296 replies to this topic

[Mark Carver]

Gun footage of the first shoot down of the first jet fighter

 

Credit for the first Me 262 be brought down in combat belong to Maj Joseph Myers and 2Lt Manford Crory of the P-47D-equipped 78th Fighter Group, who manoeuvred a 1./KG 51 machine into the ground west of Brussels on August 28, 1944.  This occurred with a shot being fired by both sides.

A similar thing occurred on October 2, 1944 when P-47D pilot 1Lt  Valmore Beaudrault of the 356th Fighter Group ran an Me 262 out of fuel in a low-level pursuit into the ground near Dusseldorf.  Astonishingly, the pilot of the jet on both occasions was Oberfeldwebel Hieronymous Lauer who survived both encounters.

 

 

https://www.warhisto...-shot-down.html

[Mark Carver]

As of 2 July there are only now 25 Tuskegee Airmen left after Lt. Col. Eldridge Williams passed away at the age of 97 at his Kendall area home.

Eldridge Williams was born on November 2, 1917 in Washington County, Texas and moved to Richmond Heights in 1949. He retired from military service in 1963 after serving in World War II and Korea.

[Don Quixote]

https://www.warhisto...mage-heavy.html

 

Fixed.

[Don Quixote]

We used to have a Tuskegee Airman present an award each year at our JROTC awards banquet. I'm pretty sure that's not the case today, however; this was in the '90s when there were comparatively "plenty" of them.

[Mark Carver]

Before the US was "officially" in World War II...

 

[RShack]

Before the US was "officially" in World War II...

 

 

That must have been filmed not long before Dunkirk... because the guy talked about them "going to the front" after they were trained... but IIRC they didn't actually see action as a unit until the Battle of Britain... (although some of the individuals had been in the RAF and/or in the French AF before France went down...)

 

Also, the guy said they paid their own way to get there, but I don't think most of those guys did... I think there was a couple rich guys who helped make it happen by actively recruiting them and getting them there...  I used to know more details, including about how there were three such squandrons which eventually got transferred to the 8th Air Force, but that was ages ago...

 

I think those are Hurricanes in the film... but I think at least one of the Eagle Squadrons had Spitfires... I forget the details...

[Mark Carver]

I think it was filmed around September 1940 when the 1st squadron was formed. Yeah a couple of rich guys helped form it and the guys had to come to Britain via Canada due to the US Neutrality Laws making it illegal for someone to fight. I recall the initial guys from 1940 where headed towards France to join up with them, but that whole France surrendering thing kinda got in the way and so they ended up with the RAF.

 

A very good book (in which I have and read) on the Eagle Squadron is Alex Kershaw's, The Few: The American "Knights of the Air", Who Risked Everything to Save Britain in the Summer of 1940. It's been a while since I have read it and should do it again as The Battle of Britain is a favorite subject of mine. Kershaw's very good and have I read others of his, The Longest Winter (Battle of the Bulge) and The Bedford Boys (19 boys from Bedford Virginia and what happened to them).

 

http://www.amazon.co...g/dp/1469233495

 

  

That must have been filmed not long before Dunkirk... because the guy talked about them "going to the front" after they were trained... but IIRC they didn't actually see action as a unit until the Battle of Britain... (although some of the individuals had been in the RAF and/or in the French AF before France went down...)

 

Also, the guy said they paid their own way to get there, but I don't think most of those guys did... I think there was a couple rich guys who helped make it happen by actively recruiting them and getting them there...  I used to know more details, including about how there were three such squandrons which eventually got transferred to the 8th Air Force, but that was ages ago...

 

I think those are Hurricanes in the film... but I think at least one of the Eagle Squadrons had Spitfires... I forget the details...

[Mark Carver]

[RShack]

I think it was filmed around September 1940 when the 1st squadron was formed. 

 

So what front was he talking about sending them to?  Egypt to fight the Italians?

[Don Quixote]

Battle of Britain 75th anniversary flypast.

 

http://www.bbc.com/n...ngland-33476099

[Mark Carver]

Nothing more exciting than the sound of a Spitfire flying past with it's Rolls-Royce Merlin engine screaming...

 

Battle of Britain 75th anniversary flypast.

 

http://www.bbc.com/n...ngland-33476099

[Mark Carver]

I just think he meant that the new squadron would join the RAF in southern England in opposition against the Germans in the Battle of Britain. Here's an interesting pamphlet about the ES.

 

http://www.afhso.af....-100928-005.pdf

 

So what front was he talking about sending them to?  Egypt to fight the Italians?

[Mark Carver]

The restored Vickers Supermarine Spitfire Mark.1A, P9374, just one of two airworthy Mk.1 Spitfires, was sold on July 9th in auction by Christie’s (London), for a record $4.8 million Business Insider’s journalist, reports. Spitfire P9374 has been sold at Christie’s to benefit the RAF Benevolent Fund and Panthera, a leading wildlife conservation charity

.

 

http://ww2live.com/e...will-go-charity

 

[RShack]

Nothing more exciting than the sound of a Spitfire flying past with it's Rolls-Royce Merlin engine screaming...

 

Prettiest airplane ever... (until the clipped the end of the wings, anyway...)

[Don Quixote]

Signalman First Class Douglas Munro, the only Coast Guard recipient of the Medal of Honor.

 

http://www.wearethem...f-honor-2015-07

[Mark Carver]

Photos (204 pcs) of Normandy than (1944) and now. Excellent!

 

 

 

http://acidcow.com/p...w_204_pics.html

[Cisc-O's]

Just wanted to put this in here.  The Fighting Medina's was a family of 7 Puerto Rican brothers ranging from Puerto Rico to Brooklyn.  They had various Jobs from the grunt marine to air pilots that helped train the Tuskegee Airmen.  

 

 

In some cases, a single family sent sons to war from both the island and the continental U.S. Although many Americans families saw multiple sons go off to war, the stereotype of big, Catholic families certainly held true in the case of the "Fighting Medinas," who were seven brothers from a single Puerto Rican family divided between the island and Brooklyn, all of who served. Stateside, U.S. officials tapped Puerto Rican aviators for a special assignment: training African American pilots who became the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. Whether chosen to train black men or to be subjects of army medical tests, Puerto Ricans found that the military's continued preoccupation with racial difference framed their experiences during World War II.

[Mark Carver]

On this date, July 21, 1944. The 2nd Battle of Guam begins with the US forces landing on Guam to retake the island that was lost in 1941. The US landed the III Amphibious Corp (59,401) and was up against the Japanese 31st Army (18,657). US forces recaptured the island on August 10, 1944 with casualties of 1,783 KIA and 6,010 wounded. Japanese losses were 18,337 KIA and 1,250 POW.

 

Four US marines were awarded the Medal of Honor and it should be noted that few Japanese soldiers hide in the mountains and on January 24, 1972, 1 soldier was discovered by hunters. He had lived alone in a cave for 27 years.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia...Battle_of_Guam_(1944)

[Matt_P]

On this date, July 21, 1944. The 2nd Battle of Guam begins with the US forces landing on Guam to retake the island that was lost in 1941. The US landed the III Amphibious Corp (59,401) and was up against the Japanese 31st Army (18,657). US forces recaptured the island on August 10, 1944 with casualties of 1,783 KIA and 6,010 wounded. Japanese losses were 18,337 KIA and 1,250 POW.

 

The Japanese numbers sound suspect. Awfully hard to have more KIA and POW than forces in theatre.

[RShack]

Awfully hard to have more KIA and POW than forces in theatre.

 

It happened in Vietnam all the time...