yellingdirections.Downoutofthesuncame
Osment,Gadsden,CowleyandHarndenonto
the‘Judy’.BobOsmentopenedfire,seeing
strikesandthenflamesinthestarboardwing
rootoftheJapanesedive-bomber.Therear
gunnerofthe‘Judy’repliedwithashortburst
from his machine gun. Osment didn't see this
return fire. He throttled back and fired an-
otherburstfromhissix0.50incalibrema-
chine guns and closed to about fifty yards (45
metres). The rounds slammed into the port
wing root and started another fire. The ‘Judy’
turned to port.
Gadsdenfiredaquickburstashepassed
overthestrickenaircraft.Cowleytrieda
thirty-degreedeflectionshot,butmissed.
Gordon White, Blue 1, took a shot at it too,
hitting the aircraft’s tail. Harvey, White’s
wingman,alsogotinashortburst.Osment
was still in very close and put another burst
intothecockpitglasshouse.Aparachuteap-
peared. The ‘Judy’ rolled over in flames and
impactedtheseascatteringburningdebris
across the ocean surface.
WhileBobOsmentwasleadingRedandBlue
sectionsintoattack,FlightLieutenantBaker
led Yellow and Green sections across the sun,
orderedbellytankstobedropped,andclimbed
forheight.Baker'sconcernwasundoubtedlyto
provide cover for the other two sections.
Overthenext45to50minutes,theattack
brokeintonumeroussmallerengagements
that were scattered over a wide area above the
JapenStraits.AttheendofthattimetheAus-
tralianshadshotdowntenJapaneseaircraft
for the loss of one of their own and its pilot.
TheAustralianaircrafthadbecomedispersed
overawideareaandmanyofthemmadetheir
wayhomesinglyorinsmallgroups.
Five of the fourteen Kittyhawks had to
landatWadkeIslandtorefuelbeforemak-
ingitbacktobase.TheAmericanshadonly
recently occupied the island. If that had not
beenthecase,severalmoreof78Squad-
ron'sKittyhawkswouldhave been lost
through fuel starvation.
Unravelling the combat
To cover all of the engagements from this
combat would requires more space than is
available, so several of the interesting and
well-documentedoneswillbeanalysed.
One of the impressive single actions of the
daybelongstoDickCowley.Afterhisen-
gagement with the ‘Judy’ that was shot down
by Osment, Dick sighted four enemy fight-
ersflyinginpairsataround5000feetabove
thesea.Withhiswingman,FlightSergeant
‘Happy’Harnden,hewentafterthesefight-
ers. During this attack he somehow became
separated from his wingman. Despite this,
he continued his solitary attack out of the
sunontheJapanesefighters,openingfire
on the rear one from 300 yards (274 metres)
andclosingtofiftyyards(45metres).His
firehitthefighter'sfuselage,wingsandtail-
plane and some pieces were seen to fly off as
theaircraftbegansmoking.Itentereda
slow diving turn to the right and Cowley lost
sight of it.
Immediately, he pulled up onto the lead-
ingfighterofthegroup,givingitaburstof
firefrom100yards(90metres)andraking
theportwingrootandwing.Thepilotbaled
out of his flame-engulfed aircraft and it spi-ralled into the sea. Dick
climbedtolookforhis
wingman.HesawaKit-
tyhawk, which he be-
lieved to be Harnden's,
being pursued by two
Japanese fighters, but
they were unable to
closeonhim.These
fighters snap rolled and
came at Dick who tried
to bring his Kittyhawk
fighter around for a
shot,butwasunabletodoso.Hesubse-
quently took evasive action and soon found
himself alone in the sky. He eventually
foundGordonWhiteandtheyflewbackto
Hollandia together.
The fighters Cowley attacked were most
likely ‘Zeros’ because the Japanese records
onlymentionthataircrafttype,not‘Oscars’
asbeingdamaged.Itisunknownhowhebe-
came separated from his wingman, but
these things happen in the heat of battle.
When Cowley went to Harnden's aid he was
thelastpersontoseehiswingmanalive.
Dickcertainlyshowedgreatcourageintak-
ingonfour‘Zeros’,shootingonedownand
clearlyinflictingagooddealofdamagetoa
second.Then,withouthesitatingandclear-
ly outnumbered yet again, he took on a fur-
ther two enemy fighters.
AfterGordonWhite,andhiswingman
Flight Sergeant ‘Dagwood’ Harvey, had each
made passes at Osment's burning ‘Judy’,
White saw his number four, Flying Officer
Geoff Giles, being attacked by two Japanese
fighters. Gordon turned towards them and
attacked.Theenemyfightersdivedintoa
cloudwithWhiteandHarveyinpursuit.On
exiting the cloud one of the Japanese fight-
ers was dead ahead, while the other was
breaking hard to the right where another
dogfight was in progress.
Whiteattackedthefighterthatwasdead
ahead.Itstartedtosmokeandrolledonto
itsbackasGordonfiredagain.Hitswereob-
servedintheportwingrootandmostof
thatwingshearedoff.Thefighterhitthe
wateronitsback,withtheJapanesepilot
notbalingout.Harveyconfirmedtheclaim.
Both White and Harvey increased their
engine boost and went for height as the com-