Destroyer Histories  Nurse's Story  Huertgen Forest Henderson Field Battle of Okinawa Pacific Stories 
   USS     O'Bannon USS Emmons Carrier Story
 Sinking of U116
 Ron's Site

  Maine    Potatoes    

The Girls

Updates and Site Information

 Almost a hundred stories listed here and over a thousand pictures. If you missed WW2, this is almost as good as having been there.

 

Above: Huertgen Forest Scene

65 Years later, American Military Still Searches for missing GIs

Last letter home of Ensign William R. Evans Jr. of Torpedo Squadron 8 of the USS Hornet before meeting his death in Torpedo 8 attack at Midway

A Salute to Ray Fleig Huertgen Forest Hero

    

  

     The Last  Naval Sword Fight of WW2

Twenty-four unauthorized pictures of 1st and 5th Marine Divisions on Guadalcanal. Taken by a young marine with his own camera. He could have been shot for doing this but he's safe now as he recently passed away.

 Loss of the largest naval vessel of WW2   The Japanese IGN Shinano

Chinese Officials board our ships

Next, the Russians check us out.

Then, the French really get nosey
 
 The Battle of the Huertgen Forest

As miserable a battle that has ever been fought. See picture at left for a preview and click for the story.   

•The Million Dollar Wound by Donald Stibitz
 •Robert Knaack's Huertgen Forest Forest
 Paul Lambert -- outstanding American hero
Horror at Guadalcanal

..
 The depiction of the above battle shows the USS Atlanta firing at the Japanese battleship Hiei.  An 8" shell missed this author by just a few feet. 

German Combat Stories
    The Gerd Horner Story
    The Hans Falkenstein Story
    The Fritz Tillman Story
    Counter Attack on Schmidt
    To Bogheim -- The Roland Fischer Story
    The Jagdpanthers
    The Luftwaffen Battle Report
    The Gunther Schmidt Story
     The August Govert Story
     The Bricked Door Story 

A Truce -- A Time for Healing
Henderson Field -- Remembered
This is a complete story of the battle for the island of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific with the airstrip at the center of this amazing contest between the two superpowers; Japan and the United States.

A War Orphan's Journey   a 2nd generation tale
 Dead for a Moment

•The 44th Evacuation Hospital by -- The Nurse Hampton Story 
 
•The Last Survivor of the USS Juneau
     More Stories  • The Last Day of the USS Wasp
The Last Day of the USS Emmons
The Last Day of the USS De Haven
The Last Day of the USS Twiggs
The Last of the Japanese IJN Carrier Shinano 
Cliff Hemstock's USS Chevalier Rescue mission
Life Aboard the USS Hoggatt Bay aircraft carrier

 

Japanese Stories 

  Surrender
The Army That Disappeared
Medics of Death
The Girls of Yamaguchi High March Off To War

 

 

Japanese Zeros on the ground ready for take-off
 
    Reserved for future Story
 

Chronicles of Ron van Rijt

Metal Detector Search

New: Rare War Story

Trip to the Old Site Working on a New Site

                                                                What's left of the USS Emmons is shown below-- Part of porthole in the hands of Ed Hoffman who was on the bridge when two Jap planes hit there.

See April 2009 Update with new pictures on the sea floor.

Great leaders shown below
 
The great admiral Norman Scott Killed in the Friday 13th battle.

 

  Admiral Turner
Saved out Taskforce on Nov. 12, 1942
   
Joe Foss
One of America's
greatest pilots
Top Navy Pilot
Lt. McCambell
 

 

  Some great pictures
The Battle of Santa Cruz
The Quick and the Dead
;Reserved for new story
Reserved for new story
 
 

 

Below: Dutch Naval Officer checks us out as we sit in Tokyo Bay
 
This young lady, Mary Kathryn Hampton, volunteered as a nurse and went off to war and was on the front lines in Evacuation Battalion 44. She saw plenty of action and celebrated the US victory in Paris.
 

How about those Australian Girls?

Left: This is a fantastic picture taken  by Life photographers shortly after Henderson Field was taken. Sitting at left  in front of the captured Pagoda Tower is the great bomber pilot Lieutenant Colonel Richard C. Mangrum with two other Henderson pilots.

  Below: What has to be the worse defeat for the United States Navy as it looses four cruisers in one battle. The USS Quincy  settles to the bottom of Sealark Channel at Guadalcanal. These sailors probably wished they had joined the army.

 

Picture above shows the three great aces of the Cactus Air Force: Lt. Smith, Maj. Galer and Capt. Carl.

 

Above: Obviously a fan of this site. His name is Patrick and he is from Belgium

Holland native Ron van Rijt guides visitors through the Huertgen Forest on a regular basis           
 
Introduction to some great pictures of WW2
How were the Australian girls anyway?
Some odd events that occurred aboard the ship
The captain of our ship, our hero
Dead for a Moment

 

Above: Picture of author in better days with his ship the USS O'Bannon and 17 battle stars -- a record

 

 

The First B-17s to fly into Guadalcanal

    

Above: The bomber pilots of the Cactus Air Force plan strategy

 

Below: Hollywood couldn't wait to turn the Guadalcanal battles into a movie at shown below. And to the right, is shown Pappy Boyington who became a TV legend in the Black Sheep Squadron on TV

 

 
 
 
       Murphy's Law for Combat Operations
     The USS Helena Disaster
     First and Last Day of the Japanese carrier Shinano
     Destroyer Squadron 21 (Desron 21)

  

  The Tojo Ice Company goes into business

 
  
 

 

  

     This captured Japanese cold storage unit was stocked with cold beer and crab meat which was soon consumed by a bunch of  hungry American marines and without so much as a thank you.
This plaque of course is self explanatory but it makes a nice addition to the Potato story

Read: The Maine Potato Incident

 
Letter Home
Reserved for new story
Combat Incidents
Reserved for new story
   Cliff Hempstock's Memorial Boat Trip

Chicago's O'Hare airport was named after this great naval pilot of World War II at right and on the left is a photo of Naval Ace Lt. Runyon.
 
This is probably the top Cactus pilot -- Lt. John Smith
 
E-mails from Readers of this Site
Readers Volume Two
Readers Volume Three
Readers Volume Four
Readers Volume Five
  Readers Volume Six
At left: German Lt. Lengfelfd and the Memorial that was given him by the American soldiers of the
U.S. 4th Inf. Division. .
Above: Memorial to the Enemy Story - Lt. Lengfeld
Accolades from our Readers
Stories that perhaps should remain untold
Reserved for a new story -- soon
Reserved for a new story -- soon
Reserved for a new story -- soon
Met this girl (well not this exact girl) on the island of Bora Bora. She was eating a banana and threw it down and headed my way. What to do?

According the ship's Doctor you could get the Bubonic Plague of even the Black Death or something like that if you fooled around with these girls. A handshake was as good as it gets.
 
    A salute  to Those Who Wait at Home
Mannequins called into service
Pick your way through this photo album
 

Below: Read Japanese Ace Suburo's daring exploits

An American Interview with Suburo after the war.

Seen here are three incredibly brave sailors who are volunteering to be human torpedoes.
 
Counter Attack at Schmidt
The General Gavin Story
Reserved for new story
   

This lovely trio spun a new O'Bannon story as a school work project with unusual results - Read their strange story

                       

At right: Michael, Read his story

                      

These were the planes that were saving our bacon
 
On Television, the History Channel produced a TV program detailing the roll of the Fletcher class destroyers in WW2 Click for details
Reserved for new story           
"Reserved for new story

This photo was taken on the USS Nicholas as we shelled the Munda airfield. Shown above was my battle station in the emergency radio room between five inch guns numbers 4 and 5. I never dozed off there even once.
 
Major Galer -- a great Cactus air force pilot
 
The Sinking of a German Submarine
Personal Pictures of German Soldiers in Russia
 
 

Shown below: The USS O'Bannon, my ship and home for over two years. In that time period the ship became the most decorated  U.S. destroyer of World War II with 17 battle stars, one less than the top carrier, Enterprise which had 18 battle stars. Not bad being second best.

 
 

Admiral Callaghan gave his life in the Friday 13th battle. Two American admirals killed in this battle

 

Japanese Admiral Yamamoto -- planner of Pearl Harbor attack and many other naval actions.

 

Admiral Chester Nimitz

 

  
 

Capt. Marian Carl, the first Navy Ace of WW2

                  

 
 

His name was actually Gregory Boyington and he flew with the "Flying Tigers" and the Marines

 
 

Japanese Naval Flag

 

Japanese Soldier -- one tough customer

 

 Japanese at the helm

 

 

Below: Jap plane bombs us in  Sealark Channel Guadalcanal

 

Above and below: Aboard a Japanese aircraft carrier

 

 

Above: The much feared Kamikaze pilots

  

The O'Bannon makes it into comic book ComicBook.htmhistory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This fantastic photo was taken aboard a carrier in the South Pacific as this plane waited for take-off. The pilot was notified by signs held up by crew- mates that the carrier USS Hornet was gone. You can resize the photo and read the signs for yourself.