Showing posts with label 1940s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1940s. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, August 5, 1945. Enola Gay and Necessary Evil

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, August 5, 1945. Enola Gay and Necessary E...

Sunday, August 5, 1945. Enola Gay and Necessary Evil.

The 20th Air Force dropped 720,000 leaflets over twelve Japanese cities.  Conventional bombing raids continued.

Gen. LeMay officially confirmed the atomic mission for the next day.

Paul Tibbets named the lead plane in the Hiroshima bombing mission the Enola Gay, after his mother.  This was done over the objection of the planes normal designated pilot, Robert Lewis, who wanted to name the plane  "The Pearl Harbor," "The Avenger," or "The USS Indianapolis".  Lewis also wasn't happy about being moved to the co-pilot's seat for the mission.

Lewis would return to civilian life after the war, and died in 1983 at age 65.

The B-29 that would take photos on the mission would be named Necessary Evil.  It featured, as many plans did, a buxom woman, albeit one clothed in a bikini, as nose art.

The Chinese 13th Army captured the town of Tanchuk. The Chinese 58th Division took Hsinning (Changchun).

Paul Ferdonet, the "Radio Traitor" of Stuttgart, was executed in France.

His pro Nazi broadcast had actually dwindled after 1942.

Oddly enough, today would have been Loni Anderson' birthday.  She passed away yesterday.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 4, 1945. Tibbets briefs his crew.

Thursday, April 17, 2025

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, April 17, 1945. Flak Bait.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, April 17, 1945. Flak Bait.:   The B-26 Marauder Flak Bait, which completed 200 missions on this day. Winston Churchill eulogized the late Franklin Roosevelt in Parliame...

 

Tuesday, April 17, 1945. Flak Bait.

 

The B-26 Marauder Flak Bait, which completed 200 missions on this day.

Saturday, October 26, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, October 26, 1944. Gertrude Tompkins Silver.

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, October 26, 1944. End of the Battle of ...

Thursday, October 26, 1944. End of the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the Imperial Japanese Navy.


Gertrude Tompkins Silver and the P-51D she was flying disappeared in a delivery flight from Los Angeles to Newark, NJ.


She was 33 years old and had jointed the WASPs after a boyfriend died fighting in the RAF.  She was the only WASP pilot to be classified as missing during the Second World War.

Saturday, July 27, 2024

Saturday, June 29, 2024

AT-6's (SNJ's) from the film Tora! Tora! Tora!, Natrona County International Airport.

I heard them flying over downtown and looked up and saw them flying, but didn't notice the Japanese markings.  After realizing what they were, I went out the next day and to see if they were still there, and they were.

These are the SNJ's that were altered and remodeled to closely resemble Japanese Navy A6M's (Zeroes) and Nakajima B5N's (Kates) for the 1970s movie Tora! Tora! Tora!.  The resemblance to the Japanese aircraft is truly remarkable.


The Commemorative Air Force maintains and flies this team of aircraft today, preserving the excellent replica work done for the film.

In this instance, these aircraft were on their way to an airshow in Salt Lake City.

AT-6 in original markings.

AT-6 alte4red to resemble B5N.






SNJ rebuilt to resemble A6M.






Thursday, June 13, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, June 13, 1944. D+7. First use of V-1s on London.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, June 13, 1944. D+7. Heavy fighting in N...

Tuesday, June 13, 1944. D+7. Heavy fighting in Normandy.

The first V-1 rockets were launched on London.


V-1s are, basically, a pulse jet drone, and therefore heralded an advance in weaponry which we're only now seeing the full application of in combat.  One of a variety of late war German "Wunderwaffe", they were primitive in their category and while they affected terror, they stood no chance of being war altering.  The same can not be said of the V-2, which was a ballistic missile and truly revolutionary.

Armed drones would be revolutionary, but it would not really be until the advent of cruise missiles that they'd become effective.  With advances in targeting, they're now a massive dangerous weapon which has been one of the things which has allowed Ukraine to disproportionately take on Russia in the ongoing Russo Ukrainian War.

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, April 16, 1944. Black Sunday.

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, April 16, 1944. Black Sunday.

Sunday, April 16, 1944. Black Sunday.

The RAF hit Romania for the first time. On the same day, the Soviet Air Forces hit Galatz. 

A large air raid was staged on Hollandia, Indonesia.  The mission was successful with no losses, but the aircraft ran into a severe weather front on the return and 46 of the 170 aircraft in the raid went down.  The day acquired the name "Black Sunday" as a result.

The attacking force was made up of  B-24s, B-25s and A-20s, escorted by P-38s

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, April 15, 1944. Romania attacked from the air

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, April 15, 1944. Romania attacked from t...

Saturday, April 15, 1944. Romania attacked from the air, Teenagers lose at Tarnopol, Politics in Minnesota, Hydro-Québec

PB4Y Photo Reconnaissance Liberators on a photo mission in the South Pacific , April 15, 1944.

PhoM1c E.S. Ujvarosy and PhoM1c R.M. Rhodes check their cameras, magazines, and data sheets before taking off on a mission in a Navy PB4Y photo reconnaissance plane. Cameras, left to right: F56-40”, two K-18’s 24”, K-17-12” and a K-17-06”. Lying on its side is vertical view finder. April 15, 1944.

The US 15th Air Force sent 500 sorties to Bucharest and Ploesti.  The war had reached the point where the Western Allies air attacks were now directly assisting the Soviet offensive in the east.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Friday, March 22, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, March 22, 1944. Vesuvius destroys the 340th Bombardment Group and the XP56.

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, March 22, 1944. German defeat in the B...


80% of the B-25s of the 340th Bombardment Group were destroyed by volcanic boulders from Vesuvius.

The only example of the Northrup XP-56, the first one having been destroyed in a crash, was photographed in anticipation of its first flight the following day.

Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet (s/n 42-38353) on the ground at Muroc Army Air Field, California, March 22, 1944.

The weird aircraft was not a success.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, March 21, 1944. Dear John.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 6, 1944. "Black Monday"

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 6, 1944. "Black Monday"

Monday, March 6, 1944. "Black Monday"

The first large scale daylight bombing raid on Berlin occured.  The raid, remembered as Black Monday, involved 814 bombers and 944 fighters from bases in southern England.  69 bombers were lost.

Miss Donna Mae II sustaining damage after the B-17 drifted under another B-17 dropping its bomb load. The plane would go down with all eleven crewmen.

P-51 pilot Donald Blakeslee would fly the first such aircraft over the city.  An early American fighter pilot, he first joined the RCAF in 1941, he served in the USAF until 1965 and passed away in 2008 at age 80.

For those watching Masters of the Air, it is depicted in Episode 7.