Hawker
Typhoon
78 FLYPAST May 2015SPOT FACT It was originally
named ‘Atalanta’approaching Bougainville. Seconds
later, Lt Doug Canning called out:
‘Bogies at 11 o’clock high’.
“Every one of us looked in that
direction and there were two Betty
bombers, escorted by six Zeros. The
P-38s that were supposed to cover us
began climbing for altitude because
they knew what would be coming
from Kahili airfield.
“Two of our ‘killer’ group had
trouble with their external tanks and
they pulled off to the side to try and
shake them off. This left me and
Captain Lanphier to take on the two
Bettys and six Zeros.
“At that time, the Bettys slowed
down and started to get in position
to land. Their escorts had seen us
and dropped their external tanks.
Our leader kept his speed up and
made a head-on firing pass. If I had
followed him, like I should, it would
have given the Bettys a chance to
escape. So I stayed after the Bettys.
“I banked to the right to fall
behind one of the descending Bettys.
I was soon right on top of him and
at this point our altitude was down
to about 1,000ft. I started firing at
the right engine and the rounds were
accurate, and seconds later I saw
pieces of his engine cowling coming
off. As I slid over to get directly
behind the target, my line of fire
passed through the vertical fin of the
Betty and some pieces of his rudder
separated.
“I moved further right and fired a
long burst into his right engine. It
began to emit heavy black smokefrom around the cowling. I moved
my fire along the wing root and then
into his left engine. I was no more
than 100ft behind him and almost
level with it.
“Suddenly, the Betty snapped left
and abruptly slowed. His right
wing reared up in front of me and
I almost ran into it. As I roared
by, I looked over my left shoulder
and saw the bomber with its wing
upended vertically and black smoke
pouring from his right engine. I
believe he plunged into the jungle,
but I did not see the crash.”Second chance
“I had achieved my goal and now it
was up to me to save my own skin.
All six Zeros were now on my tail. I
jammed on full throttle, turned hard
to the right and headed toward the
coast at tree-top level. I was taking
hits all over my plane. If I could
avoid getting shot down in the next
ten seconds, I would be out of the
Zeros’ range. When I looked back
inland, I could see a large column of
black smoke rising from the jungle,
which was the Betty I shot down.
Also, much to my relief, I could see
the ‘Jap’ fighters were falling further
behind.
“As I set a course for home, I
spotted a Betty flying low at 1,500ft
with two of our guys pursuing it.
They quickly ran out of ammo and
with the Zeros gone from my tail,
I dropped down and got within
50 yards before opening up. I put
my rounds in his right engine andalmost immediately the bomber
exploded.
“I had no choice but to fly through
the debris. A large piece hit my
right wing, cutting out my turbo
supercharger intercooler. Another
large piece hit the underside of my
gondola leaving a large dent.
“I was alone in the sky and all the
way back to base I worried about the
safety of those two pilots that had
pulled away from the Betty. I learned
that one, Lt Raymond Hine, went
into the water and we never heard
from him again. He had tangled
with the Zeros and had taken fatal
hits.”
Back at base, 104 holes were found
in Barber’s P-38, including seven in
the props.Reckoning
The P-38 pilots on that mission
were removed to other theatres
in case they were shot down and
revealed that the Japanese code had
been broken.
Captain Lanphier claimed he got
the Betty carrying Yamamoto. At
first he was given credit but after an
examination of the wreckage and
witnesses in the 1970s, the ‘kills’
were split across the four pilots - a
‘half ’ each.
But the dispute was not over. In
1998 a ‘Yamamoto Retrospective’
was held at the War in the Pacific
Museum in Texas which included
several of the P-38 pilots and a
Japanese Zero pilot. They concluded
Rex Barber should get full credit.Below
Lightning 44-23987
‘Strictly Laffs’,
at Dobodura,
New Guinea. This
P-38L was used by
Colonel Charles
Lindbergh to
demonstrate ways
of fuel saving to
increase range.
USAF72-78_Spot men_fpSBB.indd 78 06/03/2015 16:20