Imagine, if you will, that you have the ability to travel back in time and space to one location during World War II.  You will not be able to influence events, nor will your presence be noticed, but you will be able to see and understand anything you'd like in that location.  Even if you don't know the language being spoken, you will know what's being said, what's being written, so on and so forth.  You will, for all intents and purposes, be the ultimate historian.  You can travel, but only as far as conveyances of the day can take you: if you wanted to see the bombing of Coventry from the air you can, but it'd be from one plane only.  If you want to observe the Marianas Turkey Shoot, it can only be from one p.o.v. (though you could start on an aircraft carrier and "board" a plane, even a fighter).

Perhaps unsurprisingly considering my personal interests, I'd choose the Battle of Midway.  More specifically, I'd choose to station myself on the bridge of the USS Hornet, just so I could find out what REALLY happened leading up to the "Flight To Nowhere", and what occurred afterwards.  I'd probably jump into Stanhope Ring's SBD to find out his reactions and to see his heading choice.

My second pick would to be onboard the Akagi on June 4th, 1942.  To see the events of Midway unfold from the standpoint of the Japanese would be nigh-on invaluable.  My third choice would be May 27, 1941, onboard the HMS Rodney, to witness the sinking of the Bismarck, and to see if the Rodney really did torpedo the German battleship.

So what event would you choose?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:48 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 288 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I'd want to watch the planning for Operation Seelowe, to find out if it was a feint, or if Hitler really meant to go through with it. I've never found a straight answer to that, and it may be that no one knows.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 24, 2011 03:15 PM (+rSRq)

2 I was to see why MacArthur's planes were caught on the ground, in the Philippines, even though he had plenty of warning after the attack on Pearl.

Posted by: Siergen at December 24, 2011 04:11 PM (GcG9m)

3 Steven took my first choice. I had also always wondered about that.

Second:

I would want to be on the Yamato during the action off Samar to find out why Kurita snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.  No offense intended to Taffy3 who fought well and hard to the last, but the way was clear after the Johnston went down....yet....

Posted by: brickmuppet at December 25, 2011 12:59 AM (EJaOX)

4 Hitler's bunker when he shot himself.  I mean, who wouldn't want to see that over and over again? :-)

Tokyo when the decision to attack the US was made, or the Japanese Embassy to find out if it really was accidental that the war declaration was simply late.

Maybe watch Audy Murphy in action to witness true heroism.

If we weren't confined to WWII, I'd want to find out what happened to Amelia Erhart.

Posted by: Mauser at December 25, 2011 06:08 AM (cZPoz)

5 Mauser, is this what you were wondering about? 

Posted by: Siergen at December 25, 2011 01:40 PM (GcG9m)

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