BOXART STORY

#84191

Loose formation

The B-17 bomber played a key role in the

European and Mediterranean theater of

operations, but also figured prominently

during the early years of the Pacific War.

However, in the Pacific, B-17s flew less than

two percent of the total combat sorties of

this type. In contrast to Europe, where B-17s

served with thirty-three bomber groups,

there were only five in the Pacific. Neither the

number of available planes per Group within

the Pacific units was comparable to the ETO.

Particularly early in the conflict, Pacific BGs

had only five to twenty planes available per

unit. B-17s were involved in combat as early

as the attack on Pearl Harbor, albeit more

as casualties. At this time, the series of B-17

(B, C, and D) that rarely made it to Europe

were in service.

In the early period of B-17 service in the

PTO, mostly versions without a tail turret

were used. This influenced the development

of combat boxes. In the event of an attack by

Japanese fighters from the rear, B-17B/C/D

pilots would bring the aircraft into an

S-style turn, giving their waist gunners the

opportunity for more effective defensive

fire. That caused necessity of larger space

between planes in formation. That spacing was

maintained later when B-17 versions E and F,

which already had a tail turret, predominated.

Unlike in the ETO, where it was attempted to

keep the formation as tight as possible, in the

Pacific, individual aircraft were given more

freedom to maneuver, resulting in formations

that appeared relatively disorganized. While

August 2023

the basis of formations in the Pacific was

also the V-shape element of three machines,

formations here tended to be much smaller,

usually consisting of only 10 to 15 aircraft.

The B-17, despite its obvious advantages,

proved to be not quite suitable for the PTO.

In the early phases of the conflict, when they

targeted marine convoys and other targets at

sea, they achieved marginal success. Such

targets were much more suitable for dive and

torpedo bombers. Later, when land targets

became more numerous, B-17 service in the

PTO was past its zenith. Beginning in early

1943, they were replaced by faster, longerrange B-24s. And by the time Japan itself

began to be bombed, the more modern B-29s

bore the brunt of the attacks.

Two missions of B-17 bomber crews,

whose route took them around the east

coast of New Guinea on August 14, 1942,

were characteristic of this battlefield. First,

a B-17E crew from the 435th BS, 19th BG, took

off from Port Moresby in the early morning

hours on a reconnaissance flight to Rabaul

and Kavieng. The machine was named “Chief

Seattle”, the crew was commanded by 1st Lt.

Wilson L. Cook and one RAAF member was

on board. The bomber was paid by citizens of

Seattle through war bond campaign and its

nom de guerre honoured the memory of Chief

Seattle, who was the leader of the Suquamish

and Duwamish tribes.

Unfortunately,

the

reconnaissance

machine encountered nine patrolling Zeros

of the Tainan Kōkūtai under the command of

Text: Jan Bobek and Jan Zdiarský

Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz

Lt.(jg) Jōji Yamashita. Their mission was to

provide cover for two cargo vessels and their

escorting warships. Cook’s outnumbered

machine was shot down during a five-minute

air battle with no survivors. One Zero was

damaged by defensive fire and, together with

its wingman, its pilot returned to Buna, New

Guinea.

The remaining seven Zeros continued

to cover the convoy, which was partially

protected by cloud cover. Six B-17s from the

19th BG searched for the Japanese vessels.

The formation was led by the CO of the 30th

BS, Maj. Dean C. Hoevet. Just as the Americans

were about to drop their bomb load, they

were attacked by Yamashita’s Zeros. During

the five-minute battle, four bombers were

damaged, one of them severely. The American

gunners managed to shoot down a Zero flown

by PO3c Masami Arai, who was killed in his

machine. The Japanese pilots reported that

the bombers dropped eight bombs, but in

the bad weather, the crews of the Japanese

vessels didn’t even notice the bombers’

attack . Piotr Forkasiewicz captured the

opening part of this encounter in his painting.

Tainan Kōkūtai was deployed to the fighting

over Guadalcanal from August 1942. This unit

retained the new A6M3 Type 32 Zeros with

shorter range on New Guinea. The fighting

over the New Guinea at the end of August

was disastrous for Tainan Kōkūtai, which is

described in the article Headhunters over

Buna in the January 2023 issue of INFO

Eduard magazine.

INFO Eduard

31