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America's Arctic War - The Aleutians Campaign


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Great find. I was vaguely aware of the Aleutians campaign, but that video has definitely motivated me to learn more.

Its great that historians are working on these things.

 

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The Aleutians were often referred to by Captain Binghamton in McHale's Navy as the place that McHale and his motley crew would be sent to to correct their lack of discipline.

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2 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Was that the pilot of the A6M they recovered and exploited?

Yes, Tadayoshi Koga. There is an excellent book on this by Jim Rearden. Title is "Koga's Zero." "The Fighter that Changed the World".

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Agree, and I suspect that it would have found its way to permanent display at the Smithsonian if it had.

An IJN submarine was on station for pilot recovery in the area IIRC. Ditching in the water may have been preferable on multiple levels.

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1 hour ago, Nobu said:

Agree, and I suspect that it would have found its way to permanent display at the Smithsonian if it had.

An IJN submarine was on station for pilot recovery in the area IIRC. Ditching in the water may have been preferable on multiple levels.

 From the air the ground looks flat and solid. In reality it was a marsh. The U.S. recovery team reported walking through about a foot of water around the plane. He landed with wheels down, went a short way, then the plane flipped on its back. Tadayoshi was found with his head in water still strapped in his seat. 

Ditching in the ocean in the Aleutians would be tantamount to freezing to death in short order. In retrospect, it would have been better for the pilot to belly land. His circling friends then would have known where exactly to radio the submarine. Where he landed was off the beaten path for U.S. flight paths. 

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I would have said put it down on the beach, but being the Aleutians, there probably was nothing more than rock.

That supposedly was the second zero they got hold of. There was another they managed to haul out of the jungle somewhere, but some cheb had chopped it off at the wing root which meant reassembly was impossible. Although im sure that wouldnt stop a warbird nut today...

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6 hours ago, DougRichards said:

Wasn't there a description of the 'Zero' as being a sports plane with a powerful engine and a good armament?

Sorta like Italian fighters of the same era except far better range, a couple cannons and better pilots. Joe Brennan had a great thread many years back about how they stomped the sh@t out of Battle of Britain vets in Spitfires over Darwin. He also made an interesting point that the CW-21 Demon was basically comparable and a good example of “what might have been”. 

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12 hours ago, Rick said:

 From the air the ground looks flat and solid. In reality it was a marsh. The U.S. recovery team reported walking through about a foot of water around the plane. He landed with wheels down, went a short way, then the plane flipped on its back. Tadayoshi was found with his head in water still strapped in his seat.

The recovery team should have been an IJN one, as it knew the location of the crash site and the intact nature of Tadayoshi’s airframe.

12 hours ago, Rick said:

Ditching in the ocean in the Aleutians would be tantamount to freezing to death in short order.

Would that I had seven lives to give for my country.

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37 minutes ago, Brian Kennedy said:

Sorta like Italian fighters of the same era except far better range, a couple cannons and better pilots. Joe Brennan had a great thread many years back about how they stomped the sh@t out of Battle of Britain vets in Spitfires over Darwin. He also made an interesting point that the CW-21 Demon was basically comparable and a good example of “what might have been”. 

+1 on Joe Brennan! Anyone have any contact with him?

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4 minutes ago, Rick said:

+1 on Joe Brennan! Anyone have any contact with him?

I wish! He was posting in a few Other forums but hasn’t in years as far as I know (hope I’m wrong and hope he’s ok). 

if you ever want to go way old school, the newsgroup archive at https://yarchive.net/mil/index.html is pretty amazing. Also reads like kind of a mystery novel, a couple of the posters who claimed to be WW2 pilots were called out for being fakes etc. 

Edited by Brian Kennedy
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12 minutes ago, Brian Kennedy said:

I wish! He was posting in a few Other forums but hasn’t in years as far as I know (hope I’m wrong and hope he’s ok). 

if you ever want to go way old school, the newsgroup archive at https://yarchive.net/mil/index.html is pretty amazing. Also reads like kind of a mystery novel, a couple of the posters who claimed to be WW2 pilots were called out for being fakes etc. 

Thank you for the link Brian. 

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On 11/22/2020 at 6:16 AM, DougRichards said:

The Aleutians were often referred to by Captain Binghamton in McHale's Navy as the place that McHale and his motley crew would be sent to to correct their lack of discipline.

The USS William D. Porter is ready to welcome you there. 🤣

 

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1 hour ago, Brian Kennedy said:

I wish! He was posting in a few Other forums but hasn’t in years as far as I know (hope I’m wrong and hope he’s ok). 

if you ever want to go way old school, the newsgroup archive at https://yarchive.net/mil/index.html is pretty amazing. Also reads like kind of a mystery novel, a couple of the posters who claimed to be WW2 pilots were called out for being fakes etc. 

no prob — still trying to track down the zeros vs spitfires over Darwin thread, it was epic!

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