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DEADLY GAME
Early missions over New Guinea
Roy
Lee Grover joined the 38th Bombardment Group as a pilot from its
first deployment to Australia. In doing so he delivered Tokyo
Sleeper across the Pacific, and in the 1990s wrote a series of articles,
this one included, in response to a request from the Utah Historical Society.
He left the USAF in 1964 and
then worked for Aerospace companies, after having obtained a master’s degree
in Business. His account of the 2nd September 1943 mission to Wewak,
in which his unit lost three Mitchells, is one of the best accounts rendered
from a member of the Fifth Air Force.
Bombing
missions do not always go as planned. Now for my recollections of a couple of
such missions that did not go as planned and one very memorable one that did.
After six months of combat our aircraft were converted from medium bombers to
low-level strafers. Two 50 caliber machine guns were installed on each side of
the cockpit and four 50 caliber machine guns in the nose of the airplane where
the bombardier position had been. We thus had eight 50 caliber machine guns
firing forward for strafing and a couple of airplanes had an additional 20
millimeter installed. Our combat missions were conducted at tree top level and
our bombs were fitted with 3 to 5 second delay fuses. The group had flown many
missions at tree top level before the raid on Salamaua. This was a small
settlement that had become the Japanese port and base for the movement up the
Wau Valley to take over the gold mines in New Guinea. Our group was to attack
the anti‑aircraft gun positions that would be firing at a large group
formation that would be bombing from medium altitude (about 10,000 ft). It was
the first mission for the medium bomb group, the 345th, and they
flew past if the mission were a formation training flight in the United States.
The leader continually identified his position, altitude, throttle settings and
airspeed as he passed over identifiable land marks. He called various aircraft
to the formation to advise them to "close‑up" the formation or
to adjust the position of the squadrons in his group formation. Our crews were
astonished and angered about such conduct. We always kept radio silence when
going to a target. What was to have been a relatively lightly defended target
turned out to be well-defended. The 345th lost one aircraft over the
target and had several badly damaged.
(Aerothentic comment – this aircraft was
B-25D serial # 41-30013 named Jelly Belly, and was assigned to the 499th
Bombardment Squadron. It ditched offshore Salamaua and two of its crew were
killed)
All
of the eight aircraft of our squadron, except mine, were so damaged that they
had to land on an emergency air strip close to Buna. Our strafers came down a
canyon to the sea one after another.. We first went through a barrage of flack,
a black curtain that went from one side of the canyon to the other, and then
flew through a red curtain of small arms fire. As I passed over the shoreline I
made a climbing turn to make a more difficult target of myself. The water below
and Just ahead of me looked as if it were raining, only it wasn’t drops of
water, but small arms projectiles. We asked that we never fly with that group
again, but we did. It was a raid on a large base at Madang and it was the first
mission of the new group, again the 345th, in strafer configuration.
They were to go in first to suppress the flack directed at the B‑24s
flying close to the target but over the sea. Our 38th group was to suppress the
flack as the B-24s turned into their bomb run. However, the leader of the new
group did not see enough flack to suit him, so he had his formation make a 360
degree turn before hitting the target. This destroyed the timing and put the
38th group over the target as the bombs from the B-24s were exploding. We all
got dirt or bits of trees or shrapnel in our engine cowlings as we flew between
the bomb bursts. We were very unhappy about that incident.
WEWAK – 2nd September 1943
The
most memorable flight for me was the September 2, 1943 attack on shipping
in the harbor at Wewak, New Guinea. The attacking force was composed of sixteen
B-25C-1 strafers of the 38th group. There were four formations of four aircraft
each. As we approached Wewak we dropped our 150 gallon steel fuel tank that
was hanging from a bomb shackle attached to the ceiling in the back of the
airplane, where the lower turret had been before it was removed. The tank
gave us the range to reach Wewak. We were told that we would have Fighter
cover and I counted 60 P‑38 fighters above us as we approached the target.
I had never seen so many aircraft together before. I would have considered
sixteen to be generous. It seemed to me that someone expected more trouble
than we had been briefed to expect. We did indeed encounter much more than
we could have imagined ‑ 80 enemy fighters. The B-25s dropped below
a cloud cover at about 5,000 feet, and the P‑38s remained above the
clouds and never saw the enemy fighters. The Japanese were below the clouds
waiting for us. Each of the four ship formations broke up into two flights
of two aircraft each for the attack.
I
was leading the second flight and my tent mate, Charles Barber of Saint Louis,
Missouri was flying the aircraft on my left wing, Lt. Middlebrook with Lt.
Latham on his wing was the first flight in the attack force and I was second.
We came over a hill and saw the target area, straight ahead was an airstrip
and just beyond in the bay was a large transport with a barrage balloon anchored
someplace that I could not see. To the right was a smaller ship. Beyond them
were other ships, including warships. Middlebrook and his wing man went for
the large transport. I also wanted to hit the larger ship rather than the
smaller one, so I strafed the aircraft and decoys on the airstrip to put space
between Middlebrook's flight and mine. Then I turned to a course toward a
point between the two nearest ships. If Middlebrook's flight hit the big cargo
ship, I would take the small one. If they missed, I would go for the large
one. Middlebrook's flight missed the ship with their bombs and I turned for
the larger ship. I thought that Middlebrook had flown over the barrage balloon
so I made my attack lower and between the masts because I thought that midship
was the least likely place to anchor the balloon. Fortunately, I was right.
I did not expect my wing man to stay with me as I expected him to bomb the
smaller ship, but he stayed with me. However, as I went between the masts
there was no room over the transport for him, which may have kept him from
hitting the balloon cable. There were gun positions fore and aft on the transport,
but my strafing swept the deck clear of personnel and silenced the guns. The
radio aerial from the ship caught on my right wing and we brought it home
with us.
Our
first bomb skipped into the side of the ship, as planned, and sunk it. The
second bomb bounced over the ship (see the strike photo that was taken out
of the tail of my aircraft and published in Newsweek magazine of 27 September
1943). We used 1,000 pound bombs. My wing man was just back on my wing when
he was hit by gunfire from two fighters that attacked from our right at our
level which was very close to the water. My gunner, Sgt. Edwardo Cruz, said
that the airplane turned over and went into the water upside down like a diver
might do. My airplane then picked up a ten fighter escort and we went for
home staying close to the water or at tree-top level. The Japanese formed
two lines, one line on each side of my aircraft and criss‑crossed in
front quarter attacks on my lone aircraft. It was a match of wits ‑
a duel. The fighters tried to avoid the turret guns in the back of my airplane
and the guns in the nose as I turned, skidded and jockeyed for position with
the attackers. One attack was well coordinated and I was unable to disrupt
the attacker's pursuit curve. I knew that our airplane would be damaged. It
was a relief to find the airplane still operating and none of the crew injured
after that fighter pass. However, when I tried to fire my nose guns to ward
off another attack, only one of my eight guns fired and then only spasmodically.
My co‑pilot, Lt. Phil Kelsall, and I grabbed the charging cables which
were just below the instrument panel and the cables came out in our hands.
The cables had been shot away just ahead of our knees. It was a ten minute
cat and mouse game, each of us trying to fake the other into a vulnerable
position. Sgt. Cruz, my turret gunner, was credited with two kills on the
raid.
Just
as we caught up with Middlebrook’s flight, we passed a small hill, in the
middle of a coconut grove, with a house on the top of it. A Japanese fighter
plane came around the hill at our altitude. It was an inline engined fighter
(Tony), the first I had seen. He was going too fast to pass behind us and
Sgt. Cruz in the turret prevented him from going over us. He couldn't go under
us unless I pulled up to let him pass, which I did. Had I not given him room,
I am sure that he would have gone through us. It was up to him, we both lived
or we both died. It all happened so quickly, but I felt that we had read each
other's mind. He passed just below my side window. I could see that he was
wearing a leather helmet with goggles. The 38th group lost three aircraft
and crews that day and we should have lost all sixteen with the forces so
engaged. Sometimes the Japanese fighters got in each Other's way. But our
pilots were very experienced and kept low, which made a difference to the
outcome. About half the Japanese pilots on this mission
were good. I couldn’t turn inside them, but my tracer fire caused them to
break off their attacks. I remember each vividly. It was a deadly game.
The Three 38th BG Mitchells Lost
B25D-10 serial # 41-30319 was hit by AA and ditched in the sea near
Wewak. It was flown by 1/Lt John D. Blain
B25D-10 serial # 41-30255, hit by fighters and crashed into the water
about 15 Miles out to sea off Wewak, flown by 1/Lt Charles E Barber
B25D-10 serial # 41-30247 crashed about 3 miles North-west of Wewak
flown by 1/Lt Richard P. Schumacher. At least some of the crew bailed and were
assassinated on Kairiru Island.
Roy Lee Grover has published a book with his memoirs which you can order from www.authorhouse.com/bookstore
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