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Position:Home>History> I'm looking for great acts of naval heroism during WW2- can you recommend anQuestion:My baby brother recently watched 'The cruel sea', and he now loves naval battles- especially WW2 ones! I've looked in to some true-life stories I can read to him about WW2 heroism on the high seas- preferably real 'guts-and-thunder' stuff that would suit a young boy. I've found the stories of the final moments of the SS Rawalpindi and HMS Glow-worm so far- can you recommend any others? Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: My baby brother recently watched 'The cruel sea', and he now loves naval battles- especially WW2 ones! I've looked in to some true-life stories I can read to him about WW2 heroism on the high seas- preferably real 'guts-and-thunder' stuff that would suit a young boy. I've found the stories of the final moments of the SS Rawalpindi and HMS Glow-worm so far- can you recommend any others? AMM1c Bruno Gaido, USN February 1942 the USS Enterprise (CV6) departed for a raid on the Japanese held Marshall and Gilbert Islands. At little past 1330, bogies appeared on the Big E’s radar, closing range rapidly, they were five big twin-engined Type 96 "Nell" bombers from Taroa's battered airfield. Approaching in a shallow dive, the bombers burst from the clouds 3500 yards off Enterprise's starboard bow, hurtling towards their target at 250 knots. Every five inch gun that could be brought to bear opened fire, but the gunners' inexperience, the stress of battle and the high speed of the approaching planes led to the shells trailing their target, where they were of more danger to the CAP than to the enemy. Captain George Murray ordered hard left rudder quickly followed by hard right; the ship responded with reassuring nimbleness and neatly "stepped aside" from the approaching bombers. As the 1.1" gun mounts began their deafening fire, the five planes let fall a loose "stick" of three 60 kg bombs each. Most fell harmlessly to port, the concussions pounding the ship's hull and lifting her in the water. One bomb exploded close enough to severe a gasoline line, starting a small fire and mortally wounding BM 2/c George Smith. Recovering from their dive a scant 1500 feet above the Big E's flight deck, four of the five bombers sped away, but the fifth plane - piloted by the flight leader LT Kazuo Nakai - turned sharply to the left and circled back towards the carrier as if to land. Despite the combined fire of every gun that could bear, the plane kept coming on. Clearly the “Nell” intended to crash into the ship. A young enlisted man ran to an SBD dive-bomber spotted at the edge of the flight deck, manned the rear seat .30 cal. gun and poured a stream of bullets into the oncoming plane. At the last moment, Enterprise veered hard to the right, and the plane - whether due to mechanical damage or an incapacitated pilot - failed to match her turn. Hurtling mere feet over the aft flight deck, the bomber's right wing clipped the tail of parked Scouting Six Dauntless (whose rear gun had been manned by AMM 2/c Bruno Gaido), and snapped off, drenching the island and flight deck forward with gasoline, before coming to rest in a port catwalk. The Nell, Nakai, and his crew plunged into the sea off Enterprise's port quarter and were quickly left behind. The Big “E” was the flagship of Vice Admiral William F. Halsey who bore witness to the event and immediately promoted to AMM 3/c. On the morning of 4 June 1942, Lieutenant Commander C. Wade McClusky led thirty Dauntless SBD dive-bombers from the carrier USS Enterprise in an attack that destroyed the Japanese fleet carriers Akagi and Kaga. After he had made his own attack, and despite the sky over the Japanese carrier fleet now swarming with Zero fighters whose angry pilots were desperate to avenge the loss of Japan's two best carriers, Lieutenant Charles R. Ware delayed his own departure from the burning carriers. His purpose was to rally to him the "rookie" pilots of his own division and any other inexperienced pilots who might need his experience and combats skills to lead them to safety. Despite heavy Zero attacks, Ware was able to collect and form up five SBDs into an ad hoc division. Keeping his SBDs close to sea level to guard their unprotected bellies from the attacking Zeros, Ware led his pilots on a south-east course away from the Japanese fleet. Ware was able to ward off repeated attacks by the Japanese fighters by turning towards each Zero as it made a fast firing pass from the rear and creating an arc formation that enabled all of his rear gunners to concentrate the fire of their twin .30-calibers on the Zero. Because of Ware's skilled management of his division under sustained attack by the Zeros, the only significant damage suffered by the six planes of his division was to the fuel tanks of Ensign Frank W. O'Flaherty's SBD. The loss of fuel was a calamity for O'Flaherty and his radio-gunner Bruno P. Gaido because all of the SBDs involved in the attack on Akagi and Kaga had been a long time in the air and were already low on fuel. Sadly, O'Flaherty and Gaido were spotted and fished from the sea by the crew of the Japanese destroyer Makigumo. After interrogation, and when it was clear that the Japanese had suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Midway, O'Flaherty and Gaido were murdered by the angry and vindictive Japanese. The two unfortunate American airmen were bound with ropes, tied to weighted fuel cans, and then thrown overboard to drown. The Makigumo hit a mine off Guadalcanal in 1943 and sank. Awarded with a promotion for this heroic action, a few months later this same Enlisted Combat Aircrewman earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart for equally gallant performance during the Battle of Midway. There, he was shot down, captured from the ocean and subsequently executed. Post-war Japanese reports revealed that he faced a cruel death with the same courage and conviction he so readily displayed in earlier actions against the enemy. In Which we Serve with Noel Coward, i believe it was based on true events. Great film whichever way you look at it. It is a British film in case you were wondering. try the navy website for help. they have a complete history of the naval battles during ww2 there. that would be a start. then you could use some of the information to narrow a search to specific individuals or ships. try this for starters: www.acepilots.com/medals/us_ww2_medals... www.cmohs.org you can also try the history channel website. Have a look at this web site. Good reading lists suggested. http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/research... this is the one I hear old vets talk about http://www.amazon.com/Abandon-Ship-India... it really is amazing. It's an amazon link so you can read the reviews, too. Maybe get it at the library. The mini-subs that attacked the Tirpitz? Operation Pedestal? Battle of the River Plate (not a bad film, either)? I cannot recall the ships name, but an American destroyer sailed up and down the beaches of Normandy during Operation Overlord providing direct fire on targets. The ship was so close it was in danger of beaching itself and taking German small arms fire. Operation Chariot http://www.airrecce.co.uk/WW2/imagery/St... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044658/user... Operation Frankton – The Cockleshell Heroes http://imdb.com/title/tt0049083/ http://www.op-frankton.com/ Some other reading http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stori... The Royal Navy during WW2 was second to none. As for the German Navy, it was systematically sunk by the RN including all the significant Pocket Battleships. GO TO THIS NEXT VIDEO LINK FOR THE SINKING OF THE GERMAN POCKET BATTLE SHIP TIRPITZ BY THE ROYAL NAVY AND RAF. THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GOOD B&W WW2 NEWSREEL TYPE FOOTAGE WITH AN AMERICAN COMMENTARY : - YouTube - History Channel - Sinking the Tirpitz (2 of 5) History Channel - History's Raiders 7: "Sinking the Tirpitz".History Channel show about British attacks against the German Battleship Tirpitz which they ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTbXpJtLT... SINKING OF BISMARCK BY THE ROYAL NAVY YouTube - Sinking of the Bismarck The Story of the Great German Battleship, Bismarck that was sunk by British forces. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c127JM7ko... THE MOST FEARED BY THE GERAMANS AND THE MOST RESPECTED BY HIS OWN PEOPLE - ADMIRAL CUNNINGHAM, ROYAL NAVY. Viscount Cunningham : Naval Leaders : History : Royal Navy Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope 1883-1963. Admiral Cunningham Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, August 1940. Photograph ... http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show... ADMIRAL CUNNINGHAM ONCE SAID, "WHEN THE GERMANS ARE DOWN, KICK THEM IN THE GUTS". HE DID NOT MINCE HIS WORDS. At the link below you will find all you need about RN WW2 history : - Royal Navy and World War 2 Details of naval actions and losses are structured around a chronology of the war. http://www.naval-history.net/NAVAL1939-4... HMS VICTORY FIRES BROADSIDE IN CELEBRATION OF THE 200TH ANIVERSARY OF THE VICTORY AT THE BATTLE OF TRAFLGAR - LORD NELSON - HURRAH! YouTube - HMS Victory Fires Full Broadside HMS Victory, a 104 gun first-rate ship of the line, belonging to the Royal Navy fires a 52 gun broadside to celebrate the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805, ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiRbJRNKy... If you have not yet visited HMS Victory, try the link below : - HMS-Victory - Home hms-victory.com - the official website for HMS VICTORY. http://www.hms-victory.com/ If you wish to be photographed with Admiral Lord Nelson, I recommend you visit The Trafalgar Tavern at Greenwich where you will find a life-size statue of Nelson at ground level. You just stand next to him...snap etc. Trafalgar Tavern Exactly 170 years later the Trafalgar Tavern still stands in the Greenwich Maritime World Heritage Site, and it remains one of London’s most essential ... http://www.trafalgartavern.co.uk/ |