2nd Lt Archie Maltby remembers D-Day
Today is the 73rd anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy. I remember Gladwyn Hill ("Gladhill") AP's "Man with the 8th" who made the first broadcast of the invasion from a bomber overhead telling me "they opened a [...]
Academy 1/48th Lockheed P-38E Lightning, USAAC,343rd FG,54th FS,Aleutian Island Campaign June 1942
The P-38E with the 54th Fighter Squadron actually appeared a little later in the campaign in the harsh Alaskan environment. Operating out of Elmendorf Field some units detached and forward deployed at Ft Randall. The 54th was the only [...]
Midway Group Build 1/48 Monogram P-39 Airacobra 42nd Fighter Sqd
On June 3,1944 the Japanese began their offensive against American forces station in Alaska, at Dutch Harbor. Most of their bombs fell into the harbor and little damaged occurred. They would return on June 4th and set oil storage tanks on [...]
Meanwhile back in the north, 1/72 Hasegawa P-40E 18th F.S.,11th A.F. Adak
Actually according to what I read, the 18th F.S. didn't arrive in the Aleutians with their P-40's until the late 1942. So technically it's not part of the group? Anyway this is the old Hasegawa kit build right out of the box, including [...]
Douglas TBD-1, “Devastator”, ‘Torpedo Eight’, USS Hornet-Part Two
“Many of my friends are now dead. To a man, each died with a nonchalance that each would have denied as courage. They simply called it lack of fear. If anything great or good is born of this war, it should not be valued in the colonies [...]
Grumman F4F-4, “Wildcat”, ‘Fighting Three’, USS Yorktown
This is the always popular 1:48 scale Tamiya kit, of LeRoy Grumman's tough little fighter. This model represents the aircraft flown by Mach. Thomas F. Cheek on the morning of 4 June, 1942.
During that action Mach. Cheek, was credited [...]
Vought SB2U-3, "Vindicator", 'VMSB-241', Midway Atoll
This model represents a “Vindicator” attached to Marine Bombing Squadron Two Forty One, (VMSB-241). It was flown by 2nd Lt. Sumner Whitten, with Sgt. Frank E. Zelnis, as gunner.
After unsuccessfully attacking the Japanese battleship [...]
Douglas TBD-1, "Devastator", 'Torpedo Eight', USS Hornet
Number 8-T-16 was another of the aircraft lost the morning of 4 June, 1942 during the Battle of Midway. This is the aircraft of the C. O. of Torpedo Squadron Eight, (VT-8), Lt. Cdr. John Waldron. During the Battle, Lt. Cdr Waldron led [...]
