Description
In less than a year, Fifth Air Force emerged as an overwhelming and merciless adversary. This was proven beyond dispute at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, an Allied air action against a large Japanese Naval troop and supply convoy that sought to reinforce the Imperial Japanese Army Garrison at Lae, New Guinea on March 2-4, 1943. In this strategically important battle fought only by aircraft, Fifth Air Force heavy, medium and light attack bombers targeted the convoy as it made its way across the Bismarck Sea.
As the last bombs fell from B-17s and B-24s at 7,000 feet, 13 Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Bristol Beaufighters swept in strafing at nearly sea level and 12 B-25 Mitchels led a skip-bombing attack, followed by Douglas A-20 Havocs that skip-bombed and strafed. One RAAF 30th Squadron Beaufighter can be seen here, having just strafed the destroyer Arashio, as the 3rd Bomb Group’s Captain Robert D. Chatt in his B-25C CHATTER BOX 41-13088 modified with eight forward-firing .50-caliber machine guns, “skipped” a 500-pound highly-explosive delay-fused bomb into the bridge of the destroyer. This fatally damaged the ship which then, out of control, veered wildly to port and collided with the IJN supply ship, Nojima, visible just beyond the Beaufighter. The resultant collision sent both ships to the bottom. The B-25s and A-20s were the embodiment of the legendary Paul I. (“Pappy”) Gunn’s minimum altitude, gun-toting “Commerce Destroyer” strafers.
Pacific Powerhouse will be included in Harvest of the Grim Reapers Volume II in the Eagles Over The Pacific hardcover book series.
