What will happen in a bout 6 months if we don't keep pushing.
These combat photographers are an incredible bunch.
So you're on the fantail of a USN destroyer bobbing about in the ocean, guns going off everywhere around you, shrapnel and spall peppering the water and deck around you. Balls of crimson sprout in the air where an incoming aircraft meets an outgoing AAA shell. The smell of cordite mixes with spent diesel and the acrid odor of plumes of aerial smoke.
In this hellish mellange and ruinous cacophany, you look up. Your stomach drops. In the clear sky, you see a clean white aircraft nosing over in an inverted dive towards your ship. Your instinct is to drop, to hide, to scurry to safety. But there's no safety anywhere. You watch as the plane (a "val" dive bomber) continues to nose over....
My God-it's going to hit that heavy cruiser behind me! My God!
Kamikaze attacking USS Columbia (CL-56) off Lingayen Gulf, 6 January 1945.
On 6 January 1945, with Allied pre-invasion bombardments underway, Japanese kamikaze attacks beset light cruiser USS Columbia like angry bees. After one plane had crashed close by, a second hit Columbia’s port quarter, the plane and its bomb breaching two decks before exploding. Of the crew, 13 were killed and 44 wounded, while the gun tubs were disabled and fires raged. Three days later, as Columbia lay handicapped inshore, another kamikaze struck, killing 25 and wounding 97.
The convoy carrying Br. 2nd Div is attacked no less than 3 times by I-165 on it's way . There aren't enough DD's. Finally she manages to put a fish in Atlanta. LYB's subs are really kicking our asses. 2 days ago they nearly sunk Chicago (90+ flotation damage) and before that Prince William.
ASW attack near Davao at 82,92
Japanese Ships
SS I-165
Allied Ships
CLAA Atlanta, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
xAP Lancashire
xAP Edwin Markham
xAK Rona
xAK Clan Macnair
xAK Silverbeech
xAK Juan Cabrillo
xAK Puerto Rican
Payback of the annoying LYB's at Lingayen. This will not stop until we are just bouncing the ashes around. 55 heavies and a few B-25's. Say ello to my leetel friend, amigo.
Morning Air attack on Lingayen , at 79,75
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-61-Ia Tony x 18
Allied aircraft
B-17F Fortress x 3
B-24D Liberator x 28
B-24D1 Liberator x 24
B-25C Mitchell x 3
P-39D Airacobra x 5
P-40K Warhawk x 28
F6F-3 Hellcat x 9
Just noticed that there is a movement pip over the Mongol Horde at Lingayen. Some or all are moving NE to San Fernando. <makes Dominican baseball player good luck sign>
