April 18, 1943

Admiral Yamamoto, architect of the Pearl Harbor attack, commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy Combined Fleet was killed on this day in an ambush by P-38 Lightning aircraft near Buin in southeast Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. He was headed to Balalae Island, an insignificant island to the northeast of Shortland Island, on a visit to pump up morale after the loss of Guadalcanal.

American cryptographers had broken some of the top level IJN codes and were able to see his itinerary. He left Rabaul, the Japanese air base on New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago, on one of two Mitsubishi G4M bombers escorted by 6 Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters. Sixteen P-38s from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal to intercepted the Japanese aircraft. Yamamoto?s aircraft was shot down and crashed near Buin on Bougainville in heavy jungle. It was found the next day and his remains were cremated. They were returned to Japan on the battleship Musashi for a state funeral.

April 18 was not a good day for the Japanese in WWII.

The previous year (1942) on that date, James Doolittle, then a Lieutenant Colonel, led 16 B-25 bombers on a daring raid on Japan.

They were launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. 10 planes, including that of Doolittle bombed Tokyo. The remaining 6 bombed Yokosuka, Yokohama, Kobe, and Nagoya. Little real damage was done but it was a great blow to Japanese prestige. It forced Japan use more assets to guard the Home Islands. It also prodded Admiral Yamamoto to move up his plans for the invasion of Midway Island.

Doolittle was awarded the Medal of Honor and promoted to Brigadier General. Yamamoto was ..... see above.

April 18th
There were not enough of them during WWII
Just my opinion.
Ed

hi dave
thank you for showing the best of the greatest generation and the ddesyes jimmy doolittle was a class act what set him off was when in the pacfic we were hunting for the japanese carrier i believe akagi hope that was the correct name we sent up several avenger planes every day then luck had it we found thier largest cartrier afloat weunk thier carrier but i believe the japanese shot down a few avengers pilot and rear gunner the japanese fished i believe four of our pilots and gunners they trasfered them to a japanese naval ship and the captain of that ship then tied all four of our pilots to thier anchor and draged them back to japan

jimmy doolittle he heard this and it outraged him thats when he launched bombers off the our cartier but had all ready contacted the brittish coast watchers and burried gasoline on an island to pay back the japanese in full for what they had done god bless our pilots souls and god bless the brittish coast watchers with out them this couldnt be dave thank you for posting this great history you got coffee at york penn show god bless andy

Wow, Andy,

That covers a lot of ground!

hi dave and members
here is a young boy in bklyn new york age 6 yrs old in 1945 when these soldiers came home two of my friends and i went to the movies and watched the eyes and ears of the world war captions on the germans and the japanese one slide showed the japanese soldiers captured three austrailan soldiers and they were beheadubg them i looked at this young aussie probly 20 yrs old i loked the aussie soldier in the face and made a promise that i will never for get you i wanted to put a memmorial on thier grave i must have asked and spoke to many english and austrailian people every one said andy the war graves are on the outher side of australer

i didnt care about the cost of this great deed just last year i found a austrailian man that said i will get this noble deed done for you i told him to please have a card that read from the little boy from bklyn new york who never forgot you i said to my friend how much do i owe you he said nothing your a hionorble man my heart was filled with tears and still does what these japanese soldiers did with thier buschdo code of honor look at the rape of nan king 1937 a big horror this is why our soldiers who served in the south pacfic never bought anything japanese but look at how times has changed ok guys enjoy the history im going to bed god bless and remember dave you started this great history andy

Once again its April 18, so I'll pull this up again.

Sorry Andy isn't around any more to add his thoughts

Dave

and its April 30th,,,day AH blew his brains out !!!!!

In this picture - same as the one a few posts up, there are three inconsistencies in the uniforms of the three generals shown:

What are they ?

Dave
The pocket flap styles are for sure different. And the belts seem to be different colors, but could be age.
Ed

The pocket flaps and belt color are two.

Look at the three generals - there are other uniform inconsistencies. Can you spot them ?

Well? Two have there ties tucked, and one hanging down full.
And two seem to have collar insignia, while one looks to not have any.
I dont know.
Ed

Ed,

I see three sets of collar insignia. Marshall and Doolitlle have theirs more or less parallel to the upper collar line while Arnold has his across the collar wings.

Two other inconsistencies left

pleated pants, Large and small stars. Is she wearing flight wings.

Right !

Plus - This is the first time I have seen the Medal of Honor hanging as a medal rather than around the neck.

Your right.Good eye Dave!

The MOH on a neck ribbon was not instituted until 1944

Thanks Vern, Love learning something new.