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| A Ranger SBD dive bomber flying over a Norwegian fjord. |
The USS Ranger spent
almost all its wartime career in the Atlantic and Mediterranean,
blasting targets from French Morocco to Norway. Winston Churchill requested it reinforce the British Indian Ocean fleet after the Japanese obliterated it, but Admiral King refused. It sank the French battleship Jean Bart during Operation Torch. The Germans claimed to
have sunk it four times, but it never suffered a scratch from enemy action, and
its fighters and dive bombers cut a wide swath through the enemy. While hunting off Norway, sinking tens of thousands of tons of German shipping, Churchill personally requested she be
withdrawn. The Brits were afraid she'd sink the Tirpitz before they did. Notice in the photo to the left above how happy and carefree her pilots are. No worries have they!
Why did the Ranger spend its time in the Atlantic? Because it
was considered too slow and vulnerable to risk being deployed in the
Pacific against the Japanese, who were a most formidable foe, fierce,
fanatic and fatalistic. They expected to die in the war and intended to
take you with them.
Now look at the photo to the lower right. It's of pilots in the ready room of the USS Hornet. They don't look so happy. These men faced the Japanese, battling them at Midway and during the Guadalcanal campaign. The Hornet
was sunk in fierce fighting during the Battle of Santa Cruz, less than a
year into the Pacific War. They had reason to be glum.
In the photo directly below, pilots about to set off on a mission against the
Japanese listen to a reading from the Bible and pray together,
recognizing that there is a good chance they won't come back, and if
they are shot down, survive and are captured by the Japanese, they
will need all the strength God can provide them to endure the ordeal
they will face.
What verse were they reading? That's lost in time. But perhaps Romans 5:3~5:
"We glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope."
What verse do you think they were reading? It's far enough back in the
book that it might be something from Revelations, perhaps 19:11 --
"I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose
rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war."
Or perhaps it was 21:4 --
"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no
more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for
the former things have passed away."
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| Hornet dying under the blows of the Japanese. |