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Posted: 4/20/2024 4:12:27 AM EDT
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Posted: 4/20/2024 4:24:51 AM EDT
[#1]
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TX, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 4:53:52 AM EDT
[#2]
80 years later! Somebody took a long detour thru that jungle to discover that! Yes...really neat.
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Posted: 4/20/2024 6:18:30 AM EDT
[#3]
 Operation Vengeance - The mission to take down Isoroku Yamamoto - 18th April 1943 |
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OK, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 6:51:35 AM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By VaniB: 80 years later! Somebody took a long detour thru that jungle to discover that! Yes...really neat. You can book a tour and Native guides to visit and view the wreckage. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 6:55:35 AM EDT
[#5]
To many cannibals?
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Posted: 4/20/2024 7:15:24 AM EDT
[Last Edit: TheRealBluedog]
[#6]
That wasn’t recently discovered. In fact, it’s not even in it’s original location, at least not completely. Not long after World War II, a Japanese team started loading the wreckage up to return it to Japan and were stopped by the local government and forced to return it to the crash site.
In a more interesting development, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, a tooth was discovered at the crash site that was proven to be Yomamato’s. It’s not talked about much in the press, but witnesses described Yomamato being shot in the head by a 50 caliber round and his head basically exploded while the plane was still in flight. His teeth and fragments of his skull likely sprayed around the interior. Because he’s a sanctified character in Japan, a completely different story was told. I believe you can find the documentary on YouTube. |
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AUS
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Posted: 4/20/2024 7:16:11 AM EDT
[Last Edit: skankwhisperer]
[#7]
Love those old forums!
I looked around that site and there is an amazing thread on newly released Kodachrome pictures of the USAAF in ww2. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 7:31:55 AM EDT
[#8]
I read a book called "Get Yamamoto".
During the briefing the pilots were told something to the effect of "I don't care if you have to crash your plane into Yamamoto's, you will take him down." I think there was some drama since this was basically an assassination by the US Govt, but we kinda said Fuck It. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 8:07:20 AM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By RarestRX: I read a book called "Get Yamamoto". During the briefing the pilots were told something to the effect of "I don't care if you have to crash your plane into Yamamoto's, you will take him down." I think there was some drama since this was basically an assassination by the US Govt, but we kinda said Fuck It. Its was a legit military target. Killing him demoralized the Japanese. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 8:12:55 AM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By RarestRX: I read a book called "Get Yamamoto". During the briefing the pilots were told something to the effect of "I don't care if you have to crash your plane into Yamamoto's, you will take him down." I think there was some drama since this was basically an assassination by the US Govt, but we kinda said Fuck It. Assassination? He was an active general at a time of total war. No such thing. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 8:22:01 AM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By RarestRX: I think there was some drama since this was basically an assassination by the US Govt, but we kinda said Fuck It. I think he was a legitimate military target. I also don't think that Yamamoto could have done anything to stop the USN advance towards Japan. Material strength was in our favor and Japan suffered from dwindling resources and inadequate training program (insufficient pilot training) that could not churn out quality pilots like they had at Pearl Harbor or Midway. Also ineffective ASW. |
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MD, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 8:33:20 AM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By skankwhisperer: Love those old forums! I looked around that site and there is an amazing thread on newly released Kodachrome pictures of the USAAF in ww2. These are fantastic!!!! |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 8:38:09 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By ServusVeritatis: Assassination? He was an active general at a time of total war. No such thing. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By ServusVeritatis: Originally Posted By RarestRX: I read a book called "Get Yamamoto". During the briefing the pilots were told something to the effect of "I don't care if you have to crash your plane into Yamamoto's, you will take him down." I think there was some drama since this was basically an assassination by the US Govt, but we kinda said Fuck It. Assassination? He was an active general at a time of total war. No such thing. This. |
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WI, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 8:38:51 AM EDT
[#14]
I remember reading that charles Lindbergh was instrumental in helping the P38's stretch their range for the mission by changing the pitch on the prop.
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Posted: 4/20/2024 8:40:01 AM EDT
[#15]
That was probably the first time the US Government deliberately "reached out and touched someone."
This video describes what happened to the six Zero pilots that were flying escort.  The Pilots Who Failed to Protect Admiral Yamamoto |
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NY, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 8:58:04 AM EDT
[#16]
Yamamoto broadcast his itinerary in a code he knew was already broken. He knew the war was lost and that the IJN could do nothing to stop the Americans now. He predicted that if they could not win the war by November 1942 they could not hope to win it after that, I think that this was more of a suicide than anything else. He did however go out in a blaze of glory.
A pretty detailed account of this in a two volume set called "Japan's Imperial Conspiracy" by David Bergamini that came out in 1971. We knew where he was going to be and permission was granted by Roosevelt to go after him. Why we needed presidential permission to take out a leader of a military we were at war with never made sense to me. As to the performance of the fighter escort, by that point in the war Japan was already in need of experienced pilots and the ones that had survived until than were pretty much worn out by constant deployment. They rarely rotated pilots home to train new pilots. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 9:23:05 AM EDT
[#17]
I don't have much of a problem with targeting the leaders of the "other" side during war .
I believe it was General Curtis LeMay who said something along the lines of "if we don't win this we will all be in prison for life" |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 9:35:12 AM EDT
[#18]
We were in it to win.
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Posted: 4/20/2024 9:45:13 AM EDT
[#19]
Just goes to show you the importance of cryptography and how it helped win the war.
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USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 9:49:06 AM EDT
[#20]
His tooth.
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/gold-tooth-yamamoto-utm_sourcepenultimate.html |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 9:53:45 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Riter]
[#21]
Remember the SAS did a raid on Rommel's HQ to kill him. In the typical elusive Desert Fox tradition of moving about to develop fingersptizengefuhl he wasn't there.
I'm still trying to confirm an incident where a marksman was sent to a Japanese held island to kill its C.O. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 10:18:14 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Ming_The_Merciless]
[#22]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By agriebel: I remember reading that charles Lindbergh was instrumental in helping the P38's stretch their range for the mission by changing the pitch on the prop. As a "Consultant" Lingbergh helped P-38 pilots in the Pacific to extend their range by a combination of lean mixture + RPM + prop settings & showed Marine pilots how to take off in the F-4U Corsair with a significantly larger weapon load than the maximum factory rating. In January 1942, Lindbergh met with Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson, seeking to be recommissioned in the Army Air Forces. Stimson was strongly opposed because of the long record of public comments. Blocked from active military service, Lindbergh approached a number of aviation companies and offered his services as a consultant. As a technical adviser with Ford in 1942, he was heavily involved in troubleshooting early problems at the Willow Run Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber production line. As B-24 production smoothed out, he joined United Aircraft in 1943 as an engineering consultant, devoting most of his time to its Chance-Vought Division. In 1944 Lindbergh persuaded United Aircraft to send him as a technical representative to the Pacific Theater to study aircraft performance under combat conditions. ... He demonstrated how United States Marine Corps Aviation pilots could take off safely with a bomb load double the Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bomber's rated capacity. At the time, several Marine squadrons were flying bomber escorts to destroy the Japanese stronghold of Rabaul, New Britain, in the Australian Territory of New Guinea. On May 21, 1944, Lindbergh flew his first combat mission: a strafing run with VMF-222 near the Japanese garrison of Rabaul. He also flew with VMF-216, from the Marine Air Base at Torokina, Bougainville. Lindbergh was escorted on one of these missions by Lt. Robert E. (Lefty) McDonough, who refused to fly with Lindbergh again, as he did not want to be known as "the guy who killed Lindbergh". In his six months in the Pacific in 1944, Lindbergh took part in fighter bomber raids on Japanese positions, flying 50 combat missions (again as a civilian). His innovations in the use of Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters impressed a supportive Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Lindbergh introduced engine-leaning techniques to P-38 pilots, greatly improving fuel consumption at cruise speeds, enabling the long-range fighter aircraft to fly longer-range missions. P-38 pilot Warren Lewis quoted Lindbergh's fuel-saving settings, "He said, '... we can cut the RPM down to 1400RPMs and use 30 inches of mercury (manifold pressure), and save 50–100 gallons of fuel on a mission.'" The U.S. Marine and Army Air Force pilots who served with Lindbergh praised his courage and defended his patriotism.  On July 28, 1944, during a P-38 bomber escort mission with the 433rd Fighter Squadron in the Ceram area, Lindbergh shot down a Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia" observation plane, piloted by Captain Saburo Shimada, commanding officer of the 73rd Independent Chutai. Lindbergh's participation in combat was revealed in a story in the Passaic Herald-News on October 22, 1944 Lindbergh did not have anything to do with the Yamamoto Shoot down (as he wasn't even in the Pacific until 1944 and the shoot down happened in 1943) but between his storied aviation career & his complex (& somewhat weird personal life - secret families) He certainly led a very interesting life. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 10:21:18 AM EDT
[#23]
There was an unfortunate postscript to the mission, where two of the P-38 pilots spent the rest of their lives arguing over who was the one who actually "got Yamamato".
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KS, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 10:27:30 AM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By ServusVeritatis: Assassination? He was an active general at a time of total war. No such thing. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By ServusVeritatis: Originally Posted By RarestRX: I read a book called "Get Yamamoto". During the briefing the pilots were told something to the effect of "I don't care if you have to crash your plane into Yamamoto's, you will take him down." I think there was some drama since this was basically an assassination by the US Govt, but we kinda said Fuck It. Assassination? He was an active general at a time of total war. No such thing. It was still an assassination since it was targeting a specific individual. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve always thought it rather stupid that people would find targeted killings of key leaders at the heart of the problem more offensive than sending thousands of men who have no quarrel with each other to kill and maim each other to achieve the same goal. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 10:32:59 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Tirador223]
[#25]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By gaweidert: …He did however go out in a blaze of glory. I wouldn’t call being in the passenger seat of an airplane, getting ambushed, and having your head blown apart as you sit there a “blaze of glory.” Nor can I picture General LeMay being too worried about the niceties of the rules of war if he had a chance to eliminate Yamamoto. Great story, though, and those were brave Americans who pulled this off. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 10:37:07 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Ege]
[#26]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By agriebel: I remember reading that charles Lindbergh was instrumental in helping the P38's stretch their range for the mission by changing the pitch on the prop. I thought so too, but apparently Lindbergh was just a war tourist who didn’t have any actual contractor status. The pilots revered him, but his journals later revealed he despised them and was looking for evidence of American war crimes. He was a weird dude. Discussed in detail in “Race of Aces”: |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 10:45:07 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Frank_B]
[#27]
Great diversions were used to cover up that the Allies had cracked the Jap's "Purple Machine" encryption and had used it to determine Yamamoto's route.
Even after the war's end, the Japs refused to believe the code had been broken and continued to use it. Purple Cypher |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 10:49:38 AM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By agriebel: I remember reading that charles Lindbergh was instrumental in helping the P38's stretch their range for the mission by changing the pitch on the prop. Pitch, mixture settings, manifold pressures, optimum rpm settings. He was very much instrumental in getting optimum fuel economy out of P-38's |
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USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 10:52:18 AM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Ege: I thought so too, but apparently Lindbergh was just a war tourist who didn’t have any actual contractor status. The pilots revered him, but his journals later revealed he despised them and was looking for evidence of American war crimes. He was a weird dude. Discussed in detail in “Race of Aces”: www.amazon.com/dp/B07RGJPJXY He correctly identified that FDR had thrown in with collectivists. People don't realize how close the US came to communism after the Great Depression and the socialist and worker's union influence in government at the time. Facism is obviously not the solution but the 30s and 40s saw a lot of supporting the wrong people for the wrong reasons. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 10:53:16 AM EDT
[Last Edit: PacNW5]
[#30]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Richard-ar15: There was an unfortunate postscript to the mission, where two of the P-38 pilots spent the rest of their lives arguing over who was the one who actually "got Yamamato". Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Richard-ar15: There was an unfortunate postscript to the mission, where two of the P-38 pilots spent the rest of their lives arguing over who was the one who actually "got Yamamato". I'm glad that military guys no longer need to seek credit when it comes to sensitive operations.  Originally Posted By fssf158: It was still an assassination since it was targeting a specific individual. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve always thought it rather stupid that people would find targeted killings of key leaders at the heart of the problem more offensive than sending thousands of men who have no quarrel with each other to kill and maim each other to achieve the same goal. In Annie Jacobsen's book, Surprise Kill Vanish, she talks about Billy Waugh's secret mission into Laos to kill the North Vietnamese general, Vo Nguyen Giap. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 11:01:27 AM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Dagger41: Pitch, mixture settings, manifold pressures, optimum rpm settings. He was very much instrumental in getting optimum fuel economy out of P-38's Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Dagger41: Originally Posted By agriebel: I remember reading that charles Lindbergh was instrumental in helping the P38's stretch their range for the mission by changing the pitch on the prop. Pitch, mixture settings, manifold pressures, optimum rpm settings. He was very much instrumental in getting optimum fuel economy out of P-38's The pilots in the Pacific already knew about that, but they attributed it to Lindbergh to try to justify him being out there. There was some kind of scandal afterwards because he had zero status with the Air Force or Lockheed. |
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USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 11:09:39 AM EDT
[Last Edit: FireMissionDivision]
[#32]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Ming_The_Merciless:On July 28, 1944, during a P-38 bomber escort mission with the 433rd Fighter Squadron in the Ceram area, Lindbergh shot down a Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia" observation plane, piloted by Captain Saburo Shimada, commanding officer of the 73rd Independent Chutai. Lindbergh's participation in combat was revealed in a story in the Passaic Herald-News on October 22, 1944 I wonder whether any other civilian has ever scored an air-to-air kill? |
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MI, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 11:14:48 AM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By FireMissionDivision: I wonder whether any other civilian has ever scored an air-to-air kill? Do the Flying Tigers count? Also a few Americans flew in the Football War in South America. |
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NY, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 11:30:08 AM EDT
[#34]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Tirador223: I wouldn’t call being in the passenger seat of an airplane, getting ambushed, and having your head blown apart as you sit there a “blaze of glory.” Nor can I picture General LeMay being too worried about the niceties of the rules of war if he had a chance to eliminate Yamamoto. Great story, though, and those were brave Americans who pulled this off. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Tirador223: Originally Posted By gaweidert: …He did however go out in a blaze of glory. I wouldn’t call being in the passenger seat of an airplane, getting ambushed, and having your head blown apart as you sit there a “blaze of glory.” Nor can I picture General LeMay being too worried about the niceties of the rules of war if he had a chance to eliminate Yamamoto. Great story, though, and those were brave Americans who pulled this off. From a Japanese point of view he died in combat while on a mission. Much better than suicide to atone for the failure of not defeating the Americans before their industrial might reached full potential. The Japanese concept of the decisive battle dominated Japanese naval doctrine in WWII. They thought that one decisive victory would bring the Americans crawling to the negotiating table. When we did not beg for mercy after Pearly Harbor, they had no answer on how to end the war except in total defeat. Something he could not abide. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 11:32:27 AM EDT
[#35]
Amazing the amount of WW2 information we have available to us. Ship wrecks, plane wrecks, artifacts of all kinds. Great time to be a history nerd!
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Posted: 4/20/2024 11:43:31 AM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By sabre_kc: Amazing the amount of WW2 information we have available to us. Ship wrecks, plane wrecks, artifacts of all kinds. Great time to be a history nerd! Last year, we met a bunch of old English guys at Gare Du Nord visiting all the battlefield sites from Band of Brothers. Apparently, that series is hugely popular there. |
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KS, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 11:53:50 AM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By gaweidert: From a Japanese point of view he died in combat while on a mission. Much better than suicide to atone for the failure of not defeating the Americans before their industrial might reached full potential. The Japanese concept of the decisive battle dominated Japanese naval doctrine in WWII. They thought that one decisive victory would bring the Americans crawling to the negotiating table. When we did not beg for mercy after Pearly Harbor, they had no answer on how to end the war except in total defeat. Something he could not abide. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By gaweidert: Originally Posted By Tirador223: Originally Posted By gaweidert: …He did however go out in a blaze of glory. I wouldn’t call being in the passenger seat of an airplane, getting ambushed, and having your head blown apart as you sit there a “blaze of glory.” Nor can I picture General LeMay being too worried about the niceties of the rules of war if he had a chance to eliminate Yamamoto. Great story, though, and those were brave Americans who pulled this off. From a Japanese point of view he died in combat while on a mission. Much better than suicide to atone for the failure of not defeating the Americans before their industrial might reached full potential. The Japanese concept of the decisive battle dominated Japanese naval doctrine in WWII. They thought that one decisive victory would bring the Americans crawling to the negotiating table. When we did not beg for mercy after Pearly Harbor, they had no answer on how to end the war except in total defeat. Something he could not abide. The “Japanese “ concept of the decisive battle was popularized by an American admiral by the name of Alfred Thayer Mahan. It was a driving factor behind the design of the battle fleets of the early 20th century. Continued adherence to that concept was arguably one of the reasons why US battleships were not used as often as they could have been against the many night surface attacks conducted by the IJN. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 12:09:03 PM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By 1911SFOREVER: That was probably the first time the US Government deliberately "reached out and touched someone." This video describes what happened to the six Zero pilots that were flying escort.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w03hc43v9doVery well done video. Thanks for posting! |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 12:42:02 PM EDT
[#39]
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Posted: 4/20/2024 1:25:42 PM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By ServusVeritatis: Assassination? He was an active general at a time of total war. No such thing. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By ServusVeritatis: Originally Posted By RarestRX: I read a book called "Get Yamamoto". During the briefing the pilots were told something to the effect of "I don't care if you have to crash your plane into Yamamoto's, you will take him down." I think there was some drama since this was basically an assassination by the US Govt, but we kinda said Fuck It. Assassination? He was an active general at a time of total war. No such thing. This. It was a targeted attack for sure, but not an "assassination." |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 1:42:11 PM EDT
[Last Edit: curiomatic]
[#41]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Tirador223: I wouldn’t call being in the passenger seat of an airplane, getting ambushed, and having your head blown apart as you sit there a “blaze of glory.” Nor can I picture General LeMay being too worried about the niceties of the rules of war if he had a chance to eliminate Yamamoto. Great story, though, and those were brave Americans who pulled this off. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Tirador223: Originally Posted By gaweidert: …He did however go out in a blaze of glory. I wouldn’t call being in the passenger seat of an airplane, getting ambushed, and having your head blown apart as you sit there a “blaze of glory.” Nor can I picture General LeMay being too worried about the niceties of the rules of war if he had a chance to eliminate Yamamoto. Great story, though, and those were brave Americans who pulled this off. Wasn't it on Okinawa where an American General was killed by Jap artillery fire when he was visiting the front lines? The Japanese General, seeing that his American opponent had died a glorious death, was compelled to take his own life. Sorry if I have the details wrong here but Yamamoto was actively commanding troops when he was killed by enemy fire. He wasn't hiding in a bunker, like Hitler did. |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 1:45:38 PM EDT
[#42]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Gunnerpalace: Do the Flying Tigers count? Also a few Americans flew in the Football War in South America. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Gunnerpalace: Originally Posted By FireMissionDivision: I wonder whether any other civilian has ever scored an air-to-air kill? Do the Flying Tigers count? Also a few Americans flew in the Football War in South America.  Attached File |
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TX, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 1:49:00 PM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Richard-ar15: There was an unfortunate postscript to the mission, where two of the P-38 pilots spent the rest of their lives arguing over who was the one who actually "got Yamamato". Same with cops that took out Charles Whitman. The guy that didn't do it made a career out of that lie. |
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FL, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 2:25:28 PM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By VaniB: 80 years later! Somebody took a long detour thru that jungle to discover that! Yes...really neat. The Japanese recovered his body the day after the shoot down. I guess nobody really though it was worth looking for the site after the war. |
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USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 2:32:36 PM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Richard-ar15: There was an unfortunate postscript to the mission, where two of the P-38 pilots spent the rest of their lives arguing over who was the one who actually "got Yamamato". pilots going to pilot |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 2:45:58 PM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By gaweidert: Yamamoto broadcast his itinerary in a code he knew was already broken. He knew the war was lost and that the IJN could do nothing to stop the Americans now. He predicted that if they could not win the war by November 1942 they could not hope to win it after that, I think that this was more of a suicide than anything else. He did however go out in a blaze of glory. A pretty detailed account of this in a two volume set called "Japan's Imperial Conspiracy" by David Bergamini that came out in 1971. We knew where he was going to be and permission was granted by Roosevelt to go after him. Why we needed presidential permission to take out a leader of a military we were at war with never made sense to me. As to the performance of the fighter escort, by that point in the war Japan was already in need of experienced pilots and the ones that had survived until than were pretty much worn out by constant deployment. They rarely rotated pilots home to train new pilots.   Attached FileHaven't read them yet, though. 
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WA, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 2:50:36 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Richard-ar15: There was an unfortunate postscript to the mission, where two of the P-38 pilots spent the rest of their lives arguing over who was the one who actually "got Yamamato". Yeah... there was some bad blood between those guys. They both wanted the scalp. I don't think we appreciate how much Yamamoto was hated in the US after Pearl Harbor. The closest parallel we've probably experienced was Bin Laden. Grandpa knew Rex Barber from a coffee group of former '38 pilots. Barber still hated Yamamoto 50 years later. Hated. 
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Posted: 4/20/2024 3:04:01 PM EDT
[#48]
Interesting. Looks like some scavenging but not as bad as I would have expected.
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NC, USA
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Posted: 4/20/2024 3:25:33 PM EDT
[#49]
crazy story for sure |
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Posted: 4/20/2024 3:27:41 PM EDT
[#50]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Ming_The_Merciless: As a "Consultant" Lingbergh helped P-38 pilots in the Pacific to extend their range by a combination of lean mixture + RPM + prop settings & showed Marine pilots how to take off in the F-4U Corsair with a significantly larger weapon load than the maximum factory rating. In January 1942, Lindbergh met with Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson, seeking to be recommissioned in the Army Air Forces. Stimson was strongly opposed because of the long record of public comments. Blocked from active military service, Lindbergh approached a number of aviation companies and offered his services as a consultant. As a technical adviser with Ford in 1942, he was heavily involved in troubleshooting early problems at the Willow Run Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber production line. As B-24 production smoothed out, he joined United Aircraft in 1943 as an engineering consultant, devoting most of his time to its Chance-Vought Division. In 1944 Lindbergh persuaded United Aircraft to send him as a technical representative to the Pacific Theater to study aircraft performance under combat conditions. ... He demonstrated how United States Marine Corps Aviation pilots could take off safely with a bomb load double the Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bomber's rated capacity. At the time, several Marine squadrons were flying bomber escorts to destroy the Japanese stronghold of Rabaul, New Britain, in the Australian Territory of New Guinea. On May 21, 1944, Lindbergh flew his first combat mission: a strafing run with VMF-222 near the Japanese garrison of Rabaul. He also flew with VMF-216, from the Marine Air Base at Torokina, Bougainville. Lindbergh was escorted on one of these missions by Lt. Robert E. (Lefty) McDonough, who refused to fly with Lindbergh again, as he did not want to be known as "the guy who killed Lindbergh". In his six months in the Pacific in 1944, Lindbergh took part in fighter bomber raids on Japanese positions, flying 50 combat missions (again as a civilian). His innovations in the use of Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters impressed a supportive Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Lindbergh introduced engine-leaning techniques to P-38 pilots, greatly improving fuel consumption at cruise speeds, enabling the long-range fighter aircraft to fly longer-range missions. P-38 pilot Warren Lewis quoted Lindbergh's fuel-saving settings, "He said, '... we can cut the RPM down to 1400RPMs and use 30 inches of mercury (manifold pressure), and save 50–100 gallons of fuel on a mission.'" The U.S. Marine and Army Air Force pilots who served with Lindbergh praised his courage and defended his patriotism. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Charles_Lindbergh_with_a_Lockheed_P-38J_Lightning.jpg On July 28, 1944, during a P-38 bomber escort mission with the 433rd Fighter Squadron in the Ceram area, Lindbergh shot down a Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia" observation plane, piloted by Captain Saburo Shimada, commanding officer of the 73rd Independent Chutai. Lindbergh's participation in combat was revealed in a story in the Passaic Herald-News on October 22, 1944 Lindbergh did not have anything to do with the Yamamoto Shoot down (as he wasn't even in the Pacific until 1944 and the shoot down happened in 1943) but between his storied aviation career & his complex (& somewhat weird personal life - secret families) He certainly led a very interesting life. Wow. I had never heard about Lindberghs WW2 exploits. |
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