Forgotten US Carrier Tragedies of WWII

These are some clips from various crashes of planes landing onto aircraft carriers during WWII and at the end, the second nuclear bomb to land on Japan, "Fat-Man". Music: "Melodies of Life"- Nobuo Uematsu.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• US
• Carrier
• Tragedy
• WWII
• World
• War
• II
• 2
• Nuclear
• Bomb
• Nuke
• H-Bomb
• Hydrogen
• Atomic
• Atom
• Aircraft

[LittlePatton]

Does the average person think about those lost in these tragedies everyday? I've come to see that most people don't even know about any of this. That's forgotten.

[LittlePatton]

When you watch this..: Look at the guy on the runway with the signs after the second crash. :( It's so sad...

[gabe321]

WHat? What happened to him?

[LittlePatton]

He's devastated, he can't believe his eyes. Look how he falls.

[NYKevinNorth]

At 56 seconds into the video, when the fighter crashes on deck, and is on fire, and is about to drop into the sea, take note of the guy who jumps up on the side of the plane trying to get to the pilot.

Same type of guys are cops, firemen, soldiers and just the people who put themselves at risk for others. They are a really small percentage of our population but they're very special.

[logancody07]

Dear Perla, please don't waste your time replying to a person like "pudran." He's obviously not a gentleman for the language he's used. You can't expect much from people who enjoy watching a bull mercilessly butchered in a ring and call it a sport. I am an American of Italian descent. I'm very proud of my heritage. The Italians have given the world so much in art, music, literature, science. This ignorant person will never see that.

[Tarten46]

i know alot of guys that left the flight deck, joined other braches became infantry, cops, etc. all agree working the roof is the biggest rush theyve ever found. fly navy!

[usmctanks1]

Many of the crashes had "happy endings" as these clips are on other sites. The Hellcat that caught on fire had the pilot rescued by cat officer on deck, suffering burns but survived (as written in an earlier post). The Helldiver nosed over but crew survived. I believe the one (early) that hit the island killed a photographer, but the pilot survived.

[EattherichBuddy]

Incredible courage. Particularly that fellow who jumps up onto the plane. Was he mentioned in dispatches, given a medal, survive the war? What of the pilot, did he escape, continue to fight, buy that guy a beer everyday for life? I'd love to know.

[arew234]

nice music but it doesn't match what's going on in the video. Maybe something more

appropriate to the courageousness of the Navy guys.

[fiverats1]

@knightedwolf no it was an AD-1 sky raider that caught on fire on the edge of the deck.

[knightedwolf]

from what i can find, the officer that jumped up on the Hellcat to pull the pilot out was Lt Walt Chewning, the catapult officer. This happened in November of 1943 on board the USS Enterprise as Air Group Six flew aboard off of Hawaii enroute to operations in the Marshall Islands.

[kyzylsungur]

WWII was more safety than modern carriers for carrier pilots.

[snowballou]

@NYKevinNorth

I watched that twice it caught my eye, he never hesitated for even a second, a plane on fire that could explode and hanging on the edge, it could easily have toppled over into the sea. He never even slowed down, wow that's courage.

[JetMechMA]

@nancybrownlee Very touching information. Thanks for letting us know. Of course we've all seen that footage over and over through the years. Now we know the rest of the story. Thanks so much.

[JetMechMA]

At :52, the deck crewman ....ran into fire towards a spinning propeller that was obscured by smoke and fire. He leaped onto the burning airplane that was about to fall into the sea and be run over by the ship. That really choked me up.