Aviation History - January 2016

48 AH January 2016

A

fter the mid-1944 Battle of the Philip-

pine Sea—the “Great Marianas Turkey

Shoot”—the U.S. military considered

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the destroyer screen around Task Force

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taken it upon himself to personally lead an attack

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close call

Above: This attack by

a Zero on the battle-

ship Missouri on April

11, 1945, did only

minor damage. Above

right: Vice Admiral

Takijiro Onishi, father

of kamikaze tactics.

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days after the torpedo run on Franklin_PMVVW

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to the Japanese spirit.

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more aircraft carriers. “In my opinion there is

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an enemy carrier.”

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the same to the U.S. Navy.

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IQZXI\ZWT\PMM[KWZ\KIZZQMZSantee_I[XZMXIZQVO PREVIOUS PAGES: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; ABOVE LEFT: U.S. NAVY; ABOVE RIGHT:ASAHI SHIMBUN

/GETTY IMAGES; OPPOSITE PHOTOS: NATIONAL ARCHIVES