World War II Database

1.  Bill says:
14 Apr 2015 08:48:28 PM

TARGETS OF OPPORTUNITY:

Zekes look like easy pickings the B-25 was armed with .50 caliber machine guns and different types of bombs. The Fifty could really tear apart the thin skinned Zero and turn it into flaming junk in the air or on the ground.

At the end of WWII the Japanese surrendered all
military equipment on Formosa now known as Taiwan the Nationalist Chinese were able to repair some of the leftover aircraft.

2.  Bill says:
14 Dec 2016 07:09:27 PM

DECOYS: DUMMY AIRCRAFT

During WWII both the Axis and Allies made dummy aircraft, and even airfields and equipment. From a fast moving aircraft they looked real sitting on the ground.

File photo shows A6M Zeros being strafed, were they operational fighters, decoys or bamboo and paper dummies. Aircraft just sitting in the open without camouflage against air attack

MIX & MATCH:

The Japanese made dummy aircraft from bamboo, paper or other material, even cans of gas were placed under the decoy, so when it was strafed, it would blow up.

Even unserviceable aircraft that was scattered around or junked planes stripped of parts were also used as decoys.

3. Anonymous says:
4 Sep 2019 11:22:44 PM

At a museum I know a younger Chinese-American guy with his father, who grew up in Taiwan, visited one day and the father lit up at the sight of a TBM torpedo bomber, pointing and saying [in Chinese, to his son] "that's the one!".

The father was recalling, as a young boy, watching the American carrier-based planes strafe a Japanese airfield in Taiwan - he lived nearby.

Amazing moment. The son was affected, too.