Yes, the Eastern Island of Midway.
It's really just a tiny spec of dirt in the middle of a vast expanse of water. Strange to think of how much blood was spilled over it, and how important it was to be able to hold onto it at the time.
Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
- Start date
Yes, the Eastern Island of Midway.
It's really just a tiny spec of dirt in the middle of a vast expanse of water. Strange to think of how much blood was spilled over it, and how important it was to be able to hold onto it at the time.
The Wizard
CGN Regular
- Location
- Colorado Springs, Colorado USA
Seems kinda lonely now... Used to be quite the busy place:
The island has been rotated 180 degrees. As seen in the picture north is south and south is north.
The Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, currently housing about 40 or so researchers of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Due to funding cuts, there are no tours or visitation allowed outside of US-FWS staff, (though it was allowed between 2008-2013) and none of the airfields are listed as operational, although one remaining runway is maintained to Active Emergency Diversion standards (whatever that means - not a pilot, but I'm guessing it means "if you're desperate, give 'er).
The whole Atoll, oriented more traditionally (North on top) to keep The Wizard happy
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Looks like Delta used the runway once, anyhow:
[youtube]UcI-pMC1ALA[/youtube]
Back in the day, the planes were smaller.
[youtube]UcI-pMC1ALA[/youtube]
Back in the day, the planes were smaller.
We landed there for fuel with our C-130 in Nov 1981. We were returning home to Trenton from Japan and had a mechanical problem that prevented us from pressurizing so had to fly low level and burnt a lot more fuel flying at the lower altitudes. A total of 26.5 hours flying at 10,000' didn't make a lot of sense because it could have got fixed in Japan but, hey, it was a military decision.......
Midway Island is home to the funny looking Gooney Birds that have difficulty landing.
Operation Ariel (also Operation Aerial) was the name given to the World War II evacuation of Allied forces and civilians from ports in western France from 15–25 June 1940, following the military collapse in the Battle of France against Nazi Germany. It followed Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk and Operation Cycle, an evacuation from Le Havre, which finished on 13 June. British and Allied ships were covered from French bases by five Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter squadrons and assisted by aircraft based in England to lift British, Polish and Czech troops, civilians and equipment from Atlantic ports, particularly from St. Nazaire and Nantes.
http://www.geocities.ws/shipwrecks_magazine/aerial.htm
http://www.geocities.ws/shipwrecks_magazine/aerial.htm
I guess it would minimize troop dispersion.
That was the first large scale paratroop drop in history. It was made by the Russians in the mid 30's.
The Germans and the Brits paid close attention to these early Russian experiments. The Germans would make the first combat paratroop jumps in history when they invaded Denmark and Norway in 1940.
