Gliders used in Operation Market Garden are retrieved from Holland to be used again in future airborne operations. A special glider pickup device is used to allow the gliders to be retrieved without landing the tow plane.
“Guardians of the Sky” from C.I.C. (Combat Information Center), U.S. Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Vol. I, No. 6, August 1944.
Guardians of the Sky
An enemy raid is being tracked on the display plot in this "action shot" of an Air Defense Control Center at Bougainville. Liaison officers have alerted the base. Island and Air Command, AA Batteries, and ADCC's of other bases and ships. The Fighter Director Officer has assigned the raid to an intercept officer (not in the picture) who, from an intercept table or PPI, is vectoring fighters to intercept the raid.
An Air Combat Intelligence officer briefs the pilots before they go out on a mission. Their tense attitude shows that they know from experience how vital is the information which he is giving them on landmarks, radar evasion, enemy opposition to be expected, weather conditions enroute, communications procedures, and plan of attack.
“Lessons Learned” by U.S. Eighth Air Force fighters against German flak taken from Light, Intense, and Accurate: U.S. Eighth A.F. Strategic Fighters Versus German Flak in the ETO, Headquarters, 65th Fighter Wing, August 1945. The booklet was the work of Lt. Col. San Souci and Capt. William D. Thurston, assisted by Lt. Col. R. F. Kennedy, Wing A-2.
CHAPTER XI: LESSONS LEARNED
In fighting back at light flak, Enemy No. 1 of our fighters in the Eighth Air Force, we all learned a great deal. Operating as we did in East Anglia in England, a tight little area crowded to capacity with strategic air units, we were ideally situated to analyze, discuss and record what we learned over a considerable period of time. Our military communications net was perhaps the finest that ever existed in any combat zone, and the exchange of information among units left little to be desired.
Some of the lessons that grew out of this particular situation are worth setting down in a list, followed in Chapter XII by recommendations based on our experience:
1. Specialization in Fighters is a Myth. Anyone using fighters in a strategic air force might just as well make up his mind in the beginning that before it’s over his pilots will come up against every type of defense the enemy has. It was an error in the early days in the ETO to assume that high-level escort fighters would not be bothered by light flak. Ultimately we had to prepare to meet it, and we should have started sooner than we did.
2. Photo Interpretation is Reliable in Locating Flak. Our own experience as we went along, and investigations on the ground in Germany after the war, both proved that the flak defenses pin-pointed by photo reconnaissance were over 90% correct.
3. Reconnaissance Must be Continuous. It is obvious that frequent photos of every area reached by the strategic air force are absolutely essential in order to keep abreast of the fluid flak situation.
Crew instructions for use of the anchor on the Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat from Pilot’s Handbook of Flight Operating Instructions, Navy Model PBY-5A Airplanes, U.S. Army Air Forces, August 1945.
ANCHOR.
(1) TO CAST ANCHOR.
(a) Fit float gear hand crank into anchor reel socket on port side of bomber’s compartment. Station one man here to operate crank.
(b) Detail second man, equipped with safety belt, to outside of ship to perform following operations:
(c) Open door of anchor box at latch in up position with webbing strap and dot fastener provided.
(d) Hook safety belt in forward snap, facing aft.
(e) Take out anchor. Set it upside down on walk rail in handhole slot.
(f) Unfold anchor while in upside-down position.
(g) Place anchor cable in guide eye in walk rail.
(h) Drop anchor overboard. (Man inside must release ratchet of reel.)
(i) When anchor hits bottom, release pendant from stowage and secure clamp to anchor cable. Throw pendant overboard and slack off anchor cable until pendant cable is taking pull of the anchor line.
(j) Man inside must secure anchor reel with latch.
The story of the SBD Dauntless dive bomber in the Pacific from Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin, (“All Hands Magazine”), September 1944.
Jap-hunting SBDs fly in formation over a carrier of Task Force 58 in the Pacific.
War Record of the SBD
Dauntless Divebomber, Giving Way to Harder-Hitting Successor, Was Spearhead of Our Attacks in the Pacific
The 5,936th and last of a distinguished strain of aircraft–the Navy’s SBD, which is giving way to a faster, long-range divebomber–rolled off the production line of the Douglas Aircraft Company’s plant at El Segundo, Calif., on 21 July.
Its completion closed a chapter in the history of naval aviation that will be discussed as long as men continue to talk about this war’s great battles in the Pacific.
On 7 Dec. 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, a rear-seat gunner in an SBD knocked down a Zero that may have been the first Jap plane destroyed by U.S. aircraft. From then on the story of the SBD, or Douglas Dauntless divebomber, is closely interwoven with the successes of the fleet.
The enemy first felt the real sting of the SBD when Admiral William F. Halsey Jr., USN, took a small task force into the Gilbert and Marshall Islands in February 1942. Flying again from the deck of the USS Enterprise, as they had at Pearl Harbor, SBDs suddenly appeared over the atolls of those islands in the outer ring of the enemy’s defenses, dived to low altitude and dropped their 1,000-pound bombs on ships, hangars, airstrips and buildings.
The following month this same force staged a repeat performance for the benefit of the Japs on Marcus and Wake Islands.
An E/A-6B Prowler and E/A-18G Growler of Electronic Attack Squadron VAQ 129 photographed at NAS North Island near San Diego. The aircraft are painted in three-tone camouflage paint schemes honoring U.S. Navy combat aircraft that fought in the Battle of the Coral Sea during World War II, including Air Group 85 which operated from USS Shangri-La (CV 38, nicknamed “Tokyo Express”). U.S. Navy Photographs, SP2 Joseph Moon & SP2 Briana C. Brotzman.
Instructions for crash landing procedures for the Douglas A-26 Invader from the Pilot Training Manual for the A-26 Invader, Headquarters, AAF, Office of Flying Safety.
CRASH LANDING
Pilot
1. Call crew. “Prepare for crash landing.” (Have crew acknowledge.)
2. Switch on emergency IFF radio transmitter.
3. Release parachute by unbuckling.
4. Tighten safety belt and lock shoulder harness.
5. Salvo bombs. Close bomb bay doors.
6. Make a normal approach. Use up to 3/4 flaps. Always make a wheels-up landing.
7. Slide seat back but still keep rudder control. (Place cushion between chest and control column.)
8. Call rear gunner and warn of “final impact.”
9. Have bombardier pull emergency lever to release cockpit hatch when airplane is just off the ground.
10. Mixture controls to IDLE CUT-OFF.
11. Turn battery and master ignition switches to OFF.
The Pacific (HBO Miniseries)
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