Most people do not know much about the Japanese assault on Dutch Harbor.  The Japanese did little real damage to Dutch Harbor, but they made a mistake that would cost them dearly.  In 1942 the U.S. has no fighter capable of outmaneuvering a Zero.  One Japanese fighter pilot was so determined to kill Americans that he stayed behind to finish off an American PBY.  His name was Flight Petty Officer Tadoyoshi Koga.  He even stayed around after the PBY had splashed into the ocean to be sure.  One survivor of that crash, Aviation Machinist’s Mate W. H. Rawls crawled out of the burning wreckage and paddled away in a life raft.  Koga circled the life raft and machine-gunned Rawls to death.  But, Rawls who had been the blister gunner on the PBY had put one machine gun bullet into Koga’s plane.  Koga did not realize he had been hit, but that one bullet had severed the oil return line resulting in Koga’s oil pressure gage reading zero.  (The engine was actually unharmed).  Koga decided to radio for help and make a forced landing on nearby Akutan Island.  His landing gear caught in the muskeg and flipped the plane over breaking Koga’s neck.  One month later another PBY spotted the wreckage.  The plane was virtually intact.  As a result, the U.S. was able to obtain an intact Japanese Zero (ABFM-2 Zeke).  It was quickly dismantled and shipped back to the U.S.  American engineers learned a great deal from this aircraft and there was a myth that the Zero was used to develop the Navy F6F Hellcat.  That, like most myths, is not true.  The Hellcat was already being test flown before the U.S. got their hands on the Japanese Zero.  But it is certainly true that the loss of this aircraft made it much easier for American engineers to design planes that were very effective against the Japanese Zero.

 (This information is well documented in a great book:  “The Thousand Mile War”)

 In August of 1944, three B29’s were forced to land in Russia.  Stalin immediately seized the opportunity to steal our design.  They tried to replicate the B29 down to the last bolt.  It was only marginally successful, since Russia apparently could not replication the superb manufacturing tolerances required to produce a B29.  They did built about 850 TU-4s and they definitely learned a lot from these “captured” B29s.

 now the United States has lost a state of the art stealth drone.  Incredibly, if this article is accurate, Obama refused to authorize a mission to either retrieve the drone or at least destroy it.  If that is true, that Obama may have made a mistake far more serious than the loss of the Japanese Zero or the B29.  The United States is the only country on earth that can fly a bomber into a heavily defended area and destroy the air defense system.  This is priceless technology.  I am sure that this drone will be studied extensively by Iran, China and Russia and the knowledge they gain has the potential to be devastating.   It will not only help them develop air defense systems that can detect stealth aircraft, it will help them develop their own stealth technology to use against us.  I sure hope the mission was worth the risk of such an important aircraft. 

 http://floppingaces.net/2011/12/08/obama-rejected-plans-to-retrieve-fallen-drone-in-iran/

 I sometimes wonder how we will ever be able to repair the damage done by this naïve, incompetent; radical we foolishly elected to be our Commander in Chief.  It is embarrassing to see the President of the United States naively ask Iran to give us back our drone as if he honestly expects this to happen.  Please! 

 TDM