The Roundtable
Forum
Official
Newsletter of the Battle of Midway
Roundtable
20 May 2011
Issue
Number: 2011-12
Our 14th Year
~
AROUND THE TABLE ~
MEMBERS’
TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Marine Corps Aerial Navigator at the BOM
2. Carrier in Life Magazine Photos
3. Why So Few Photos From Midway Atoll?
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1. MARINE CORPS AERIAL GUNNER AT THE BOM ( see issue #11 )
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13 May 2011
From: CDR Jeffrey W. Holland, USNR-Ret
California
These are 3 reputable websites. While there is a chance he enhanced his war
record a bit, he appears to be genuine, especially the part about being
designated as the Marine Corps’ first aerial navigator.
Marine Corps Association website
http://www.mca-marines.org/event/10/5/battle-midway-commemoration
Distinguished Flying Cross Society website
http://www.dfcsociety.org/honorroll.asp?offset=0&nav_letter=G
Navy Memorial Annual Report
http://www.navymemorial.org/Portals/0/PDF/Navy%20Memorial%20Annual%20Report%202009.
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13 May 2011
From: Mark E. Horan
Connecticut
co-author, A
Glorious Page In Our History
In regards to Major Grasselli's possible flight to Midway, he is
assuredly talking about the flight from Hawaii to Midway and back by two
VMJ-252 R4D-1s that arrived at Midway on 7 June, each carrying, among other
things, a 300-gallon water cart and a substantial amount of .30 cal. ammunition.
The flight commander and pilot of the lead aircraft, was Col. Larkin,
USMC. Larkin toured the atoll, met with Lt. Col. Kimes, was fully
briefed on the status of the aircraft remaining to MAG-22, and personally
carried Kimes’ report for MGen. Rowell.
The planes departed for Hawaii on the morning of 9 June. Larkin's
plane carried the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion's XO, Maj. James Roosevelt, USMC,
back to Hawaii. If I recall correctly, and I may not, the aircraft also
carried some of the wounded personnel of MAG-22 back to Hawaii. The
events above are discussed in "A Glorious Page in Our History"
on the first page of Chapter 14.
In regards to your stated questions:
(1) What aircraft was flying ammunition from
Hawaii to Midway in the midst of the “main battle?”
The only Marine aircraft arriving at Midway during the June days prior
to, during, and immediately after the battle were those mentioned above. However, they certainly did not arrive "in
the midst of the battle" In fact, they specifically embarked
only after it was clear that the projected Japanese invasion had been called
off and the atoll was safe for non-combatant aircraft. The above claim,
while clearly inaccurate, was not necessarily made by the veteran, but rather
by publicity folks that make a career of distorting facts to make things sound
better.
(2) What aircraft, such as the above, had a Marine Corps sergeant as
its navigator?
It is entirely possible that either or both of the R4D-1s involved in the
mission carried enlisted navigators.
There were a number of such in the USMC, and they were, at the time,
almost exclusively assigned to the utility squadrons that operated multi-engine
aircraft. Because VMJ-252 was not based at Midway Atoll during the battle
and did not operate in the combat area at any time during the battle, I did not
do any research into the flight crews in that unit.
(3) What aircraft, such as the above, “actively participated in the
defeat of [the] Imperial Japanese navy” as stated in the article?
The above statement can only be considered true in the remotest sense, in that
that the aircrew involved were undertaking a long over-the-ocean flight in the
Pacific Area of Operations after it was known that there was no imminent danger
from the Japanese forces. They in no
way can be considered to have actively participated in the defeat of the
Japanese Navy that occurred three days before their arrival.
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Ed. note: thanks to everyone who responded to my
inquiry on this subject in the last issue—I received several answers in
addition to the two above. The bottom
line appears to be that Maj. Grasselli is a “BOM Vet” within a certain very broad
definition, although the author of the article describing his service is guilty
of a good deal of embellishment. One
can hope that it was done that way because the writer is innocently unfamiliar
with the facts of the battle.
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2. CARRIER IN LIFE MAGAZINE PHOTOS ( See issues #9 and 11 )
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14 May 2011
From: Andries Visser
South Africa
I refer to Robert Morgan’s post on the photos
of USS Enterprise in Life Magazine.
I downloaded the 1941 photos some time ago using a link provided in The
Roundtable Forum. One of the photos
shows a cake that was presented by Capt. Murray to Ens. Lloyd Thomas of VT-6 to
celebrate the 10,000th landing on the carrier.
The date on the cake is 21 August 1941, so this gives an indication of
the time of year that the fascinating photos were taken.
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3. WHY SO FEW PHOTOS FROM MIDWAY ATOLL?
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6 May 2011
From: Santiago A. Flores
California
For a long time I have been fascinated with the battle of Midway and in
particular the units and the aircraft that fought for the atoll from 4 to 6
June 1942; in particular MAG-22 and its squadrons, VMF-221 and
VMSB-241. It seems to me that this
battle was not well documented [on the atoll] or a lot of photos were lost or
destroyed though the years.
We have the photos of the two B-26s that came back from the
attack. Why are there no photos of
Brewster Buffalos of VMF-221 before and after the battle? Why do we kept seeing the same photo of the
Vindicators taking off on 4 June 1942 from the John Ford film? Was the John Ford film heavily edited for
the public?
If you compare Midway with the Pearl Harbor attack, [Pearl Harbor] was
really documented—the defenders grabbed any weapons available but even
cameras as well. Also the [Midway
Atoll] photos that have been published show some of the aircraft way back in
the background; for example, the photo of Grumman F4F-3 No. 22—in the
background to the right you can see a Brewster Buffalo. Could the cameraman have walked over [to the
Buffalo] and taken some more photos? Or
the photo of the bomb craters on the airfield, and in the background are three
fighters of VMF-221—again, could the [photographer] have taken photos of those
aircraft as well? I welcome your comments.
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Ed. note: the contrast
to the Pearl Harbor attack is easy enough, with a great many non-combatants
with cameras present throughout the military bases and the rest of Oahu at that
time. But Santiago asks a valid
question—aren’t there some additional views from Midway Atoll itself, taken by
the photographers who gave us those few familiar images during and after the
June 4th attack?
~ NOW
HEAR THIS! ~
NEWS
& INFO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Borrowed Glory
- Featured Link
- Editor’s Notes
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BORROWED GLORY
It seems that there is
no end to bogus or embellished claims from individuals who say they are
veterans of the Battle of Midway. In
the midst of the Marine navigator issue (see above), yet another questionable
veteran claim was brought to my attention, and this one was perhaps the most
difficult of them all.
The big problem this
time was that the guy in question was, in fact, a legitimate, honored BOM vet,
an aerial gunner on the Enterprise who made three combat flights on June
5th and 6th, vs. Tanikaze and Mogami-Mikuma. The problem was that a newspaper article
from 2008 stated that his plane also attacked the Kaga, during which he
supposedly watched a hoard of burning strike aircraft burn and explode on its
flight deck as the SBDs’ bombs rained down.
Naturally, that raised
another yellow flag with me (apparently, neither the newspaper reporter nor the
veteran had read Shattered Sword).
I did some checking, and with the help of Mark Horan and Chris
Hawkinson, it became clear that the fellow never flew on June 4th—he, his
pilot, and his plane remained on board Enterprise throughout the day.
A further prevarication
in the article was a picture of the veteran holding a large framed photo of a
damaged SBD with crewmen around it just after landing on a carrier. He said it showed him and his pilot after a
desperate mission over Guadalcanal, dueling with Japanese ace of aces Saburo Sakai. However, the photo was clearly the
well-known shot of George
Goldsmith’s 6-B-15 after landing on the Yorktown in the BOM.
In the end, it became
clear that this veteran, who should have needed no embellishment to his
distinguished BOM record, had either borrowed the glory of his squadron-mates
who’d participated in the Kaga attack, or the newspaper reporter made it
up on his own with the veteran’s passive acceptance. In either case, it was yet another instance of imagined BOM fame
that insults all of the true veterans of the battle who actually achieved the
victory.
In this case, I didn’t
pursue the matter because the story didn’t come to my attention until nearly 3
years after it was published (November 2008), plus, as indicated above, the guy
was a real BOM vet in his own right—quibbling about one part of his Midway
story that’s obviously false would cast a shadow on the other part for which he
deserves unquestioned admiration.
Additionally, the fellow had a terminal disease in 2008, so there would
be no value in causing agitation for his family at this late date.
Challenging and
exposing blatant fakers, as with the pretenders in Chapter 15 of No Right to
Win, is rather easy—the facts of the battle and who participated are well
known and usually easy to verify. But
the challenge becomes more troubling when the individual in question was
actually at Midway, like both the Marine navigator and the Enterprise gunner;
even directly involved in the battle in the latter case. But troubling or not, every such
circumstance needs to be investigated and dealt with in some appropriate
manner. Our real BOM vets deserve no
less. —RR
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FEATURED LINK
Here’s the June 1982 issue of Naval Aviation News (.pdf
file), featuring several articles in connection with the 40th
anniversary of the BOM. There’s a
particularly good one on communications intelligence, with photos of most of
the key players at Hypo. Other articles
show photos of BOM personalities that haven’t previously appeared (at least,
not here), including a young Lieutenant Howard Ady, plus contemporary images of
McClusky, Massey, Lindsey, Waldron, Gallaher, Shumway, Leslie, Fieberling,
Parks, Henderson, and even one of LCDR Herbert Pfingtag, the Pearl Harbor
shipyard mastermind who managed to get Yorktown ready for action in 3
days instead of 3 months.
Click
here for the featured link.
Thanks to Ted Kraver for finding this for us.
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EDITOR’S NOTES
~ Speaking of communications intelligence,
Amazon has announced the forthcoming release of Roundtable member Elliot
Carlson’s great new book, Joe Rochefort’s War. See “Editor’s Notes” in issue #8, and
here’s the Amazon
link.
~ Naval Support Activity Orlando (FL) is
seeking BOM vets who would like to be honored guests at their BOM anniversary
commemoration on June 3rd. For more
information, contact the Public Affairs Officer, Brian Roscoe, on (407) 380-4870.
~ Best wishes to Yorktown
vets and CV-5 club members, who will hold their annual reunion in
Lexington, Kentucky from June 2nd through the 5th. Here’s a newspaper
article on the subject. The Yorktown
CV-5 Club is perhaps the most ambitious and energetic of the BOM unit
reunion groups, with a very large roster of veterans and family members who are
still going strong. If there’s anyone
who wants more info about the reunion or the club, click
here, or send an e-mail message to midway.rt@gmail.com.
