October 29, 2011

The Flight To The Battle of Midway Roundtable

Back on October 6th, I posted a 3000-word article on The Flight To Nowhere, the disastrous mission of the USS Hornet's Air Group on the first day of the Battle of Midway.  After I posted it, I realized that it was actually pretty decent.  On a whim, I sent a link to the post to Ronald Russell, author of the book No Right To Win and the webmaster of the Battle of Midway Roundtable.

The BOMRT is an online gathering of historians, authors, interested amateurs, and (most importantly) veterans of the Battle of Midway.  It's probably the foremost online resource on the events of Midway, which explains why pretty much anybody who's written a book on the Battle or related topics in recent years is a member; Jon Parshall and Anthony Tully, John Lundstrom, Robert Cressman, Alvin Kernan, Robert Mrazek, Norman Polmar, amongst others.

A few hours after I sent the link to Mr Russell, I got a response with a few notes and a willingness to use the post in the next "issue" of the BOMRT Newsletter.  To say this is something of an honor is understating the matter a bit; short of the article actually being published somewhere, that's about as good as it gets for an "interested amateur" like myself.

The new issue of the Newsletter was posted today.  You can find the relevant "Now Hear This" page right here

I'm somewhat chuffed.

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October 25, 2011

Six Years Ago

I woke up at my usual time, took my usual shower, got dressed in my usual clothes, and drove to work in my normal way... and I remember none of it.  I got the Duck U Bookstore ready to go for the day... and felt sluggish, like I hadn't gotten enough sleep.  I sat at my desk, stared at the pile of paperwork in front of me, sighed and started in.  I began sorting through the stack of invoices, credit memos, statements and junk mail, literally shuffling paper from one pile to another.

Then with no warning, my heart felt like it had fallen down a flight of stairs and began to race.  Faster and faster it went until it was too fast for me to count.  I got up from my desk, walked outside, walked back into the store, and asked a coworker to call 911.

more...

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October 06, 2011

The Flight To Nowhere


At 7am on June 4th, 1942, the signal was flashed to the American aircraft carrier USS Hornet: "Begin launching aircraft."  The plan to ambush the Japanese Kido Butai had worked perfectly so far.  The Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu were some 155 miles away, long range for the 59 planes of the Hornet's Air Group launched that day, but quite doable. 

By noon, only 31 planes had landed at Midway or on the Hornet.  All were SBD Dauntless dive bombers.  None of the TBD Devastators of Torpedo 8 or the F4F Wildcats of Fighting 8 had landed aboard, and never would.  None of the SBDs of Scouting 8 or Bombing 8 had even seen the Japanese carriers.  One third of the striking power that the US Navy had so carefully positioned had been completely wasted.

What had happened during those five hours became one of the US Navy's deepest (but open) secrets, suspected but unproven for over 45 years.  It cost the lives of 31 airmen.  It should have torpedoed the careers of two men destined to become admirals.  It was The Flight To Nowhere.

more...

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October 05, 2011

The Silence Will End

Working on what I'm calling "The Epic Post."  If it continues on the way it is, we're looking at The Pond's first 4000 worder here... heck, if it keeps on going, 5000 words isn't entirely out of the question.  Not giving out hints on what it is, either.  It'll be a doozy, though.

picture definitely not related

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October 01, 2011

Saturday Night Tunage XI: Motorsports Edition


DJ Wonderduck here, and I'm pulling on the racing coveralls tonight.  That's right, this evening we'll be looking at a collection of music relating to Formula 1 and other motorsports!  And boy, this one was NOT easy to put together... mostly because there isn't as much "racing" music out there as you'd like to think.  And a lot of that stuff that's out there isn't very good... but there is some that's worthwhile!  Lights out, let's roll!

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:02 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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