F4U-1A (BuNo 17915) Major Gregory ‘Pappy’ Boyington, Commanding Officer, VMF-214, Vella Lavella, January, 1944. This was a fairly new Corsair that Boyington flew on two fighter sweeps over Rabaul during VMF-214s second tour. This was the aircraft Boyington...
One of my favorite pieces in my collection of WWII relics is this main wing spar section (approx 6′ long) from one of the P-47Ds lost by the 56th Fighter Group on September 18, 1944 in the Arnhem area. On September 17th the 56th Fighter group flew ground attack...
80 years ago this morning, 15 TBDs launched from the deck of the USS Hornet to attack the fleet of Kido Butai. Led by John C. Waldron, all 15 aircraft were lost, with only 1 of the 30 men on that mission surviving. These men knew their aircraft were obsolete and had...
While there is nothing I could possible write today that would add anything of significant value to the incredible amount of published research on the Battle of Midway, I cannot allow the 80th anniversary of this momentous event in our national history to pass without...
This video has some incredible footage of planes from USS Enterprise just prior to the Battle of Midway (my guess is May 1942 as the pre-war markings have been painted over for the BoM aircraft, and since some of these were lost on June 4th and are unarmed, we know it...
