- Watching Battle 360 on History Channel, they are concentrating on the exploits of the USS Enterprise during WWII, and it struck me that one of the side effects of CGI is that there is no excuse for movie makers ever again giving me the pleasure of pointing out that they are using the wrong damned stock footage--no more shooting at F4U Corsairs standing in for Stukas on the Russian Front, no more TBM Avengers at Midway, B25 Mitchells over Normandy (they were only in the Med and Pacific)...
Well, if they're going to take that away, they'd better start making better movies. On the other hand, if they don't fix it, I'll be even more disgusted...
- Which was a more courageous act: The picket destroyers at The Marianas Turkey Shoot putting up illumination rounds and turning on the spots to try and guide the Naval aircraft home, or Mitscher's decision to turn on ALL lights in the fleet?
- Did the Japanese have Radar? First I heard of it. On the other hand, I suppose fears that the Japanese had radar were justified.
- Of course, this was also the first I'd heard of radar-equipped F6Fs and TBMs making night-time bombing raids on Saigon, Canton, and
Taiwan Formosa.
- Which reminds me of a juvenile novel I read 'way back when, in which this young Seaman is trying to get into SONAR School, because SONAR is reliable when RADAR is degraded by rain. On submarines.
- USS Franklin: When I visited the USS Missouri back in '84 out at Bremerton before they shut down the tour in preparation for recommissioning her, the Franklin was tied up next to her. I remember her having piles of debris on her flight deck, but Wikipedia says she was completely refurbished and ready to be put back into action--although she never saw active service again--so I suppose what I was seeing was dunnage, or something. Still, realizing that I was standing on the deck of the Missouri, looking at the Franklin, was pretty awe-inspiring. (More photos I need to dig out and scan...)
4 comments:
The USS Franklin CV-13 was scrapped, I beleive, 1969.
http://www.ussfranklin.org/memorabilia/salvage.htm
Maybe they hadn't scrapped the informational sign?
It would have been a mighty old sign, the last time the USS Franklin was in Bremerton, Dec 1944/Jan 1945, for repairs, then, down the coast, to Alameda, CA, picked up Air Group 5, which included VMF-214, Black Sheep Squadron, then returned to the Pacific Theater. One month later, 19 Mar 1945, she was bombed. She then limped back to Brooklyn Naval Yard, via the Panama Canal, restored, never to serve again!
OK, so someone lied to me...
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