Barbers Point NAS

Have lived on this earth a quarter-century today; 25 years and I’m still a lost soul. Wonder how much longer this war will last.

Our landing in North Africa certainly threw the Axis for a loss (temporary?) Wonder what will become of the French fleet, which left Toulon yesterday? Everyone is tensely waiting to hear.

Back to Air Intelligence this morning. Read through many very interesting files. Found a report telling of Jackson torpedoing a Jap carrier in the S.W. Pacific only a few weeks ago. The squadron has had no inkling of this yet. Old “Jake” spotted it on an overcast (3,000 ft) moonlight night and glided in from 1,000 ft. over the destroyer screen to launch it point-blank had only 50 ft. altitude. A hit was confirmed later.

Another unusual incident found a PBY hovering over a Jap cruiser (again at night in an overcast moon) about 300 miles out of Espiritu Santo. The PBY (VP-91) approached the cruiser from the rear in a steep dive, dropped two five hundred pound bombs astern (co-pilots mistake) and two more directly onto the after-deck of the cruiser, forward of the rear turret. This hit silenced the A.A. fire which had commenced only after the first accidental accidental drop astern. A few minutes later the cruiser was seen to flare up twice in violent explosions.

Much interesting dope from captured Jap diaries. Now I understand more thoroughly the “no diary in combat zones” rule.

Went over to the Minneapolis (in drydock) and found Lew Larson. Had lunch and a long talk together. He had a few narrow squeaks down in the Solomons area with his ship, but no actual action.

Back to Barbers Point with a load of new models of ships and planes.