The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway

Description

Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgments; Special Note; Abbreviations and Special Terms; PART I: The Early Operations; 1. Introduction to War; The Fighting Squadrons: Missions, Men, and Aircraft; AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NO DRILL; Pearl Harbor Aftermath; The Sara to the Front; 2. ""We are in great need of a victory."" The Wake Island Operation; Initial Moves; The Disappointment; 3. Interregnum; The Weeks of Futility; The Samoan Operation -- The Yorktown to the Pacific; 4. ""This Sunday it's our turn to shoot!"" The 1 February Raids; Approach to Battle.;Hailed as one of the finest examples of aviation research, this comprehensive 1984 study presents a detailed and scrupulously accurate operational history of carrier-based air warfare. From the earliest operations in the Pacific through the decisive Battle of Midway, it offers a narrative account of how ace fighter pilots like Jimmy Thach and Butch O'Hare and their skilled VF squadron mates - called the ""first team""--Amassed a remarkable combat record in the face of desperate odds. Tapping both American and Japanese sources, historian John B. Lundstrom reconstructs every significant ac.