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Post by pampa14 on Sept 2, 2014 22:05:02 GMT 12
An island, an airfield, many aircraft and a mission: to preserve and expand the Allied air power in the Pacific. This was the Cactus Air Force. To see a full report and lots of photos, please visit the link below: aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br/2011/02/forca-aerea-cactus.htmlI hope you enjoy and I count on your visit!
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 2, 2014 22:52:13 GMT 12
Good to see the RNZAF Hudsons in there. The P-39's with shark mouths made me crack up laughing for some reason. Such crap fighters trying to look aggressive, hahaha
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Post by Luther Moore on Sept 3, 2014 1:03:01 GMT 12
Cactus was the code name for Henderson Field right?
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Post by Mustang51 on Sept 3, 2014 8:43:27 GMT 12
Those pics really brought back some memories. A day before we landed there in the PV-1 they 'found' a revetment on the "Bloody Ridge" side of the field still full of bombs but totally overgrown and invisible. Even after all this time they are still finding stuff and they expect to find remains etc for quite a long time yet.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 3, 2014 11:04:47 GMT 12
Luther, "Cactus" was the code word for the whole island of Guadalcanal. It was actually given the name under Operation Watchtower which was the operation under which the US Marines captured the island.
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Post by baz62 on Sept 3, 2014 12:46:16 GMT 12
Don't suppose we got any of those Dauntless SBD-3s?
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Post by Bruce on Sept 3, 2014 17:15:47 GMT 12
Good to see the RNZAF Hudsons in there. The P-39's with shark mouths made me crack up laughing for some reason. Such crap fighters trying to look aggressive, hahaha pretending to be P-40s (which of course always had Sharks teeth...)
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Post by Luther Moore on Sept 3, 2014 23:01:13 GMT 12
Luther, "Cactus" was the code word for the whole island of Guadalcanal. It was actually given the name under Operation Watchtower which was the operation under which the US Marines captured the island. Ah right, thanks for clearing that up. Plenty of P-39's with sharks teeth in The Thin Red Line
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Post by nuuumannn on Sept 4, 2014 14:48:30 GMT 12
Nice pics; really gives a clue to the atmosphere of the place. The P-39 wasn't such a bad aeroplane as is often made out. Sure, it wasn't the fastest, nor did it have good acceleration or altitude, but it was a solid aircraft and as long as pilots kept their speed up at low altitude and not try and mix it with enemy aircraft, they could get away from any attacking Japanese fighters. The thing was the Zero was much better than the P-39 in low speed manoeuvring, acceleration and climb. The Russians used the aircraft to good effect on the Eastern Front and many of their aces flew the type in combat. Mind you, they were pleased to get anything they could. I remember reading that Chuck Yeager, who never flew the P-39 in combat, but did fly it, stated that it was easy to fly.
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Post by davidd on Sept 7, 2014 13:28:38 GMT 12
Not entirely certain that ALL the photos were actually taken at Guadalcanal. To be fair, most were probably at Henderson, some were taken at Kukum (including one of F4F Wildcats in same servicing area as later used by RNZAF P-40s), and at least one of the RNZAF Hudson shots (the one with at least two Hudsosns visible under palm trees) was actually taken at "BUTTONS" which was at Pallikulo on Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu). However this photo has appeared numerous times captioned with the incorrct location, including books produced in New Zealand. David D
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