MM
Charter Member
After some thought...let's go with the historic flow.
Here the Hog is getting some attention at Seghe. (It's receiving new navigation equipment and a few cockpit adjustments.) The scenery is Mark Schimmer's cool Project Solomon 1943. The aircraft is the Aircraft Factory (A2A) Corsair in the colors of VF-17's Ike Kepford. Nicknamed by the press as "Blackburn's Irregulars," Fighting Seventeen included an number of independent, spirited, and supremely skillful pilots who performed with deadly heroism over Bougainville and Rabaul in late 1943 and early 1944.
The air war, jointly conducted by the US Navy, Marines, USAAF, and their Australian and Kiwi counterparts, eliminated Rabaul as a naval and aviation power center. The Allies' mastery of the skies and their ability to savage the harbor and airfields made any military buildup a dangerous proposition. The Japanese eventually withdrew the bulk of their forces to Truk. The Allies isolated the fortress and proceeded with McArthur's Western New Guinea campaign. In a surprise to then-conventional thought, Operation Cartwheel succeeded without ever having to invade either Rabaul or Kavieng. This air power victory was a harbinger of things to come.
Here the Hog is getting some attention at Seghe. (It's receiving new navigation equipment and a few cockpit adjustments.) The scenery is Mark Schimmer's cool Project Solomon 1943. The aircraft is the Aircraft Factory (A2A) Corsair in the colors of VF-17's Ike Kepford. Nicknamed by the press as "Blackburn's Irregulars," Fighting Seventeen included an number of independent, spirited, and supremely skillful pilots who performed with deadly heroism over Bougainville and Rabaul in late 1943 and early 1944.
The air war, jointly conducted by the US Navy, Marines, USAAF, and their Australian and Kiwi counterparts, eliminated Rabaul as a naval and aviation power center. The Allies' mastery of the skies and their ability to savage the harbor and airfields made any military buildup a dangerous proposition. The Japanese eventually withdrew the bulk of their forces to Truk. The Allies isolated the fortress and proceeded with McArthur's Western New Guinea campaign. In a surprise to then-conventional thought, Operation Cartwheel succeeded without ever having to invade either Rabaul or Kavieng. This air power victory was a harbinger of things to come.
