32 | FLIGHTPATH
This series of Fifth Air Force attacks against Rabaul
make better sense against a wider perspective. Japanese
aircraft carrier-based units were on their way to Rabaul
to help resist recent U.S. landings at Cape Torokina on
Bougainville. The Fifth Air Force was about to stumble
unknowingly into this Japanese offensive. From the
Japanese perspective, however, the large-scale Allied
raids against Rabaul materialised with no warning and
prompted frantic scrambles that resulted in an unantici-
pated accident rate. In summary, Rabaul’s fighter units
struggled considerably during October/November 1943
in their conduct of both planned offensive, and un-
planned defensive, operations.
Bartlett’s fateful and final mission took shape as he
flew one of sixteen 475th FG Lightnings launched
from Dobodura on the morning of 29 October. Their
duty was to escort B-24 Liberators at high altitude
over the target where weather had cleared. The Lib-
erators were attacked by about 25 enemy fighters, in-
correctly identified as a mix of ‘Oscars’ and ‘Zeros’.
The similarity between the ‘Zero’ and ‘Oscar’ air-
frames, plus the fact that both had similar overallgreen camouflage schemes, explains the mistaken
identification. All ‘Oscar’ units had moved from Ra-
baul to the Wewak theatre a considerable time before.
At about 12:30 hours, Bartlett’s 432nd Fighter Squad-
ron flight dove to 10,000 feet to disrupt a flight of an
estimated eight enemy fighters.
So which units were these Japanese aircraft from?
Unknown to the Allies, the powerful aerial units of
1st Carrier Division carriers Zuikaku, Shokaku and
Zuiho were two days away from Rabaul to temporar-
ily boost the Imperial Japanese Navy’s air strength
there in time for Operation RO-GO. These aircraft
would make their presence felt during the Allies’
biggest Rabaul raid four days later. Meanwhile, the
‘Zero’ air groups defending Rabaul as Bartlett and
his colleagues weighed in were the 201st, 204th and
253rd Naval Air Groups, the latter of which was the
most recently arrived in theatre. Thirty-three Japa-
nese fighters were airborne during the 29 October
raid. An obscure addition to the mix of Rabaul com-
bat throughout October/November 1943 was the D4Y
‘Judy’ light bombers of the 501st Naval Air Group