Tag: today in history

Bruno Peter Gaido and The Battle of Midway

 

Today in History, June 4: 1942 – The Battle of Midway and Aviation Machinist Mate First Class Bruno Peter Gaido.

Today is a special day, the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway during WWII.  In brief, US Pacific forces had been decimated by a Japanese onslaught since Pearl Harbor.  The US Navy and USAAF had been fighting back, however, by bombing Japan during the Doolittle Raid, the Battle of the Coral Sea and several raids by Carrier Groups across the Pacific.

During a raid in March, 1942 on the Marshall Islands by a Task Force built around the USS Enterprise (CV 6), the ship was attacked by five twin engine Betty bombers.  Under withering fire, four turn back.  The lead plane however, attempts to crash into the aircraft carrier.  As the bomber grew closer, Aviation Machinist Mate Third Class Bruno Peter Gaido springs from the catwalk surround the flight deck and runs to a nearby SBD Dauntless Diver Bomber.  He climbs into the rear of the plane to use the rear gunner’s machine gun.  He began firing at the enemy plane, maintaining the fire into it’s cockpit even as it’s wing slices the rear of the SBD away mere inches from him.  The Betty crashed into the sea, and Bruno is credited with causing to miss the ship.

Bruno disappeared inside the bowels of the ship, figuring he’d be in trouble for leaving his normal battle station.  Quite the contrary; Admiral William “Bull” Halsey had him brought to the bridge, where he summarily ordered him promoted to Aviation Machinist Mate FIRST Class.

Spring forward to June 4, 1942 and Bruno Gaido was in the rear of Ensign Frank O’Flaherty’s Dauntless as they dove on the IJN Carrier Kaga when Bombing and Scouting 6 from Enterprise sent her to the bottom.  As many know, Akagi, Soryu and Hiryu would also be sunk that day.

Can you imagine what being a rear gunner in a WWII dive bomber must have been like?  During the attack, the aircraft dove at a 70% angle, nearly straight down.  Held tight by safety belts, scanning for any fighters that dared to attempt to follow the dive, the rear gunner may never have known of a crash or a hit by anti-aircraft fire.

After their bombing run Ensign O’Flaherty and AMM Gaido attempted to make it home to Enterprise, but due to a punctured fuel tank and another attack by Japanese Zero fighters, had to ditch at sea.

The pair were picked up, “rescued” by the Japanese destroyer Makigumo.  The officers of the destroyer, angered by the loss they had witnessed of the Japanese carriers, interrogated and tortured the American airmen.  After days of this, on June 15, they ordered weights tied the both men and had them thrown overboard to drown.  The Japanese sailors who survived the war to tell said both men faced their fate with courage and stoicism.  Bruno Gaido’s ship mates had expected no less…he had gained a reputation.

As for the war criminals on the Makigumo?  The ship was sunk during the Guadalcanal campaign and none of the officers responsible for the murder survived the war.

Terrorism Fails – 1919 America


Today in History, June 2: 1919 – Galeanist Anarchists set off 8 bombs almost simultaneously across the country. They were communist sympathetic anarchists that were trying to kill leaders they thought were preventing the over throw of the US government. In April they had sent 36 mail bombs to government and industrial leaders including John D. Rockefeller, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, J. P. Morgan, US Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, US Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson amongst many others. During the June 2nd bombings, they again targeted one of their primary enemies, Attorney General Palmer, at his home. The bomb killed the bomber when it went off prematurely, injured his housekeeper and his wife, and did significant damage to his home. His neighbors that lived across the street at the time barely escaped injury or death themselves, as they had walked past the front of Palmer’s front door minutes before the explosion occurred. One of the bomber’s body parts was found on their doorstep. Interesting how closely fate comes to changing vast segments of history; the neighbors that barely escaped were Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. Palmer was famous for the Palmer Raids, which targeted radical foreign anarchists for arrest and deportation and which helped launch the career of J. Edgar Hoover.

Not All They Appeared to Be


Today in History, June 3: 1937 – British Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII marries American double divorcee Wallis Simpson Warfield in France. In what is usually described as the ultimate romantic tale, the King had abdicated the throne in 1936 so that he could marry the American woman. However…the rest of the story. She had already married and divorced an American Naval pilot, and carried on her affair with Edward during her second marriage. Once she obtained her divorce and married the now former king (his family wanted nothing to do with her), they settled in France. The only Parliament member that had supported Edward, Winston Churchill, soon became Prime Minister. Now he had to “handle” the problem of the Duke and his spouse, who had, in the interim, become Nazi sympathizers. In the mixed up politics of Europe in thirties, this was not necessarily as odd as it seems. Nonetheless, the Duke and his wife were now a dangerous embarrassment to the crown. A saddened Churchill convinced Edward to sneak out of Spain and accept a post as Governor of the Bahamas…what amounted to banishment. He accepted and spent the war years talking badly about his own country from a distance. Not quite the romantic figure portayed. 

A Deadly Game


Today in History, June 2: 1763 – During Pontiac’s Rebellion against the British, a group of Ojibwe staged a game of baaga’adowe (a forerunner of modern lacrosse) outside Fort Michilimackinac as a ruse to gain entrance. After entering the fort, they killed most of the British inhabitants. They held the fort for a year before the British regained control, promising to offer more and better gifts to the native inhabitants of the area, around current Mackinaw City, Michigan. 

Horror in Johnstown


Today in History, May 31: 1889 – The Johnstown Flood. The area east of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania had received record rainfall; it was already a miserable day. But it would get increasing worse. 14 miles above Johnstown was an earthen dam which had come into disrepair. With the heavy rainfall, the South Fork Dam collapsed and 3.8 BILLION gallons of water rushed down the valley. Amongst all of the debris gathered by the torrent were 33 train engines. The 30,000 people of Johnstown had no warning when the water and debris reached them. Over 2200 men, women and children perished as the town was virtually washed away. The combination of trains, trees, houses and steel from a factory slammed into a bridge and a temporary dam was created….which caught fire. Many who had survived the raging waters burned to death before the bridge finally broke.

A Hero Honoring Heroes

 

Today in History, May 30: 1958 – At the Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetery, President Dwight Eisenhower awards the Medal of Honor to 3 unknown servicemen selected to lie beside the Unknown from WWI. The three, one from the Pacific Theater of WWII, one from the European Theater of WWII, and one from Korea, would eventually be joined by one from Vietnam.

And who better to bestow the Honor to these Heroes than General of the Army Dwight David Eisenhower, who had led the war effort in Europe during World War II?  “Ike” had not wanted the Presidency…he was literally drafted into it…initially very much against his will.  If we could only have such an “adult” to lead us in modern times.

A Brilliant and Rebellious Orator

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Today in History, May 29: 1736/1765 – Founding father Patrick Henry is born in Studley, Virginia (you can’t make this stuff up) in 1736.

On his 29th birthday, as a Representative in the Virginia House of Burgesses, he presented the Virginia Resolves on the Stamp Act…a response to British taxation without representation of the colonies.  The next day he gave a speech which riled his contemporaries.  Remember that at this time he and all colonists were proudly British subjects:

“Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third—” when, it is reported, voices cried out, “Treason! treason!” “—and George the Third may profit by their example! If this be treason…make the most of it.”

This brought a backlash for which he apologized.  He was not calling for the King’s assassination, but saying he should pay heed to history.

His most famous speech, of course, came during the second Continental Congress:

“Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace —
but there is no peace. The war is actually begun!
The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!

Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take but as for me,

Give me liberty or give me death!”

The Treaty of Perpetual Peace of 1503


Today in History, May 28: 1503 – King James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor of England marry, fulfilling an international agreement which had been sanctioned by the Pope, The Treaty of Perpetual Peace between England and Scotland. As it turns out, “perpetual” peace is good for about 10 years. In 1513 James declares war on England in support of France, who Scotland had a previous treaty with…and England had declared war on France. The Pope would excommunicate James IV for going back on his word, and he would soon die during the Battle of Flodden Field, becoming the very last Monarch of the British Empire to die in battle.

The Battle of the Eclipse


Today in History, May 28: 585 BC – “In the sixth year a battle took place in which it happened, when the fight had begun, that suddenly the day became night. And this change of the day Thales the Milesian had foretold to the Ionians laying down as a limit this very year in which the change took place. The Lydians however and the Medes, when they saw that it had become night instead of day, ceased from their fighting and were much more eager both of them that peace should be made between them.” –Herodotus (Greek historian, author of “The Histories”. After a five year war between two factions in what is now Turkey, the Battle of the Halys River, or The Battle of the Eclipse, was being fought when a solar eclipse suddenly turned day to night. Both sides took this as an omen, ended the battle, and subsequently the war. More importantly to history over all is the fact that astronomers are able to set the exact dates of past eclipses. As a result, this battle is the earliest historical event which historians are able to determine the specific date on which it occurred. How cool is that? As in all things, there is a proviso. While most historians agree on this, some say that it is possible the battle could have been ceased by a lunar, rather than solar eclipse, which would change the date.

The Legendary Phantom


Today in History, May 27: 1958 – The MacDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II makes it’s first flight. The Phantom had a payload of 18,000 lbs (the WWII B-17 had a payload of 2,000 lbs). The fighter bomber would serve well into the 90’s. Initially, no guns were included, as the .50 caliber was overshot by the Mach 2.2 speed of the Phantom. Once the fighter entered combat, it was soon discovered that the guns were still needed, so a 20mm cannon was added.