Putting myself in my father's shoes, his first month
in combat during WW2 should read something
like this....


General MacArthur, in keeping his famous promise, steadily
advanced from one Pacific Island to another, so the HQ of
my unit, the 307th Bombardment Group, the Long Rangers
"Jungle Air Force" moved with him.

From Midway to Canton Island and Guadalcanal. On to
air fields at New Georgia, Los Negros and finally to
the Wadke Island Aerodrome just off the coast of
New Guinea. The last 'hop' before the long promised
Big Invasion.

My new airfield was just captured from the japs during
'Operation Straight Line', only 4 jap soldiers survived.
Little did anyone know that several thousand more jap
soldiers died in a remote cave on the island, hiding from
the bombers. They hid so well that 62 years passed before
their skeletons were to be found, and properly buried.

Soldiers' bones returned from Papua
The Japan Times: November 10, 2005
http://www.pacificwrecks.com/airfiel...pan-times.html

The first mission was on October 13th,1944 in a new B-24J
named "My Ideal". But it was a shame my best buddy, "Teamer"
got assigned to a different plane.We were replacements for
the 424th Bomber Squadron, which had lost 5 planes, and
their entire crews, in just that one month of October.

The significance of that figure didn't really sink in, until
realizing the 424th squadron usually only had 6 or 7 planes.

Replacements were sorely needed.

After arriving, Teamer and I naturally wanted to know
...."what went wrong" to cause all those losses.
But our pilot, Lt Heille, decided to talk about some of the
other squadrons instead. Our bomber group had 4 squadrons,
the 370th, 371st, 372nd and ours the 424th.

Oct 3 Mission.

The 370th, 371st, 372nd and 424th squadrons attacked the
crucual Balakapapan oil fields. Source of 13% of the entire
Japanese oil and gas supplies, considered the 'Ploesti' of the
Pacific, and one of the most vital targets of the entire war.

"How'd they do" Teamer asked? Lt Heille just handed over
a copy of the mission reports and let us read the results
for ourselves.

370th Squadron results; 7 unescorted B-24's.

"It is impossible to rate this mission as only one
of our planes over the target returned to base.
Reports of crewmen of other squadrons indicate
that 5 of 6 scheduled planes hit the primary target."
http://www.307bg.net/data/missionrep..._338-370bs.pdf

371st Squadron results;

"This bombing is rated as excellent." 6 of 6 bombers over
the target. Fifteen minutes before the bomb run, the squadron
was attacked for an hour and a half by numerous relays of
jap fighters of 40-50 planes in each relay. Some enemy fighters
flew above the formation and dropped several phosphorus
bombs accurately. Two bombers were lost, and 13 enemy
fighters shot down. A/C 570 lost engine #2 over target and was
damaged beyond repair in landing.

"Is is doubtful that a more dangerous, grueling and heart-breaking
mission has ever been performed in any theatre of war. This report
can by no means adequately reflect the feast of individual heroism
and bravery displayed, which are too numerous to mention."
http://www.307bg.net/data/missionrep..._338-371bs.pdf
http://www.307bg.net/data/missionrep...371sqANNEX.pdf

372nd mission results.

"One plane was lost, this airplane was attacked by
10-12 fighrers on the breakaway from the target.
http://www.307bg.net/data/missionrep...Crew-372bs.pdf


"Four raids were conducted against the refineries at
Balikpapan, These missions constitiuted the longest
mass flight of bombers in the South, Pacific, and
perhaps the entire world, with the exception of the
B-29 raids out of China.

21% of all personal that started out that day, Oct 3
have not returned. 29% of the airplanes that day
will never fly again. In all 12 planes were lost in
combat, one crashed on take off, and 32 were
damaged.

Awards for September and October, 1944
307th Bombardment Group;

Air Medals 123
Oak Leaf Clusters 19
Distinquished Flying Cross 1
Puple Hearts 8


"Did you hear about Lt Wheeler?"

He went on to tell us that during the October 3 strike
against the Balikpapan oil refinery, a 20mm shell exploded
in their cockpit, paralyzing the right leg and arm of the
pilot, Lt Wheeler, and the co-pilot was bleeding so badly
he became barely conscious. With one engine out and
the help of the engineer, they managed to keep flying
for the 6 long hours it took to get back, and somehow
landed safely. In the words of the group commander...

"Some crews have it, some crews don't.
This crew had it...in large quantities."

Oct Unit Report
http://www.307bg.net/data/missionrep...cord-424bs.pdf


"So what went wrong on the Oct 26th mission" we asked?
"They found the Battleships!" he said.
"That's what went wrong!"

The group leader spotted what he thought was a flotilla of
heavy and light cruisers, so he barged right in. But it turned
out to be a fleet of battleships and heavy cruisers. The
Battleships Yamato, the largest ever built, the smaller Nagato
with her 16 inch guns, and the Battleships Kongo and Haruna
along with several heavy cruisers. The bulk of the entire
remaining Japanese fleet.

BattleshipYamato
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGy5A...layer_embedded

Oct 26th mission results;

"This bombing is rated as excellent. 28 Liberators, 7 each
from the 370th, 371st, 372nd and 424th attacked the flotilla.
3 of 7 B-24's from the 424th were lost, 1 crashed on
take-off and 14 were damaged by AA fire."

"In as much as this is the first time heavy bombardment
squadrons have taken under attack major units of the
Jap battle fleet, it is thought of interest to record in detail
and to diagram the actions of the two forces."
http://www.307bg.net/data/missionrep..._Jap_Fleet.pdf

Oct 26 Group report
http://www.307bg.net/data/missionrep...353D-Group.pdf


On Nov 2nd, my 3rd mission, it became our turn to look
for the Yamato flotilla. We searched for 15 long hours
but with no 'luck'. Turns out the Yamato task force was
in Brunei, for supplies.

Looks like I wasn't too concerned with grammar after being
alerted for a second long search for the jap battleships a
month later. My log book that day just read....

"...it would have been suiscide for us".

But on my 4th mission, on Nov 6, we had better luck.
Shot down my first fighter! "Got one for sure" my
log book reads.

I was on the right waist gun. We were flying a formation
of 6 B-24's at 12,500 feet in a modified box formation, with
2 P-47 escorts. And 7 hours flight time away from our
airfield, we were attacked by 20 jap fighters.

The Zeke I shot down came in from behind, between
5 and 7 o'clock level. After my burst, it started to smoke
badly, banked right and went into a steep vertical dive.
It was last seen going into the clouds at 4000 feet trailing
thick black smoke. Because of the cloud cover, it was
listed only as a 'probable'.

The jap fighters made 15 or 20 more passes at us, all from
behind. The P-47's shot down two of them, but not before
the #3 engine of the bomber flown by Lt Balovich was damaged.
He stayed in formation as long as he could, then peeled off
and descended to 4000 feet, followed by the 2 P-47's.
Happily, the plane successfully diverted to Leyte.

Nov 6 Mission Report
http://www.307bg.net/data/missionrep..._357-372sq.pdf


That pretty much sums up the first month, only 38 more missions
and 367 hours of flight time left to go!



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