USN
USS Yorktown
Pilot Lt Harlan T. "Dub" Johnson (POW)
Bombardier ACMM Charles E. Fosha (POW)
Crew RM1c James W.
Dalzell (POW)
Ditched February 1, 1942
Mission History
This aircraft participated
in the US Navy's first offensive bombing mission of the war with SDBs
and TBDs from Task Forces 8 (Halsey) and 17 (Fletcher) bombed and bombarded
enemy installations on the islands of Wotje, Kwajalein, Jaluit, Mili and Makin.
This aircraft took off from USS Yorktown as one of eleven TBD-1 Devastator torpedo bombers and seventeen SBD-3 Dauntless against Jaluit Atoll, all armed with bombs. Rain squalls and low cloud thwarted a coordinated attack.
Two of the TBDs became disoriented over the target headed the wrong way (north not southeast), low on fuel, they radioed that they were going to ditch in Jaluit lagoon. This aircraft and TBD 1515 ditched together. All the crew members survived, and were taken prisoner by the Japanese, and spent the rest of the war in captivity and survived the war.
Discovery
After the discovery of TBD 1515 was
found in 1997, Brian Kurk in recent years, in deeper water. RADM Johnson
(USNA 1931) died in 1994 in Sarasota, FL. Fosha is still alive
in Florida as of 2004.
Relatives
Charles E. Fosha passed away March 3, 2006 and buried at Barrancas National Cemetery, NAS Pensacola
TBD
Discovery
TIGHAR Survey
