Howard Mitchell
Posts: 449
Joined: 6/3/2002
From: Blighty
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The text below comes from 'B-17 Flying fortress: Combat and Development History of the Flying Fortress' by William H. Ness. It gives several instances of desparate fights in the SW Pacific involving b-17Es. My scanner's tired now so I'll let it cool down a bit. By the way, is there a prize for the biggest post? :)
The few aircraft that survived Java retreated to Australia. Bombing missions were then flown against new targets by the 7th and 19th Bomb Groups. The enemy was in New Guinea and had established a formidable base at Rabaul on New Britain. The missions flown by the handful ofB-17s were more of a nuisance to the enemy than any real hindrance. The primary object was to delay the Japanese until American reinforcements could be brought to the Pacific.
The onslaught in the Pacific was turned back with a victory at the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 9, and then the American victory at Midway on June 7 put a new complexion on things. A new air commander arrived in the south-western Pacific who would, through the years, lead the new Fifth Air Force to victory. His name was Gen. George Kenney. Reinforcements began to arrive via the llth Bomb Group, and the 43rd Bomb Group was activated. At last a small stream of B-17Es began to arrive.
One of the more impressive missions against Rabaul was assembled and flown on August 7, 1942. A force of fifteen B-17s was slated for the mission. It would consist of nine Fortresses from the 93rd Bomb Squadron and six from the 28th and 30th Bomb Squadrons. The mission was under the command of Lt. Col. Richard Carmichael.
Numbers of aircraft from the 93rd Bomb Squadron gradually were depleted before the mission even began. One B-17 crashed on takeofffrom Seven Miledrome base outside Port Moresby, New Guinea. Two more were forced to abort the mission with engine trouble shortly after takeoff. In the end, Maj. Felix Hardison led the mission with six 93rd Bomb Squadron B-17s. The "tail end Charlie" position was flown by Capt. Harl Pease, who had begged his way onto the mission, although the aircraft he was flying was plagued with electrical troubles and four engines that were long overdue for overhaul.
The bombers were forced to skirt some bad weather, but on arrival over Rabaul they found the target in the open. As they swept over the area from an altitude of 22,500ft they were attacked by some twenty Zero fighters. Despite the attack, the bombers continued to drop their loads while their gunners downed several enemy interceptors. In about 20 minutes the Fortresses made their way to cloud cover-except for the aircraft flown by Captain Pease, which had fallen behind the formation.
As it struggled along. Pease's aircraft had number two engine out. Then the flaming bomb-bay fuel tank dropped and the B-17 went down in flames with both inboard engines out and enemy fighters still swarming around their victim. The official report stated that the aircraft crashed in flames and that Captain Pease and crew were killed. For his exceptional gallantry in action, Captain Pease was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Years later, it was determined that Captain Pease and his crewman, Sergeant Czechowski, had managed to parachute out of the flaming Fortress and had been taken prisoner by the Japanese. A Catholic priest who had been interned by the Japanese vividly remembered Pease and Czechowsld who were in the prison camp with him until October 8,1942. At that time, they were taken out for a so-called "work detail" and never seen again. Undoubtedly, they were executed by the enemy.
On August 7, 1942, the same day as the mission to Rabaul, US Marines landed on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. B-17s that would support this campaign flew from an advanced base at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides chain. One of the Fortress pilots was a young Alabaman named Capt. W. E. Chambers of the 26th Bomb Squadron llth Bomb Group, who flew an aircraft named The Aztec's Curse.
Chambers flew one of his more successful missions on August 25. He reported: "Jap task force reported off Malaita Island ... I led a flight of three. We arrived at point of contact and a Jap destroyer started shooting at us. We went a little farther and saw a large transport burning [it had been attacked by dive-bombers] and a cruiser moving in slowly to pick up survivors. Best target we could find, so made a run on him at 9,000(1, dropped 5001b bombs. Got three direct hits and several near misses. The explosions completely covered the ship. The crew was in an uproar, yelling back and forth on the intercom. No fighter opposition, thank goodness ..."
Japanese records show that they lost the destroyer Mitsuki to B-17s on that day.
Chambers and crew would not be so lucky on the mission of October 4. By this time, the Fortresses frequently were using Guadalcanal as an advanced base. Chambers related: "The Aztec Curse took off at 0300 on a striking mission to Buka, flying number two position in a five-ship formation. The weather was pretty bad and flying night formation was hell. The flight hit a front just after daylight about fifty miles from the target and had to turn around. We flew right over two Japanese task forces, but the antiaircraft did no damage. Then we were attacked by twelve Zeros They fell in line about 2,000ft above us and about five miles off to the left, between us and the sun, which had just come up, and peeled off one at a time. They came in from the front a little below us and then up, right through the formation. The first one came through and tried to half-roll back out, but misjudged his distance and crashed into the number five man in our formation. Both planes went down.
'The next one made the same attack, and I thought he was going to ram the lead ship. He just missed and stalled right over our formation on his back. All four of our ships were shooting at him and he was so close, I could see large pieces of metal and fabric coming off his engine and wings. As he fell, he started to bum. The pilot must have been dead because he had been firing all the time he came in and as he went down, I could still see lines of tracers coming from his guns.
'The rest came in, but did not attempt to come through the formation; they came in fast, took a quick shot, and then half-rolled out under the formation. The ball turrets got two more, one in flames and the other with one wing cut completely off. Number three ship had one engine shot out, but remained in formation. Two men jumped from the number five aircraft, but were machine
gunned by the Zeros as they floated down. We landed at Cactus [Guadalcanal] at 0935.1 don't think I have ever been so tired in my life."
Chambers flew another successful mission on October 15. Nine Fortresses took off from Espiritu Santo to attack Japanese troops landing on Guadalcanal. As Chambers recalled: "We found fourteen Japanese ships right in the harbor with four transports in near the shore landing troops. One transport had been torpedoed by a Navy PBY and was burning. Watched the second element make its run on a warship out in the bay. It scored several near misses and silenced some AA guns. I led my element around to the land side away from the ships and made a bombing run on one of the transports. Three Zeros attacked us while we were on the run, coming up underneath in frontal attacks and half-rolling away. Our ball turret gunner, Garvy, got the first one as he rolled out underneath us. The second one came in very close, so close I could see the flashes from all his guns and see tracers going into our right wing. As he rolled over on his back, Carter, our navigator, got in a good burst, and the whole plane seemed to burst into flames. During this time, Myers, our bombardier, dropped his bombs and the wingmen followed suit. We scored several hits and the transport was burning as we headed home. As we hit the ground on landing, the plane started pulling to the right. The tire on that side had been hit and
was flat..."
As Chambers continued his tour, he saw more and more of his fellow crews fall victim to the Japanese fighters. Soon the crews spent most of their time on Guadalcanal where their sleep was interrupted nightly by air raids, and all fell victim to malaria and dysentery. Still, they struck at Japanese shipping and bases day after day.
On one mission to Rabaul, the Fortresses ran into a storm so vicious that they had to fly on instruments for two and a half hours. As Chambers related: "I did a small amount of praying, and we finally broke out about fifty miles from the target. We arrived in the vicinity of Rabaul harbor, but could not find it on account of cloud cover and darkness. I started circling, waiting for daylight. All at once we were right in the middle of about forty searchlights, with AA bursting all over the place. I ducked in the clouds and lost them. I saw two large transports right together through a break in the clouds and made a run at 8,500ft. The AA was heavy, so I had to duck in a cloud before I could see the results of the two 1,000-pounders that Myers dropped ... On the way back, I had to fly through the storm again . . . We broke out of the storm just before we reached the mountains, but arrived at our field to find it closed in and raining like hell. I had to land because of gas, so I came in over the field at 100ft down-wind, made a 180 degree instrument turn, and made an instrument approach by compass. Was lucky and hit it right on the nose. Saw the ground 50ft above it and sat her down. Had ten minutes of gas left and I was worn out. I slept for a while, then went out and got skunk drunk."
After several months of flying missions under trying conditions, Chambers and his crew were finally relieved. As he summed it up at the time: "I think my combat flying is over. Out of fifty-four missions we have been on, we have flown Curse on at least forty-five. She has always gotten us back. There are sixteen crews out of thirty-eight left in the group and there is only one other crew that hasn't had a man injured. My crew is still intact and are the best bunch of fellows on earth. Our score stands at nine Zeros shot down, one cruiser sunk, two transports and one tanker sunk, and we had hits on other transports with the results unknown ... The last time I saw the Curse, she was on Guadalcanal with her tail broken off. She's a grand ole lady and I wish I could bring her back to the States with us."
As time passed, the Fortresses in the Pacific were being replaced by Consolidated B-24 Liberators. Gen. Ira C. Eaker of the Eighth Air Force in England wanted the B-17s, and Gen. H. H. Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces, agreed to give them to him.
One group that continued to fly the old Fortresses up to the bitter end in the Pacific was the 43rd Bomb Group. It was on one of their last B-17 missions that the action of two crewmen merited the Medal of Honor for both. On June 16,
1943, Capt. Jay Zeamer and his crew volunteered to fly a photo mission to Buka strip on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. The crew was about ten miles from Buka when they were intercepted by about twenty Zeros. In the nose, bombardier Lt. Joseph R. Samoski downed the first attacking Zero while Sgt. John J. Able in the top turret took care of another. However, the Fortress had taken hits that disabled the oxygen system. Zeamer had to take the aircraft down from 28,000ft in a hurry.
As he pulled out of his dive, Zeamer's B-17 was attacked once more head- on. The Fortress pilot had gotten the armorers to install a fixed gun in the nose of the aircraft, which Zeamer could fire from a button on his yoke. As the Zero came in with guns blazing, Zeamer opened up and shot it down. At about the same time, the B-17 was hit in the nose with 20mm fire. Zeamer was wounded in the legs, so the copilot, Lt. John Britton, had to take over the rudder pedals.
The explosion of the 20mm shell had thrown Lieutenant Samosld back into the passageway under the flight deck, but Samosld called out that he was okay and went back to his gun. As another Zero came in, Samosld blazed away at it and then dropped to the floor, dead from a stomach wound. The air battle raged for 40 minutes, during which time the Buka strip was photographed and five Zeros were downed by the crew. As the B-17 crew made their way back to base they were in dire circumstances. The pilot and copilot were both wounded, their radio was shot out and the operator wounded, and the top turret was still manned but the engineer was wounded. From time to time, Zeamer would pass out from loss of blood. Despite his wounds, engineer-gunner Sgt. John Able came down from his turret and stood behind the pi- lots and helped them fly the plane. After almost three hours, the Fortress neared its destination. By this time, Sergeant Able had gotten the pilots to come around enough that they were able to land the aircraft with Lieutenant Britton on the rudder pedals and Captain Zeamer on the yoke. In their dazed condition they made a downwind landing, and with a crew of wounded men they were all fortunate to survive. Zeamer and Samoski were both awarded the Medal of Honor, and each member of the crew was given the Distinguished Flying Cross.
By late 1943, just about all of the B-17s were gone from the Pacific and it became a theater of B-24 bombers. However, the B-17 had been there at the start and had done a tremendous job under appalling odds. From the very beginning, Boeing's Flying Fortress let the enemy know it had a most worthy opponent.
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While the battles the British fight may differ in the widest possible ways, they invariably have two common characteristics – they are always fought uphill and always at the junction of two or more map sheets.
General Sir William Slim
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