Target: Rabaul (72 page)

Sources

A vast amount of research and reference material was gathered for this project over a span of some fifteen years. However, as Sir Max Hastings points out, a comprehensive bibliography is “merely an author’s peacock display” in a work of popular nonfiction. Thus, only the sources of direct quotes are cited here, along with occasional specific details not commonly available in the public domain. Citations of published sources and self-published memoirs are self-explanatory. Documents obtained from brick-and-mortar repositories and the worldwide web are listed with abbreviations, as follows:

Air Force Historical Research Agency (Montgomery, AL): AFHRA

Australian War Memorial (Canberra, ACT): AWM

Emil Buehler Naval Aviation Library (Pensacola, FL): EBNAL

Imperial Japanese Navy Page (
www.combinedfleet.com
): CF

MacArthur Memorial (Norfolk, VA): MM

National Archives and Records Administration (College Park, MD): NARA

Nimitz Library, United States Naval Academy (Annapolis, MD): USNA

Pacific Wrecks (
www.pacificwrecks.com
): PW

In addition to obtaining a large collection of books, articles, and documents, I had the privilege of interviewing dozens of veterans who served in the Southwest Pacific during World War II. Their names are included in the Acknowledgments section.

Prologue

“bars and belles”: James McMurria,
Trial and Triumph
, self-published, 1991,
p. 7
; “There was no town”: ibid.,
p. 8
; weather conditions, aborted takeoff: ibid.,
pp. 16
–17; “visions of Sydney”: ibid.; “Let’s go”: Robert Martindale,
The 13th Mission
, Eakin Press 1998,
p. 17
; IJN units at Wewak: Richard Dunn,
Wewak, The Early Days
narrative essay, circa 2005; “We were alone”: McMurria, op. cit.,
p. 18
; “let’s get the hell out of here!”: ibid.; “they were coming at us”: ibid.,
p. 19
; “the ship was getting harder to fly”: ibid.,
p. 20
; “was frozen to his .50 caliber”: Missing Air Crew Report (hereafter, MACR) #6384.

Chapter 1: A Pirate Goes to Washington

“I think we are going to get along”: Kenney diary and papers, MM, July 29, 1942; “Let’s go in the next room”: ibid., Aug. 4, 1942; “The problem with you”: George Kenny,
General Kenney Reports
, Air Force History and Museums Program, 1997,
p. 152
; “Nice work, Buccaneer”: William Manchester,
American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880–1964
, Little, Brown, 1978,
p. 329
; “It cannot fail”:
Kenney Reports
,
p. 206
; reliance on “operations reports”: ibid.,
p. 210
; “I’m a big shot:” Kenney diary, March 10, 1943; “Judge [Robert P.] Patterson”: ibid., March 12, 1943. Meeting in Gen Arnold’s office: ibid., March 15, 1943; “no soap”: ibid., March 17, 1943; “surprisingly familiar with the geography”: ibid.; “The Roosevelt charm is no myth”: ibid.; “one of the great aerial tacticians”:
Life
, March 22, 1943; “SOPAC will have to get some aircraft”: Kenney diary, March 22, 1943; “FDR really did a swell job”: ibid., March 25, 1943. “I’ll be watching”: ibid.; “Ramey’s loss a bad one”: ibid.

Chapter 2: Stepping Stones

“The smoke of battle”: quoted by Louis Morton,
Strategy and Command: The First Two Years
, Dept. of the Army, 1962,
pp. 294
–295; details of Joint Directive: ibid.,
pp. 390
–391; “a less ambitious program”: ibid., p. 392; “would be able to advance”: John Miller,
Cartwheel: The Reduction of Rabaul
, Dept. of the Army, 1968,
pp. 14
–15; “I’m glad it’s over”: Kenney diary, March 28, 1943.

Chapter 3: New Guinea Graveyard

“There is a cook for me”: Kenney diary, March 8, 1943; “I told him”: Kenney diary, April 6, 1943; MacArthur’s health and appearance: ibid.; “Major Hustad experimented”: 63rd BS war diary, AFHRA, March 22, 1943; “We landed okay”: ibid., November 24, 1942; “accomplish any task”: ibid., April 12, 1943; “Ken McCullar is a hard-hitting lad”: Kenney diary, April 10, 1943; “you can’t try a person twice”: ibid.; “lay off colonels”: ibid.; “a superior and impregnable strategic position”: quoted by Morton,
Strategy and Command
,
p. 172
; “Over the airfield at Port Moresby”:
Mainichi Daily News
, April 13, 1943. “Please convey my satisfaction”: quoted by Donald Davis,
Lightning Strike
, St. Martin’s, 2005,
p. 234
; “a damn fool thing to do”: Hiroyuki Agawa,
The Reluctant Admiral
, Kodansha International, 1979,
p. 139
.

Chapter 4: The Heart of Darkness

Chronology of McMurria crew’s stay on Wokeo Island and eventual capture: from McMurria,
Trial and Triumph
and Martindale,
13th Mission
; details of civilian massacres aboard
Akikaze
: Yuki Tanaka,
Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II
, Westview, 1998; “to dispose of all neutral civilians”: quoted by Tanaka,
p. 54
; details of 6th Field Kempeitai formation, including “a poor excuse for a ship”: Saiji Matsuda,
Koyo No Me (Eye of the Lone Falcon): An Essay—Odd Notes from the Battlefield
, unpublished narrative, via Henry Sakaida, circa 1985; “What was all that Bushido shit?”: quoted by McMurria, Trial and Triumph,
p. 73
; “Nothing short of a full course meal”: ibid.,
p. 76
.

Chapter 5: Lethal Moonlight

“enemy transportation and the threat of hostile planes” and “harassment by enemy planes”: Japanese Monograph 122:
Outline of Southeast Area Naval Air Operations, Part III, Nov ’42–Jun ’43
, USNA,
p. 52
; “many a stray bomb”: McMurria,
Trial and Triumph
,
pp. 127
–129; “The older personnel”: Whitehead, correspondence to Kenney, MM, May 12, 1943; “indoctrination and training”: 63rd Bomb Squadron war diary, May 11, 1943; “psychological effects”: Ikuhiko Hata and Yasuho Izawa,
Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units in World War II
, Naval Institute Press, 1989,
p. 38
; “fired on some of the ships”: 90th Bomb Group narrative history,
p. 65
, AFHRA; “heard something that sounded like gravel”: Griffin summary, in 43rd Bomb Group narrative history, AFHRA; details of bailout: Jose Holguin,
Prisoner of War, Rabaul, New Britain
, unpublished manuscript, circa 1987, via Henry Sakaida; “Lt. MacEachran was believed shot down”: 43rd Bomb Group casualty report, AFHRA.

Chapter 6: Zeamer and Sarnoski

“self-advertising son of a bitch”: quoted by E. B. Potter, Bull Halsey, Naval Institute Press, 1985,
pp. 154
–155; “Saw General MacArthur”: Kenney diary, April 28, 1943; “The general scheme of maneuver”: quoted by Miller, Cartwheel,
pp. 52
–57; “nary a spit of land”: anonymous, The Diary of the 8th Photo Squadron, self-published, June 6, 1943; “We don’t mind flying for the cause”: ibid., June 15, 1943; “shit-brindle”: Zeamer, correspondence with Dave Armstrong, November 24, 1998; “I’m going up there to do mapping”: Medal of Honor videotaped oral history, YouTube upload, September 27, 2011; “a string of 15 or 20 fighters”: Air Information Bulletin (AIB) #19,
Extract from Final Mission Report of June 16, 1943
, via Rick Dunn; “One whipped by my side window”: MOH oral history; “A single-seat fighter”: AIB extract; “have evolved into a yarn”: Jack Fellows, correspondence with author, January 21, 2013; “A half a minute [after the first pass]”: AIB extract; “One shell exploded behind my seat”: MOH oral history; “Though mortally wounded”: AIB extract; “I figured if we got hit”: MOH oral history; details of Air Group 251 participants
and statistics: group combat log, via Osamu Tagaya; “I don’t move”: MOH oral history; “I just greased it in”: quoted in 43rd Bomb Group newsletter, July, 2011; “Get the pilot last”: MOH oral history.

Chapter 7: The Big Feud

“There was a layer of middle cloud”: Whitehead, correspondence to Kenney, May 7, 1943; “a badly-scared lot”: ibid.; “The crash at Bena Bena”: ibid.; “looked good, meant business” and “tiring fast”:
Kenney Reports
,
p. 246
; “seen nothing, heard nothing”: ibid.,
p. 92
; “Bill Benn says”: Kenney diary, November 13, 1942; “Buy a Jolly Pop”: 43rd Bomb Group narrative history, AFHRA,
p. 135
; “[S]illy little things”: Kenney Reports,
p. 258
.

Chapter 8: Wewak

“We knew that the enemy was constructing a big air base”: Japanese Monograph 32:
Southeast Area Air Operations Record, Nov. 1942–Apr.1944
,
p. 171
; “to really liquidate the place”: ibid.,
p. 271
; “Hardships became the byword”: 40th Squadron narrative history,
p. 147
, AFHRA; “specialists in daring low-level work”: ibid.,
p. 21
; “destroy the enemy air force”: Mono 32,
pp. 8
–9, AFHRA; “one by one the Ki-48s were shot down”: Hiroshi Ichimura,
Ki-43 “Oscar” Aces of World War 2
, Osprey, 2009, p. 419; “flying straight as an arrow” and “where duty ended”: ibid.,
p. 44
–46; “a typical Texan”: 90th Bomb Squadron history, undated clipping, AFHRA; “God, it was unbelievable”: Middlebrook, p. 430; “was nearly dancing with delight” and “It was a cinch”: Alan Dawes in the
Sydney Telegraph
, August 18, 1943; “delighted with the success of the mission”: ibid.; “Although no accurate estimate . . . can be assessed”: 8th Photo Squadron diary, August 17, 1943; “Photographs reveal the total destruction”: quoted in undated clipping, 43rd Bomb Group history, AFHRA; “the scale and suddenness . . . of the raid”: Interrogation of Col. Kazuo Tanikawa, 8th Area Army, NARA; also Japanese Monograph 32,
p. 45
.

Chapter 9: The Hornet’s Nest

“Neither Boram nor Wewak”: Sydney Telegraph, August 18, 1943; “Piss . . .”: Middlebrook, p. 471; “Thirty Dinahs or Helens”: 38th Bomb Group narrative history, AFHRA,
pp. 278
–279; “plunged into the sea”: Middlebrook,
p. 22
–23; “about half what the Allies initially claimed”: Miller,
p. 199
; “About August 1943”: Yoshihara Kane,
Southern Cross: Memories of the War in Eastern New Guinea
(translated by Doris Heath), unpublished, 1955, AWM; “a fatal blow to the air force”: ibid.

Chapter 10: Primary Colors

“didn’t have enough strength”:
Kenney Reports
,
p. 207
; “The needed supply is stymied”: Kusaka diary, July 20, 1943, AWM; “brief nap, calisthenics”: ibid.; health statistics, Rabaul garrison: The United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS):
The Allied Campaign Against Rabaul
, Naval Analysis Division, 1946, NARA,
p. 259
: “The barracks were made of panels”: ibid.,
p. 263
; “Men in the paymaster section”: ibid.,
p. 191
; “The baths were wonderful”: ibid.,
p. 13
; “We answered emphatically”: ibid.,
pp. 17
–18; “This was a slightly more enjoyable project”: ibid.,
p. 157
; “Lt. McMurria and I”: Holguin manuscript,
p. 20
.

Chapter 11: The Buccaneers Attack

“to disturb the sleep and nerves of the enemy”: George Odgers,
Air War Against Japan, 1943–45 (Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series 3, Vol. II
), AWM, 1957,
p. 293
; “In 1943, at any one time”: interrogation of Capt. Takahashi Miyazaki, USSBS, NARA; “a considerable economy of force” and “small promise of reasonable success”: Miller,
p. 225
; “objective of neutralizing Japanese air forces”: ibid.; “If ever a series of offensives”: ibid., “a record unequalled”:
Kenney Reports
,
p. 193
; “a dozen Japs standing on the porch of a house”: 90th Bomb Squadron narrative history, October 12, 1943; “standing around planes”: ibid.; “We struck in split formations”: reprinted by John
p. 113
; “Some of the six enemy medium bombers”: ibid.; “Burgess and Helbert”: 90th Bomb Squadron combat log, October 12, 1943; observations of Dr. Tetsuo Aso: Lex McAulay,
Into the Dragon’s Jaws: The Fifth Air Force Over Rabaul
, Champlin, 1986,
pp. 144
–145; “spirits were extremely high”: Robert Cromie,
Chicago Tribune
, October 12, 1943; “Don’t bomb the Geisha houses”: ibid.; “a terrific flak barrage”: 43rd Bomb Group narrative history, October 12, 1943; “I was amazed and flabbergasted”: quoted by Steve Birdsall,
Flying Buccaneers: The Illustrated Story of Kenney’s Fifth Air Force
, Doubleday, 1977,
p. 33
, AFHRA; “the other flight commanders”: Birdsall,
p. 83
; “A few miles ahead”: Cromie, October 12, 1943; “between six and a dozen” and “only two Nip fighter planes”: 43rd Bomb Group narrative history,
pp. 21
–22; “rolled the dice”: Kenney diary, October 12, 1943; “Could not get all the dope”: ibid.; “When all the pictures were developed”: 8th Photo Squadron diary, October 12, 1943; “[O]ur heavy bombers”: quoted by McAulay, Dragon’s Jaws,
p. 20
; “the town area is a target”: 43rd Bomb Group narrative history,
p. 25
.