I served four years in the Navy, two years and one
month
in the Pacific,assigned to the ""Bombing 8""
Squadron aboard the USS Hornet
and later with the "Bombing 11" Squadron.
After the war I served five years in the
reserve.
Then I was recalled and was assigned
to the "Korean Military Advisory
Group",and
after my tour in Korea, I was assigned to the
"U.S.Strike Command" during the Cuban Missile
Crisis
*******
SB2C Helldiver
"SBD Divebomber"
"Two Years 1 month in the south
Pacific"
My tour in the Navy was spent in the Pacific,assigned
to the
"Bombing 8" Squadron, consisting of F4F
Wildcat
fighters, TBF
Avenger torpedo bombers and SBD Divebombers,
and Later, SB2C Helldiver dive bombers.
At Wars en I was in Hawaii Training new Pilots and
crewmen
for Bombing 11 Squadron, Divebombers.
We all remember Pearl Harbor,Dec.7 1941, at 7 am the
Japanese
imperial Navy launched a sneak air attack on our Naval
and
Air Bases in Hawaii and virtually destroyed our entire
Pacific
Fleet and Air Defense. We were fortunate that the
Carriers,
USS Hornet, USS Saratoga, USS Lexington and the USS
Enterprise,were
at sea
and were not caught in the destruction.
There were many land and air encounters with the
japanese in
the following
months, But the one that is foremost in my mind
happened in
April 1942, Army Col James Doolittle took off from the
flight
deck of the carrier USS Hornet in B25 Bombers and
bombed
Tokyo,Japan the
first air attack by the USA against the Japanese
Homeland.
Below is the USS Hornet carrier,Its flight deck loaded
with
B25 Bombers ready for the attack on Japan.
"CV-8 USS Hornet"
"Ready for attack on Japan"
"USS Hornet"
"B-25 Bombers taking off to bomb Tokyo"
PBY Catalina
The PBY Catalina,pictured above played a major roll in
the
war. they flew reconnaissance flights continuously to
spot
enemy ship movements etc. they were responsible for the
sighting of large armadas of Japanese ships and gave
the USA
the ability to plan thier attack and to win the
battles
The first major sea battle as I recall Started on
May 4 1942.
"The Battle of the Coral Sea", the battle was
fought in
the air
and the losses were heavy on both sides.the USA lost
the
carrier USS Lexington, the Japanese also lost one
carrier and other ships.The
battle raged for five days.Many Men, ships,and planes
were
lost to the sea.
The next major Air battle was "the battle of
Midway" it
took
place on June 3,1942. the battle raged for four days
with
heavy
loses. the "Torpedo Squadrons" attacked with
41
planes,only
six returned. the "Divebomber Squadron 8"
attacked and
sank
four Japanese carriers along with thier planes and
men.The USA lost the carrier Yorktown. USA loses in men
and planes were
heavy,but winning the Battle of Midway was the turning
point
of the war. The Japanese navy never recovered from the
loses
at Midway. The USA ruled the sea and the air. But the
battles
to drive the Japanese from the Islands of the Pacific
and back
to thier homeland was just beginning.
During the following months battles were raging in the
pacific, in September 1942 the USS Wasp Aircraft
Carrier was
torpedoed by a japanese submarine and sank off the
coast of
San Cristobal Island,on the east end of the Solomon
Islands,
with the loss of 193 killid and 366 wounded.
Later in October,1942 the Navy engaged in the battle of
the
Santa Cruz Islands,about 400 miles east of Guadalcanal
in the
Solomon Islands. This was a strategic battle for the
USA, even though the Japanese Navy only had damage to
several ships, the US Navy lost the carrier USS Hornet,
but in the battle the
Japanese was unable to dislodge the American forces off
Guadalcanal.
Meanwwile the ground forces of the American Marines and
Army
as well as Naval Personell and the Seabees were
fighting to
reclaim the Islands from the Japanese forces.
In the eighteen to twenty months that followed,while
land and
sea battles were won and lost, the USA was building
ships and
planes and training fighting men.
The last major air battle was the Battle of the
Philippine
Sea.
The new USS Hornet Carrier attacked Saipan and
destroyed land
based planes.
The Japanese Carriers attacked our Carrier force from
the Sea
and came in four massive waves,But our superier trained
fighters attacked and what is commonly known
as,"The
Marianas
Turkey Shoot, The USA destroyed 400 japanese planes and
sank a Japanese carrier and other ships. The air
battles were over
and the USA was engaged in land battles to drive the
Japanese
from the Islands
The land battles went on for 15 more months until the
bombing
by the Army Airforce B29 Flyingfortress (like the one
pictured above) of
Hiroshima Aug 6, and Nagasaki Aug 9,1945. The Japanese
surrendered on Aug 14.1945
World War || ended on Sept.2,1945 when the Japanese
signed the unconditional surrender on board the
battleship USS Missouri
in Tokyo Bay.
This World War II Web Ring site is
owned by 
