Carney Field, Guadalcanal
Over to Henderson Field this morning. The road is long. dusty, and crowded, and is patrolled by MPs in jeeps who arrest anyone going over 20 mph in a jeep. We were pinched once for going 30. Very annoying and stupid.
Ran into Frank Shackleford at the Operatations-Intelliegence office — a new place, underground and quite nice. Shack was pretty busy so I didn’t stay long.
Looked up R.N. Evans , of the New Zealand outfit, to see whether he had ever received a letter from Diane in Wellington for me. (I used him as a post office because of the red tape in our own system). He had one!
Damned if Diane isn’t working for the U.S. Army Intelligence at Noumea, New Caledonia! That gives me one swell girl a little matter of 400 miles from Button. Next time we go “South” for a “rest” I’ll go to see her.
Scheduled to raise the curtain on a large strike at Kahili tonight. Participants include PB4Ys, B-17s, B-24s, TBFs, and PBYs, Took off at 1715 with Heywood in the lead. Soon saw that we’d be late unless we stepped on it, so I left Heywood and Drum behind and lit out on my own (Heywood WAS late and Drum got lost).
That last half hour before hitting the target is the worst part of a raid. You check everything over and over to be sure they function — bomb racks, bomb bay doors. guns, lookouts,the night fighters, someone to “lead” me onto the target, someone to mark down searchlight and bomb-burst positions on a chart, the “get-away” course.
We passed 30 miles off Munda and Vila as the sun went down. As soon as it went below the horizon, I started climbing from my previous 500 feet. Finally reached my designated 12,000 feet as I passed Treasury Island.
It was now quite dark, but I still made made a beautiful silhouette against the faint glow of the West — a setup for a night fighter.
Settled down into the last half hour as I crossed the Bougainville coastline. Checked everything, and then started to fidget. The moon was excellent. Could see a thin layer of cloud at about 4,000 over the target area. Kept on, hoping that we’d be able to locate the field anyway.
The intervalometer circuit failed to function properly so I told Babcock, my bombardier, to drop “salvo” when we got to the target.
We couldn’t seem to spot the field as we got nearer and nearer. The clouds blow extended almost to the coastline.However, we should be able to pick it up at the coastline, which was clear (but also the location of the heavy AA batteries).
Suddenly, a searchlight snapped on, then another, and I knew I was getting close. Opened the bomb bay doors and nosed over to 210 mph, heading downward to my release altitude of 8,000.
The searchlights waved frantically. More of them snapped on until about 15 were finally on, all weaving and searching for me. They seemed to be fuddled (unusual) and several of them were useless as they were under cloud cover.
Suddenly, on one of my weaving turns, I spotted the soft white gash of the field in the jungle off to my left. No clouds over it, a perfect target!
Wheeled sharp left and pointed the nose toward the upper end of the field. Down, down, straight ahead. The searchlights still groping aimlessly. Then, over the interphone, that welcome cry, “Bombs away.” AA fire now.
“Spot where those bombs hit and plot in those searchlights.” Still weaving and diving. The bomb bay doors are now closed giving me more speed and stopping that infernal rumbling which they make while they’re open. Twice the lights touched me and swung onward. Out over the harbor now and behind me the searchlights are snapping off one by one. But now, for the first time, lights suddenly shot up up from the small islands in the bay. I had never heard of lights there before. Some more weaving and finally we were in the clear and everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
“Pass up the chart with the bomb hit positions.” Spriegel passed it up. By God, we’d put the whole shebang right into the middle of the target — a large supply dump. A perfect hit — and a salvo too! It must have blown that dump sky high (12 500 lb’ers — 6,000 lbs).
Heywood who passed who passed over the target late and after me said that a few moments after my bombs hit, large fire broke out in what was left of the dump, making a perfect target for the other planes.
Came on home, following the islands in the moonlight. Made a ver nice landing and called it a night with hot chocolate in the mess hall.
A very successful raid. We raised the curtain for the night’s show, beautifully.
Charley had raided Henderson in our absence and received a hot reception. Moffett and Hall were back from protecting the PBY-Army rescue hop (NE of Buka).