27 December 1942
39th FS, 35th FG, 5th AF
14 Mile Drome (Schwimmer Drome), Lolaki, New Guinea
The freshly broken in V-1710-55 engine sitting a few feet to Captain Thomas “Tom” Lynch’s left thundered to life. Attached to the engine was the new P-38G-1-LO #42-12715 that had recently been assembled and fitted out in Australia then flown up to Port Moresby a few weeks prior, where it was assigned to the only fully active P-38 Fighter Squadron in the South West Pacific Area, Lynch’s own 39th Fighter Squadron in the 35th Fighter Group. At 14 Mile Drome, so named because of its location 14 miles north of Port Moresby but more recently dubbed Schwimmer Drome in honor a 39th pilot who was lost there the previous spring, it joined 20 odd other P-38F-5-LO’s and a couple other recently arrived G-models. Painted with the squadron markings and radio identification letters, #42-12715 was given the squadron designation #113 (to differentiate it from the F’s numbered between 10 and 39) and Lynch claimed it as his own—the prerogative of the Squadron CO.
He spun up the V-1710-51 to his right and ran a quick radio check to his wingman, a young man from the north woods of Wisconsin, 2Lt. Richard “Dick” Bong, who was on loan from the 9th Fighter Squadron of the 49th Fighter Group to gain combat experience and bring that experience back to his unit as they made the transition from P-40’s to P-38’s.
Lynch remembered his own transition the previous summer and fall. He had been with the 39th during their first tour at the front in New Guinea in spring, flying the P-39’s which gave the squadron its “Cobra in the Clouds” nickname and insignia. During two separate missions in May he had scored three aerial victories in his Airacobra even though he commented in his Encounter Report after the first two that he would have fared better in a truck because it would have been “more maneuverable and will go higher.” After being pulled back to Australia, they received the first shipment of P-38’s sent to the SWPA and the remaining pilots plus a few replacements trained stateside underwent about 80 hours of flight training in the new twin-engine fighter. For Lynch, the Lighting was a revelation. After his struggles in Bell’s mid-engine P-39, the P-38’s penchant to pull away from anything and everything in the air was a delight and being able to zoom up to their 18,000 foot patrol altitude in little more than six minutes with a full combat load was a breath of fresh—but thin—air.
The one complaint Lynch had was that since they had arrived back in theatre a month earlier they had not yet been able to meet the enemy in the air. The closest they came was when the aggressive Capt. Bob Faurot saw a Zeke taking off and dropped a 500 pound bomb in front it, downing the Jap with the splash from the beach.
Lt. Bong was in one of the P-38F’s, bearing squadron number “15” (#42-12644). As with the other P-38’s in the 39th FS, his engine nacelles were painted with the “shark’s teeth” which they had adopted from the 23rd Fighter Group’s P-40s and their AVG “Flying Tiger” predecessors. All of the planes in the squadron were also adorned with sky blue stripes on the upper tips of their vertical stabilizers, diagonally around the rear booms, and on the rear part of their propeller spinners. The rest of the plane was the standard Army Olive Drab over Gray camouflage but differentiated by the odd highlighting along all of the seams from where they had been taped to protect the airframes from salt-spray during shipping. Lynch watched the young pilot warm up the engines in his airplane then checked over his shoulder for the other two P-38’s in his element of four, 2Lt. John Mangus in #27 (#42-12653) and 2Lt. Kenneth Sparks in #30 (#42-12651). The four of them were on their way, with eight of their squadron mates in two more elements, to intercept a Jap attack on the American beachhead north of Dobodura called in by coastwatchers to the north.
The previous day, Lynch and the 39th had to listen to the celebrations of the neighboring 9th FS who had intercepted an attack in their P-40’s, downing eight meatballs and driving off the rest while the P-38’s of the Cobras sat silently waiting on the ground. Today, though, the Japs would finally meet the Lightnings in the air and Lynch was set on making sure it would be a day they would long rue.
Once Capt. Lynch received the all-clear from his flight, he pushed his throttles up to the full 54 inches of pressure his new plane allowed. The rush of air through the B-13 turbos was almost as loud as the engines themselves as they whined in the exhaust stream. He released the brakes and the airplane leapt forward rapidly opening the distance between him and Bong behind him. His fully armed plane—even with the extra weight of the fuel in the leading edge tanks—was airborne well before the others, causing him to pull even farther ahead during the climb. He slowed the plane and circled over Laloki at their designated rendezvous altitude of 1,500 feet so they could form up and await the other two elements.
With all twelve ships in order, Lynch turned the squadron North East toward Dobodura and the beachhead of Buna beyond. They climbed rapidly, needing to clear the 13,000 foot Owen Stanley Range which cut across the center of this part of southern New Guinea. One of the planes from the second element had to turn back due to a turbo failure as they climbed to altitude and another of the third element had to return when one of his engines started running rough. Lynch ordered the two pilots who had lost their wingmen to join up then led the remaining 10 planes of the squadron up to their patrol altitude of 18,000 feet over Buna and they started a wide zig-zagging circle while scanning for the reported enemy aircraft.
Capt. Lynch was one of the most experienced pilots in the squadron and several of the boys flying with him today, like 2Lt. Bong, had never met the enemy in the air. He had worked hard since the squadron moved up to 14 Mile Drome to teach them the essentials of air combat, especially combat against the Japanese. His approach was simple: take your time, plan your action, keep your cool, and work together. Some of his efforts were undermined by Capt. Faurot who had combat experience as an “observer” during the Battle of Britain flying Hurricanes and Spitfires with several of the Polish squadrons. Faurot approached fighting the Japanese as he had fought the Luftwaffe—give a shout of “Tally Ho’!” and charge in—relying on “seat of the pants” instinct and his own talent. Lynch’s dedication to minding his fellows and his seniority was why he was recommended to take over the 39th when Maj. Prentice was shunted over to the newly formed 475th Fighter Group instead of the charismatic and aggressive, Capt. Faurot.
Below, American transport ships were unloading equipment for the American and Australian ground forces pressing out from Buna Village while above the 10 P-38’s of the 39th made their patrol in two full four plane elements flying echelon left with 400 yards and 100 vertical feet between them and a two plane element scanning even higher as “Tail-End-Charlie.” Five minutes later they were joined in the distance by a few elements of P-40’s from the 9th.
“Aircraft, two-o’clock low!” Lynch recognized the voice of Lt.Gallop flying with the second element. He looked past his right engine nacelle and could see twenty to thirty shadows about six miles away and 3,000 feet lower than him in a flying square heading about 300 degrees in relation to his own flight path or about 160 true.
He ordered the squadron to ready for action, prompting them to get their airplanes in fighting trim, turn on their sights (if they were not already on), and charge their guns. He continued, “Blue West Three,” referring to the lead of his two plane third element, “climb to twenty-thousand and provide top cover. Blue West Two, stay with lead element, maintain heading, and prepare to intercept.”
2Lt. Denton, Blue West Three, came on the radio, “Zekes, three-o’clock high!” Lynch spotted them, twelve in two six plane elements line-abreast at about 24,000 feet and following the line of the lower aircraft. None of the enemy aircraft had responded to the presence of the American’s yet, so Lynch hoped they had not been spotted. He re-organized his squadron and issued new attack orders.
“All elements, on Lead! Come right, three-twenty, climb to twenty-five thousand.” He turned his airplane 100 degrees to the right and pulled back on the yoke, checking his rear-view mirror at the top of his canopy and confirming with a glance over his shoulder that the rest of his squadron was turning with him. He reminded them, “set mixture to Auto-Rich and RPMs to three-thousand.”
Once above and slightly behind the white fighters of the Japanese, he turned the squadron into a full pursuit position where the P-38’s had no problem gaining on the lithe little Mitsubishi A6M Zekes, or Zeroes as some called them. Looking beyond he saw that the first group of Japanese they had spotted were a mile farther ahead of the Zekes and appeared to a couple small elements of Aichi D3A “Vals” and a gaggle of Nakajima Ki.43 “Oscars”—maybe as many as thirty. With the Zekes they were pursuing that meant they were about to engage around fifty enemy aircraft. Luckily, the fifteen P-40’s of the 9th were already turning to engage the Vals, helping to even the odds.
The Zeke’s saw the Kittyhawks coming in to attack the dive-bombers, and immediately dove to engage, thirsty for blood and not willing to let the Dainippon Teikoku Rikugun Kokubutai (Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, IJAAS) take all of the glory.
“Remember, wingmen stay with your leads. Plan your attack, make your pass, and regroup. Do not, repeat DO NOT, let them draw you into their fight.” He took one last look at the squadron arrayed behind him, “let’s get ‘em, Cobras!”
He throttled up to 47 inches, enough so his element of P-38F’s could stay with him, and nosed down toward the fray below. Bong, Mangas, and Sparks stayed with him the whole way arrayed in a perfect descending echelon left. He was pleased to see all of his drill and formation practice was paying off.
They closed rapidly on the Zekes, their P-38’s accelerating well past 450 mph in even the shallow dive—100 mph faster than the Japanese planes were capable of in a similar dive. Seeing how quickly they were closing, Lynch thought to share one more bit of tactical planning with his squadron, “Don’t stop to fight the Zekes. Continue on to their main attack force before breaking. Hold your fire until within 400 yards.”
In less than a minute, they had closed to 1000 yards and only a few seconds later they were at 500 yards. Lynch saw a stream of white tracers from somewhere off to his left as an anxious P-38 opened up. He did not bother chastising the pilot because by the time the first tracers were passing the enemy, three other P-38’s had also opened fire. Lynch drew a quick line on one Zeke, eyeballing the lead over the nose of his ’38 below the reticle limit of his gunsight. His short burst of machine guns passed harmlessly behind the right wing of the enemy but the following burst from Bong as they closed to less than 200 yards cut right through the left wing of the same plane. The wing folded over as though it had been deliberately cut with a buzz-saw and a gout of flame erupted from the gap as the Armor Piercing Incendiaries of Bong’s .50 cals torched the fuel.
The Zeke snap rolled into the lost wing as the engine and propeller torque over powered the airplane’s lost stability. The right wing shot vertical, forcing Lynch and Bong both to skid their Lightnings to the side to avoid ramming it as it passed between them.
A glance behind him and he saw two Zeros tumbling out of their line as the other ten scattered in surprise at the sudden American attack. His nine squadron mates had loosened their formation during the attack through the Zekes but were all still more-or-less together. He adjusted his angle, throttled back a little and dropped his combat flaps, calling the squadron to do the same, in preparation for the attack on the slower Japanese attack planes now in front of him.
“Blue West elements, prioritize the Vals. Wingmen, cover your leaders.”
Even though the P-40’s had moved to intercept the main Japanese attack force first, they were still climbing to altitude and closing from greater distance, so it was Lynch and the 39th which made the first engagement. Flying over the trailing Oscars, Lynch led his element above the Vals before sliding into a deeper dive to come across both lines of Vals from their eight o’clock high—he and Bong on the rear line, with Mangus and Sparks to their left passing the first line—too far forward for the rear gunners to mount an effective defense. The pass happened so quickly he was not sure if they had downed any of the Vals or even if they scored any good hits, but it did succeed in breaking up the formation with several of the Vals jettisoning their payloads over the bay in their panic.
Pulling out of the dive and raising his flaps, he made a lazy right climbing turn to circle wide of the fray and judge how the enemy was maneuvering in response to the attack and check on his own forces. One Oscar was spiraling down in flames while the rest of the Japanese fighter force were turning and spiraling in general confusion and disorder as they tried to make sense of the multi-pronged American attack now that the P-40’s had joined the fray. Half of the Vals were devoid of their payloads and off course as the other six were trying to regroup and re-align for an attack on the transport ships. Bong was still hanging on his six, and he saw others pairs of Lightnings zooming out to set up fresh attacks. One, 2Lt. Bills in #111—the other P-38G in the air today—was a few hundred yards in front of his lead plane, Lt. Gallop in #18. Lynch made a mental note to have a talk with the young pilot later about guarding his airspeed.
He led Bong back up to 18,000 feet and turned back into the melee.
A pair Ki.43 Oscars were trailing a P-40, small spirals of smoke streaming forward toward the American fighter. He once more dropped his combat flaps then turned to drive the Oscars from the Kittyhawk’s tail. Lynch cut behind them, coming at about a 20 degree deflection and carefully lined up his target, the trailing Oscar. Taking a deep breath of warm Oxygen from his mask, he took his time and made certain his lead was sufficient before sending a half second burst of machine guns fire toward the Jap.
His tracers passed just wide of the Oscar as it turned right to follow the maneuvering P-40. Lynch kicked right-rudder to skid the airplane more and opened up a long two second burst with both machine guns and cannon. This time he saw strikes walking the entire length of the fuselage, his 20mm opening massive holes along the right wing root. The Oscar rolled away with a shudder and as it did the right wing peeled off at its base and folded over the canopy sending the airplane tumbling from the sky.
The attack did its job, though, as the lead Oscar broke away from Bong’s tracers and abandoned his attack on the P-40.
Checking that his six was clear, Lynch once more led Bong out of the fray to circle for another assessment. Two Vals were still valiantly trying to line up on the ships and Lynch pitched over to intercept. He was just lining up, the rear gunner sending a few ineffective bursts of fire short of his plane, when Bong called out on the radio, “Captain, bandits, five o’clock high!”
Lynch immediately broke off his attack, forcing the plane into a high speed right turn with a little rudder assistance. He saw tracers passing behind him in his rear-view mirror as he pulled up, his left hand jamming the throttles fully forward. Looking over his shoulder for Bong he was disconcerted to find only Oscars behind him, turning to follow his hurried climb. Wanting to pull away even farther, he focused in front of him and was about to raise his flaps once more when he caught movement directly off his right wing tip and was startled to discover that Bong had somehow turned inside of him and was now leading the pair.
With no time to wonder at how his young wingman had managed that, he called out, “Bong, break right!”
He had learned when flying against the Japs in May that because of how light their aircraft were and how much torque their engines produced they could roll left a lot faster than right. He hoped that now, in the P-38 which did not suffer from torque roll, they could even the imbalance in their respective maneuverability by forcing the enemy to try to turn against their torque rather than with it.
Trusting his squadron leader, Bong did not hesitate, and forced his plane into a low right roll. Lynch followed, kicking his right rudder to tighten the turn. Now pointed down and rolling into a defensive spiral the pair of P-38’s were going too fast for the little Oscars to turn inside them and Lynch swiveled his head around to watch them overshoot. Looking ahead, he saw they were once more pointed at the Vals, 1200 yards away and closing. Another glance behind him and he saw the two Oscars coming around to chase the Lightnings. He and Bong were caught in between the four Japanese planes.
With Bong still leading, he did the only thing he could think to do, “Bong, stay on the Vals.”
Lynch pulled the yoke back, pitching #113 into a sudden climb with one hand while his left pulled the throttles back to just above IDLE-CUTOFF. He grunted and strained, flexing his stomach and neck, as he tried rolling and skidding right to cut directly across the path of two Oscars closing from four o’clock. They flashed behind him and he continued his rolling turn into a full barrel roll, finishing a few seconds later to discover one Oscar lining up on Bong as the other was banking left to lag roll around on Lynch.
He mashed his throttles forward again and leveled his wings to line up on the Oscar behind Bong. Bong’s plane ducked below the defensive fire of the Vals and came up from their six o’clock low, opening a torrent of combined machine gun and cannon fire. Lynch saw the tracers passing below one of the Vals at the same time the Oscar opened fire on Bong. Without any time to waste, Lynch depressed his machine trigger to send rounds past the Oscar.
The Oscar rolled out to the left, just as Lynch had anticipated, and with a kick of left rudder he sent a line of 20mm cannon fire into the engine of the slender plane. As the Jap fighter slid lower in its roll, Lynch’s machine guns spattered into the outer right wing of the plane, straight though the great red “meatball” of the Imperial marking. The wing tip collapsed and the plane jerked momentarily right before continuing its left roll.
At the same time, Bong pitched up, spraying steel into belly of the dive bomber. He must have hit the bomb itself, dangling on it shackle, as the entire center of airplane disappeared into a brown cloud of fire and debris. The cowling, with the engine still spinning, back-flipped away from the blast as the wing tips and empennage spiraled apart. The blast sent a shockwave out, knocking the other Val sideways and causing it to yaw in an oscillating fish tail. The pilot had obviously had enough at that point and released the bomb as Bong’s P-38 sped past.
Lynch looked back for the second Oscar but it had never completed its circle having instead nosed over to bug out. Rolling left to look down over his wing, he saw the first Oscar still smoking and wobbling sans wing-tip as the pilot aimed for the Japanese line west of Buna. He watched it for a few moments, debating whether to pursue and finish it off or to re-group with Bong. He had just decided to follow his own order of staying with his wingman when he saw the canopy fly off the Oscar and the pilot clambor out of the cockpit to slide off the left wing. A few seconds later he saw the small canopy of the parachute open and drift over the ocean.
Rejoining Bong, he circled up to 18,000 feet one last time to survey the state of the battle. Lowering his RPMs and Throttles, he switched back to AUTO-LEAN so he could direct the closing minutes of the engagement from on high and take his time to ensure the sky of was clear of enemies. The remaining Japanese planes were all scattered and those not still engaged were heading in ones and two back to the north. He scanned the sky, counting P-38’s, and was happy to see nine including Bong. One, too far away to positively identify, was trailing smoke from the right boom and was being escorted by another at about 6,000 feet; both heading South West back to 14 Mile Drome. Another pair of Lightnings were passing low over the beachhead, giving a celebratory wag of the wings to the infantrymen below. The P-40’s were starting to re-group, even while a few chased down Japanese stragglers.
After five minutes, the last of the P-40’s headed back to their base likely running low on fuel, and within ten minutes that last distant specs of the Japanese attack force disappeared into the distant atmospheric haze. The battle was won.
It was only later, as he parked #113 on the packed dirt that served as a hardstand that he realized that, when the pilot bailed out of that last Oscar he attacked, Capt. Thomas Lynch had officially become an Ace.
