January 3, 2023
Today in Microsoft Flight Simulator, I’ll be flying the Grumman F6F Hellcat, the most successful carrier-based Allied fighter of World War II. And to tell that story, I’m aboard the USS Essex (CV-9) just off the eastern coast of the island of Luzon in the Philippines, on the morning of October 24, 1944. Just a […]
May 30, 2019
By mid-September, the Japanese were ready to try to break through the US perimeter again. Under the command of Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi, they drilled a tortuous path through the jungle to hit the Marines from an unexpected direction – the south. Except that it wasn’t entirely unexpected. General Vandegrift had guessed the Japanese intentions […]
May 30, 2019
But the battle for the remote Solomon Islands was not over. And no one would experience this more directly than a young man born to privilege who arrived in Tulagi in April 1943, to take command of a PT patrol boat. His name was John F. Kennedy. This quonset hut on Tulagi was the repair […]
May 30, 2019
From May 30, 2019 During World War II, the US and Japan waged an extended battle for control of the Solomon Islands, including the island of Guadalcanal, in the South Pacific. I visited there over Memorial Day weekend, and have put together my own photos and historical pics to tell that story. The story begins […]
December 18, 2022
Today is a two-fer. For my next MSFS trick, I’ll be flying the classic British WW2 fighter, the Spitfire. But not just any Spitfire, mind you, the one-of-a-kind “Black Spit” of the Israeli air force. I’ll explain the story behind the 57 Black Spit in a second, but first, let’s get this thing started. Starting […]
December 18, 2022
Today in Microsoft Flight Simulator, I’m flying the de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth, the airplane that trained thousands of pilots from across the British Empire to take to the air in World War II. Born in 1882, Geoffrey de Havilland was the second son of a village pastor. At an early age, he displayed a […]
December 17, 2022
Welcome to Munda, in the Solomon Islands, where I’ll be checking out the iconic the F4U-1 Corsair in its natural WW2 habitat, in Microsoft Flight Simulator. As some of you may recall, I’ve actually been to Munda, where I did an extensive post on the World War II campaign there and at nearby Guadalcanal. Now […]
December 15, 2022
Welcome back. Today in Microsoft Flight Sim, I’ll be flying the twin-engine Lockheed P-38 Lightning, one of the fastest and most successful American fighters of World War II. n the process, I’ll be telling the story of Dick Bong, a P-38 pilot in the Pacific who became the top-scoring American fighter ace of all time. […]
December 15, 2022
Today in Microsoft Flight Sim, I’m back to flying the Spitfire again – but this time the original Mk Ia version which fought in the Battle of Britain. You might recall that a flew a much later model Spitfire, one with a unique post-war story, here: This Spitfire also has a special story. KL-B (P9398) […]
December 14, 2022
Welcome back to Microsoft Flight Simulator where today I’ll be flying the Mitsubishi A6M2, Japan’s main fighter of World War II, famously known as the Zero. Introduced in 1940, the A6M was dubbed the Navy Type 0 carrier fighter or Reisen (零戦, “Zero Fighter”) for short, in reference to the Imperial Year 2600. To set […]