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General George Kenney's 5th Air Force was undersupplied, inexperienced, and underequipped. Their B-17 Flying Fortresses were proving hard to maintain and their P-40 Kittyhawks and P-39/P-400 Airacobras were clearly outclassed by the Japanese air arm's more numerous A6M Zeros and Ki-43 Oscars. The Australians had a number of Beaufighters and Beauforts in the area, but too few to be decisive. On the plus side, the Americans also had B-24 Liberators, an aircraft that would prove to be the most capable heavy bomber in the Pacific War until the arrival of the B-29 Superfortress two years later. Additionally, several squadrons of A-20 Havocs and B-25 Mitchells had been training in low level attacks. Finally, the 39th Fighter Squadron had recently arrived with their P-38 Lightnings, an aircraft that clearly outgunned and outmatched anything the Japanese had to offer. One of the P-38 pilots, in fact, had just made ace, shooting down his fifth Japanese aircraft -- the new ace was an American pilot named Dick Bong; he would finish his combat tour with 40 victories, making him the leading American ace of the war. It was just too bad that there weren't more of the P-38s available.
The Allies' most interesting new weapon was a highly modified B-25 Mitchell that carried ten .50 caliber machineguns on its nose. Built by Major Paul "Pappy" Gunn, these planes would prove to be some of the deadliest anti-shipping aircraft ever devised. They were crewed by pilots who had practiced a new technique, called "skip bombing" -- pioneered by Kenney's assistant, Major William Benn. The planes would drop their bombs from right down on the deck, so low that the bombs would skip across the waves and into the sides of enemy ships. And as the plane made its approach, the ten .50s on the nose would blast away at the target, clearing its decks and, in some cases, actually sinking the ships. Another new weapon employed in the South Pacific was the parafrag, a 23-pound bomb with a parachute attached. A-20s and B-25s would fly down low over enemy airfields, often as little as 50 feet off the deck, and drop dozens of these bombs on enemy aircraft. The 'chutes would pop open, slowing the fall of the bombs enough to give the bombers time to clear the area. It was a spectacular and exciting way to bomb, though very little damage assessment could be done -- the bombers would make a single pass, coming out of nowhere against the surprised defenders and disappearing over the horizon, often just at treetop level, before gun crews could fire back. |
