Thanks for the Memories — Tom Burkhalter

The Flight So Far By July 1, 1942, the United States has been fighting in the Pacific for nearly seven months. The Japanese advance halted west of Australia at the island of Timor, and from Timor the Japanese stage bombing raids on Darwin. In the north, the Japanese hold the former Australian possessions of New Ireland and New Britain, including the town of Rabaul in the north of New Britain. Holding Rabaul gives the Japanese possession of Simpson Harbor, a deep-water port that the Japanese turn into a formidable forward base, swarming with Zeros and antiaircraft weapons. Rabaul begins to earn an evil reputation among the bomber crews of the USAAF and RAAF who fly there. In May the Japanese tried to take Port Moresby, the Allied base on the south coast of Papua New Guinea. They were turned back at the Battle of the Coral Sea. In June, the Japanese were soundly defeated at the Battle of Midway in the north Pacific. Both sides suffered losses but neither the Empire of Japan nor the Allies were close to being beaten. East of Salamaua and Lae on the western end of the Huon Gulf, the north coast of Papua New Guinea is a no-man's land. Jack Davis has been sent home, and Jimmy Ardana takes his place as Boxcar Red Leader. Charlie Davis and his crew continue flying missions in their increasingly worn and patched B-17E, Bronco Buster II. Everywhere in the world there is savage fighting. The Japanese are fighting in Burma against the British and in China against the Chinese. The Germans are fighting the Soviets on a front from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and in Stalingrad the Wehrmacht and the Red Army slaughter each other for possession of a city being bombed and shelled into rubble. The Afrika Korps is fighting the British 8th Army in Libya. The British supply line to Malta and the eastern Mediterranean is under constant attack by the navy and air forces of Italy and Germany. In the North Atlantic the Kriegsmarine's U-boats are sinking freighters and tankers at a rate that may choke off Great Britain's war effort. In England, the fledgling US 8th Air Force flies its first mission on July 4, 1942, with airplanes borrowed from the RAF. In the United States the mobilization of the economy to produce tanks, airplanes, and warships is only beginning, as is the training of the men to take those weapons to war. In the South Pacific there is a lull, but in that lull the Japanese continue to stage air raids on Port Moresby and Seven-Mile Drome, and the Allies continue to bomb Rabaul and Simpson Harbor. Turn the page. Step back in time.