PEARL HARBOR PAYBACK

Flight Journal, Apr 2005 by Bergin, Bob

When his wingover brought him back over the aircraft he had strafed on his first pass, Bartling strafed the second line of aircraft. He counted seven fires among the aircraft now: five in the first line and two in the second. He identified two Model Os in each of two fires in the second line and another riddled with machine-gun fire but not burning. He turned to the other side of the field and saw four I-97s on fire. He riddled another. As he broke off his attack, he saw two P-40s above him at about 2,500 feet, and he climbed to join them. As he started his climb, he noted AAA bursts above. At 1,200 feet, antiaircraft shells were bursting around him. "I immediately started making violent turns while climbing." When he reached the P-40s, he recognized them as Rector's and McGarry's.

Bartling became aware of the antiaircraft fire only as he pulled away from the attack, even though the Japanese guns had actually opened up early in the raid. From where he was flying top cover at 5,000 feet, Ed Rector watched the first attack by the four P-40s unfold. He saw the fires below. "Three planes were burning in one big fire," he wrote, and then "... AAA and MG nests had opened fire by now, and I counted at least five MG posts around the field throwing tracers at the four strafing planes. AAA shells were bursting in ever increasing numbers at mine and McGarry's level, so I began to fly a zigzag course, as some were bursting uncomfortably close."

Neale became aware of enemy fire early in the raid. He wrote that he stayed at a low altitude and made his turns sharp to evade the ground fire. At the end of his third pass, he found the ground fire was so heavy that he rolled his wings to signal the three other P-40s to break off the attack. Then he turned away from the airfield and flew to a point five miles southwest. He circled there at 5,000 feet and waited for the others to rendezvous. Eventually, Boyington joined up with him.

Boyington also experienced heavy ground fire on his last passes. In his combat report, he notes that there was ground fire from antiaircraft machine guns and artillery, but he didn't add any detail. In his book, he wrote, "By the time we made the last couple of passes, the air was so full of black puffs of antiaircraft fire that it was difficult to determine whether the Japanese had launched any aircraft or even to see our other P-40s."

Charlie Bond was the last to break off the attack. After his second pass over the line of 1-9 7s, he made a third pass from northwest to southeast, "... concentrating my fire on single targets in the southwest area of the airfield." He watched his bullets hit one fighter for several seconds. At the end of that pass, he saw antiaircraft bursts at 1,000 to 2,000 feet at the southwest end of the field. The antiaircraft fire was "very thick." He made a low left turn and started a fourth pass back down the same line of targets as he had just strafed, concentrating his fire on a single-engine aircraft at the beginning of the line that he thought might be a bomber. Then he "porpoised" and went after a fighter at the end of the line. By this time, he noted that few propellers were turning.