scored most of his victories
in P40's ( various Tomahawk and Kittyhawk models.) He only flew
Spitfire when serving in the SW Pacific.

David Murnain
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Mon, 21 Nov 1994 07:45:31 +0700
From:    "Peter E. Beal" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Kim Il Sung

At the time Kim died stories surrounding his background were widely
published.  One such story was that he was born under a different name and
he spent much of the 1930's in the Russian Army.  Another man named Kim
Il Sung was the leader of a guerilla band in Korea fighting the
Japanese.  It is not clear what happened to this man but, in any event,
when the name we now know as Kim Il Sung was introduced to the Korean
public it was not him, but the man we now know as Kim Il Sung.

Whether this is disinformation by Kim's enemies or the truth is moot but
I am sure that mentioning this story will bring forth comments here.

------------------------------

Date:    Mon, 21 Nov 1994 07:50:27 +0700
From:    "Peter E. Beal" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Korea Post WWII, was ENOLA GAY

On Sun, 20 Nov 1994, Christopher Morton wrote:

> > "Througout Korean (sic)"?  In other words, this was an independent
> > govern0ment exercising civil authority over the entire peninsula?  And
> > just +who "established" this government.  My understanding is that the
> > Russians called rally in Pyongyang and introduced KKim Il Sung as the
> > pre+sident of a "people's republic" and that was it.  More-over, it is
> > li0kely that Kim Il Sung had appropriated that name from another and
> > b+etter known person and was, himself, unknown to almost all Koreans.
>
> Korea was in considerable turmoil, nothing like what IndoChina was like
> before the French returned.  There were a few popular leaders, communist
> and otherwise in the North and South, none of whom was Kim Il Sung.
>
> Kim was in fact an artillery officer in the Red Army.  I believe he saw
> action at Stalingrad or Leningrad.
>
> There WAS a truly popular communist leader in the South, whom Kim saw as a
> rival.  Kim eliminated him by selling him out to the ROK secret police.  He
> was tried and executed.

If he sold him out to the ROK, then it had to be after late 1945, by
which time Kim had been introduced to the Korean public.  What was the
name of this man?  Was it Kim Il Sung?  And if so, do you recall "Kim's"
real name?

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 20:11:54 -0500
From:    Ben Frank <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 50 YEARS AGO - 21

John, the note about the promotion of the Marine generals rang a bell with me.
I rode shotgun for Gen del Valle on Okinawa when he commanded the 1st Marine
Division, and also interviewed him for the Marine Corps Oral History Program. I
also interviewed Louis Woods, an aviation general and a fine officer. I enjoyed
my time over the microphone in a number sessions with each. Their memoirs are
now in the Marine Corps Oral History Collection. By the way, I enjoy your WWII
postings. I often pick up things, especially re/the home front, which I never
knew occurred. Ben Frank

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 20:16:10 -0500
From:    Ben Frank <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: MEDALS

Of interest to some, perhaps, is the fact that many Marine MOHs were awarded to
Marines who fell on a hand grenade to prevent it injuring or killing his
buddies. I don't know of any of these heroes who survived. It would be
interesting to know how many Army MOHs were awarded for the same reason. If you
were out to get an MOH, that was a sure way of accomplishing your aim. Ben Frank

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 20:38:12 EST
From:    Dee Shneiderman <[email-masked]>
Subject: Query: Aces of the Pacific computer game

Hi, Y'all,
I am taking a US military history class this semester and I have a presentation
on the Battle of Midway.  I'd like to use the "Aces of the Pacific" computer
game to liven it up.  How well does it work?

Dee Shneiderman
Reference Librarian
Pembroke State U.
Pembroke NC

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 21:19:11 -0500
From:    Scott C Stathis <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Aces of the Pacific

Forwarded message:
> From MAILER-DAEMON Sun Nov 20 21:13:20 1994
> Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 21:12:34 -0500
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> Subject: Undelivered mail
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> Reply-to: [email-masked]
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>
> An error was detected while processing the enclosed message. A list of
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> allows software like LISTSERV to automatically take action on incorrect
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>
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>
> ------------------------- Rejected message (40 lines) -------------------------
> Received: from UBVM (NJE origin SMTP@UBVM) by UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU (LMail
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> Received: from pobox.ucs.umass.edu by UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2)
>    with TCP; Sun, 20 Nov 94 21:12:33 EST
> Received: from titan.ucs.umass.edu by pobox.ucs.umass.edu (PMDF V4.3-8 #6523)
>  id <[email-masked]>; Sun, 20 Nov 1994 21:13:09 -0500
> Received: from localhost (stathis@localhost)
>  by titan.ucs.umass.edu (8.6.4/8.6.4) id VAA23095 for [email-masked];
>  Sun, 20 Nov 1994 21:13:08 -0500
> Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 21:13:07 -0500 (EST)
> From: Scott C Stathis <[email-masked]>
> Subject: Re: Aces of the Pacific
> To: [email-masked]
>
>
> Hi
>   Dee
>
>
>       Aces of the Pasific is a great game! But best of all for you it
>
> has historical missions for both U.S. and Japanese airplanes. Such as VT8
>
> from Hornet, Thachs weave and the dive bombing of the Jap carriers. I've
>
> have a 386 25Mhz machine and it runs fine. So good luck on your paper. And
>
> have fun.
>
>      P.S. Please write back and tell me how it went.
>
> Scott Stathis
> Umass-Amherst
> [email-masked]
>
>

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 21:29:00 -0500
From:    Ben Frank <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: MEDALS

I should have mentioned this is my last posting re/medals, but there are
generally three good agencies/agents to help re/medals, they are the local
American Legion and VFW posts which usually have one of their members handling
such matters. Also, the local VA office can direct your inquiries and give you
the correct agency and address to which you can write. Ben Frank

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 21:35:15 -0500
From:    Scott C Stathis <[email-masked]>
Subject: Sorry Guys

Sorry
     Guys

        8---((

      I didn't mean to send that return crap with the posting.

                             BIG OOPS!!!!!!!!!

Scott
Umass-Amherst

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 22:15:41 -0500
From:    Christopher Morton <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Korea Post WWII, was ENOLA GAY

> On Sun, 20 Nov 1994, Christopher Morton wrote:
>
> > There WAS a truly popular communist leader in the South, whom Kim saw as a
> > rival.  Kim eliminated him by selling him out to the ROK secret police.  He
> > was tried and executed.
>
> If he sold him out to the ROK, then it had to be after late 1945, by
> which time Kim had been introduced to the Korean public.  What was the
> name of this man?  Was it Kim Il Sung?  And if so, do you recall "Kim's"
> real name?

I forget his name.  I think this was discussed in soc.culture.korean or
talk.politics.misc a while back.  The guy's name was NOT Kim Il Sung.  Kim
stole that name from an anti-Japanese guerrilla in the '30s.  I believe the
real Kim was killed by the Japanese in Northern Korea or Manchuria in the
'30s.

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 22:03:52 PST
From:    Jim Brady <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: ACES:

>An interesting note about Erich Hartmann.  His opportunityto fly an Me262
>came at theend of the war when Galland asked him to join his free lance
>jet fighter squadron JagdVerband 44.  Galland was working the phones
>calling up all the Luftwaffe's top aces to join in.  Many were so eager
>to work with their revered General, they left hospital beds to get t
>Brandenburg.  He asked Hartmann to leave JG54 on the eastern front and
>join him, but Hartmann declined, preferring to stick it out with his old
>group.  He was captured by the russians and lost ten years of his life in
>the Gulag.  After he was released Galland liked to point out to him that
>if he had taken his offer, his life might have been different.  Hartmann
>later on went on to fly jets for the new Luftwaffe.  He is alive somewhere
>in Germany today.

No, he died last year in a seniors home in Bavaria. The London Daily
Telegraph had an excellent obit, which someone posted here, if you can find
the archives...

-- Jim Brady

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 20 Nov 1994 22:00:55 -0600
From:    "Micheal Whitaker [email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: GEN: JOHN WAYNE CONTINUED

I saw a documentary once that said Wayne took an exemption based on his having
a large family to support.  The documentary also mentioned Wayne getting booed
by wounded GIs when he was touring a hospital to help improve morale.

                                                     Later,
                                                     Micheal
 __________________
/ Micheal Whitaker \   Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
\[email-masked]/                                 Robert A. Heinlein
 ------------------

------------------------------

End of WWII-L Digest - 19 Nov 1994 to 20 Nov 1994
*************************************************