From: jdupre5762@

Any confirmation of the story that a supply of proximity fuse AA shells was
brought to Corregidor by submarine and then hoarded until the Japanese planes
presented a nearly perfect target?

Couldn't have happened. The first combat use of this type shell was the middle
of November 1942, when 5,000 rounds of proximity-fuzed projectiles in storage
at Mare Island were sent to Noumea for distribution to ships. The first ship to
fire them at enemy planes was the cruiser Helena. On January 5, 1943, four
Japanese bombers attacked the task force and the Helena downed one with the
second salvo of proximity-fuzed ammunition.
The monograph "History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy"
by Captain L. S. Howeth, USN (Retired) 1963, contains a good review of the
development of the VT fuze.



Chris Mark