American Valor Quarterly Issue 9 - Summer 2012 | Page 26

trapped, leaving me alone with the sky
full of the enemy.
The Zero on my tail was firing, but I
figured I still had a chance to reach the
bombers. I tightened my turn until the
G-forces dimmed my vision to the edge
of blackout. I grunted hard and out of
the deepening gray universe loomed a
huge Japanese bomber directly in front
of me. I was among them so close I
didn’t have to aim. I pulled the trigger
and the 50 calibers roared. I had attacked,
alone, a force of 36 enemy bombers and
an unknown number of the vaunted
Zero fighters carrying out a bombing raid
on our B-17 bomber base at Java. I was
determined I was going to deliver at least
some American return fire.
I had to decide very quickly what my next
maneuver should be. I decided to dive
and luckily was able to lose the Zero. On
returning to base, I reported my actions
and the information the crewmen had
reported. I was later awarded the two
bombers as victories since I was the only
one who had attacked the enemy
bombers.
I later experienced what our flight leaders
were going through at the time and can
now appreciate their gallant conduct.
Planes and flying time had not been
available to them in their struggle in the
Philippines, and their combat experience
had been so limited and sporadic that
there was little continuity.

On March 1, Captain Shane instructed me
and five other pilots to drive to the B-17
base at Malang. There was a chance we
might escape Java on a B-17. As we
approached the base, we saw a bombing
raid was hitting it. We were told to climb
aboard the B-17. After we got in the air,
we could see Zeros strafing the field
below. They set a B-24 on fire. We were
thrown out of Java, losing all those planes.
We were ordered to proceed with our
planes to northern Australia where the
Japanese had advanced and were
knocking on the door of Australia itself.
At Adelaide River, we went on the alert
to intercept Japanese raids on Darwin
and surrounding assets. A day or so after
our arrival, our squadron intercepted a
raid by a large formation of bombers
escorted by Zero
fighters. In the
ensuing battle, our
r e s p e c t e d
s q u a d r o n
commander,
Captain Allison
Strauss, was shot
down and killed.
The effect of the
loss is hard to
describe.
It
represented a bad
start—would this
effort be just
another Java?
Great Britain had
suffered
her
greatest military

defeat in her long history, with the loss
of 150,000 men and much of her Far
East Empire. The British Navy of the
Far East was crippled. The U.S. had also
suffered the greatest defeat in her history,
with the loss of Bataan and the 140,000
U.S. and Filipino troops, along with its
Air Force. And the Dutch East Indies had
just fallen to the Japanese.
With this record in place on April 25, the
Japanese launched a softening-up attack
on Darwin. I was leading a flight of four;
we were vectored northwest of Darwin.
We had climbed to around 20,000 feet
when I spotted a large formation of
enemy bombers and fighters below me.
The Japanese had the audacity to send an
ace fighter team over New Guinea to
show their air superiority just a few days
before the bombers.
As I approached the formation, I
decided it would be great for the spirit
of my own men and a little payback to
the Japanese to do a maneuver or two
for them. I did a slow roll for the
bombers just to show them and then
continued my attack. With eight friendlies
behind me, I never took my eyes off the
target as I opened fire. All six guns fired
perfectly, and my lead could not have

The feared Japanese A6M “Zero” fighter, whose pilots often already had 10
years of combat experience flying missions over China. This particular
fighter, piloted by PO2c Sakae Mori, is being launched by the carrier Akagi
enroute to Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.

AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY - Summer 2012 - 26
AVQ - Issue 9 Part 2.pmd

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9/4/2012, 11:04 AM

National Archives

Though they were expected to lead us
younger pilots, it was the blind leading
the blind. The fortunes of the 17th
Provisional Pursuit Squadron were fading.
We were all aware that we were being
thrown into the onrushing path of the
military juggernaut of Japan to honor a
commitment to our Allies. I suppose it
had to be done, though just a few weeks
of training together would have helped
make us a military unit instead of the
conglomerate mix that we were.

At this stage of the war we really had not
developed any tactics against the Zeros,
except knowing the P-40 could out-dive
it. The fighters in the Philippines essentially
had no victorious experiences and were
decimated. For greenhorn pilots like me,
who didn’t even know their own planes
yet, we were just groping. As more and
more of the pilots exposed to the Zero
went down, the morale dropped lower
and lower.