Highly recommended reading for all

[Fog]

I have just finished reading A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight (author Robert J. Mrazak). This book, all 500+ pages, covers the fascinating story of the officers & men of VT-8 and provides detail about the Battle of Midway & the Guadalcanal Campaign that this reader (who's read most everything about the Pacific Theater of WWII) had never seen elsewhere. Incredible courage, stupidity & fortitude are all described in our naval commanders & personnel in what became the turning-point of the Pacific War. John Waldron, the VT-8 CO, led his men in obsolete Devastator torpedo planes against the Japanese fleet without air cover in an action that lost 45 of the squadron's 48 flying personnel - but paved the way for the sinking of 4 Japanese carriers at Midway. Later, the remaining squadron personnel participated in the "Cactus Air Force" at Henderson Field - even manning foxholes with Chesty Puller's Marines at "Bloody Knoll Ridge" after all their planes had been destroyed by Japanese bombing & naval gunfire at Henderson Field. It is truly an incredible part of naval & marine history that should make all of us proud to have been a part of the same Navy.

 

[OUSOONER]

I read this book almost a year ago and it is a great read. I am a WW2 history nerd, with a special interest in the carrier battles and also the 8th AF. This book and Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought The Air War Against Nazi Germany by: Donald L. Miller, are must haves for any aviation enthusiast.

Masters of the Air pretty much encompasses the whole air war of the "Mighty Eighth" but A Dawn Like Thunder really gets intricate with Torpedo Squadron Eight and the whole debacle of Midway (for the torpedo bombers anyway)...but also continues VT-8's story afterward.

 

[Owen]

Ditto

A DAWN LIKE THUNDER is a tremendous. The level of detail about men dead
since 1942 is astounding. It will send chills down your back. One guy that is
in there is named Gene Hansen. He was one of the nugget Ensigns who went
to the Grumman plant on Bethpage, LI to pick up the first TBFs. They flew them
across the country, loaded them aboard ship and shipped them to Pearl Harbor.

As we know the VT-8 guys aboard Hornet were slaughtered. Six of the TBFs
were flown from Pearl to Midway and they operated from the island. This was
because there were only six bombay mounted ferry tanks. Because Hansen
was so junior he was not picked to make the trip. That's probably why he
is alive today. Only one of the six Avengers returned from the mission.

I've not talked with Hansen in a while, but to my knowledge he is still
alive and retired in Pensacola. Lots of retired military men have a shadow-
box on the wall displaying their medals. There is something humbling about
seeing one with three Navy Crosses in it.