Category Archives: Blown Slick Series

Blown Slick Series #13 Part 25 I As noted in Reflections Part 1, this series has been intended to study carrier aviation using the first full year of U.S. involvement in the Pacific as a vehicle. Part 3  addresses selected … Continue reading →

Blown Slick Series #13 Part 24 Lexington, Saratoga, Yorktown, Enterprise, Wasp, Hornet….Only two would survive 1942, but they and their crews and their airgroups would stand in the breech and provide America and its allies the vital year it needed … Continue reading →

Blown Slick Series #13 Part 23  In 1945 U.S. fast carriers supported the final amphibious operations of the war—the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa—drawing the noose tight around Tokyo’s neck. Aircraft from Third and Fifth fleet carriers also pounded … Continue reading →

Blown Slick Series #13 Part 22 Japanese cargo ship Kinugawa Maru  beached on the Guadalcanal shore.  She had been sunk by U.S. aircraft on 15 November 1942 while attempting to deliver men and supplies to Japanese forces holding the northern … Continue reading →

Blown Slick Series #13 Part 21 On the morning of 13 November 1942, Marine aircraft of the “Cactus Air Force” attacked and caused the destruction of the Japanese battleship Hiei off Savo Island.  F4F Wildcat fighters of Marine squadron VMF-121, … Continue reading →

Blown Slick Series #13 Part 20 (2/2) Who won? As the two navies carrier battle groups retreated from the fourth and last carrier battle of 1942, the Japanese by multiple metrics could be judged to have won the day. Both … Continue reading →

Blown Slick Series #13 Part 19 (1/2) On the morning of 26 October, during the attack on the Enterprise,  Task Force 61 Commander Admial Thomas Kinkaid remarked with pardonable hyperbole to AP correspondent Eugene Burns: “You’re seeing the greatest carrier … Continue reading →

Blown Slick Series #13 Part 18 (3/3) The Eastern Solomons became the most intensively studied carrier action yet… Despite intensive analysis, the battle as a whole remained a mystery.  Lundstrom Blindman’s Bluff (3) – An Empty Sea After the final … Continue reading →

Blown Slick Series #13 Part 17 (2/3) To say the least we were in a bad predicament. All of our attack planes were committed on missions with the main enemy force still unlocated and his planes coming in to attack … Continue reading →

Blown Slick Series #13 Part 16 (1/3) Thus begins the day of 23 August, 1942 – Battle of the Eastern Solomons [24–25 August 1942] At breakfast Fletcher read a special Cincpac Ultra message advising that the “Orange striking force” of two … Continue reading →