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A Citizen Soldier in the Air.Battle of the Bismarck SeaCharlie Cook and his crew flew a lot of missions in the Southwest Pacific - he doesn’t recall exactly how many, though he guesses perhaps thirty or more. In addition to the many raids on Japanese bases, there were also cases of attacking 'targets of opportunity', as when a Japanese ship was spotted on a patrol.
He also participated in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in March 1943 -
this was the first anti-ship battle that was fought and won completely by land-based aircraft
, including B-17’s and B-24’s from the Fifth Air Force, but also by USAAF and RAAF fighters and light bombers. It was a decisive victory that stopped the attempted reinforcement of the Japanese New Guinea bases in preparation for taking Port Moresby and Australia.
Charlie remembers one single-plane mission where they were ordered to attack a number of Japanese landing boats that were already quite close to shore and attempting to land troops. They flew down and dropped their 500 pound bombs on the boats, then made a number of low passes so the gunners could strafe the boats. Bismarck Sea was also the first time that 'skip bombing' had been used in the Pacific, and this was said to have been invented by Gen. George Kenney, commander of the Fifth Air Force, though Charlie doesn’t recall that the B-24’s used this bombing technique. It required flying at the target just above water level and was probably used mainly by the B-25 light bombers. The Bismarck Sea effort was successful in preventing Japanese reinforcement and Allied losses were light. In addition to such 'major' events, there were always patrols to fly and long-range searches for any Japanese shipping in the region. There were not very many aircraft and crews available at the time, so the pace of combat missions was heavy.
READ ON
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