42 AH January 2016
T
o land a PBY-5 Catalina in
16- to 18-foot Pacific seas
is a feat of rare air- and
seamanship. To do it four
times in one day, under heavy
enemy fire, is incomprehen-
sible. Yet U.S. Navy Lt. j.g.
Nathan G. Gordon did exactly
that on February 15, 1944, to
rescue 15 Army airmen within
sight of furious Japanese
machine gunners and artillery-
men at Kavieng, north of
New Britain.
Gordon had been flying
night anti-shipping missions
as part of VP-34, one of the
notorious “Black Cat“ patrol
squadrons, when he got a
hurry-up call that an A-20
Havoc had been downed
during a daytime raid on
Kavieng. Gordon’s rescue
mission was given an escort of
four P-47 Thunderbolts, but
his incredible landing between
the big swells sweeping in
toward the large Japanese
base proved fruitless. There
was wreckage and a raft but
no sign of the Havoc’s crew.
After taking off, Gordon
got a message from the crew
of a B-25 Mitchell orbiting the
area. They gave him the coor-
dinates of a ditched Mitchell.
Gordon quickly found it,
landed again and took aboard
six B-25 crewmen while under
heavy fire. Fortunately, the
swells were so deep thatthe Cat spent half its time
bobbing out of sight of the
Japanese shore gunners.
Another takeoff, another
turn to a heading home. This
time Gordon got about 20
miles before the same B-25
called with news of another
ditched bomber about a mile
from shore. Back Gordon
went to pick up the three
surviving crewmen. By this
time, the Cat’s hull was leak-
ing badly where rivets had
popped during the full-stall,
slow-as-possible landings,
and two of his escorting
P-47s had called bingo fuel
and headed home.
With nine extra passen-
gers, several badly wounded,
Gordon set off again for his
base, but within minutes the
radio crackled yet again.
This time, the ditched B-25
was just 600 yards offshore.
To land between the swells,
Gordon had to make his
approach directly over the
Japanese guns and without
the help of any suppressing
fire; the last two P-47s had
already left. He and his crew
picked up six more bomber
crewmen and finally were
cleared to leave with their 15
extra passengers—an accom-
plishment for which Gordon
was awarded the Medal of
Honor and his entire crew
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Enemy Lines
PBY
MAXIMUM
EFFORT
Taedong river rescue Captain Kenneth Stewart (left)
talks with SA-16 pilot Lieutenant John Najarian, who
rescued the F-51 flier after he went down in North Korea.multiple pickups Lt. j.g.
Nathan Gordon (above)
rescued 15 in a PBY-5A, like
these “Black Cats“ (top).