Official
newsletter of the Battle of Midway Roundtable
“To
promote awareness and understanding of the great battle,
and
to honor the men who fought and won it.”
26
SEPTEMBER 2007..........ISSUE NO. 2007-36..........OUR 10th YEAR
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AROUND THE TABLE ===============
Members’
topics in this issue:
BOM-Guadalcanal
Symposium
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BOM-GUADALCANAL
SYMPOSIUM
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16 Sep 2007
John Parshall
Minnesota
(co-author, Shattered Sword)
I just returned from the Nimitz Museum
Symposium on the turning points of WWII, the Battle of Midway and the Battle
for Guadalcanal. I presented an
overview of Japanese strategy and battle planning for the operation,
accompanied by Donald Goldstein's talk on the American planning, and a talk by
Robert Mrazek drawn from his forthcoming book on Torpedo Squadron Eight.
We then all three had the privilege of asking questions of our veteran
panelists: Harry Ferrier (radio operator aboard a VT-8 detachment TBF Avenger),
Sam Laser (Yorktown gunnery dept.), Mac Showers (HYPO analyst), Dusty
Kleiss (SBD pilot), and Kaname Harada (Soryu Zero pilot), who came all
the way from Japan, accompanied by Jiro Yoshida of the Zero Pilots’
Association. The Midway portion of the
symposium was very well attended, and a good time was had by all, I think.
The night before the symposium kicked
off, I came to the realization that Harada-san had actually fought directly
against both Harry Ferrier and Dusty Kleiss during the Battle. Harada
flew three CAP missions that day, first tangling with the VT-8 Avengers. During his second mission he encountered
VT-3. After landing aboard Hiryu
once Soryu was hit, he was subsequently re-launched, only to face Dusty
Kleiss' composite air group which destroyed Hiryu. He subsequently ran out of fuel, ditched,
and was recovered by destroyer Makigumo. The museum's director of programming moved quickly to publicize
the reuniting of these three former adversaries for the first time. There
were several photo ops with Ferrier, Kleiss, and Harada-san.
For my part, I was very happy to have a
chance to re-connect with my friends Harry Ferrier and Mac Showers. And I also got to meet Sam and Dusty for the
first time. Sam and I traded
good-natured jabs over some of my conclusions in Shattered Sword, and I
had the pleasure of also meeting his son, a trial-lawyer (like his father)
living in Texas. Dusty, for his part,
expanded my knowledge of dive-bombing technique. I was very grateful to make the acquaintance of all these fine
gentlemen.
For those of you who haven't been to the
museum in Fredericksburg, Texas, it is splendid. The exhibits are wonderful and very well
presented. I'm looking forward to the
museum's forthcoming 30,000 sq. ft. expansion, which will allow even more of
its extensive collection to be displayed.
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Ed note:
check out the Admiral Nimitz Museum on the web: http://www.nimitz-museum.org/
===============
NOW HEAR THIS! ===============
News
& info in this issue:
- Last Sortie for Dick Woodson
- Forum Notes
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LAST
SORTIE FOR DICK WOODSON
With
profound regret, I announce the passing on 21 September of Chief Aviation
Electronics Technician Richard T. Woodson, USN-Retired. Dick Woodson flew as a radioman-gunner for
pilot Don Kirkpatrick with VS-8, USS Hornet, at the Battle of
Midway. He went on to fly throughout
the rest of war, and was grievously wounded in October 1942 at the Battle of
the Santa Cruz Islands. After months of
recovery, he was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet where he served as an
Avenger aircrewman in daring anti-submarine sorties from an escort
carrier. There is a detailed synopsis
of his wartime experiences posted on our web site, and in respect for this fine
Midway veteran, I urge all members to read it now. You can find it easily from our home page by clicking “Veterans
Stories” under the VT picture, or here’s the direct URL:
http://www.midway42.org/vets-woodson.html
While
we honor every one of our Midway veterans to the maximum extent possible on the
Roundtable, we were particularly fortunate to have Dick on our roster. That first became evident when he began to
provide us with some important details concerning the operation of the YE/ZB
homing system used by BOM-era carrier aircraft to find their way back to the
ship. YE/ZB issues have figured
prominently in our discussions of various BOM events, particularly those
involving the Hornet air group.
Dick’s nuts-and-bolts descriptions of how the shipboard YE system worked
with the airborne ZB receiver has helped immensely in understanding its vital
role in aerial navigation, and why in many cases it aided the airmen’s cause
and why it may have failed them in others.
But
Dick will be especially remembered on the Roundtable for his crucial eyewitness
testimony concerning the Hornet air group’s flight on the first day of
the carrier battle. The controversy
concerning which way the HAG went that morning began in the early 1980s with
Bowen Weisheit’s research, which alleged they flew west from the Hornet, not
southwest as related in traditional BOM histories. The difference between the two courses is a major issue, as has
been reviewed extensively on the Roundtable and in No Right to Win. Dick’s vital contribution to the
discussion lies in the fact that his testimony is wholly independent of the
claims made by Weisheit—Dick had never heard of the author or his book until I
mentioned them to him. The key fact is
that while flying the HAG’s base course that morning, Dick saw Waldron and VT-8
break away to the left, not to the right as recorded by RADM Mitscher in
the Hornet’s official after-action report. That seemingly minor point is the heart of the matter, which is
readily seen by comparing the two courses.
See pages 132 and 135 in No Right to Win, or compare pp. 118-119
of Morison’s history, Vol. IV, to p. 218 of A Glorious Page In Our History (4th
printing).
Dick
was not the least bit ambiguous about which way VT-8 turned that morning. Here are my notes from a 2005 oral interview
with him on this subject, and this is very close to verbatim. “RW” is Richard Woodson and “RR” is me:
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RR: “You’ve previously told us on the Roundtable
that you saw Torpedo Squadron 8 break off to the left, is that correct?”
RW: “Yes, they turned away from the rest of the
air group on a bearing of about 30 degrees to the left of our heading.”
RR: “You’re quite certain that they turned left,
not right?”
RW: “Yes, and I couldn’t figure out what they
were doing, so I asked Kirk.”
RR: “Kirk?”
RW: “Don Kirkpatrick, my pilot. I asked him where VT-8 was going; I thought
we were all supposed to stay together.
He said we were, and he had no idea what Waldron was up to. Of course, our squadron stayed with the
group commander, like we were supposed to.”
RR: “It’s interesting that you saw them go left,
since the traditional version in the history books is that they broke to the right
in order to close the enemy on a northwesterly track.”
RW: “No, they broke left. I know, because when we’re formation flying,
the pilot is too busy watching out for our planes off his port and starboard
wing to notice a whole lot in the distance.
It was up to us gunners to be alert for such things. I was facing aft like I always did and I saw
VT-8, below and a little behind us, veer off to the left. It was a deliberate turn, too—they stayed
nicely in formation.”
RR: “Wait a minute—you were facing aft. So do you mean you saw them go to your right
relative to you personally, but to the left relative to your aircraft?”
RW: “That’s correct. The definitely broke left from the course we were flying.”
-----
A
memorial service for Dick will be conducted on Sunday, 30 September, 10:00 AM,
at the Reardon-Payton Mortuary, 511 North A Street, Oxnard, California. Military honors will follow at 10:30. Interment of cremated remains will be
privately conducted by the family. For
more information, call the mortuary on 805-483-2233.
Dick’s
daughter, Nancy Talley, sent me his obituary which I’ve posted on our web
site’s “Image Board” page. Click the
“Image Board” link under the VT picture on our home page, then go to Link 17. Or, here’s the direct URL:
http://www.midway42.org/temp/woodson-obit.html
Mrs.
Talley also invites Dick’s friends and shipmates to send her reminisces and
tales about him for possible inclusion in the memorial. You can e-mail her at: talleycats@yahoo.com
I
have added Dick’s name to the memorial section of our web site’s “BOMRT Vets
List” page.
Fair
winds and following seas, Chief.
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FORUM NOTES
~ I’m sending out this issue of the Forum a
couple days earlier than usual in order to afford members an opportunity to
send condolences or other messages to Dick Woodson’s family in time for the
memorial service. You can do so via his
daughter’s e-mail address or possibly by contacting the mortuary (info
above). Barring unforeseens, issue #37
will be out on its usual Friday date next week.
~ Student members of the Roundtable are
encouraged to participate in our 10th Anniversary Essay Contest, detailed in
last week’s issue. All other members
are urged to support it by promoting it among the students in your family. For full details, check our web site by
clicking the “special announcement” link on the home page, or here’s the direct
URL: http://www.midway42.org/contest.html
~ British military author Peter C. Smith is
looking for contact information for the family of Enterprise air group
commander C. Wade McClusky. If anyone
can help in that regard, please contact him directly at: peterchsmith@supanet.com
~ TV this week: “Kamikaze” on the Dogfights series, History Channel,
Friday 28 Sep, 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM.
Then, the 1976 Midway movie once again on AMC, Saturday 29 Sep,
5:00 PM and 11:00 PM.
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Get
the Roundtable’s Book:
NO
RIGHT TO WIN: A CONTINUING DIALOGUE WITH VETERANS OF THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
Click
for full information: http://www.russbook.com/
(If
you cannot access the above web site, send a message to the editor for full
details on No Right to Win.)
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For
a glossary of abbreviations, acronyms, and terms used in The Roundtable
Forum, go to our home page and click the “Roundtable Glossary” link, or
here is the direct URL:
http://www.midway42.org/glossary.htm
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The Roundtable Forum, the Official Newsletter of the Battle of Midway
Roundtable (“the Forum”)
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