June 2018

Bunz & Katz Midway SBD Nose-Art

I haven't done a "Nose Art" Calendar for a long long time - So thought this year I'd try one with Bunz & Katz adorning my favorite of all WWII Warbirds, the Douglas SBD Dauntless... They were old - slow - considered obsolete, but when it came to ship-busting they did the job!

While our calendar this month commemorates some 76 years ago when the Imperial Mobile Fleet and US Navy slugged it out around the Midway Atoll (From June 4 - 7 1942)... During which one wag remarked, "Admirals Spruance and Nagumo divided the Pacific Ocean between them - Spruance gave Nagumo the bottom half..." About everything that could go wrong, went wrong for Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, and when it was over Japan's fleet carriers - Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu along with the US carrier CV-5 Yorktown had taken that long plunge to the bottom of the Pacific...

Looking back at it today the battle all seems rather futile and pointless - it was horrific in its own way, but far worse was yet to come! Eventually the US and Japanese nations have become fast friends and partners in the world economy... It's just a terrible thing to wonder, Why couldn't we have managed this without all the horrors of the war?!?

Unfortunately, people tend to forget that War rarely solves anything - often it just leads to more War! And when our political leaders urge or threaten war on others, they're quite often men who never had the grit to serve in the military themselves... JQ

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June Calendar Pix:

Midway 1942 - small pix