HISTORY

Losses avoidable and

unavoidable

During the remainder of the Philippine Campaign, Erwin’s B-25s began their

air attacks against Japanese shipping,

attempting to resupply their contingent of

forces now trapped on Borneo. This island

also provided Japanese with 40 percent

of her fuel and oil supplies, and if it falls,

would severely damage the Empire of

Japan’s war effort. General MacArthur

had believed that the island could provide

a good Pacific base for the Royal Navy and

new Allied airfields, contrary to the opinions of his Allied commanders who advised

caution.

With the absence in enemy air traffic, the

American’s accidentally provided air action

of their own over the island of Luzon. The

consequences were to prove fatal in two

instances.

“One night a B-24 Liberator came flying

over our base and every gun on Luzon and

even the warships offshore were shooting at this poor guy. This was just terrifying to watch as they just kept shooting at

the Liberator. I would have hated to have

been part of that crew! On another day

I saw two Lockheed P-38 Lightnings come

down as well. The two planes came screaming downward, like during dive bombing

practice and both pilots flew right into the

ground about a mile away from us. Maybe

the speed of their dive froze their controls, or they were playing a game of ‘chicken’

who knows ...”

The shipping lanes north of Borneo provided a fertile hunting ground for the intrepid “Sun Setters” over the next month. The

B-25s flew daily in their quest to send the

Japanese resupply effort to the bottom of

the Pacific. Newly promoted First Lieutenant Werhand vividly recollected one of

the most memorable missions he’d flown

during World War Two, while flying off the

coast of mainland China to knock off transport ships at their source. Everything started off perfectly until reaching the target

area.

“We left on a routine mission looking for

shipping off the coast of China. The Japanese were shipping out from Borneo, and

we had to find the ships without intelligence reports. We found three ships that day,

feel it. Fortunately, I didn’t lose flight control but quickly corrected with my rudder

and re-trimmed the plane. We were alright.

But the other guy, who flew in error, headed

inland. We had alternate airfields in China

that were believed to be in ‘friendly territory’ but we were never quite sure. The Jap’s

probably had overrun some of them. We

could not talk with the crippled bomber or

stick around to see where he was going to

land, because of the fuel situation. We never spoke amongst ourselves while in formation, because we did not want the Jap’s

My B-25 was ‘Bugs Bunny’ since he was in the cinema at the time. Later they had to pull the side nose

mounted guns outside my window, because the recoil was pulling out the rivets on the nacelles!

with two destroyer escorts and one transport among them. I led this flight with six

B-25s and assigned two aircraft to each

target. We were at about 3,000 feet and

circled the ships out of the range of their

AA guns.

Shipping was the worst target of all since

there wasn’t anything to hide behind! The

enemy gunners can refine their lead on you

when you make your approach. On ground

attacks we’d be so low enough to hide behind trees or something else.

We went in! My target was the destroyer escort, which had been hit with the .50

caliber guns in my nose. The flight leader

who was supposed to go in and hit the

transport goofed up and went for my ship

instead. The transport was well armed, and

we were in a sudden crossfire. This B-25

got hit in the engine since he was flying too

high. I got hit on the left side, and I could

to hear us. Our uniform did have the ‘Blood

Chits’ on them, to reward our captors with

money for our safe return. But we never

heard from that other flight crew again. The

next day we found the remaining transport

ship, I guess we sent the other two to the

bottom.

A way to victory

While stationed on Lingayen, our pilot was

treated to the friendliness and above all

resourcefulness of their Philippine hosts.

“During our stay on the Philippines, we paid

some guys about 75 USD for a 20 × 20 foot

beach house on stilts right on the beach.

We laid the floor down after we got some

wood from the Navy. The Filipinos were

thankful for us being there. We had a houseboy who would even steal chickens for

us. We’d trade them out t-shirts for eggs

once in awhile to get something really good

"The Sun Setters" on their way to the target

August 2022

INFO Eduard

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