Friday, 30 July 2010
| One Day in War: Lt. Rex Barber bags an Admiral |
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| Written by Don Bourgeois | |
| Thursday, 05 June 2008 | |
 Lt. Rex Barber Exactly a year before, on April 18, 1942, the crews of 16 B-25B “Mitchell” medium bombers undertook the most daring, and ultimately successful allied air raid so far. Launched from the USS Hornet CV-8, the twin-engine army bombers under the command of “Jimmy” Doolittle managed to totally surprise defenders and bomb targets in Japan. While the damage inflicted was minimal, the positive effect upon the morale of the American public was immeasurable. Moreover, the raid convinced Japanese military leaders that the capture of Midway Atoll was necessary. Incredibly, Midway had been passed by on December 8, 1941. The attempt by the Japanese to invade Midway 6 months later on June 4-5, 1942 resulted in such a disaster at the Battle of Midway that their defeat in the Pacific was ensured. By 1943, the Americans had captured Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and had established a base of operations there to support an advance northwest up the chain. The big prize on Guadalcanal, and the reason for the island’s invasion by the marines in August 1942, was the newly-constructed airfield. In American hands, this field was to bear the name Henderson Field after Maj. Lofton Henderson, one of the many heroes of Midway. The 339th Fighter Squadron under the command of Maj. John Mitchell was based on Henderson. Originally supplied with the P-40 Tomahawk and the P-39 Airacobra, the squadron ultimately flew the famed P-38 Lightning. When it was first learned that the P-38 was coming to Guadalcanal, the AAC pilots jumped for joy. The powerful, rugged and (due to its two counter-rotating Allison engines) safe fighter was already a legend with the flyers, even though some of them had never seen a P-38. Lt. Rex T. Barber declared the Lightning “The best plane I ever flew.” Its battle record in the Pacific Theater would later ratify Barber’s assessment. The Japanese, arrogant in their assessment of the Americans’ intelligence capabilities, assumed that their transmission code was secure. In fact, however, the U.S. victory at Midway had been a direct result of the breaking of that code. By April, 1943, the Japanese continued to use the same code with few modifications. Accordingly, American cryptanalysts were again able to crack a crucial message.  Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto The decoded message laid out Yamamoto’s precise schedule for the base visitation. Knowing that the admiral was extremely punctual, American planners knew that they could count on him being right on time. It was obvious that circumstances presented a tremendous opportunity to eliminate the legendary Japanese leader…if it could be done. It was a navy show. Admiral Chester Nimitz gave final approval to the plan to try to intercept Yamamoto’s transport aircraft, presumably a Mitsubishi Betty bomber. But how could it be accomplished? No navy fighter of the time had the range to fly 1000 miles from Guadalcanal to Bougainville and back. And certainly an aircraft carrier would be detected if it tried to position itself close enough to launch an attack. Therefore, the job fell to the army flyers stationed on Guadalcanal. Only the P-38 had the long-range capability to make the trip. Maj. Mitchell planned the mission to the second. He assumed Yamamoto’s punctual departure from Rabaul and an average speed of 180 mph (the Betty was a guess). His own Lightnings would cruise at an estimated 197 mph. In order to escape detection, the American fighters would first head west, away from land, then northwest along the string of islands stretching up the Solomons. Flying low and over the horizon, the P-38s could not be detected by land-based spotters. But with no visual references, the 500-mile trip would be tricky, at best. The chances of an actual interception of Yamamoto’s Betty, even if he was right on time, were considered to be 1000 to 1. Mitchell would fly the lead and do the navigating personally. The other pilots would simply follow and turn with him. Precise navigation was essential: the five planned course changes would be accomplished by elapsed time and heading. Mitchell considered the P-38’s standard magnetic compass to be too inaccurate, so he had a navy instrument installed in his aircraft. This historic mission would be flown by Mitchell and 17 other hand-picked pilots. Sensing that something big was afoot, flyers of the 339th darkened the door of Mitchell’s tent to lobby for a spot on the team. In the end, the chosen 17 were individuals Mitchell had flown with in the past and whom he was certain were up to the task. However, this did not mean that others were unqualified. Mitchell found the choice difficult. The group would be made up of 9 sections of two aircraft each. Two sections made up a division. Pilots Lt. Rex Barber and Capt. Tom Lanphier made up one section of the four-plane “Killer Division.” The other two pilots in the division were Lt. Besby Holmes and Lt. Ray Hine. These men were the fortunate four who were assigned the task of attacking Yamamoto’s aircraft itself…if they were fortunate enough to encounter it. The other 14 P-38s would fly cover and engage any fighters escorting the admiral or those that might scramble from nearby Kahili Airfield. Mitchell anticipated a real dogfight. To be able to make the 1000 mile trip, the Lightnings were fitted with two drop tanks, one of 165 gallons, the other 310. A pair of the larger 310 gallon tanks had been deemed preferable, but they wouldn’t fit together under the wings. The total weight and the imbalance of the odd-sized tanks worried the pilots as no such configuration had ever been attempted. “We didn’t know if we’d even get off the damned runway,” Rex Barber told this author. Barber’s usual mount was a P-38G, with “Diablo,” (Spanish for “Devil”) painted prominently on its nose. However, as Diablo was down for maintenance on that morning, he flew Lt. Bob Petit’s “Miss Virginia” instead. Regardless of the unusual equipment modifications, at 0630 on April 18, 1943 the group took off from Fighter Two, near Henderson. Everyone got airborne without incident except for two P-38s that aborted because of mechanical problems. These were immediately replaced by stand-bys. The group flew southwest into the Solomon Sea, away from Guadalcanal. Because they would be flying at altitudes of 50-100 feet over water, the men knew that the flight would be long, hot, humid and boring. And that it was. To amuse himself, one pilot counted sharks (he saw 48) and whales (one pod) along the way. In the heat, another flyer nodded off…as he did, the tips of his props clipped the water’s surface. The resulting seawater spray over his canopy and windscreen dried into a haze that impaired his vision for the rest of the mission. Of course, absolute radio silence was maintained. Until enemy aircraft were encountered, no one was to touch their mike button. Mitchell flew directly ahead of the others, carefully noting the elapsed time, airspeed and heading. When he turned onto the next leg, he made sure the others turned with him. Eventually, the group made the last turn toward Bougainville, right to course 020. They began a climb to match Yamamoto’s expected altitude. At first, Mitchell saw nothing…had he made a colossal error in his calculations? Then through the haze ahead, he spotted a beach. He checked his watch…0934…a minute ahead of schedule. Just as Mitchell was about to take action, pilot Doug Canning called out: “Bogeys, eleven o’clock high!” The pilots looked up. There, right where they should be, were Betty bombers with 6 Zeros flying cover above them. Mitchell ordered external tanks stripped. The chase was on. Mitchell and the 13 other P-38s climbed to challenge the Zeros while the four Lightnings of the “Killer Division” moved in on the Bettys. Besby Holmes found that he couldn’t strip his tanks so he pulled aside with wingman Lt. Hine accompanying him. With this, only two pilots, Lanphier and his wingman Rex Barber remained to press the attack on the Bettys. According to the account provided by Rex Barber, the attack went like this: When Holmes and Hine moved aside, Barber spotted at least two Bettys. They were approaching these Bettys on their right side at approximately 90 degrees. The enemy planes were slightly nose-down as if starting an approach to a landing. Suddenly their angle steepened and three of the six Zeroes also dived, stripping their tanks at the same time….they had been spotted! Lanphier immediately broke up and left to intercept the Zeros. Normally, as Lanphier’s wingman, Barber would follow him. However, his orders were that the “prime purpose” of this mission was to shoot down Bettys, not Zeros. He stayed put. As he banked right into position behind one Betty, Barber completely lost sight of the other. (The second Betty was directly below him) From his position above and astern of the Betty, he swung from left to right and back again, continually firing .50 caliber and 20mm slugs into the enemy bomber. He saw pieces of the plane’s rudder and right engine cowling come off. The engine began smoking heavily. Barber moved his line of fire toward the right wing root, into the fuselage and the left engine. The Betty then suddenly “snapped left” and nosed down vertically into the thick jungle of Bougainville. As it rolled, its wing nearly struck Miss Virginia. He noted that there had been no returning fire from the Betty’s tail gun position. As he passed over the bomber, he saw it descending vertically into the jungle, only 1000 feet below. He did not see it crash. He also did not see any other P-38 participate in the attack on this Betty. In order to press this attack, Barber had to slow Miss Virginia’s airspeed to somewhat match that of the Betty. This gave three pursuing zeros an opportunity to catch up with him. They opened fire. Before he could open his throttles and speed away to relative safety, Miss Virginia received 104 hits, including 7 through the propeller blades. In making his escape, Barber raced low over the jungle treetops and out over the water with the Zeros close on his tail. Fortunately, Maj. Mitchell had dispatched two Lightnings to assist. They roared overhead past Barber and head-on at the Zeros. The Zeros scattered. Once over the water, Barber encountered a second Betty that had already been attacked by Lts. Holmes and Hine. It was limping out to sea and was so low over the water that its prop wash was kicking up a trail of spray. He slipped in behind it and easily finished it off. He watched it as it exploded and saw it crash into the sea. When Barber looked back at Bougainville, he could see “a large column of black smoke” coming up from the jungle at a spot where he assumed his first Betty had gone in. There was no time to celebrate, muse or linger…it was only a matter of time before a swarm of Zeros from Kahili would be pouncing on them. His orders were to get back to Henderson when the party was over. He and 16 other Lightning pilots did so, but not in any particular formation; every man was on his own. Everyone’s fuel was low to critical. Barber limped back to Guadalcanal and had his fingers crossed the whole way. It was a straight trip; there was no spare fuel for sightseeing and certainly none for a dust-up with any enemy fighters. Fortunately none were encountered. Eventually all but one returned safely. The only pilot lost was Lt. Hine. His Lightning was last seen drifting out to sea, one engine emitting smoke. He was never found. Mitchell and Barber were standing on the tarmac when Lanphier rolled up in a jeep (his plane had run out of fuel down the runway just after landing). He was shouting “I got Yamamoto!” at the top of his lungs. Mitchell and Barber stared blankly at each other. How could he know if he shot down any Betty and if he did, how did he know who was on it? Rex asked him these questions. “You’re a damned liar!” Lanphier shouted in angry reply. This set up the controversy that raged for years: who got Yamamoto? No contemporaneous record of the attack was made. At that time no formal debriefings were conducted after combat missions. And none was conducted after this one. After the mission, word of Yamamoto’s demise quickly spread around the world: the great, inspirational leader of the Japanese forces in the Pacific had been killed. To prevent the enemy from learning that the Americans had broken the Japanese naval code and taken ultimate advantage of it, the flyers were immediately pulled out of combat. This eliminated the possibility of the capture and torture of a pilot who knew how the mission had been pulled off. Mitchell and the members of the Killer Flight were written up for the Medal of Honor. However, details of the mission were inadvertently leaked by three of the flyers to an AP reporter during a golf match. When Admiral William “Bull” Halsey learned that the secrecy surrounding the attack had been compromised, he called pilots Lanphier, Barber and Strother into his cabin on his flagship. Using classic Halsey profanity, he berated the flyers and threatened to court-martial them for their lack of judgment. But ultimately he merely reduced their decorations to the Navy Cross. As far as the question of who actually shot down Yamamoto’s Betty, the matter lay dormant for years. Lanphier and Barber each received a full “kill” for downing a Betty over Bougainville. Then, after the war when the Japanese revealed that there had been two, not three Bettys on the flight, one that crashed into the jungle and one into the sea, the matter heated up once again. The U.S. Air Force reviewed the case and took away a half credit from Barber. Historians got involved. In 1988 the surviving P-38 pilots who flew the mission met at the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas to attend a Yamamoto Retrospective. Also in attendance was Kenji Yanagiya, the only Zero pilot still alive who was over Bougainville that day. Unfortunately, Lanphier was not in attendance as he had passed away just the year before. Here, all aspects of the mission were reviewed. The consensus: Rex Barber should get full credit for downing Yamamoto’s transporting aircraft. Summary of the evidence: 1. Lanphier’s own account makes it unlikely that he shot down the admiral’s plane. At the start of the action, he had broken left and up to confront Zeros above. In doing so, he probably could not have engaged the enemy and gotten back to the lead Betty in time to participate in shooting it down. 2. Even if he had, by his own statement, his angle of attack was at 90 degrees to flight path of the Betty. This presented him with a very low probability shot. 3. Even if he took the shot, he did not hit Yamamoto’s Betty. Japanese examiners of the wreckage as well as investigators in the 1970s and thereafter, found that all of the .50 cal. and 20 mm slugs that struck the bomber came from its 6 o’clock. 4. Lanphier’s claim that he shot off a wing was disproven by an examination of the crash site. The wing in question was found near the fuselage in the jungle…sheared off by a tree upon impact. 5. Lanphier reported being fired upon by the Betty’s tail guns. Incredibly, this plane carried no such guns. 6. Lanphier emphatically stated that he witnessed Barber down a Betty on his own. 7. Zero pilot Yanagiya witnessed a sole P-38 firing on the lead (Yamamoto’s) Betty from a position on its tail…not from either side. Accordingly, the great weight of the evidence favors the view that Lt. Rex T. Barber of Culver, Oregon deserves credit for shooting down the Betty bomber that was transporting Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto on April 18, 1943. Evidence that was later released by the Japanese is even more remarkable in determining Barber’s actions that day. Yamamoto’s corpse was quickly recovered from the crash site in the mountainous jungle of Bougainville. The admiral was found lying to the side of the burned-out plane. He had been thrown clear of the wreckage. His body appeared unmarked and it seemed almost as if he was alive. An autopsy revealed that Yamamoto likely had not died from the effects of the crash. Rather, there were bullet entry and exit wounds found in the body that would have been fatal. In other words, Barber actually shot Yamamoto. In eliminating one of the United States’ most formidable enemy leaders in World War II, Barber’s contribution to the war effort and to history is incalculable. However, it is no less significant than that of every person who made the mission possible on that day in April, 1943. The cryptanalysts, ground crew, John Mitchell who brilliantly planned the strike, the pilots who flew cover for the Killer Division and Capt. Tom Lanphier who faced the three Zeros that threatened to end Barber’s attack on the lead Betty are American Heroes all. These are “Heroes” with a capital “H.” And it should not be forgotten that the entire enterprise, the interception of the Japanese message, the planning, the preparation and the successful downing of Yamamoto’s Betty, took only four days. Until his death in 2001, Rex Barber emphatically maintained his entitlement to a credit for downing an enemy aircraft on April 18. He even brought legal action against the Air Force to try to restore his _ point. As he told this author: “As for who got Yamamoto, I don’t really give a damn. Let the history books take care of that. But I know that I shot down that Betty!” Copyright 2008 Donald P. Bourgeois |
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