Air War in the Pacific

By; George C. Kenney Early in 1942 when the battle of Bataan and Corregidor was near the end. President Roosevelt ordered General Mac Arthur to leave for Australia so that he would be available to lead our forces back when it became possible. When he arrived, he only had a scattering of personnel to defend Australia. It was expected that the North Coast including Darwin would be conquered by the Japanese. Two famous statements he made. 1- I came thru and I shall return. 2- The battle for Australia will be fought in New Guinea. To that end he moved his headquarters to Port Moresby on the Southern Coast of New Guinea. The Air Force he inherited was totally ineffective. He knew of General Kenney’s reputation and requested he be assigned to him. It was granted. It didn’t take him long to see the many shortcomings. He went to work and shortly had enough planes in the air to make a difference. He was also effective in his trips to Washington in getting replacement aircraft and parts. He would visit with Roosevelt and after a friendly chat somehow a miracle would occur and shipments started arriving. Early on they were P-40s, P-38s and B-25 bombers. Later P-47s and P-51s were received. With training his men learned tactics to be effective. One of his innovations was Skip Bombing. He had worked on the theory before coming and shortly perfected it. It consisted of flying low towards the broadside of a ship and dropping the bombs in the ocean. They would skip over the water and bomb the side like a torpedo would do. One interesting side note, General Kenney had a young pilot on his base in San Francisco when he commanded the Fourth Air Force. The pilot was caught flying close to the ground, under bridges, etc. He was called in and reprimanded but the General made sure that wherever he would be assigned that this pilot would follow him there. At that time he was a little blond-haired Norwegian boy about five foot six with a round pink baby face and the bluest, most innocent eyes. His name was Richard I. Bong. He became the highest achiever of downing aircraft in the air with 40 confirmed kills. At that point he was sent home only to die as a test pilot soon thereafter. The first major achievement was the destruction of a Japanese re-enforcement fleet of troop ships, cargo ships and destroyers. It became known as the Bismarck Sea Battle. All were destroyed. The book is a chronicle of events leading to the Philippines and preparation for the invasion of Japan. Due to the vast distances needed to reach objectives, he quickly garnered a construction crew of engineers. They were the first to arrive after a landing took place to build air strips and buildings to support the arrival of fighters so they could support the longer range bombers. As an Air Force veteran myself it was, of course, fascinating for me to read. You might find it otherwise but I recommend anyway.