Midway.....
07-17-2012, 05:17 AM
#5
RE: Midway.....
ORIGINAL: glazier808
um, I believe he said ...MIDWAY!!!!
Casey
um, I believe he said ...MIDWAY!!!!
Casey
However, the Dauntless in the pictures has the markings used in the Battle of the Coral Sea. By the time of the Battle of Midway, the red 'meatballs' had been removed from the 'star in blue circle' emblems on ALL USN/ US Marines combat aircraft, and the red/ white stripes on the rudders had been removed as well. The rudders were painted to match the rest of the aircraft.
GREAT to see a nicely finished/ realistic looking Dauntless!
07-18-2012, 01:17 AM
#12
RE: Midway.....
That "massive hole in the flight deck" was due to four 500 pound bombs from a combined strike from the remaining planes of VB-3, VS-5, VB-6 and VS-6 flying off the USS Enterprise after the USS Yorktown was bombed and torpedoed by planes from the pictured carrier Hiryu. Planes from VB-3 had bombed Hiryu's half sister Soryu while VS-6 and all but three of VB-6's planes pummeled the Kaga. The remaining three planes of VB-6 were able to motally wound the Akagi with one bomb hitting amidship and one near miss that damaged the rudder, making her unable to be steered due to the rudder being jammed while turned to starboard. Three interesting facts that most people don't know are:
1) that, when bombed, the Hiryu had only five torpedo/bombers and a similar amount of dive bombers remaining on board after the two strikes on the Yorktown, a majority of which were shot up by American fighters and Flak
2) the Americans didn't sink any of the Japanese carriers. All were sunk by torpedoes fired by escorting destroyers.
3) of the American planes lost attacking the Japanese fleet, only one was shot down by Flak, the rest were shot down by fighters. Once the fighters ran out of 20mm cannon shells, they were unable to shoot down the American planes using their 7.7mm machine guns. Since the Zero only carried 60 rounds per cannon, this made their time of effective fire less than 5 seconds
1) that, when bombed, the Hiryu had only five torpedo/bombers and a similar amount of dive bombers remaining on board after the two strikes on the Yorktown, a majority of which were shot up by American fighters and Flak
2) the Americans didn't sink any of the Japanese carriers. All were sunk by torpedoes fired by escorting destroyers.
3) of the American planes lost attacking the Japanese fleet, only one was shot down by Flak, the rest were shot down by fighters. Once the fighters ran out of 20mm cannon shells, they were unable to shoot down the American planes using their 7.7mm machine guns. Since the Zero only carried 60 rounds per cannon, this made their time of effective fire less than 5 seconds
