FP_2015_05_

May 2015 FLYPAST 77

Men Behind

the Lightning

Lightnings were built in 1942

Mitchell stressed the importance

of shooting down the Betty and the

implications for the course of the

war. He emphasised it was vital to

arrive over Bougainville at the same

time as Yamamoto.

It had been arranged for all the

P-38s to be fitted with US Navy

issue compasses to aid navigation.

There would be no landmarks to

help guide the formation to the

target area. When it came time to

launch, two P-38s had trouble –

one blew a tyre on take-off; and

on another, one of the drop tanks

would not feed fuel to the engines.

The attack force started using fuel

from the external tanks first so they

could be dropped when they were

over land at Bougainville.

Bogies at 11 o’clock

Rex Barber recalled: “We followed

right behind Major Mitchell

with total radio silence.

Finally, after two hours,

Mitchell started

climbing, so

we were

evidently

1,4781,478

“American codebreakers had cracked the

Japanese cyphers in early 1943 and in

April, they found out that Admiral Isoroku

Yamamoto would be visiting Bougainville,

the largest island in the New Guinea chain,

at a certain time and date”

“American codebreakers had cracked the

Japanese cyphers in early 1943 and in

April, they found out that Admiral Isoroku

Japanese cyphers in early 1943 and in

April, they found out that Admiral Isoroku

Japanese cyphers in early 1943 and in

72-78_Spot men_fpSBB.indd 77 06/03/2015 16:20