Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Aurelius on February 20, 2002, 11:08:27 AM
-
The carrier Lexington comes under attack from nine japanese planes, with only one fighter plane available for defense. Pilot Edward O'hare downs five Japanese planes in as many minutes to save the ship. O'hare would later be killed in action and honored by having Chicago's O'Hare Airport named for him.
-
.......and what better way to remember this occasion than for you to convince HiTech to model a F4F-3 in O'Hare's colors for AH v1.10!!
:)
-SW
-
I second the motion.
-
And, on this day in 1944 "Big Week" began over Europe. This is fun.
Charon
-
Y'all have the Ghosts calendar don't you? ;)
-
Incidently, if I was an administrator, I'd move this to the History forum ;)
-
Personally, if I was an administrator I'd be more worried about getting my facts right than posting in an inappropriate forum. ;)
O'Hare was not alone. He was, in fact, leading a flight of 4 Wildcats. Jimmy Thach (of "Thach Weave" fame) was already in the sky, at the helm of his own 6 Wildcat flight as well as the group of 6 which he was supposed to be relieving. Thach's big group was involved with a gaggle of 9 bombers (Betty's, I believe) when a second group of 9 bombers approached. O'Hare saw the 2nd group and immediately attacked, downing 5 of the bombers in somewhere between 4 to 5 minutes, running himself out of ammo in the process. Thach's group then arrived, but too late to stop the remaining 4 bombers from dropping on the Lexington. None of the bombs did any damage, and Thach's group got 3 of the bombers on their way out.
O'Hare got the Medal of Honor for this, and is a WWII fighter fans trivia answer now, being the first Navy ace of the war. :)
D
-
This is why it's best to never, ever, post anything about WWII here :D
SOB
PS...If I were the administrator, I'd boot off Ripsnort, or at least start charging him for bandwidth to cover the costs of putting on the next convention!
-
Originally posted by Ripsnort
Y'all have the Ghosts calendar don't you? ;)
I have Last years, still trying to get this years :(
-
The information posted came word for word from a World War II daily facts calendar. Its just a shorter version of the story that could fit on a 5"x5" piece of paper.
but, since people like to be anal about the whole story and not just short summaries that come from desk calendars.
this came from
http://www.acepilots.com/usn_ohare.html
Saving the Lexington
On February 20, 1942, Butch O'Hare demonstrated in real life, and when it counted most, the fighting skills he had mastered. The carrier Lexington had been assigned the dangerous task of penetrating enemy-held waters north of New Ireland. From there her planes were to make a strike at Japanese shipping in the harbor at Rabaul. Unfortunately, while still 400 miles from Rabaul, the Lexington was discovered by a giant four-engine Kawanishi flying boat. Lieutenant Commander John Thach, skipper of the Lexington's Wildcat fighters, shot down the Japanese "Snooper," but not before it had radioed the carrier's position. That afternoon Commander Thach led six Wildcats into the air to intercept nine twin-engine enemy bombers. In a determined attack each of the Wildcats destroyed a bomber and damaged two more. The ship's anti-aircraft guns finished off the rest. In the meantime, nine more Japanese bombers were reported on the way. Six Wildcats, one of them piloted by Butch O'Hare, roared off the Lexington's deck to stop them. O'Hare and his wingman spotted the V formation of bombers first and dived to try to head them off. The other F4F pilots were too far away to reach most of the enemy planes before they released their bombs. As if this weren't bad enough, O'Hare's wingman discovered his guns were jammed. He was forced to turn away. Butch O'Hare stood alone between the Lexington and the bombers.
O'Hare didn't hesitate. Full throttle, he roared into the enemy formation. While tracers from the concentrated fire of the nine bombers streaked around him, he took careful aim at the starboard engine of the last plane in the V and squeezed his trigger. Slugs from the Wildcats six .50-caliber guns ripped into the Japanese bomber's wing and the engine literally jumped out of its mountings. The bomber spun crazily toward the sea as O'Hare's guns tore up another enemy plane. Then he ducked to the other side of the formation and smashed the port engine of the last Japanese plane there.
One by one he attacked the oncoming bombers until five had been downed. Commander Thach later reported that at one point he saw three of the bombers falling in flames at the same time. By now Thach and the other pilots had joined the fight. This was lucky because O'Hare was out of ammunition. The Wildcats took care of several more bombers and Lexington managed to evade the few bombs that were released. It was an amazing example of daring and shooting skill. Afterward Thach figured out that Butch O'Hare had used only sixty rounds of ammunition for each plane he destroyed. He had probably saved his ship. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and awarded the highest decoration of his country, the Congressional Medal of Honor.
With his Medal of Honor presentation, bond tours, and other commitments, Butch was out of combat from early 1942 until late 1943. On October 10, 1943, he flew with VF-6 in the air strikes against Wake Island. On this mission Alex Vraciu, the future ace, was Butch's section leader. Both O'Hare and Vraciu scored that day.
> now I agree that maybe this should have found its way to the history forum but since this is a GENERAL forum and Aurelius is the admin I say he can post where ever the hell he wants. Its not off subject and its vague, not wrong.
just my .02
-
Y'all have the Ghosts calendar don't you?
I know I do :) I'm looking at a nice head on shot of a Zero coming at me -- kinda appropriate for this week's CT. Every x-mas people know exactly what theme of gift I go for.
Charon
-
If you happen to have a stopover in O'Hare, there's an F4F-3 pulled off the bottom of Lake Michigan on display, along with some background on the events that led to the MOH. I think it's at terminal 2.
There is a flying F4F-3 as well. Lake Michigan had several small training carriers on it during WW2 with a number of ditchings. The fresh water keeps the planes remarkably preserverd, down to the paint and air in the tires. The Navy, as usual, is a problem to deal with. They seemingly would rather let the planes corrode than have an unautorized (and there doesn't seem to be much interest in authorizing anyone) party recover them or any other Navy aircraft.
A company brought several up and made a deal to keep and restore one. The plane might have even been at Midway. I believe the Navy got one and O'Hare got one, but I'm not sure of the details. Here's a photo:
Charon
-
Here are a few more:
-
and another
-
and a final
-
Funny, in reading through that long description above, a couple of extra .50s somehow got added to O'Hare's F4F3 :)
Charon
-
Good idea on the F4f paint scheme. for O'Hare. As for the airport, that place would suit him just fine. it's a furball in the terminal as well as in the air.
Gainsie