Fly Past

28 FLYPAST October 2018

WORLD WAR TWO PACIFIC RADAR HUNTING

himself and an enlisted airman,

Corporal Maguire. Mitchell ’983

flew her first mission from Puerto

Princesa on March 26.

On March 31, B-25 ’983 ventured

into the South China Sea to look

for a reported installation on Itu

Aba Island, but again picked up

no signals. Searches of the Turtle

Islands and Chinese coast in early

April also provided no results. Range

limitations kept the Mitchell 150

miles (241km) off China.

Alderman must have been ecstatic,

though, on April 14 when he had

actual signals to record. With a

bomb bay full of fuel tanks and

an escort of six P-38 Lightnings,

the intrepid ’983 took off at

0735hrs, and with

1945, but just one RCM position

had a complete equipment

installation. Fully fitted, between

March 15^ and April 13, she flew six

sorties across the South West Pacific

Area (SWPA), including two to

Makassar Strait, two to Mindanao

and two to Halmahera and

Ceram Islands.

Major Collins was on the first

three missions of ’464, joined by

fellow ‘Kiwi’ Bob Unwin on her

second. This undoubtedly helped to

validate their design work as well as

providing a little excitement.

The B-24 Ferret was used in

a similar style to the B-25 –

confirming radar coverage in target

areas and precisely locating sites for

attack. On April 9 the Liberator

took a run at the radar site at

Boela, on Ceram, but cloud cover

prevented it from making the final

run to drop five 100lb (45kg) M47

A-2 napalm tanks and ten 260lb

fragmentation bombs.

Two days later ’464 tried her luck

again, flying five runs against the site

at Dongala on the Celebes – but all

bombs burst 100-250ft (30-76m)

short. Undoubtedly frustrated, the

pilot lined up again and made two

runs against the radar post, and later

strafed the secondary objective, at

Kabaladoea Island, seven times.

Philippines base

On April 17, Ferret ’464 took

off from Morotai to locate radars

on Tarakan Island, off northeast

Borneo, and obtain photo coverage

of the Lemo and Donggola areas.

When complete, she landed at

Puerto Princesa, Palawan, in the

Philippines, where the Field Unit 13

detachment was working with 42nd

Bomb Group (BG) Mitchell

Ferret ’983.

Major Collins, Lt Wally Fenn and

Sgt Kunhart accompanied the Ferret

B-24 for the short deployment

which lasted for three days, flying

a mission along the coast of French

Indo-China before taking off on

April 21 to inspect Balikpapan and

Tarakan Island en route to home

at Morotai.

Once at Palawan, Lt James

Alderman became the officer

in charge of the Field Unit 13

detachment, which consisted of

Right

Mitchell 43-27983

‘Beautiful Ohio’ of the

42nd BG was re-equipped

to radar-hunting Ferret

status by Field Unit 13

personnel in October

1944. This photo was
      probably taken in
      September 1945 at
      Palawan’s Puerto Princesa
      airfi eld. AIR FORCE
      HISTORICAL RESEARCH AGENCY

Below

A few weeks after the

war ended, Lt Alderman

returned to the Puerto

Princessa fl ightline and

found 42nd BG B-25

Ferret ’983 with weeds

growing around it. JIM

ALDERMAN