Pacific Counterblow - Air Force Historical Studies Office
Pacific Counterblow - Air Force Historical Studies Office
Pacific Counterblow - Air Force Historical Studies Office
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settle her damaged bulk on the sea, was blown up by the Fort's tail<br />
gunner. By 30 September the iith had encountered 21 Kawanishi;<br />
5 were destroyed and 7 damaged.<br />
Meantime the enemy prepared his counterblow. On 12 August<br />
Admiral Ghormley had reported naval concentrations at Rabaul and<br />
in the Bougainville region. A week later these concentrations began<br />
to appear in the Buin-Faisi area, and on the 2oth the Admiral warned<br />
Colonel Saunders that the task forces to retake Guadalcanal already<br />
were moving down from Truk and Ponape. The grinding routine<br />
of sea search became of utmost importance. Day after day, the Forts,<br />
taking off from Espiritu at 0300, crossing over Tulagi at sunrise and,<br />
scouring the sea to the northwest, logged i,6oo miles of open-water<br />
flying.<br />
Daily action had taken its toll. From 31 July to 2o August, ii<br />
B-17's were lost, 8 operationally, 2 at sea, only i in combat. Men and<br />
equipment stood up well against the enemy. Japanese gunnery, both<br />
aerial and AAA, was uniformly poor and the supposedly fanatical<br />
enemy pilots showed little eagerness to close with the B-i7's. During<br />
the 8 days of intensive operations preceding the landings, enemy<br />
fighters were engaged on all but two missions to the Guadalcanal-<br />
Tulagi area and other than in the "ramming" incident, no Fort was<br />
lost to the float planes. The few hits scored on the heavies were by<br />
7.7-millimeter fire and not very damaging. Three crew members<br />
were slightly wounded. The pilots learned that the Japanese always<br />
attacked singly, that, if the Forts turned their formation into him, he<br />
would always draw off at the fire of the turret guns. Bad weather,<br />
not the Zero, was the chief antagonist. Lack of homing facilities and<br />
radio direction-finding equipment brought down more B-17's than<br />
enemy pilots did.<br />
Operational Problems<br />
In the <strong>Pacific</strong> theaters nature and distance are usually as formidable<br />
a foe as the Japanese. When Colonel Saunders and his 98th Squadron<br />
set their ships down on Plaines des Gaiacs on 21 July, they found a<br />
red dust strip hacked out of a swamp. High in iron oxide, this dust,<br />
sifting through the filters, honed out the cylinders, so that shortly the<br />
B-17's were fortunate to fly 6 hours with a full load of oil. Additional<br />
complications were lack of service and maintenance personnel.<br />
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