Samurai! by Martin Caiden

Author:Martin Caiden [Piers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2016-01-14T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

ON JULY 29 Lieutenant Joji Yamashita returned to Lae from his Buna patrol with news which electrified the entire base. His planes had been attacked for the first time by American naval aircraft. He reported to Commander Nakajima and Captain Saito that his nine Zeros had encountered a mixed force of American SBD Dauntless dive bombers and F4F Wildcat fighters, led to the Buna area by P-39 pathfinders which, he estimated, had come from Rabi. The Navy warplanes were the first to appear in our theater.

The news that an American aircraft carrier had moved into New Guinea waters was ominous, and our staff officers appeared upset. If the Americans had carriers to spare for operations against our forces at Lae, Buna, and Rabaul, then there appeared to be some truth in their claims of victory at Midway and their denials of major losses during the Coral Sea Battle. If what Tokyo had claimed was true, that our fleet had destroyed the enemy carriers encountered in the Coral Sea and off Midway, how could there be a carrier in our vicinity? Something was wrong, and for the first time we felt doubts regarding the authenticity of Tokyo’s repeated claims of victory.

The majority of fighter pilots at Lae, however, greeted the news in an entirely different fashion. Late into the night we threw questions at Yamashita’s pilots. How many Navy planes were there? Were the Wildcats better than the P-39s and the P-40s? How good were the American Navy pilots?

Their answers were encouraging, for Yamashita’s squadron put in claims for three dive bombers, five fighters, and one P-39 definitely shot down, without the loss of a single Zero. This made unimportant what might have happened at Midway, or at the Coral Sea, or anywhere else! All we cared about was that for four successive months we had whipped the enemy’s fighters and bombers time and time again, and that the appearance of his Navy planes meant that much greater an opportunity for gaining even more victories.

But for the next three days the new enemy planes failed to appear over Buna. On the thirtieth nine B-17s attacked the beachhead area with considerable success, and our nine fighters managed to shoot down only one bomber of the enemy formation. I received credit for the victory when I caught the fourth Fortress over Cape Nelson and managed to concentrate my fire into its nose. Apparently the pilot and co-pilot were killed, for the big airplane plunged into the ocean out of control. It was one of my hardest air battles, for I returned to Lae with several inches of skin scraped off my right arm from the bomber’s guns. I had missed death by no more than the thickness of a hair, and my mechanics worked all night to patch up the dozens of bullet holes in the fuselage and wings.

On August 2, all thought of Navy planes fled from our minds. Before the day was over, we had behind us a tremendous occasion to remember—the dream of all Japanese fighter pilots come true.

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