Battle of the Philippine Sea - Hellcat Ascendancy

Comments · 1.2K

• DR

  @Drachinifel · 1 year ago · pinned

  Pinned post for Q&A :)

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• II

  @iivin4233 · 1 year ago

  The irony of getting a Mitsubishi ad.

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• RA

  @Ramal3866 · 1 year ago

  Notable mention, an F6F Hellcat ace William "Killer" Kane from USS Enterprise, after he escorted bombers for the strike against the IJN fleet, after the raid he was forced to ditch after he ran out of fuel near the USN fleet, he was then picked up by a USN destroyer and when the Enterprise wanted Kane back, the destroyer demanded cans of ice cream for Kane, the Enterprise had no choice but to accept their demands.

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• DO

  @donaldreynolds6857 · 1 year ago

  Two future U.S. presidents participated in this battle. Gerald Ford commanded an anti-aircraft gun on the USS Monterey and George H.W. Bush flew an Avenger off the USS San Jacinto and was credited with sinking a small cargo ship.

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• BL

  @BlueComentBubble · 1 year ago

  D-Day was insane. The Mariannas was insane. The ability to do <i>BOTH</i> at the same time is absolutely mind-boggling.

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• MI

  @mikemullen5563 · 1 year ago

  Personal note: &nbsp;My dad taught at the Naval War College in the late 50&apos;s. &nbsp;I was 11 or 12 at the time, and we had a soiree for his students, about half of who were non-US. &nbsp;As I was sneaking into the unguarded snack tray in the kitchen, I saw a Japanese and an American officer having a heated discussion, with lots of hand waving. &nbsp;I mentioned to Dad, and he smiled and said they were both shot down in the Marianas Turkey Shoot, and both recovered to return to action. &nbsp;They were doing the usual fighter pilot discussion with waving hands. &nbsp;They were much more united by being engaged in the same battle, and not at all put off by having been enemies at the time.

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• AR

  @Archie2c · 1 year ago

  The Avenger pilot with a Air to Air Kill 😂

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• HO

  @hourlardnsaver362 · 1 year ago (edited)

  As an interesting sidenote: One of the Zeros that crash-landed on Guam during the battle was recovered in the early 60s and restored. It’s now on display at the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force Museum at Hamamatsu Air Base in Japan, and is the only known surviving aircraft from the battle.

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• MI

  @mitchm4992 · 1 year ago

  Once again, Enterprise decides to go all Enterprise on the IJN.

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• WO

  @Wolfeson28 · 1 year ago

  Spruance&apos;s defensive setup for the first day of the main battle is a lot more groundbreaking than it usually gets credit for. The fundamental rule of carrier warfare up that point had been that you <b>had</b> to strike first in order to win, and that being caught on the defensive was a huge disadvantage. Spruance himself had seen that principle in action at Midway. Yet Spruance understood that focusing everything on striking first wouldn&apos;t work well in this situation - he was tied to one general area by the need to defend the invasion forces, so he couldn&apos;t range out widely to find and strike the Japanese, and the Japanese knew roughly where he would be. Combined with the Japanese holding the initiative in being able to choose when to start the battle, and having the longer-ranged aircraft, Spruance almost had to anticipate being on the defensive initially. He then did an excellent job setting up that multilayered defense to fully utilize all of the advantages and technologies that his fleet now had: large numbers of newer fighters, more effective radar-guided fighter direction with CICs, massively-improved AA fire, and the sheer size of his fleet.<br><br>The fact that he set the fleet into a purely defensive posture for that first day also helped streamline flight operations on his carriers. They knew they wouldn&apos;t be launching strikes that day, and so could focus almost entirely on cycling their fighters without any danger of being caught between multiple tasks the way Nagumo&apos;s carriers were at Midway.

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• WH

  @WhatIfBrigade · 9 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We_YLDkWvPI&amp;t=1075">17:55</a> That Lee declined a mission seemingly tailored for him because he knew there wasn&apos;t sufficient training and the fleet needed him elsewhere is inspiring. &nbsp;So many leaders convince themselves their subordinates are ready and that they aren&apos;t needed elsewhere. &nbsp;The humility and strategic clarity to recognize you need to be in a support position instead of being a hero is astonishing.

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• GE

  @George_M_ · 1 year ago

  Spruance&apos;s approach highlights Halsey&apos;s folly at Leyte Gulf.

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