B-24's

Makin and Tarawa were still to come at the end of the year.

Ernie Pyle wrote from Africa that year that the German and the American forces hammering it out fought their war “mostly by the rules.”  Had Pyle directed his famous powers of observation eastward, he may have had a different opinion of the struggle with Japan.

Word moved quickly through the US aviator ranks that Japanese fighter pilots had shown no mercy to Allied fliers that had ejected during the fierce battle for Guadalcanal, shooting many as they hung helpless in their parachutes. On April 22, Japan announced that captured US pilots would be given a “one way ticket to hell.” This news came on the heels of the fear that many of Jimmy Doolittle’s men had been executed after capture by Japan.

Further, Japan had attacked and sunk- by submarine-the Australian hospital ship Centaur, killing 299 and fanning still more the growing resentment and hatred filtering through the minds of the US servicemen fighting on the ground, in the air and at sea.

In this swirl of emotion and tough-as-nails fighting the crew of the Consolidated B-24 Jeannie C, members of the 424th bomber squadron (307th Bomb Group) flew daily missions to intercept and destroy Japanese shipping. The lumbering bombers were unusually suited for the mission, and their ability to strangle the re-supply lifeline was well known in the theater. Late in May 1943, Pilot Emilio P. Ratti nursed the heavy bomber north from Guadalcanal. On board was his crew, including an FNG, Bombardier Gaylen Millsap , recently arrived from Emporia, KS. Millsap would do fifty missions before the war ended (forty-eight in the Jeannie C) but this was his rookie ride with the experienced crew.

What happened that day made news at the time in US papers, and still remains one of the only recorded aerial battles of this type.

Flying in the second spot with another B-24, Ratti heard the lead plane call out two fighters well to the six o’clock of the flight, but gaining on the bombers. SOP at the time was to turn out over the ocean to run any fighters in pursuit out of gas and the two bombers did just that. However, unlike most of the times prior that Ratti had used this strategy, the planes to the rear followed and continued to make up distance on the Liberators.

As the Japanese “fighters” approached closer, the crew of the Jeannie C finally got a good look at them. To the crew’s disbelief the planes were not fighters at all, but a pair of Mitsubishi G4M “Betty” medium bombers. Allied codenamed NELL, the Betty was agile (comparatively speaking) but woefully under protected, with non-sealing gas tanks to save weight and a conspicuous lack of armor plating. So prone to self-combustion in a fight, the Allies unofficially referred to the Betty as the “flying lighter.”  With a top speed of 247 mph, the Betty could not outpace the B-24’s ahead that could, when pushed hard, approach 290 mph.

Still, it looked to Millsap and the other crew aboard the Jeannie C that these Bettys were spoiling for a fight. A dogfight.

Bomber versus bomber.

Ratti quickly decided he and his crew were game for the scrap. Both he and the lead plane slowed a bit, to let the Betty bombers close even more on the B-24’s. Ratti knew that he had the Bettys outgunned, especially if he could position them on his three or nine o’clock. He would have to be careful in one respect, however, because the Betty bombers could easily turn inside his plane. So instead of a turning fight, he needed to get broadside of one of the Bettys and let his ball and waist gunners shred the thin-skinned medium heavy.

As the planes closed distance, Ratti waited. The Bettys split, one heading for the lead plane, the other for the Jeannie C. The Betty pilot approached from slightly above the B-24, off the starboard side. Ratti cross-controlled, slipping the bomber’s tail to the left quickly enough that the maneuver tossed some of his crew against the wall of the cabin.  The Betty pilot overshot his approach, and was hard off the B-24’s starboard side when Ratti’s gunners let go with every .50 cal they could swing on the Japanese plane. Millsap watched as the left wing of the Betty erupted in the telltale “winks” that signified solid hits. He saw the left engine cowling go to pieces, and the engine spit oil and smoke. Ratti kept the bomber in the skid as long as he could to give his guys the best chance to knock the Betty from the sky. The engine and wing damage caused the Betty to pitch nose up, and ended any effective fire her crew could put on the American plane. Finally, she rolled wingover to the right and plunged toward the ocean below, the B-24 following her down. The other Betty had quickly broken off the attack on the lead B-24 and turned tail, perhaps a better judge of when to fight and when to run than the pilot at the controls of the second Betty.

Millsap saw the Betty make a “pretty good” controlled ditch in the ocean. As the B-24 orbited overhead, he could see the crew from the Betty get in a rubber boat. The crew of the Jeannie C had a quick discussion about what to do next.

According to Millsap the ten .50’s on the B-24, over the course of several passes, ripped the raft to shreds.

Payback from the Jeannie C for friends that had been lost, and a rare example of a bomber on bomber dogfight.