The Battle of Midway Roundtable Opening Remarks
Welcome to the May issue of the Battle of Midway RoundTable.
June 4th was the 81st anniversary of the battle and with it came several requests for information but not near as many as last year. Probably because the 80th was a somewhat more monumental anniversary. Still several celebrations went on around the country which is good to see. Hope at least a few younger people discover the battle and what it means to us as a country. If anyone attended an event and has time for a write up on the events and such send them my way. Always happy to hear about them.
This month we have some interesting submissions. Barrett Tillman sent in a link to an interview with Bert Earnest. It is well worth the time to watch. The other video link sent in was a discussion on the Flight to Nowhere. Again no real new information here but an interesting discussion nonetheless.
And finally this month I started to re-create Chris Hawkinson's website on the Battle of Midway. He had quite a bit of valuable information and was used extensively when it was working. Unfortunately at some point he lost the website login information and then it was removed from the host servers. But the internet archive does have some snapshots of the site and I'm recovering it and publishing it on the RoundTable pages with permission from Chris.
And its been far too long finding the time to do it but this month I decided to take the approach someone once related about writing a book. Write a page a day and in a year you have a book. So any night I have a few minutes I try to create a page or as much of the page as possible. i hope it won't take a year but there are a lot of pages and information so forgive me if it takes a while.
Now there is good news and bad news about the site. The good news is it is pretty standard HTML so it copies fairly easily over to a new page. The bad news is that all the links are broken and have to be recreated and the formatting does not always transfer well so sometimes it requires a complete redo. There is a reason for this. The site was written so that one could view it in low resolution, 640x400, or high resolution, 800x600, or high resolution with frames. Normally this doesn't make any difference but in some cases the formatting does not play nice on the page when I publish it so it has to be redone. Also some of the images are no longer in the place the site was pointing to so they cannot be recovered and I don't want to have dead space or dead links if possible. But so far have only been unable to locate a few images so not too bad.
I also managed to have a complete download of the Yahoo groups 'Shattered Sword' site which if doing this one isn't enough I've got some future work to do recreating that site as well. See how this one goes first.
So not to keep any one in suspense below is link to preview the site so far. Now don't get too excited. A lot of links to pages don't work because I have not yet managed to recreate the page they are pointing too. But a few work on the main page leading to some others. None of the links on the navigation panel on the left work yet for instance. Let me know what you think and I'll keep updating the site as I have time. Should have quite a bit more done by next month's newsletter but if you want you can go to the site anytime and take look for new pages.
Till next month.
Link to Chris Hawkinson's Battle of Midway website.
Gunners mods to Midway SBDs
From Barrett Tillman
16 May 2023
In reference to the April issue
Enterprise Video
From The Backseat Dauntless Kid: the SBD/A-24 gun mount was stowed beneath two spring-loaded doors activated by stepping on a pedal. The doors thus opened, allowing the gunner to grasp the grips, pull up & back to lock the mount in place. No SBD/A-24 I've seen had sliding doors (i.e. fore and aft.)
However: obviously the twin .30 cal. mount took up more space than the original single, hence the metalsmiths' tin snipper mods to accommodate the wider mount and guns.
Dave's contribution certainly will interest Serious Modelers (and I don't think I know any other kind these days!)
Barrett
Lofton Henderson signature and photo
From Barrett Tillman/Philip Downs
18 May 2023
Barrett - I just acquired this which is signed by Major Lofton Henderson. Take care.
Philip E. Downs
Philip is a severely serious autograph collector, mainly military-aviation. Henderson finished 10 places below McClusky in USNA 26.
Barrett
Thanks for your detailed damage reports...
From Ashley W. Wright
27 May 2023
New York
...for the USS
Yorktown at Coral Sea and Midway. My uncle, Lt. Cmdr. Oscar Pederson, was the
Yorktown's air group commander at Coral Sea and Midway. He went on to skipper the USS
Valley Forge in the Korean War, losing 21 pilots over the Yalu River, if memory serves.
Uncle Oscar retired to my hometown when I was growing up in the 1940s. I went to school with his youngest of three daughters, Pam Pederson. Oscar and my Dad got along well as my Dad had served first on command and general staff in Washington in the run-up to WWII and then requested a field command after Pearl Harbor was attacked. He served as commander of a 155mm gun (gun, not Howitzer) battalion in WWII, pausing in the UK for the Normandy invasion and awaiting deep water ports in France to be opened up by Allied Forces so his 18 big guns and ammo carriers could land in France. I was 4 months old when I got my first letter from my father. He was in the midst of the Battle for Cologne at the time. He wrote home nearly every day for the 18 months from the time he landed to going into occupation in Germany after the surrender.
I too served as an Army artillery officer but in Vietnam, mostly up along the DMZ under operational control of the 3rd Marine Division. During the first two months of Ted 1969, I had two guns south of Da Nang at An Hoa Combat Base serving under operation control of the 1st MarDiv. The rest of the battery and the commander were at Hill 34 as part of an defensive arch around Da Nang.
I was on a US Navy LST on Thanksgiving Day '68 on an ammo run from Da Nang to Qua Viet when I saw the USS
New Jersey firing it's 18" guns onto NV reinforced concrete bunkers in north of the Ben Hai River. Quite a sight. The ship's captain invited me to join the ship's officers for a fabulous, traditional T-Day dinner, served up by white jacketed Filipino stewards. What a treat after living in underground bunkers along the DMZ.
The Marines were great people for whom to work. For my 8/4 Artillery battalion's story, Google Guns of the DMZ. Click on Member Stories. I've got a couple of stories there down in the Ws
Thanks again.
Ashley W. Wright
Editors Note. Thank you for your service as well as your father and uncle. I put the images together from a number of sources as well as the damage reports. One of the sources was from Eric Carra's website where he did an outstanding job outlining the damage.
Bert Earnest interview 1992
From Barrett Tillman
4 June 2023
Haven't seen this one.
https://forgottenhobby.wordpress.com/2017/02/21/interview-with-bert-earnest/
Barrett sends
From Robert Mrazek
5 June 2023
I spent three days staying with Bert in Norfolk when I was researching Dawn. And many interviews after. As far as what happened after Fieberling led them off the atoll, his memory was remarkably consistent with this account, even fourteen years later.
He doesn't mention that he was a superstitious guy who semi-seriously believed that something he found on Midway saved him that day. In the early hours of that morning, he and fellow pilot Charlie Brannon (killed later that morning) were leaving the shack where they had enjoyed a couple beers and Bert looked down to see something on the ground. He picked it up and found it was a 2.00 bill. He put it in his wallet.
He told me he also credited it with saving him when he was test flying an ME-262 in 1944 that crashed on takeoff into the trees, stripping off both wings before it stopped. He got out before it exploded.
And later when he was a hurricane hunter.
It was still in his wallet when he was 90.
From Barrett Tillman
5 June 2023
Thank you for the insight, Bob.
Ref. the 262. Marion Carl was there, and he said after Midway and the jet crash, "Bert might live forever."
From Jon Parshall
5 June 2023
I found this account really interesting, and thanks for sending it along. Notice he didn’t refer to Harry Ferrier by name? Classic naval aviator. “That guy in back.”
Given that Me-262 apparently didn’t start operational missions until August 1944, I have difficulty believing that we captured one and were test flying it in 1944. But this isn’t really my space, so I’ll let Barrett or whoever correct me if I’m wrong.
Cheers,
Jon
From Robert Mrazek
5 June 2023
It could have been early 45. I was writing from memory and forgetting my betters were reading.
From Rich Frank
5 June 2023
Bob,
Thanks very much for the further details about Bert's life, or lives. Love the two-dollar bill story. Superstition is rampant in warriors.
Rich Sends
From Jon Parshall
5 June 2023
Not “betters.” Think “nit-picky jerks.”
From Rich Frank
5 June 2023
I second Jon's motion.
In breaking news, I see Fold3 recently announced it has added the War of 1812 pension roles to its holdings. So many books, so little time.
Rich
From Barrett Tillman
5 June 2023
Here's a summary of Bert's naval career, undoubtedly from his Golden Eagles bio. He was at Pax River until '47. I'm guessing the 262 episode was '46.
This site says three 262s went to Pax in Oct 45.
https://captured-wings.fandom.com/wiki/Werk_Nr_501232
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/pilotonline/name/albert-earnest-obituary?id=28467862
Marion's GE bio contains both his Pax River tours.
https://www.epnaao.com/BIOS_files/DECEASED/Carl-%20Marion%20E.pdf
Wonder what became of Bert's memorabilia, especially his logbooks.
Barrett sends
From Robert Mrazek
5 June 2023
All his medals, citations, log books, and other memorabilia including the samurai sword presented to him by Vandegrift for his accuracy as a ship killer in the slot, were given to VMI. He was a '38 graduate.
One exception. He gave me the original of his second NC citation signed by Nimitz.
From Barrett Tillman
5 June 2023
Whew! So many historically valuable items are junked or disappear. (Apparently Dave McCampbell's logs went to a charity outlet inside a desk.)
Hoping that VMI allows access to such treasures as Bert's.
Barrett
Discussion of the Flight to Nowhere
From Ron Walters
10 June 2023
Wade Carroll has many informative videos, including severa; revealing previously unknown facts-watch the one about Navy engagements with Libyan aircraft. Curious what the group thinks about the video and the mentioned book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKNDR7_DT24
Jack Holder BOM PBY crewman
From Gerry Child
16 May 2023
I found the short article about Jack Holder interesting in that my father, Ens. Gerald F. Child was stationed at Midway and was a copilot of a PBY in VP-23 and flew in the BOM. Is there any way of knowing who was the pilot of the plane he was in while he was at Midway? I realize that this a long shot, but perhaps he and my father flew together. Thank you once again for all that you continue to do for the BOM RoundTable.
Sincerely,
Gerry Child
Editors Note: While I don't have the answer maybe someone on the RoundTable has a list of the PBY Pilots and co-pilots. If so send the info my way and I'll forward it on. In the mean time I'll look for a list.
Diplomats & Admirals
From Barrett Tillman
11 May 2023
Diplomats & Admirals: From Failed Negotiations and Tragic Misjudgments to Powerful Leaders and Heroic Deeds, the Untold Story of the Pacific War from Pearl Harbor to Midway
by Dale A. Jenkins (Author)
Announcements and Questions
Midway Atoll - November 1941
From Howard Ady III
19 April 2023
NAS North Island
From Howard Ady III
23 April 2023
Aerial view of Naval Air Station North Island showing USS Langley (AV-3) moored forward of USS Ranger (CV-4) at the Air Station pier, circa 1930s...
