The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor by John B. Lundstrom

By John B. Lundstrom

Hailed as one of many best examples of aviation learn, this entire 1984 examine provides a close and scrupulously exact operational historical past of carrier-based air conflict. From the earliest operations within the Pacific throughout the decisive conflict of halfway, it bargains a story account of the way ace fighter pilots like Jimmy Thach and Butch O'Hare and their expert VF squadron friends - referred to as the "first team" - gathered a outstanding wrestle list within the face of determined odds.

Tapping either American and eastern assets, historian John B. Lundstrom reconstructs each major motion and locations those outstanding opponents in the context of total service operations. He writes from the perspective of the pilots themselves, after interviewing a few fifty airmen from either side, to provide readers intimate info of a few of the main intriguing aerial engagements of the conflict. whilst he assesses the position the fighter squadrons performed in key activities and indicates how strategies in fighter strategies and gunnery suggestions have been a major reason behind the reversal of yankee fortunes. After greater than 20 years in print, the publication is still the definitive account and is being released in paperback for the 1st time to arrive a good greater audience.

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Additional resources for The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway

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This was seldom successful, but VC sympathizers in the Strike Force were sometimes more effective. When an attack was suspected the perimeter guard was increased and a heightened state of alert maintained. When the attack was initiated or detected by sentries virtually all perimeter weapons opened fire, even if no movement was detected in their sectors. This was in case supporting attacks or infiltrators were elsewhere in the wire. Designated mortars began firing illumination all around the perimeter.

One company was assigned to each of the four walls. The inner perimeter was six-sided and surrounded by a concertina wirefronted low berm. There were machine gun or fighting bunkers at each corner, but no trench line. The inner berm was revetted on the inside and served only as a wall from which to fire from behind, but with no rear protection. Six woodframe, corrugated metal-roofed buildings were inside the inner perimeter, each Battle for Loc Ninh, October 29 to November 3, 1967. Key: A. USSF team house.

They were usually semi-sunk, although some were positioned above ground for the reasons noted above or to obtain a better spread of fire by mounting the weapon higher. There was usually only one firing port per machine gun; seldom were alternate ports provided. Most bunkers mounted a single machine gun, but two or three might be mounted in large corner bunkers to cover multiple sectors of fire. An attached sleeping compartment might be connected to or be part of the bunker. Often a guard post was built atop the bunker, comprising a low sandbag wall with a corrugated steel roof on posts for sun protection.

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