My dad was in his senior year of high school when the war started. He dropped out and together with his three brothers, they enlisted. Dad ended up on an aircraft carrier and he talked about that experience, to anyone that would listen, until he died in 2004.
One occurrence he described was being under Japanese air attack, the ship started firing its 5/38s (cannon with a 5" dia. shell) at the in-coming planes, then the quad-40s (40mm anti-aircraft gun in groups of four) opened up and finally the pom-poms (20mm anti-aircraft gun). He said you didn't really have to worry about getting strafed until you heard the pom-poms.
One particular plane was bearing down from overhead when they figure it took a hit from a 5" shell directly in the engine, but it was so close the shell didn't explode. Either that or it was a dud. Regardless, the plane lost its momentum with the hit and was no longer flying, now it was falling, flat and in a slow spin, like a leaf from a tree, a 5000lb leaf. It hit the flight deck in a heap, the pilot slumped over in the cockpit, most likely dead from shell fragments or the landing. Someone ran over and gleaned whatever intelligence they could quickly from the cockpit and then they just washed the plane, with the pilot, over the side with fire hoses.
Later that night, after things had settled down some and he had time to think, he said he felt sad for the pilot and his family because no one would ever know where he was.
One occurrence he described was being under Japanese air attack, the ship started firing its 5/38s (cannon with a 5" dia. shell) at the in-coming planes, then the quad-40s (40mm anti-aircraft gun in groups of four) opened up and finally the pom-poms (20mm anti-aircraft gun). He said you didn't really have to worry about getting strafed until you heard the pom-poms.
One particular plane was bearing down from overhead when they figure it took a hit from a 5" shell directly in the engine, but it was so close the shell didn't explode. Either that or it was a dud. Regardless, the plane lost its momentum with the hit and was no longer flying, now it was falling, flat and in a slow spin, like a leaf from a tree, a 5000lb leaf. It hit the flight deck in a heap, the pilot slumped over in the cockpit, most likely dead from shell fragments or the landing. Someone ran over and gleaned whatever intelligence they could quickly from the cockpit and then they just washed the plane, with the pilot, over the side with fire hoses.
Later that night, after things had settled down some and he had time to think, he said he felt sad for the pilot and his family because no one would ever know where he was.
