Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942 and Operation Overlord (June 6-Aug 30, 1944).
We stand on their shoulders.
Yes indeed. D-Day did not directly impact my family very much as those that served in WW2 did so in the Pacific theater, but it is vitally important that this country remembers.
It is disgraceful that we do not remember it better.
TBD-1 torpedo bombers of Torpedo Squadron Six unfold their wings on the deck of USS Enterprise prior to launching an attack against four Japanese carriers on the first day of the Battle of Midway. Launched on the morning of June 4, 1942, against the Japanese carrier fleet during the Battle of Midway, the squadron lost ten of fourteen aircraft during their attack.
Navy fighters during the attack on the Japanese fleet off Midway, in June of 1942. At center a burning Japanese ship is visible.
More at link. Amazing stuff.
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/battle-of-midway-aleutian-campaign-pictures-1942-1943/
The Devastator torpedo bombers sucked (in general, not just at Midway). They ate the shit sandwich (not intentionally mind you) so that the Dauntless dive bombers could win the day. The Zeros were down low eating up the torpedo planes while the guys waaayyy up there were nosing over…
Ensign George Gay was the only survivor of one Devastator squadron during Midway.
That was one thing I appreciated about the original film of the event “Midway” (1976) was he was mentioned by name and the fate of his squadron was shown in agonizing detail.
Rest in peace, heroes, with well-deserved honors. (Even if they ARE only a down payment on the debt we owe, and a very small one at that…)
Going from my fascination with military history (see my above post) and NO Googling/cheating…George Gay was in Waldron’s torpedo squadron I believe (?). I used to really be into this shit as a kid/early teenager.
The original movie was great. What made it even better was that my grandfather, a WWII USMC vet, took me to see it at the [now defunct] Newport Theater in Youngstown, Ohio. Summertime, I can recall being so glad to be going to see this movie with Grandpa! Understand, he didn’t do shit for the most part after he retired and rarely went anywhere, but he was my “hero” at that age. Him taking me to see “Midway” was something I will always remember. Oh, and it was in the new-fangled “Sensoround” sound system to boot!
Yup, Torpedo Eight flying mostly Devastators off Hornet, with a handful of early Avengers based on Midway itself that IIRC didn’t fare much better.
Funny, for me it was my grandfather (15th AAF) and the PBS documentary “The World at War”, I was the only one allowed to remain in the room when it was on and he kicked everyone else out because they couldn’t “shut up already.” And from time to time, they would be discussing something relevant to his experience and he’d lean over and give me some back story. I still remember the episode covering the Polesti raid and hearing how he was 1 of 3 who got out of the plane and how he spent 3 months in Romania / Yugoslavia hiding out from the Germans before he made it back to friendly lines.
Just started watching it, but should be good based on their other stuff.
And it is here…this is the channel/series announcement.
[video=youtube_share;LpRK1fKQJUI]https://youtu.be/LpRK1fKQJUI[/video]
The Pluto Station has a section called “Lifestyle”. Inside “Lifestyle” they have three or four history channels at any given time one of them will be WWII.
When I was a kid if your Dad was in his Mid Thirties he fought in Korea, Mid Twenties Viet Nam and everyones Grandpa but mine fought in WWII.
June 6 my father went a shore, June 6 I went to war . We had different wars, we had the same war. We really don’t talk about it, just one special call yesterday where we expressed thanks we both survived and together remembered the brothers that didn’t. Prior to my June 6, we didn’t even talk at all about it. We really haven’t in any detail. I think a part of us really want to know what each went through and a part of us is afraid to know each other beyond father and son. So we leave it unspoken, we were soldiers and fought on June 6 decades apart, half a world apart.