FLIGHTPATH | 33which occasionally, but usually unsuccessfully,
dropped air-to-air phosphorus bombs.
When the Liberators headed home, the ‘Zeros’ pur-
sued them and the resultant combat with the escorting
Lightnings spread south to Wide Bay where First Lieu-
tenant Arthur Peregoy was the last to see Bartlett:
“...I was leading a flight with Lieutenant Bart-
lett flying on my wing. The last pass my flight
made was at a group of Zeros at 18,000 feet. We
dove through them and turned out on course. The
Zeros tried to come in on our tail but we held our
dive at 450 mph to 10,000 feet and quickly outdis-
tanced them. Lieutenant Bartlett was directly in
trail with me all the way down and I last saw him
at 10,000 feet directly over the north shore of Wide
Bay. I crossed the bay but could not see Lieutenant
Bartlett as I approached the south shore. I turned
back and looked for him, circling several times,
but he had completely disappeared.”
When Bartlett went missing, his flight circled the
northern edge of Wide Bay, but saw no trace of him.
No later search was conducted for him or his aircraft,
as the area in which he was lost was too close to Ra-
baul. The subsequent Missing Air Crew Report thus
only gives his last known location as in the vicinity of
Wide Bay. Bartlett’s aircraft (P-38H, serial 42-66523)
was the only Lightning lost on the mission.
While Bartlett was recorded as missing in the op-
erations log back at Dobodura, he had in fact safely
force landed into a brackish swamp along New Brit-
ain’s northern coast. After a ‘Zero’ damaged his Light-
ning in a stern attack, he headed as far away from
Rabaul as his damaged aircraft would take him. His
track home should have taken him southwest, well
clear of New Britain’s southern coast, so it is clear that
some other circumstances diverted him to the island’s
northern coast. Perhaps, instead of being forced down
through mechanical failure or damage, he was simply
reluctant to commit to a long flight over the ocean in
a damaged fighter.
The Lightning was an advanced aircraft for its
time, equipped with complex systems such as hydrau-
lically assisted controls and a multipart engine cool-
ing system. While the Lightning’s cockpit side-win-FAR LEFT: P-38H ‘149’
of the 432nd FS undergoes
maintenance at Dobodura in
late 1943. The lines on the
gondola are remnants of where
tape once held grease paper for
the sea voyage to Australia.
A brand new P-38J can be seen
in the background.LEFT: The Lightning was
advanced technology for its
time. Ground crew work on
432nd FS P-38H 42-66844 which
was also airborne the day
Bartlett was lost. This Lightning
carried squadron number ‘146’
and was assigned to First
Lieutenant Zach Dean.ABOVE: A cluster of 253
kokutai Model 22 ‘Zeros’ hidden
under trees at Vunakanau
airield in late 1943.