Trivia!

I guess the better question would have been:

What destroyer had a slugging match with a Battleship for 30 minutes and survived?

 

If no one has a new question to ask, I can think of some...

 

Who was C. E. Rosendahl and what three disasters is he associated with?

 

He was an rear admiral is the US Navy and advocate of lighter-then-air flight.
He was involved with USS Shenandoah disaster, He served on the Hindenburg, and was there the night of its crash, and helped save the USS Minneapolis after its sinking.

 

I'll give you credit for that one. You identified all the correct events, even though the details are a little off.

Charles Emery Rosendahl was an officer in the US Navy who graduated from Annapolis in 1914. As a lieutenant commander, he was navigator aboard the airship USS Shenandoah. This airship crashed in 1925 when it broke apart while flying through storms over Ohio killing 14 crew. Rosendahl was in the forward part of the ship at the time of the breakup and was able to successfully "fly" this section like a balloon and land it safely, saving the lives of most of the 29 survivors.

By 1937, Rosendahl held the rank of commander and was commanding officer of the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst, New Jersey. He personally gave the German airship Hindenburg permission to land at the field on May 6 when the vessel was destroyed in a spectacular fire.

Captain Rosendahl was given command of the heavy cruiser USS Minneapolis in 1942 shortly before the ship fought in the Battle of Tassafaronga near Guadalcanal. On the night of November 30, Minneapolis joined with four other cruisers and four destroyers attempting to surprise an inferior Japanese force of eight destroyers. Although Minneapolis helped sink one of the destroyers, the Japanese ships regrouped and launched a salvo of torpedoes at the Americans. Two struck Minneapolis blowing off the cruiser's bow all the way back to the second turret and killing 37 crew. Three other cruisers also took torpedo hits, but all except Northampton were saved thanks to excellent damage control efforts. The other three damaged cruisers were able to make it back to port for repairs, but Minneapolis was out of the war for nearly a year. Captain Rosendahl was awarded the Navy Cross for his leadership in saving the Minneapolis.
Charles Rosendahl retired in 1946 at the rank of Vice Admiral.
EDIT: I mistakenly wrote none of the cruisers at Tassafaronga sank but forgot about Northampton.

 

Thanks, i dont have a good one though, if someone else wants it

 

I have one if no one minds.
During the bombing of Java in 1942, a pilot carried out an act of mercy over the Java jungle, against his orders, sparing a plane full of children. The two pilots found out who each other was some 50 years later. Who was the pilot?

J

 

Saburo Sakai

 

Well done, you are right!
Here's the story ...
Several years ago, a former Dutch military nurse contacted the Japanese Military, attempting to locate a Japanese fighter pilot that spared her life over New Guinea in 1942. She was flying in a Dutch military C-47 at low altitude over dense jungle. On board were 11 wounded soldiers and 6 children being evacuated from a combat area. Suddenly, a Japanese Zero appeared alongside the plane. It is not hard to imagine their panic as she and the children began frantically waving, hoping to ward off an attack. After a few moments of terror, the Zero pilot waved back, gave a quick wing wobble and flew away. The C-47 erupted with cheers.
For over fifty years, this Dutch nurse wanted to meet the pilot who had spared their lives. The Japanese Military located that pilot and it was none other than Saburo Sakai, who had been flying combat air patrol on that day.
A bit of additional data, he was the fourth top Japanese ace, (by my source) and after 7 years and some 200 combat missions resulting in an estimated 64 kills, Saburo Sakai flew his last combat mission on August 17, 1945, he assisted in shooting down a B-29.
"Saburo Sakai was indeed an Ace, downing 64 Allied aircraft, and most of all, never losing a wingman in over 200 missions. He experienced injuries, but always brought his aircraft home. "
He survived the war and lived to be 84 yrs old. He died on 22 Sept, 2000.
I'm gonna have to make the questions tougher!
J

 

At the beginning of the Pacific war, one of the USN carriers was far superior in performance to the others. Among the innovations used by this ship and her airgroup were the "running rendezvous" where rather then orbiting the ship waiting for the strike to form up, aircraft would slowly begin flying towards the target, and as more planes arrived, they would form up. The other innovation and by far the most important was a CO2 system to purge fuel lines of avgas in case of damage. This system was eventually backfitted into the other operational carriers.

Which ship is it?

 

Just off the top of my head I would guess the Big "E".

 

nope!

 

USS Hornet?

 

Nope!

 

I want to say the USS Yorktown I think it was that one that was mentioned in my recent foray in Broken Sword (not through it yet)..

 

I'm pretty sure the gnome is right. At least I know Yorktown used a carbon dioxide system to purge its fuel lines at Midway.

 

Yorktown would hasve been my next guess as well.

 

That is correct, Yorktown's performance was by far the best of any carrier in early 1942. Big E and Hornet got the glory, but Yorktown got it done!

Next time I'll pick something where you just can't go down the class name list with guesses, unless maybe it's some obscure Essex class trivia!

 

What was the most legendary German commerce raider of World War I? The reason for the great reknown of the ship and her captain was because she only caused one causualty in all the tonnage that was sunk or captured. What was the name of the ship and her heroic Captain?