Raid on Rabaul

Flight Journal, Aug 2004 by Cleaver, Thomas McKelvey

B-25 GUNSHIPS TERRORIZE JAPANESE SHIPPING

1030 hours, October 18, 1943: 36 B-25 Mitchells of the 345th BG (the Air Apaches) form up over Oro Bay on the northern coast of New Guinea, north of Dobodura Airfield. In Red Wrath, Deputy Gp. Cmdr. Lt. Col. Clinton L. True of the 498th Falcons BS leads and is followed by the 501st Black Panthers, the 499th Bats Outta Hell and the 500th Rough Raiders. The Mitchells head east-northeast toward the Bismarck Sea and settle into formation at 2,000 feet-three "vee-of-vees," nine aircraft per unit. The target is Rabaul, 200 miles across the ocean on the island of New Britain; this is the first daylight strike by the 5th Air Force against this heavily defended base. Though no one knows it, this is the first day of a 120-day air campaign that will see Japan removed as an offensive force in the Southwest Pacific theater and Rabaul reduced to a bypassed target.

In the third flight of the 499th formation is Dirty Dora, originally of the 38th BG and a veteran of the Battle of the Bismarck Sea the previous April. Pilot 1st Lt. Vic Tatelman concentrates on flying wing to squadron CO Capt. Julian B. Baird and thinks of the morning's briefing: "Photorecon has spotted 89 fighters, 65 medium bombers and 21 light bombers on the five fields around Rabaul. Your target is Rapopo airfield. Light, medium and heavy flak surrounds all airfields." As Tatelman remembers, "Our Australian Liaison Officer said 'When you go down ... ahhh, if you go down, make your way to this location,' as he pointed to a map location on New Britain. Nobody laughed at his mistake.

"October 18th was planned to be a maximum-strength effort for the 5th Air Force. Two groups of B-24s with fighter escorts were to simulate an attack on Rabaul 30 minutes before we arrived to draw the fighters up. They would then bomb three of the five airfields, leaving Rapopo and Tobera open. We and the 38th would then attack and catch the enemy on the ground."

This was a low-level strafing mission-shooting up the airfields while dropping parafrags and daisy-cutters to finish the job. The 345th originally trained as a Medium Bomb Group, bombing targets from 8,000 to 12,000 feet. Events dramatically changed the mission after Maj. Paul "Pappy" Gunn experimented by increasing the B-25's offensive power. He covered the greenhouse nose with metal plates and had eight .50 caliber guns mounted there. The B-25 Strafer-now with eight .50-caliber guns firing forward, twin fifties in the top turret and open tail and single fifties at the two waist positions-had sufficient destructive power to "dissolve" a ship's superstructure. The 345th B-25s had been converted at Townsville in August 1943.

In Jayhawk, the lead ship of the second flight, pilot 1st Lt. George L. Cooper keeps formation on mission leader Capt. Orin N. Loverin and checks his wingmen, 1st Lts. William M. Parke on his right and William W. Cabell on his left. Ahead, a line of towering clouds is directly across the route to Rabaul. The P-38s of the 475th FG call in their abort due to weather. "We had been briefed that we were likely to find a squall line between New Guinea and New Britain. If we did, the B-24s would not penetrate the squall, and the fighters would turn back," Cooper remembers.

Nevertheless, Lt. Col. True holds Red Wrath on an unwavering course toward the huge line of thunderstorms that stretch across the Bismarck Sea. The 35 Mitchells of the 345th and the three squadrons from the 38th head onward, too.

Tatelman, who flew Dirty Dora, remembers, "I looked out, and Col. True was penetrating the front as if nothing had been said. We followed." True, who had the group nickname of "Fearless," later claimed not to have heard the recall order. "I never believed that," recalls Cooper, "and neither did anyone else. We heard the order, but we were all young and tough then. I liked Col. True because he was aggressive and wanted to fight. I wouldn't have liked following someone who wasn't like that."

Within moments, the Mitchells encountered heavy rain and severe turbulence. "Pilot tension in one airplane flying IFR is tough enough, but to have 50 airplanes on instruments in the same area-and all the turbulence-that made it as tough as can be," says Tatelman. Cooper couldn't see anything through his windshield. "All I could see to either side were my wingmen, tucked in as close as they could get without colliding. The turbulence was really heavy, and I was afraid of flying into one of the other flights, so we went down. I had to open the side window so I could see the ocean well enough to avoid flying into it. We went through the storm at about 60 feet above the wave tops."

Once through the front, the flights were widely separated; pilots concentrated on closing formation as they headed for Kabanga Bay on New Britain, which was now visible in the distance. Tension rose; voices on the intercoms were clipped; talk was reduced to monosyllables as gunners test-fired their weapons. As they crossed the coast, the 38th turned away to attack its target as the Air Apaches dropped lower over the jungle.