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THE PILOT REPORTS: "We scored a direct hit on the stern ..."
"My airplane attacked a freighter from mast height dropping one 1,000-pound bomb. We scored a direct hit on the stern and my gunner reported debris filled the water and sky almost immediately. We strafed antiaircraft positions near Vulcan crater, a radar station, and three Zekes and four medium bombers which we found on Vunakanau airdrome." (From narrative report by Flight Officer K. R. Ladd.)
Proceeded by hundreds of rounds of machine gun fire, which has neutralized enemy antiaircraft batteries aboard the vessels, the airmen are comparatively free to select their own point for attack. "Our flights were perfectly coordinated and while the harbor itself was so small, precision runs were almost impossible, the attack was followed according to plan. "None of our echelons reported heavy return fire except from the maneuvering warships. The Nip seemed bewildered by our heavy concentrations of forward firepower. Some gunners saw Japs hiding behind their armor plating making no effort to return fire." (From report by Maj. John P. Henebry, Commander of the Simpson Harbor force.) |
  
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FREIGHTER HAMMERED: A 3,800-ton freighter (12) reels under the impact of a 1,000-pound bomb planted. Lower photograph details the damaging of a 6,400-ton freighter-transport (8) of the Tokyo Maru class. The smaller of
the two vessels was later reported to be sinking by the stern.
MAST-HEIGHT TACTICS: In these pictures, the destructive effect of low-level attack is graphically illustrated. These photographs show the blasting of more than 10,000 tons of Japanese shipping.