The Roundtable Forum

Official Newsletter of the Battle of Midway Roundtable

 

21 February 2011

Issue Number:  2011-05

Our 14th Year

 

 

 

~ IN THIS ISSUE ~

 

1.  Santa Claus in February

2.  Morison History Reissued

3.  69th BOM Anniversary Announcements

4.  Naval Aviation History In Coronado

5.  Featured Link: VF-3 and VF-8 Pilots on Hornet

6.  Editor’s Notes

 

 

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SANTA CLAUS IN FEBRUARY

 

If you’ve been with the Roundtable for a couple years or more, you know exactly what this is about.  For everyone else, here’s the explanation: Ted “Santa” Kraver in Arizona has for many years purchased WW2 books at bargain prices during an annual charity book sale, and provided them at no cost to Roundtable members on a first-come, first-serve basis.  He made his 2011 purchase a few days ago, and now has these available to whoever asks:

 

Miracle of Midway – Prange   (2, hardback)

Midway - Fuchida/Okumiya   (1 paperback)

Midway - Barker   (1 large format paperback)

Shattered Sword - Parshall and Tully   (1 hardback, 1 paperback)

The Pacific Campaign  - Dan van der Vat    (1 paper back)

Guadalcanal Diary – Tregaskis   (1 hardback)

The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign – Lundstrom   (1 hardback)

The Two Ocean War  - Samuel Eliot Morison    (2 paperback)

Lonely Vigil  -  Walter Lord   (2 hardback)

The Carrier War  -  Time-Life    (2 large format hardback)

 

To request any of these, send an e-mail message to Ted.  His address appears in the “new issue” message sent to all members.

 

Some of the above books like Shattered Sword and Miracle at Midway will go fast, but there are a few others among them that are worthy contenders.  In particular, Lord’s Lonely Vigil is an especially well done account of the coastwatchers in the Solomons—highly recommended.  Also, Morison’s The Two Ocean War is a one-volume digest of his expansive history of the USN in WW2 (see the next article for more on that).

 

 

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MORISON HISTORY REISSUED   ( see issue #04 )

 

As mentioned in the last issue, USNI is publishing new versions of Samuel Eliot Morison’s renowned History of United States Naval Operations in World War II.  Each of the 15 volumes will have a new introduction that potentially could address some of Morison’s findings or views that haven’t stood the test of time.

 

It turns out that the new introductions for at least three of the new volumes are written by Roundtable members:  Jon Parshall in Volume 4 (Midway), John Lundstrom in Volume 5 (Guadalcanal), and Barrett Tillman in Volume 8 (New Guinea-Marianas).  I had an opportunity to read the Midway and Guadalcanal intros penned by Parshall and Lundstrom, and it was gratifying to see that both did an excellent job of dealing with Morison’s key errors without taking anything from the core value of his work.

 

It’s worth noting that Morison wrote the books very soon after the end of the war, when he had no opportunity to study or reveal the details of the still-classified communications intelligence aspects of the battles.  He also had limited access to Japanese records; certainly nothing like we routinely make use of today, such as the Nagumo report on Midway.  For those and similar reasons, the new introductions give Morison high praise for what he accomplished in his own era, but still bring to light some of his assertions that have been questioned or reversed in view of recent findings.  A key example that we would all expect to see is the revelation that the flight decks of the four Japanese carriers at Midway were not jammed with strike aircraft ready to launch when the SBDs struck, as Morison and every author using him as a resource had long claimed.  As you might also expect, Lundstrom’s treatment of Morison’s Guadalcanal history points out solid reasons to go a lot lighter on Admiral Fletcher than did Morison and those who relied upon his text.

 

So it would seem that any reservations about reissuing Morison’s set, as expressed by Tom Fritz in the last issue, are being satisfied in the new books, at least in volumes 4, 5, and 8.

 

Comments or detailed reviews on the republished books are welcome.   To view those available thus far, go to the USNI web site and scroll down to the “Books” search field in the middle of the page.  Open the pull-down menu and scroll down to “History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II” and click to highlight it, then click the search button (magnifying glass).       —RR

 

 

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69th BOM ANNIVERSARY ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

Announcements for this year’s BOM commemorations have started to come in.  The first is for Pensacola, where the Navy’s Center of Information Dominance (Corry Station) will host its second annual event on Friday, June 3rd.  Reservations must be made by May 30th.  BOM vets and others who can make it to Pensacola on that date are invited to contact the hosts for more information.

 

The next one is for the annual formal “dining out” at the Marines Memorial Club in San Francisco, hosted by the local chapters of the Naval Order of the U.S., the Navy League, and the naval commands in the Bay Area.  The date is Saturday, June 4th.  BOM veterans are honored guests, and the event is also open to everyone who would like to attend and celebrate the victory at Midway and its veterans.

 

For more information on either of these events, see the contact information in your “new issue” announcement.

 

 

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NAVAL AVIATION HISTORY IN CORONADO

 

Coronado, California may have the highest concentration of U.S. naval aviators, active and retired (especially retired) for any city in the nation, at least on a per capita basis.  The many USN commands in the area, including NAS North Island at Coronado have helped attract many current and ex-airmen to the charming little community sandwiched between San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean.  So much so, in fact, that the Coronado Historical Association has presented every naval aviator in the town with a special lawn sign as an adjunct to this year’s 100th anniversary of U.S.  naval aviation.  For a nice photo of the sign in front of Clay Fisher’s  home, click here.

 

The concentration of Navy pilots in Coronado is evident from the serial number, 352, on Clay’s sign.  The city’s population is only about 25,000.

 

The 100th anniversary of naval aviation is very big in San Diego, as evidenced by the huge commemorative air show conducted over the bay on February 12th.  About 200 aircraft gave the public a dazzling performance, easily visible from much of the area.

 

 

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FEATURED LINK:  VF-3 AND VF-8 PILOTS ON HORNET

 

Here’s an interesting photo of VF-3 and VF-8 pilots lined up on the flight deck of the Hornet on 11 June 1942.  Prominent among the names of the BOM veterans in the picture is that of VF-3 commander Jimmie Thach, who is highlighted on the photo.

 

This image is new to the Roundtable, although it’s been around for a while.   John Lundstrom has it on page 420 of The First Team, where you can also see a complete list of the pilots’ names.

 

To view the photo, click here.  Once it opens, you can enlarge it by clicking anywhere in the center of the image (Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers, and maybe others).

 

Many thanks to Fred Branyan for sending us a high-resolution version of the photo, and to John Lundstrom for info on identifying the pilots.

 

Technical note:  the on-line image is about 780 kb, which makes for very good clarity, but the original file sent by Fred runs about 23 mb in .jpg format; the highest resolution photo in our archives.  It’s also posted on our web site in that very large format, and you should be able to open and download it with no problem if you have a broadband Internet connection.  It took about 30 to 40 seconds on a 6 mb/s service.  Not recommended for dial-up connections.

 

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EDITOR’S NOTES

 

~  Your attention is invited to the No Right to Win Updates pages on this web site.  I’ve added a page featuring VT-8 TBF veteran Harry Ferrier, plus an addition to the More Book Reviews page.  The latter is from the review of Mark Stille’s Midway 1942, in issue 2010-40 of this newsletter.

 

~  The annual Great Georgia Air Show looks especially interesting this year.  Scheduled for October 9-10 at Falcon Field (near Peach Tree City, southwest of Atlanta), this year’s show features “...the Battle of Midway, which will be performed by vintage WWII aircraft. This act is a presentation of the flight techniques and tactics used in the Battle of Midway.”  Mark your calendar for that one.

 

~  The “Shattered Sword” group on Yahoo has many resources concerning the book and the BOM.  Although the on-line group is not directly affiliated with the book or its authors, it does have many interesting features that nicely supplement what you see on the Roundtable.  I’ve added it to our Links page, and you can catch a quick look at it here.  New signups are welcome, and it’s free.

 

 

 

 

 

YOUR COMMENTS ARE INVITED

 

Members are always welcome to submit comments or inquiries for publication in the Roundtable Forum.  Well-crafted essays or expanded articles on Midway-related subjects are especially invited, including book or media reviews, photos, documents, web links, etc.  For guidance with anything you might like to submit, please view our FAQs.