Grumman TBF Avenger
Night Battle: The Barroom Brawl Off Guadalcanal
By David Alan JohnsonNovember 13, 1942, was a Friday, which sailors aboard the cruiser USS San Francisco noted with anxiety. Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
Death of the Super Battleship Yamato and Musashi
By Herb KugelSpecial Sea Attack Force (SSAF) was an ordinary-sounding name for the pitifully tiny remnant of what was once the mighty Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
Kiwis Over the Pacific: The RNZAF in World War II
By Allyn VannoyDuring early World War II operations in the Pacific, Geoff Fisken would become one of the most outstanding pilots of the RNZAF—the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
Battle of the Philippine Sea & The ‘Great Marianas Turkey Shoot’
By John WukovitsLieutenant Tom Bronn glanced anxiously at the fuel gauge on his Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. He had been aloft for almost four hours, engaged in a hectic combination of trying to locate Japanese ships he knew to be in the Philippine Sea, diving down to unleash his four bombs at a carrier as dusk enveloped his aircraft, and then embarking on a desperate search for his own carrier, the USS Lexington, in the darkness. Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
Submarine Special Missions in the Pacific
By Steven Trent SmithSunsets over Manila Bay are nothing less than spectacular. Once the sun dips below the horizon there is a lingering illumination known as “blue hour” as the sky gradually shifts from pale azure to deep indigo before fading completely into the black tropical night. Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
First Casualties at Iwo Jima
By Christopher MarksLieutenant Harold Gilson Payne, Jr., was one of the first Americans to die at Iwo Jima. He did not fall in the carnage of the Marine invasion that began on February 19, 1945. Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
Death of the Fighting Lady: Frank Heineman’s Story
By Joan HuntThe 13,000 ton Independence-class aircraft carrier USS Princeton, which was commissioned on February 25, 1943, quickly became known as the “Fighting Lady.” Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
Dorie Miller: A Black Sailor’s Heroism at Pearl Harbor
By Michael D. HullHis name was Doris, but he was a powerfully built football fullback, a heavyweight boxer, and the first black American hero of World War II. Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
Withdrawal from Guadalcanal: Abandoning the Island of Death
By David Alan JohnsonThe first Japanese general officer to suggest abandoning Guadalcanal to the Americans was probably Maj. Gen. Kenryo Sato, the War Ministry’s chief of its Military Affairs Bureau. Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
USS Midway: Floating Museum in San Diego Harbor
By Christopher MiskimonA boat trip through San Diego harbor provides visitors with tangible proof of America’s military might. San Diego is one of the U.S. Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
Perilous Rescue of the SS Cape San Juan
By Eric NiderostThe giant Martin PBM-3R “Mariner” landed with a kind of swanlike grace, its stubby bow parting the waters, transforming them into a series of white and foamy ripples that radiated from the seaplane’s wake. Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
Hard Charging Landings
By Kevin M. HymelTo naval aviators, any landing they could walk away from was a good landing. The escort aircraft carrier USS Charger trained men in good landings, but bad landings were also part of the education. Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
The Battle of Cape Esperance: A Sorely Needed Naval Victory
By David Alan Johnson“One large, two small vessels, one six miles from Savo off northern beach, Guadalcanal. Will investigate closer.” Read more
Grumman TBF Avenger
Hell on New Britain
By Adam LynchThe American effort to neutralize the big Japanese air-sea base at Rabaul on the island of New Britain in the South Pacific was heating up, and 18-year-old aviation radioman John Kepchia was about to feel the heat. Read more
