46 FLYPAST 46 FLYPAST May 2018May 2018
WINGS OVER THE EAST JAPANESE OPERATIONS
war yet for the IJN, which lost 133
experienced aviators. At this heavy
price to the Japanese, the attack
on Rabaul was averted, Lexington’s
commander judging it to be not
worthwhile without the benefit of
surprise.Fortress debut
The first American land-based
unit had by this time arrived in the
theatre – the newly formed 14th
Bombardment Squadron of the US
Army Air Corps, equipped with
12 Boeing B-17E Flying Fortresses
purloined from a variety of units in
Hawaii.
After flying search missions from
Fiji, the Fortresses had flown to
Townsville from where it was planned
to bomb Rabaul concurrently with
the carrier raid. This was a mammoth
task for the American crews, who were
inexperienced in tropical conditions
and without ground support.
To complicate matters further, the
distance from Townsville to Rabaul
was 1,100 miles: an extremely long-
range mission by 1942 standards. Not
surprisingly, just five of the dozen
B-17s made it to the target, the first of
two separated groups arriving at 06:47
on February 23 – an hour after the
planned dawn arrival.
The first B-17s overhead were
intercepted by the standing patrol
of two Claudes which fired 1,100rounds of 7.7mm. This is unlikely to
have troubled the stoutly constructed
Fortresses, which manoeuvred
overhead for 25 minutes trying to find
openings in the heavy cloud cover over
the target zone.
Six Zekes managed to launch and
climb to altitude. In a confusing fight,
they scored hits on B-17E 41-2446
flown by 1st Lt Fred Eaton. A Zeke
stubbornly pursued the bomber for
some distance. This was probably
that flown by Yoshida Motosuma
who reported a flight time of 55
minutes and expended 900 rounds of
ammunition.
Eaton force-landed in a swamp on
New Guinea’s north coast, the first
American combat loss in the South
Pacific. The Fortress was recovered in
2006 and is on display at the Pacific
Aviation Museum in Hawaii – see the
panel.Neverhawks
No time was wasted in replacing the
two chutai of Betty bombers destroyed
by VF-3. From the base network in
the Mandates, 18 G3M2 Nells from
the 1 Kokutai arrived at Vunakanau
on February 23. The following day
they made the first daylight raid on
Port Moresby, hitting the town and
‘Seven-mile airfield’, where a Hudson
was destroyed. Escorting the Nells
were three Zekes fitted with newly
delivered drop-tanks.Four days later, on the last day of
February, a further Moresby raid
was launched, consisting of another
formation of Nells escorted by all six
Zekes.
The fighters were led by Lt Okamoto
flying ‘F-115’, discernible by its two
thin black bands around the fuselage.
He was accompanied by Yoshii
Kyōichi, Ōshima Tōru, Ishikawa Seiji,
Nagatomo Katsuro and Kumoto
Shigei.
Once again, the Nells dropped their
bombs from high altitude, after which
the Zekes descended over the harbour
entrance to begin a low-level strafing
attack. There they saw a worthy target:
the RAAF flying boat base, with four
Catalinas moored on the water off
Napa Napa.
The Zekes lined up and began their
strafing runs, their 20mm cannon
proving deadly as they could easily
ignite the fuel tanks. This was easy
work: two Catalinas (A24-3 and -6)
were left blazing and sank. Another,
A24-7, was also effectively destroyed
although the hull was later towed
ashore where engines and parts were
salvaged. A fourth, A24-18, was
damaged.
During the strafing pass an army
Vickers machine gun crew on a hill
behind Napa returned fire, hitting
Zeke ‘F-112’ – Nagotomo was badly
burnt by an engine fire before he
managed to bale out. Recovered by aB-17E Flying Fortress 41-2446 arrived in
Honolulu on December 18, 1941, ten days
after the Pearl Harbor attack.
The following February it was assigned
to the 22nd Bomb Squadron of the
7th Bombardment Group in northern
Australia. As described in the article, it
was involved in a strike on the Japanese
at Rabaul on February 22, 1942.
Piloted by 1st Lt Fred Eaton, 41-2446’s
bomb doors stuck on the fi rst run, so
he came around again. Anti-aircraft fi re
punctured a wing fuel tank. Mitsubishi
A6M Zekes swarmed around the bomber but after a half-hour running battle, the frustrated fi ghters gave up.
Eaton was running for Port Moresby, on the other side of New Guinea. But with mountains ahead and the B-17’s
fuel nearly exhausted, he decided to put the crippled bomber down.
He lined up on what he thought was a fl at, green fi eld in the jungle. The Fortress splashed into Agaiambo Swamp,
settling into 5ft of water and thick grass, and there it lay for more than a half a century. Australian army pilots
who glimpsed it from overhead dubbed it the Swamp Ghost.
Aviation enthusiast Alfred Hagen supervised the recovery of the Fortress in 2006. The arduous process required
the bomber to be disassembled in situ and sections fl own out by helicopter. The wreckage spent four years on
the docks in Lae pending the New Guinea government’s approval to export it. Stored for a time in California, B-17E
Swamp Ghost returned to Hawaii in 2014, joining the Pacifi c Aviation Museum. With thanks to:
http://www.pacifi caviationmuseum.orgAn artist’s depiction of Fred Eaton’s struggle with a ‘Zeke’ prior to B-17E 41-2446
force landing and becoming the ‘Swamp Ghost’, February 23, 1942.Swamp GhostSwamp Ghost
Above right
Australian soldiers help
refuel a B-17E from US
55-gallon drums early
in the war. The location
is outback Queensland.
In the background is a
North American O-47
observation aircraft.