Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

Free Sample Chapters 221
AMM3 Tom Powell, the turret gunner aboard Lt(jg) Robert Oscar’s
TBF, located on the right wing of LCdr Jack Collett’s lead Avenger, was
watching on the right side of the formation when the Zeros hit. This was
his role in a new method of formation defense known as concentrated
cone fire. All the turret gunners on the right watched and fired to the
right, and all the turret gunners on the left watched and fired to the left.
The area overhead and between the right and left airplanes was a freefire
zone. The tunnel gunners directed their attention and fire by the
same method. From the first moment the Zeros broke out of the sun
firing all their weapons, Powell was engaged up to his eyeballs in
returning the fire. He never even noticed that the lead Avenger had fallen
out of the formation.
During one sweeping firing pass by a Zero shotai, Powell thought
he saw one of the enemy fighters explode in mid air, but his attention
was instantly diverted elsewhere. A few moments later, during a fast
peek over the side of the airplane, he definitely saw another Zero smoking
as tracers from another Avenger passed all the way through it. The
ensuing kill was credited to ARM3 Charles Shinneman, the turret gunner
aboard Lt Tommy Thompson’s TBF, the lead plane in the stepped-down
second torpedo element. Powell had no fewer than three Zeros in view
at all times throughout the brief engagement.
*
The tail-end Avenger in the first section, piloted by Ens John Reed,
was mortally hit by the second Zero shotai passing from ahead to astern.
AMM3 Murray Glasser, the turret gunner, barely had time to fire a few
bursts at the passing Zeros before the intercom crackled with Ensign
Reed’s screams, “Bail out! Bail out!” At precisely that moment, Glasser
realized that pieces of the airplane were flying back past the turret, and
he thought he saw the tip of flames licking around his post. He instantly
locked the turret and dropped into the large radio compartment.
The gunners’ chest parachutes, which were too large to wear in
the confined turret and tunnel, were secured by large bungee cords to
the bulkhead directly above the starboard hatch. Glasser was the first to
get to them, and he threw one to the radioman-bombardier, RM3 Grant
Harrison, who was sitting in the jump seat in front of the bombsight. It