Word: squadrons
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...critical point in the battle when the Japs hoped to drive through to Pearl Harbor and a decisive victory, U.S. task forces lost contact with the enemy. Then 15 planes of Torpedo Squadron Eight suddenly came out of the overcast and saw spread out below them three Jap carriers and their escorts...
...family is still in Nazi-occupied Poland. Its true story: a hair-raising account of the author's attempt to get a plane to fight with. When he reported for duty (after two days of plane-strafed rail travel), he found the airport smashed. When he joined a squadron (after retreating with crowds of peasants along the choked, corpse-littered roads), his fighter was shot to pieces while it was taxiing across the field. "By that time the German air force was ranging boisterously all over Poland, shooting cattle and shepherds in the fields, and bombing farmhouses." The author...
Wake and Midway. On that day four battered old Grummans of Fighter Squadron 211 clattered up into the air over Wake Island and tore into the Jap naval force creeping over the horizon. In that pitiful and heroic last stand the Marine flyers set one enemy ship afire, sank a cruiser. Said a presidential citation: "The courageous conduct . . . will not be forgotten as long as gallantry and heroism are respected and honored...
They fought at Midway, where Major Loften R. Henderson power-dived his flaming bomber onto a Jap carrier and Captain Richard E. Fleming, with his plane in flames, led his squadron against another carrier; Fleming was last seen hurtling into the sea. Eighty-four Marines flew against the Japs during the crisis at Midway; 38 were killed. Said Admiral Chester Nimitz to their commanding officer at Midway: "The sacrifices of your heroic men have not been in vain. . . . They dealt the enemy carriers the first blow and they spearheaded our great victory...
Their own casualties were high. Out of one squadron's 80 pilots, only 46 survived, and of these only 13 were effectives when the unit was taken out. But they helped secure Guadalcanal...