Category: World War II
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Junichi Sasai
Junichi Sasai – LTCDR Imperial Japanese Navy February 13, 1918 – August 26, 1942 Tough admission standards, the Yokaren Program and experience gave Japan fighter pilots good as any and better than most. Long range operations over China, carrier operations and the marvelous Zero – one of the finest carrier borne fighters the world has…
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The Butt Report
August 18, 1941 Ordered by Lord Cherwell- Chief Scientific Advisor to the Churchill Cabinet, the report, released August 18, 1941 was a scathing indictment of Bomber Command’s results. By the summer of 1941 Bomber Command was able to send 100+ bombers over occupied Europe on a regular basis. Good results reported could mean a cluster…
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Lance Edward Massey
Lance Edward Massey Lt Cdr USN September 20, 1909 – June 4, 1942 ‘Lem’ Massey always had a smile on his face. Commander of Torpedo Squadron 3 (VT 3) at Battle of Midway, Massey was accepted into the Naval Academy at age 16, graduating in 1930 and commissioned an Ensign. “The Academy’s yearbook describes him…
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The Tomozuru Incident – March 12,1934
The London Naval Treaty (Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament) of April 16, 1924 set limits on construction of new naval capital units for the Royal Navy, United States Navy, Imperial Japanese Navy, French Navy and Italian Navy hopefully avoiding a naval arms race – one of the causes of World War…
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Betasom
Betasom (Bordeaux Sommergibile) Headquartered in Bordeaux from 1940-1943, Betasom directed Italian anti shipping operations during three years of the battle of the Atlantic. Given the port of Bordeaux after the fall of France, the Regia Marina was allocated the Atlantic south of Lisbon to conduct operations against allied shipping.The facility could service nearly 30 boats…
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Rosa Shanina
Rosa Shanina – Red Army 3 April 1924 – 28 January 1945 One of the Red army’s premier snipers with a documented 59 kills. Shanina was KIA by shell fragments in East Prussia. A native of Siberia, Shanina grew up in isolated impoverished surroundings having to walk five miles a day to school to finish grades…
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Fuso Class Battleship – Imperial Japanese Navy
At the time of their launching, the two were the most heavily armed battleships in existence and were designed to operate with the Kongo Class. Fuso and Yamashiro underwent extensive refits: one in the twenties, one in the thirties. Time and resources devoted to modernization might have been better utilized elsewhere but the Washington Naval…
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CV Kaga
HIJMS Kaga – CV Imperial Japanese Navy Originally launched as a Tosa Class battleship, Kaga was saved from Washington Treaty restrictions by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. A sister, Amagi, then under construction was so damaged she was scrapped. Kaga was converted to an aircraft carrier, joining the fleet in 1929 becoming Rengo Kantai’s…
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The Peripatic Coffin
CSS Hunley Confederate States Navy Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink an enemy combatant – the USS Housatonic and the fourth attempt to build a vessel to break the blockade strangling the Confederate States. Hunley was preceded by CSS Pioneer built in New Orleans and tested in Lake Ponchartrain: was scuttled before…
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HMS Prince of Wales
HMS Prince of Wales – Royal Navy A short life, but an eventful one. Ordered in July 1936, keel laid on January 2, 1937 – launched on March 5,1939, joined the fleet in March 1941. Strictures of the Washington Treaty limited main armament of the King George V Class to 14”. Great Britain elected to…
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