This Date in Aviation History: October 23 - October 25

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 10/25/2019 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik, TDIAH

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Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting of you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from October 23 through October 25.

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October 23-26, 1944 – The Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, and the first successful organized kamikaze attack. By October of 1944, the Allies had regained considerable territory from the Japanese, were drawing closer to the recapture of the Philippines, and drawing up plans a possible invasion of the Japanese homeland. Japan could not match the industrial might of the US, and the numbers of Japanese ships, aircraft, and trained pilots dwindled rapidly while those of the US and her allies continued to increase. The Japanese faced a critical shortage of experienced combat pilots, while the Allies seemingly had an endless supply. The Pacific battlefield was becoming more and more tilted in favor of the Allies.

The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! arose from the planned operation to invade and retake the Philippine islands of Leyte, Luzon and Samar. The result was the largest naval battle of the entire war and possibly the greatest naval battle in history. The battle opened when the American submarines !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (SS-227) and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (SS-247) attacked the Japanese fleet in the Palawan Passage, sinking the heavy cruisers !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the what ultimately came to be known as the Battle of Leyte Gulf actually encompassed four smaller engagements: the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . By the time action came to a close on October 26, the Japanese had suffered approximately 12,500 casualties, lost one fleet and three light carriers, 10 cruisers, 11 destroyers, and more than 300 aircraft, losses that spelled the end of the Japanese Navy as an effective fighting force. But out the desperation in which the Japanese found themselves, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was born.

The word kamikaze is usually translated as divine wind in reference to typhoons in the years 1274 and 1281 that helped the Japanese repel Mongol invasions. The flying units that carried out the missions were called tokubetsu kgeki tai ( special attack unit ), and while the term kamikaze is most commonly associated with suicide air attacks, it is not limited to aircraft. Throughout the course of the war, pilots of both sides had deliberately crashed their aircraft into ships, but usually when the aircraft was damaged beyond flyability or the pilot was mortally wounded. The kamikaze attacks during the Battle of Leyte Gulf were the first organized suicide missions of the tokubetsu kgeki tai under the direction of 1st Air Fleet commandant Vice Admiral !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Speaking to officers in Manila just days before the battle, nishi said, “I don’t think there would be any other certain way to carry out the operation [to hold the Philippines] than to put a 250 kg bomb on a Zero and let it crash into a US carrier in order to disable her for a week.”

On October 25, five !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighters, each armed with a single bomb, attacked escort carriers of the US fleet off the Philippine coast. Four of the kamikaze aircraft were unsuccessful, but the fifth hit the escort carrier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (CVE-63), igniting fires which detonated the ship’s magazine. The carrier eventually sank, killing 143 members of her 889 man crew. Based on this initial success, the kamikaze program was expanded. By war’s end, the Japanese had undertaken over 4,000 attacks, including missions to ram bombers attacking Japan. Ultimately, though, all the tokubetsu kgeki tai achieved was the loss of irreplaceable pilots and aircraft. Only 14% of the kamikaze attackers got through, and only 8.5% of the ships that were hit were sunk. Those that weren’t sunk were quickly repaired. Ultimately, the damage inflicted by the tokubetsu kgeki tai was no greater than that achieved in 1942 by traditional tactics. The Imperial Japanese Navy, short of fuel, ships, pilots, and aircraft, ceased to be an effective fighting force in the Pacific, and Allied victory over Japan had become inevitable.

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(Author unknown)

October 23, 1939 – The first flight of the Mitsubishi G4M. When the Japanese laid their plans for the conquest of the western Pacific, which they grandiosely called the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , they were will aware of the vast stretches of ocean or large swaths of Southeast Asian jungle they would have to cross. Aircraft carriers, basically mobile airfields, would cover the Pacific, but land-based aircraft would have to have exceptional range in order to be effective.

Mitsubishi G4M bomber, known to the Allies as the “Betty” (Author unknown)

Work on the G4M began in 1937 as the Japanese Navy sought a replacement for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Allied reporting name “Nell”), which first flew in 1935, and particular attention was paid to increasing both range and speed over the earlier bomber. The G4M prototype was completed in 1939 and the bomber, Allied reporting name “Betty,” entered service in June 1941, six months prior to the Japanese !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on Pearl Harbor that dragged the United States into World War II. The Betty could fly a little more than 100 miles farther than the Nell, and had a greater maximum takeoff weight. However, the increases in range and payload were bought at a dear price to the Betty’s pilots. Mitsubishi had wanted to build a four engine bomber, but they reduced it to two engines under pressure from the Japanese Navy. To save more weight, Mitsubishi chose not to fit the new medium bomber with protective armor plating for the crew, or self-sealing fuel tanks. So while the Betty had excellent range, it was extremely susceptible to gunfire from heavily armed Allied fighters, and often burst into flames with the slightest hit. Allied pilots took to calling the Betty the “one shot lighter,” while the Japanese pilots referred to it as hamaki, which means cigar , a reference to its overall shape but perhaps also an allusion to how readily it burned.

Mitsubishi G4M bombers from the Misawa Naval Air Group (Misawa Kaigun Kktai), date unknown (Author unknown)

The G4M formed the backbone of the Japanese bomber force and served throughout the Pacific theater. In the early years of the war, the Betty fought very effectively when it had sufficient fighter cover, but losses began to mount as the Allies gradually gained air supremacy. Final variants of the Betty did add armor protection and rudimentary sealing for the fuel tanks, but these upgrades came too late for the Betty to have a significant impact on the outcome of the war. By the final stages of WWII, with dwindling numbers of Japanese fighters to protect them, Bettys were mauled by US Navy and US Army Air Corps fighters and many of the bombers were shot down before they could launch their attacks.

G4M carrying an Ohka piloted kamikaze rocket (Author unknown)

In addition to its land bombing duties, the Betty was used to attack Allied shipping with both bombs and torpedoes. Late in the war, it served as the mother ship for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a rocket-powered, piloted bomb with 2,646 pounds of explosives in the nose used for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! attacks. The Betty also took center stage in a pivotal event in the Pacific War, when Japanese General !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack and commander in chief of the Japanese combined fleet, was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and killed in 1943 while flying as a passenger in a G4M during an inspection tour of Japanese bases. More than 2,400 G4Ms were produced, but no flyable examples remain today, and only one complete aircraft exists.

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(US Air Force)

October 24, 1953 – The first flight of the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger. Following WWII, the US Air Force became particularly enamored with the guided missile, thinking that all future aerial combat would take place between fighters that lobbed missiles at each other rather than duking it out in aerial dogfights. But to hit a moving target with a missile requires an effective !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (FCS), so the Air Force decided first to develop an integrated radar, computer, director and missile system, and then find a plane to put it in. In January 1950, the Air Force requested proposals for a new FCS, and the competition for its development was eventually won by Hughes Aircraft with their !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! missile, the first operational guided air-to-air missile fielded by the US Air Force.

The Convair XF-92A, whose fully delta planform inspired the Delta Dagger (NASA)

The Air Force then sought proposals in June of that year for what they dubbed the “1954 Ultimate Interceptor” to deal with the potential threat of waves of Russian strategic bombers flying towards the US. Convair, Republic and Lockheed all submitted proposals, and the Air Force selected Convair to proceed with development of their delta-winged interceptor which was heavily influenced by Convair’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which the company had developed in the late 1940s based on data captured from late in WWII.

YF-102 (left) and YF-102A, showing redesigned area rule fuselage with tapered waist (NASA)

Beginning with that basic all-delta configuration of the XF-92, Convair lengthened and narrowed the experimental aircraft and mounted a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! afterburning turbojet. Once the first prototypes were finished, however, Convair discovered that the YF-102 was unable to break the sound barrier, and the problem wasn’t just the underpowered engine. It was actually the shape of the fuselage. Using the new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! concept developed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engineer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Convair redesigned the fuselage so that it narrowed at the waist over the delta wing. This reduction in the aircraft’s cross section dramatically reduced drag, and other improvements to the wings allowed the redesigned interceptor to pass Mach 1 with ease.

Two US Air Force F-102A Delta Daggers of the 509th Fighter Interceptor Squadron wearing standard Southeast Asia camouflage fly over Vietnam in November 1966 (US Air Force)

The redesigned interceptor, now designate YF-102A, entered production after its maiden flight in December 1954. The F-102A entered service in April 1956, and a total of 889 were built before production ceased in September 1958. The Delta Dagger saw service in Vietnam primarily as a bomber escort, though some ground attack missions were carried out without much success, since the aircraft was not designed for that role, nor were the pilots properly trained. Fourteen F-102s were lost in combat, one in air-to-air combat. The F-102 was exported to Greece and Turkey, where they served into the late 1970s. By the mid-1960s, most F-102s were transferred to Air National Guard units and, after 20 years of service, the bulk of the fleet was retired in 1976. Most of the remaining Delta Daggers were converted to QF-102A target drones, and the final one was shot down in a training mission in 1986.  

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Short Takeoff

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October 23, 2003 – The Concorde makes its final passenger flight. Air France had made its final passenger flights on May 30, 2003, and British Airways finally ended Concorde service with a flight from from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to London’s Heathrow Airport, while two other Concordes made round trips over the Bay of Biscay and to Edinburgh, Scotland. All three aircraft then circled London before landing. The flights closed the book on the Concorde, which entered service with British Airways in 1976 as the world’s second operational supersonic passenger airliner, coming just one month after the Soviet !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Following a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 2000, Concorde flights were suspended for a year, but the airliner remained unprofitable after its return to service in 2001, leading BA and Air France to begin phasing out the SST.

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October 23, 1967 – The first flight of the Canadair CL-215, also known as the Scooper, the first in a series of amphibious firefighting aircraft developed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and later !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Powered by two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engines, the CL-215 can scoop 1,440 US gallons of water in 12 seconds from lakes or rivers and drop it over wildfires. Special design considerations such as its high, straight wing allow for operations at low speeds or in the gusty conditions often found over forest fires. A total of 125 were produced, and the CL-215 was subsequently developed into the CL-215T and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which are powered by two turboprop engines.

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(US Government)

October 23, 1952 – The first flight of the Hughes XH-17, a super heavy lift helicopter and the first project developed by the helicopter division of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Built from parts scavenged from several different aircraft, the XH-17 was capable of lifting over 10,000 pounds with a maximum takeoff weight of 43,500 pounds. The XH-17 was powered by two turbojet engines that ducted bleed air through the hollow rotor blades to tip-mounted jets, and massive helicopter still holds the record for the world’s largest rotor system. Only one was built before the program was cancelled and the aircraft scrapped.

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(US Air Force)

October 23, 1951 – The last daylight bombing mission of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. By the end of WWII, the development of large four-engine bombers reached its zenith with the B-29, but its advanced design saw the Superfortress serve into the Korean War. At first, B-29s flew daylight bombing missions as they had in WWII. But the arrival of jet fighters made the slower bombers vulnerable to being shot down. The final daylight mission was an attack on an airfield in North Korea, but three of the 10 bombers were shot down, four were forced to make emergency landings in South Korea, and three were badly damaged but still able to return to Okinawa. The B-29s were switched to nighttime bombing missions before being withdrawn in 1953.

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October 24, 2004 – A plane crash claims the life of members of the Hendrick Motorsports team and family. While en route from North Carolina to a race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (N501RH) carrying members of the Hendrick Motorsport team and other family members crashed in heavy fog after an aborted landing. Among the 10 victims was the president of Hendrick Motorsports John Hendrick, driver Ricky Hendrick, four other members of the Hendrick family and Randy Dorton, chief engine builder. The pilots were also killed. Though NASCAR officials learned of the crash before the Martinsville race, they did not inform the drivers until after the race had finished. The race was won by Jimmie Johnson, who drove for the Hendrick team. For the remainder of the 2004 season, all Hendrick cars ran with a memorial to the victims, “Always In Our Hearts,” painted on the hood.

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(US Air Force)

October 24, 2000 – The first flight of the Lockheed Martin X-35, the experimental prototype developed as part of the competition to produce the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a single basic airframe that would serve the US Air Force, US Navy and US Marine Corps. The competition for the lucrative contract pitted the X-35 against the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the X-35 was declared the winner on October 26, 2001. It entered production in 2006 as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a single-seat, all-weather, multi-role, fifth-generation fighter with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! capability. The F-35 is being produced in three variants: the F-35A for the US Air Force, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! F-35B for the US Marine Corps, and the carrier-based F-35C for the US Navy.

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(US Air Force; Andy Christensen)

October 24, 1991 – The death of Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry is best known as a television producer, screenwriter, and the creator of the Star Trek television series, but his early life was dominated by a career in aviation. Roddenberry was born on August 19, 1921 in El Paso, Texas, and earned his pilot license through the Civilian Pilot Training Program sponsored by the US Army Air Corps. He enlisted just 11 days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and eventually completed 89 combat missions piloting a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . His military service earned him both the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Following the war, Roddenberry continued flying as an international airline pilot with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! before retiring from aviation in 1948 to pursue a career in writing for television. Roddenberry died on October 24, 1991 at the age of 70, and some of his ashes were !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! onboard a Pegasus XL rocket. .

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October 24, 1947 – The first flight of the Grumman HU-16 Albatross, a twin-engine amphibious flying boat designed as an improvement over the earlier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Albatross entered service in 1949 primarily in the search and rescue (SAR) and combat search and rescue (CSAR) roles with the US Air Force, where it was initially known as the SA-16. The type saw extensive service during the Korean War rescuing downed pilots. The Albatross was also operated by the US Navy and US Coast Guard, where it functioned as a coastal patrol and SAR aircraft. The Albatross was widely exported, and many surplus aircraft have since found their way to private operators. A total of 466 were produced from 1949-1961.

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(US Navy)

October 25, 1994 – The death of LT Kara Hultgreen, the first woman US Naval Aviator to be qualified as a carrier-based fighter pilot. While attempting a landing on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   (CVN-72), Hultgreen overshot the centerline and attempted to correct her approach with left rudder application, a maneuver that caused a compressor stall in the left engine. She applied full afterburner to execute a missed approach, but the asymmetrical power caused her !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to roll inverted. The radar intercept officer initiated ejection and was shot clear of the aircraft, but Hultgreen, who ejected second in the sequence, was launched straight into the water, killing her instantly. The aircraft was recovered, as was Hultgreen’s body, still strapped to the ejection seat. The incident was controversial, as Hultgreen’s death came at a time when both the Navy and US Air Force were working to integrate female fighter pilots into service, and some accused the Navy of promoting female pilots regardless of their of their piloting skills.

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(Tim Shaffer)

October 25, 1991 – The first flight of the Airbus A340, a long-range, wide-body airliner that can seat up to 440 passengers depending on variant and seating arrangement. Aimed at the long haul market that had been dominated by American aircraft manufacturers, the A340 was the largest airliner to grow from the original !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! design, and featured four engines and a twin aisle. Depending on the variant, the A340 is capable of flying routes up to 9,000 nautical miles. It entered service with Air France and Lufthansa in 1993, but production ended in 2011 after just 377 had been built. Despite its size and range, the A340 was at a disadvantage to newer twin-jet airliners with comparable size and range that could operate at lower costs, and the type is being phased out by the world’s major airlines.

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(McDonnell Douglas)

October 25, 1979 – The 5,057th and final F-4 Phantom II rolls off the McDonnell Douglas production line. One of the iconic aircraft of the Cold War Era, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! entered service in 1960 with the US Navy and eventually became one of the few fighters to serve concurrently in the Navy, US Marine Corps, and US Air Force. Production of the two-seat, all-weather, multirole fighter began in 1958 and, by the time production ended in 1981, a total of 5,195 were built to serve the US military and 11 export nations (a number that includes 138 Phantoms built by Mitsubishi in Japan), making it the third most-produced jet fighter in the US after the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! / !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The F-4G !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! electronic warfare variant served as late as 1991 in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and, following the Phantom’s retirement from US service in 1996, remaining F-4s were converted to QF-4 target drones. The final QF-4 was shot down in a training mission in 2016.

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(Okän fotograh)

October 25, 1955 – The first flight of the Saab 35 Draken, a fighter developed to replace the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the first supersonic fighter to be deployed in Western Europe. The Draken (Kite, or Dragon) was introduced in 1969 and was notable for its use of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (or compound delta) wing configuration that aided in performance at both low and high speeds. Following Swedish defense doctrine, the Draken was designed for operation from public roadways and with the ability to be serviced by minimally trained crews in a short time. The Draken proved to be a successful Cold War fighter, and was exported to Austria, Denmark, Finland, with 652 aircraft produced from 1955 to 1974.

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(UK Government)

October 25, 1939 – The first flight of the Handley Page Halifax, a heavy four-engine bomber that was designed to fulfill the same RAF requirement for a heavy strategic bomber as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . With a crew of seven, the Halifax was powered by four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engines which gave it a maximum speed of 282 mph and a range of 1,860 miles. Though incapable of carrying the large !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in the RAF inventory, the Halifax still played a major role in Bomber Command’s strategic bombing program. By war’s end, Halifax crews had flown nearly 83,000 sorties and dropped more than 224,000 pounds of bombs. Of the 6,176 Halifaxes built, 1,833 were lost in combat. Though quickly retired from RAF service after the war, the Halifax remained in service with Egypt, France, and Pakistan, and a cargo and transport version was developed as the Handley Page Halton. The type was finally retired by 1961.

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Connecting Flights

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If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. And if you missed any of the past articles, you can find them all at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . You can also find more stories about aviation, aviators and airplane oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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For Sweden > ttyymmnn 10/25/2019 at 12:42

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October 24, 2000 – The first flight of the Lockheed Martin X-35

2000

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facw > For Sweden 10/25/2019 at 12:49

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Yep, it was a year...

For Sweden > facw 10/25/2019 at 12:52

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But where does the DoD buy floppy disks to transfer the flight data?

facw > For Sweden 10/25/2019 at 12:56

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DoD is good at sourcing those obsolete components. Though personally I’d guess updates are deployed via RS-232. In any event, among production  fighters I think only the J-20 and Su-57, and honestly I wouldn’t bet on either of them having a better avionics package.

user314 > For Sweden 10/25/2019 at 12:57

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IKR? 

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > ttyymmnn 10/25/2019 at 13:03

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Watched a doc on the Ohka the other day.  Pretty insane weapon  

user314 > ttyymmnn 10/25/2019 at 13:30

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Side note to the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Bill Halsey charging off with the rest of Task Force 34 after the IJN’s decoy “Northern Force”, leaving the US landing forces under protected from the “Southern” and “Central” forces.

When Nimitz, at CINCPAC headquarters in Hawaii, saw Kinkaid’s plea for help he sent a message to Halsey, simply asking for the current location of Task Force 34, which due to a previous misunderstanding, was unclear:

Where is, repeat, where is Task Force Thirty Four?

With the addition of metadata including routing and classification information, as well as the padding at the head and tail, the entire plaintext message to be encoded and transmitted to Halsey was:

TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS

U.S. Navy procedure called for the padding to be added to the start and end of the message, which were vulnerable to cryptanalysis due to the use of common phrases and words (such as “Yours sincerely”) in those sections. The words chosen for padding should have been obviously irrelevant to the actual message, however Nimitz’s enciphering clerk used a phrase that “[just] popped into my head”.

While decrypting and transcribing the message, Halsey’s radio officer properly removed the leading phrase, but the trailing phrase looked appropriate and he seems to have thought it was intended and so left it in before passing it on to Halsey, who read it as

Where is, repeat, where is Task Force Thirty Four? The world wonders.

The structure tagging (the ‘RR’s) should have made clear that the phrase was in fact padding. In all the ships and stations that received the message, only New Jersey ’s communicators failed to delete both padding phrases.

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The message (and its trailing padding) became famous, and created some ill feeling, since it appeared to be a harsh criticism by Nimitz of Halsey’s decision to pursue the decoy carriers and leave the landings uncovered. “I was stunned as if I had been struck in the face”, Halsey later recalled. “The paper rattled in my hands, I snatched off my cap, threw it on the deck, and shouted something I am ashamed to remember”, letting out an anguished sob. RADM Robert Carney , Halsey’s chief of staff (who had argued strongly in favor of pursuing the carriers), witnessed Halsey’s emotional outburst and reportedly grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him, shouting, “Stop it! What the hell’s the matter with you? Pull yourself together!”

Recognizing his failure, Halsey sulked in inactivity for a full hour while Taffy 3 was fighting for its life—falsely claiming to be refueling his ships—before eventually turning around with his two fastest battleships, three light cruisers and eight destroyers and heading back to Samar, too late to have any impact on the battle.

ttyymmnn > user314 10/25/2019 at 13:59

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I know that story well. I have often said “The world wonders” when a  situation warrants. No way that was unintentional, and probably came from Nimitz himself.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 10/25/2019 at 18:50

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For the low, low price of $395,000, you can have your very own Albatross.

https://www.platinumfighters.com/hu16

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 10/25/2019 at 19:29

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That’s always been one of my favorites. Classic.