The attack was successful, two bridges were destroyed and several huts were burned in the area. Only one aircraft failed to return, Flight Lieutenant Cullen’s Spitfire LF.VIII of 452 Squadron was missing. He was last seen recovering from a dive-bombing run having successfully released his payload.
While Gerald Anderson didn’t receive a Victoria Cross, nor is his loss particularly commemorated, ultimately the price he paid was fully equal to Robert Gray’s, and was indeed equal to all of those who died and so deserves an equal measure of commemoration. That is why the model below is Gerald Anderson’s Corsair, not Robert Gray’s.
In early 1944 the US Navy assembled an untrained and ill-prepared fighter squadron and shipped it for immediate action in the final stage of Operation Cartwheel. This is the story of the first Fighting Squadron 34.
The Battle of the East China Sea.
“Nearly all [Beast] stories depend for their success on Jack killing the Giant, Beowulf or St. George slaying the Dragon… That is their inner grammar, and the whole shape of the story leads towards it.” – A.N. Wilson
In this unusual piece I make the argument for why I’ve painted my in-progress USN Helldiver in a somewhat unconventional scheme.
After the VLR P-51 I felt like doing something quick and easy. Here’s my Hasegawa Ki44-II as a straight up modelling piece.
Seven hours, covering 1300NM over open ocean, limited fuel, one engine, enemy fighters; there were few missions more relentlessly hazardous, nor with so many different hazards to face.
This is the story of an aircraft the RAAF didn’t want to use and a model I didn’t want to finish.
The men of the 348th, 349th and 6th Night Fighter Squadrons were more than the nose art on their P-61’s.
The 13th Air Force did not fight the most glamorous of wars, theirs’ was a war of ground attack, relentlessly destroying Japanese ground forces and infrastructure. They fought, not from centralized bases closely tied together, but from island bases, spread hundreds of miles apart.
Making-History 