http://www.acepilots.com/usaaf_tusk.html
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he one thing that caught my attention are the horrible aerial scenes which lack realism, for example the laughable scene in which one of the pilots sinks a destroyer with his six .50 caliber machine guns, was that for real?
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that is all
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Destroyers would explode from .50 cal fire if they hit an ammunition storage. One thing that bothered me was Cuba Gooding Jr's death scene,it was so cheesy.
shareLack of realism? Most of those horrible aeril scenes was actual footage from P-51 mustangs in WWII how much more real did you want? Norman Schwartzkopf to narrate the footage?
shareActually it did happen, Lt. Gwynne Pierson in a P47 hit the magazine of the destroyer, resulting in it exploding. It was a one in a million shot though. The DoD has video conformation of it so there is no doubt.
shareI really had to respond to this one. Gwynne Peirson was my best friend--and my father.
The reason the whole thing happened was because my father and Wendell Pruitt--returning from an escort--were low on fuel. They came out of a fog bank, flying low, and the destroyer was right in front of them. They couldn't go around the plane and expose their bellies, nor could they go over and expose. Both Dad and Pruitt opened fire to get the crew confused--they hoped everyone would be confused long enough for them to get past the ship and run.
When a seabound vessel is attacked, it's supposed to secure all hatches on deck. When Dad told me the whole story, he said he remembers his tracers hitting the water, walking up the side of the boat, and going into an open hatch on the deck--then the ship going boom. I've seen the gun cameras, and that's what happened. The bullets went in and got the magazine of the ship.
Odd last piece of the story. After my dad left the Army Air Corps, he became a police officer in Oakland, California. He was there for 23 years, from 1947 to 1970. His last six years in OPD, he started working on his degrees in Social Criminology. When he retired, we moved to St. Louis where he started a security program for the downtown projects the city had at the time. One of the projects was named Pruitt-Igoe. Because of the debate about whether Gwynne or Wendell Pruitt had blown the destroyer up, Pruitt's hometown had named one of their housing projects after him. Of course, it's also ironic--at least to me--that there is a mural at Lambert Field in St. Louis called "Black Americans In Flight", and while my dad is in it, Wendell Pruitt is not.
Scot Peirson
23 August 2007
I really had to respond to this one. Gwynne Peirson was my best friend--and my father.
The reason the whole thing happened was because my father and Wendell Pruitt--returning from an escort--were low on fuel. They came out of a fog bank, flying low, and the destroyer was right in front of them. They couldn't go around the plane and expose their bellies, nor could they go over and expose. Both Dad and Pruitt opened fire to get the crew confused--they hoped everyone would be confused long enough for them to get past the ship and run.
When a seabound vessel is attacked, it's supposed to secure all hatches on deck. When Dad told me the whole story, he said he remembers his tracers hitting the water, walking up the side of the boat, and going into an open hatch on the deck--then the ship going boom. I've seen the gun cameras, and that's what happened. The bullets went in and got the magazine of the ship.
Odd last piece of the story. After my dad left the Army Air Corps, he became a police officer in Oakland, California. He was there for 23 years, from 1947 to 1970. His last six years in OPD, he started working on his degrees in Social Criminology. When he retired, we moved to St. Louis where he started a security program for the downtown projects the city had at the time. One of the projects was named Pruitt-Igoe. Because of the debate about whether Gwynne or Wendell Pruitt had blown the destroyer up, Pruitt's hometown had named one of their housing projects after him. Of course, it's also ironic--at least to me--that there is a mural at Lambert Field in St. Louis called "Black Americans In Flight", and while my dad is in it, Wendell Pruitt is not.
It is an honor and a privilage to read your post and to know that your father was one of the great Red Tails. I was in the military so it ALWAYS intrigues me when I read about Black soldiers,sailors,Marines,and Airmen. My uncle Junior was at Pearl Harbor and later when the Corps started accepting Black he was in the USMC. (like me,lol!) I always wonder how back World War One and Two the duality of emotions that Black military men must have faced. It's a question that as far as I know has never been given a straight answer. How could you fight for democracy in a foreign country but be HATED in your own? Your father was a great man and I know deep in my heart if he could have been trained and deployed earlier in the war he'd have given the Luftwaffe 'experten' a run for their money!! Lol! Peace!
Wow, Mr. Peirson, thanks for writing. Your dad was clearly an incredible man throughout his life.
shareAwesome post Scot, I remember posting this several years ago after reading up on the subject. It really is an amazing story.
shareIf a bullet can penetrate the hull of the ship, then water could come in, and the ship could sink. Didn't they teach common sense where you are from?
"I'm not A1nut because I'm normal...."
John "A1nut"
it exploded.
a normal bullet can never penetrate
through the hull of a destroyer...
*rolleyes*
Well, I have personally seen an armor piercing 30-06 round penetrate an inch of plate steel, and an 18 inch oak tree right behind it. It went clean through, like the hole was drilled. An armor piercing 50 cal could probably do much more damage. Think before you speak, or type, or whatever.
"I'm not A1nut because I'm normal...."
John "A1nut"
Hmmm...well, that's all good and stuff, but Destroyers have mutiple hulls, all being substantially thicker than 1 inch. And a boat sinking from machine gun fire holes? perhaps, but it would take a very very very long time....I'm thinking in terms of days rather than minutes. Not to mention that planes didn't really use armour peircing rounds, planes tended to be easier to down when the bullets hit engines rather than going through the 5 millimeter thick walls....
Think before you spout off about your peculiar upbringing involving heavy ordinance....
I said it *could* sink a destroyer. That means it is capable of happening. I didn't say that that is how it happened in real life. A lot of things are capable of happening, doesn't mean they will ever happen.
"I'm not A1nut because I'm normal...."
John "A1nut"
The DoD does have the file footage of it happening. I also seem to recall a pacific battle where planes attacked surface ships causeing them to explode as well.
sharePacific battles of air vs ship were more common than in the European theater. Also, most Pacific battles were with carrier based planes, which meant there was a fair amount of bombers, fighters, and torpedo bombers mixed in.
I think what alot of people are forgetting about the P47 sinking a destroyer, is the fact that in WW2, alot of ships had wooden decking. A P47 strafing run against a hull of a destroyer would be next to useless, as the steel hull plating would be nearly impervious to MG fire. But the wooden decking, coupled with a steep angle of attack, would be much more vulnerable to .50caliber rounds. It's entirely possible (not tomention confirmed) that a round could go through the decking, find the ammo stores underneath, and explode the ship. Especially if it was a tracer round that burns as it fires.
Actually if you look at the history of the Tuskegee Airmen, you will see that that part of the movie was true. During high school, we were able to listen to the stories of the real tuskegee airmen and Lee (who Laurence Fishburne plays) was there and one of the stories that he told us was that very thing.
It seems that they were returning back from a different mission when they came across the ship, and with their planes running on fumes they strafed and actually sunk it. If my memory is right they were the only ones in the squadron to actually sink a ship.
From what I have read in the book "Red Tails, Black Wings" it was an Italian torpedo boat that was attacked by the pilots. Here is the full section about it:
"Pruitt's flight path took him just to the stern of the ship. Peirson was flying directly toward midship and opened fire: "Tracers showed my first burst was falling far short, kicking up nothing but water. The next burst struck at the waterline and started to walk up the side." All Peirson could see was "black smoke and flame. I pulled back on my control stick and climbed just though to clear the smoke" as the ship rolled over and sank in the waves.
Back in Italy he found a few jagged holes on the underside of his wings with no exit holes on the top. He theorized that they were caused by fragments of the exploding destroyer.
Later Peirson's gun camera film "looked like Hollywood," Sheppard said."The ship blew apart just aft of the bridge as if it had been staged in Hollywood," Sheppard whistled. Post war divers later identified it as an Italian torpedo ship from the Nazi submarine pens in Yugoslavia. Peirson had set off one of the torpedoes."
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Massed .50 caliber rounds were sufficient to cause severe damage, which in a smaller and lightly-armored vessel, like a destroyer, could cause the fires, or explode ammunition and fuel, that could lead to an explosion. The guns were armed with mixed rounds, too, that is, armor-piercing rounds and high-explosive and tracer rounds were loaded into the same ammo belt, for maximum effect.
Remember that a .50 caliber round is a half-inch in diameter, and that piece of lead is coming out at a high velocity. It does some serious damage.
In the Pacific theater, we used modified medium bombers like the B-25 and B-26, armed with galleries of .50 machine guns in place of the bombardier's position in the nose of the plane, and mounted on the sides of the fuselage, firing forward, to make ship-killers. They were very effective against the Japanese, in low-level strafing attacks.
Massed .50 caliber rounds were sufficient to cause severe damage, which in a smaller and lightly-armored vessel, like a destroyer, could cause the fires, or explode ammunition and fuel, that could lead to an explosion. The guns were armed with mixed rounds, too, that is, armor-piercing rounds and high-explosive and tracer rounds were loaded into the same ammo belt, for maximum effect.
Remember that a .50 caliber round is a half-inch in diameter, and that piece of lead is coming out at a high velocity. It does some serious damage.
In the Pacific theater, we used modified medium bombers like the B-25 and B-26, armed with galleries of .50 machine guns in place of the bombardier's position in the nose of the plane, and mounted on the sides of the fuselage, firing forward, to make ship-killers. They were very effective against the Japanese, in low-level strafing attacks.
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A few points:
You exaggerate the thickness. If the hulls and turrets were actually as thick as that, they would have been much tougher to penetrate. The "turrets" (actually, gunhouses) on a Fletcher class DD were made of 10-pound steeel, which would be 1/4 inch plate. They were not proof against .50 cal, but would resist rifle caliber MG fire at long range. Their main purpose was to keep out the weather.
Fletchers did have a little bit of armor plate around the bridge. This was 20-pound (half inch) plate, and was sufficient to stop heavy MG fire. Given the angles and distances involved, the practical penetrations were usually much less than the claimed ideal figures.
But the "destroyer" the 332nd "sank" was probably a torpedo boat, not a destroyer, and she did not actually sink. It was the TA-22, somewhat smaller than a destroyer (860 tons, 240 ft long, compared to 2100 tons and 376 feet for that Fletcher-class DD you cited), and although she was badly damaged by an explosion, and was run aground. She was not repaired, at least not fully, and was completely lost the following year. As wartime claims go, that one was fairly close to true.
Live long and prosper.
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