THE
ROUNDTABLE FORUM
Official newsletter of the Battle of Midway Roundtable
30 October
2009
Issue
Number: 2009-42
Our 13th Year
~
AROUND THE TABLE ~
MEMBERS’
TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Stanhope Ring’s “Lost Letter of Midway”
2. Navy Crosses for the HAG
3. Promoted to Obscurity
4. 6-B-4
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1. STANHOPE RING’S “LOST LETTER
OF MIDWAY” ( see issues #39, 40, 41 )
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25 October
2009
From: CDR Clayton E. Fisher, USN-Ret
Southern
California
BOM vet, SBD pilot, VB-8, USS Hornet (CV-8)
A brief comment about the
weather. After the Hornet SBDs
were launched and we were climbing out, we were flying through various areas of
scattered to thin overcast clouds.
I remember trying to see the VT-8 flight formation but the cloud
coverage at lower altitudes obscured my vision. As we reached our maximum altitude, we commenced flying in the
clear with almost unlimited visibility.
I don't remember observing any cloud coverage although there may have
been scattered thin layers of clouds to the west and northwest
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Ed. note: cloud cover on the morning of June 4th
is germane to the issue of how difficult it was to spot the enemy ships while
the TF-16 and 17 air groups flew their searches. More about that in next week’s issue.
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2. NAVY CROSSES FOR THE HAG
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23 October
2009
From: Barrett Tillman
Arizona
author, Clash
of the Carriers, et al
Regarding BOM Navy Crosses: I
compared the BOM to the three-day July '45 Kure strikes and found the
following:
BOM: 154
Crosses, air/sea/ground
Kure: 170 Crosses (only 5 posthumous)
I found the following HAG recipients besides VT-8:
Ring
Cook, VF
Fisher, VB
Friesz VB
Gee VB
Groves VF (posthumous)
King VB
Lynch VB
Moore VS
Nickerson VB
White VS (posthumous)
Widhelm VS
Here is Ring's BOM citation:
RING, STANHOPE COTTON
Citation:
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the
Navy Cross to Stanhope Cotton Ring, Commander, U.S. Navy, for extraordinary
heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a
carrier-based Navy Combat Plane and Group Commander of Air Group EIGHT (AG-8),
embarked from the U.S.S. HORNET (CV-8), during the Battle of Midway on 6 June
1942. Commander Ring led his carrier air group against enemy cruisers and
destroyers, coolly and methodically, in the face of heavy antiaircraft fire.
Without regard for his own safety, he drove home a successful attack on the
enemy carriers. His outstanding courage and determined skill were at all times
inspiring and in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval
Service.
Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 308 (November 1942)
Born: October 13, 1902 at Norfolk, Virginia
Home Town: Coronado, California
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Ed. note: just about any Roundtable member should
be able to spot a couple of remarkable assertions in the above citation, mainly
that Ring “drove home a successful attack on the enemy carriers,” and that he
did so on “6 June 1942.” Clearly,
“carriers” here should have been “ships” or some such if the citation is
supposed to relate to Ring’s June 6th sortie.
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3. PROMOTED TO OBSCURITY ( see issue #41 )
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23 October
2009
From: RADM D. M. (Mac) Showers, USN-Ret
Virginia
BOM vet,
intel analyst, Combat Intelligence Unit, Pearl Harbor
You note in your article that
Miles Browning was "promoted to rear admiral upon
retirement." That was not a promotion in the true sense of the
word; it's called a "tombstone promotion." It was
accorded to any retiring captain who served in WW2 and received a combat
decoration. So, it was really a bonus for earning the
decoration rather than a promotion. They are called "tombstone
admirals." I would have to believe that most of them are now
deceased. And, incidentally, they retired on captain's pay; the
"admiral" title was purely honorary.
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4. 6-B-4
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26 October
2009
From: BGEN William L. Shields, USAF-Ret
Arizona
Air
Force magazine, October
2009, p. 80, presents a short background article on the SBD. The illustration shows an aircraft numbered
B 4, assigned to VB-6 in 1942.
Perhaps one of the members can make a more detailed identification
of this airplane.
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Ed. note: the following applies to VB-6’s no. 4
SBD during the BOM, which is not necessarily “B-4” during other battles. First, we can find it listed with its Bureau
No. on Chris
Hawkinson’s BOM web site. Then, the
tables in Peter Smith’s Midway Dauntless Victory show us that the plane
only flew on June 5th, during the Tanikaze incident. See pages 106, 205, 225, and 236 in the
Smith book, plus p. 102 in A Glorious Page In Our History. Can anyone else comment on the
background of this particular aircraft or on any other “B-4” of VB-6?
~ NOW
HEAR THIS! ~
NEWS
& INFO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Link of the Week
- Editor’s Notes
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LINK OF THE WEEK
By now just about all of you have seen John Ford’s Battle
of Midway film at least once. But I
just received a link to a version of it that you likely have never seen, newly
restored and in high resolution.
Although I’ve watched the film many times over the years, watching this
one was like seeing it for the first time.
For everyone with a high-speed broadband connection, you won’t want to
miss it.
Here are a couple of hints for watching this particular
production. First, it starts with a
brief pizza commercial (someone has to pay the bills). Then, to watch it in maximum resolution,
click the “HQ” button in the lower right corner, which toggles between normal
and wide screen. Also, click the
unlabeled flashing red triangle to the right of the HQ button, which gives you
a full screen view. Press the ESC key
to exit full screen.
Here are some interesting comments that accompanied the
message I received with the link:
When
Ford viewed the rushes that he had taken at Midway -- the massive explosions,
the debris slamming into the camera, the spectacular raising of the flag
amongst black clouds of ruin -- he knew he had something special. But in a way, the material was too good --
sure to be heavily redacted by the Navy as too frightful and disturbing for
public consumption. So in Washington
soon after the battle, the wily director secretly passed the reels to one of
his young field photo editors, the former child actor Robert Parrish, and asked
him to cut it down to a decent twenty-minute documentary. "Is it for the public or the OSS
?" Parrish asked.
"It's
for the mothers of America ," Ford shot back. "It's to let them know
that we're in a war, and that we've been getting the #### kicked out of us for
five months, and now we're starting to hit back."
I’ve added this remarkable find to the “Links” page on our
web site, so you’ll be able to find it again whenever you want.
Click
here for the link of the week
Thanks to RADM Tom Brown (USN-Ret) of the San Francisco BOM
Commemoration Committee.
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EDITOR’S NOTES
For a glossary of abbreviations, acronyms, and terms used in The
Roundtable Forum, click here
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Newsletter of the Battle of Midway Roundtable is copyright 2009 by Ronald
W. Russell (see the “About
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