"Willis 'Ching' Lee he is one of the most important people in Naval Warfare history, and he gets nowhere near the credit that he deserves."
I love history. Not the way it was taught in grade school and high school. In college I studied history, not mere memorization of dates of battles. History is about how people made a difference. The lesson being that YOU can make a difference. The problem is that the powers-that-be don't want people who can think, and who believe that they can make a difference. They want obedient drones to work in their factories, and vote the way they're told to vote, and consume product.
Willis "Ching" Lee made a difference. He was an expert marksman, despite being near sighted. He had to fight his way to becoming captain of a battleship. And when he did, he realized that the information they had on targeting, was not correct. He set about to treat 16 inch guns like he treated long distance rifle shooting. And he had to fight the navy over that. But it paid dividends. The USS Washington, under command of Ching Lee, was the last battleship to sink an enemy battleship in WWII.
Fat Electrician makes history fun again. And funny.
Bad-asses with bad eyesight.
The video is half an hour, but I think you will enjoy it.
This is the Fat Electrician video Olympic Sniper Turned Battleship Commander - Willis "Ching" Lee
"Ching" Lee is one of the few admirals who've executed a perfect "crossing the T" maneuver.
ReplyDeleteIf you've never read "The History of the United States Navy in World War II" by Samuel Eliot Morrison, I highly recommend it. It's 14 volumes of history, but it's as exciting as any novel, even though you know how it ends! I've read the whole thing at least three times since I was in high school.
Thanks. I'll make a note of it...
DeleteThe US Army did basically a complete history of their actions during WWII. Covers everything from planning and preparation, to the actual event(s) and then afteraction figuring out what went wrong. Covers both USN and US Marine actions under Army command.
DeleteSome of the writing is dull, but to know what they planned, what happened and what went right and wrong is amazing. Full of pictures and maps. Called by historians the "US Army Green Books" because the original covers were... green. One volume is just photos that weren't included in the rest of the books.
Available in paper or pdf from... https://www.history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/collect/usaww2.html