MK435N

Army Air Base  Casper Wyoming  February 24, 1943

10 HEROS OF PACIFIC HERE

To Be Active in Training Combat Crews at Base

 

By PAUL R. LILLY

Ten members of the "Kangaroo 435th" squadron of the famous 19th Bombardment group, which has spread from Pearl Harbor to Manila and carried the war to the Japanese for more than a year, were assigned yesterday to the local bomb group to facilitate the combat training program here.

The story of the bombardment group's far-flung activities came to the public's attention last week when the group was broken up and it's personnel infiltered into training groups.

 

Decorated by General Olds

            The most decorated outfit in the US Army, the 19th was cited at it’s final ceremonies by Major General Robert Olds, Commander of the Second Air Force, for it’s outstanding achievements and every man in the group was decorated with a blue bar framed in a gold laurel band which each member is entitled to wear because the Group has been cited at least twice.

                                        

The left and right advertisements, in the Air Base paper, reflects the mood of the times

            The 435th's war record for a full year of combat in the south Pacific will go down In history. They spotted the Jap fleet two weeks before the Coral sea battle, took daily pictures of Guadalcanal before the American Marines' invasion, tipped off General MacArthur before every Jap invasion of New Guinea, and hit the Nips hard on their own.

            The Kangaroo bombardiers sank four Jap cruisers, two destroyers, two transports, damaged eight more freighters and blasted enemy ground installations, docks and warehouses.

The Kangaroo gunners bagged 38 Jap planes in air battles and downed a probable total of 66 more. Bombs smashed 38 more, planes on the ground.  They flew an equivalent 388 times around the globe. without, fighter plane protection.

By a quirk of fate, half the Kangaroo squadron was assigned to leave California Dec. 6, 1941, on a flight to Hawaii.  They roared into Oahu to find it under attack, with Pearl Harbor and Honolulu in flames.

            For two months they served in Hawaii, before turning to the South Pacific.  They were the first outfit to fly the southern route to Australia stopping in the Fiji Islands for two weeks.  There their first war job was to protect the Pacific lifeline.  They flew by day and worked by night on maintenance, briefing and bomb-loading.  They were so short of manpower and equipment they had to tear down one bomber for spare parts for the others.

OVERCAME VAST ODDS

Losing 65 per cent of it’s original strength In battles, crashes and prison camps, the group flew for its first two months with inadequate protection on the ground or in the air, and inadequate bases, for supplies.

During that time they carried out important bombing missions and later turned to reconnaissance and emergency bombings and dog fights.  Despite handicaps, the valiant Kangaroos gave the navy two weeks advance notice of the Jap fleet's massing in Rabaul harbor and won Commendation from the Navy for the tip which led to the Coral sea victory.

In July, one Kangaroo reconnaissance plane fought seven air battles, against three to 15 Zeros, shooting down eleven and damaging seven more. The pictures the Kangaroos brought back led to many destructive raids on Jap positions.

Starting July 6, 1942 the Kangaroos made daily reconnaissance flights over the Guadalcanal-Tulagi area to get information for the invasion of August 7. One Kangaroo plane flew 2000 miles to Celebes on July 14 to drop supplies and ammunition to Dutch guerillas still fighting in the East Indies hills.

PLAYED IMPORTANT ROLE IN NEW.  GUINEA

            At no time were the Japs able to make a surprise landing on New Guinea because of the Kangaroos' vigilance.  The first Buna-Gona invasion fleet was spotted two days before the landing.  The Milne bay Invaders were reported two hours before landing.  The eventual ouster of Japanese forces in Papua may be-in-part due to the 435th s reconnaissance for MacArthur.

            Major William Lewis Jr., commander of the squadron, heads the ten men reporting at the air base. He was the pilot of the plane which evacuated General MacArthur’s staff from the Jap-held Philippines to Australia. Major Bostrom, member of the squadron but not among the ten arriving here, piloted the plane in which MacArthur escaped to safety.

            Of the others arriving here Capt.Harry E. Spieth was S-4 officer of the old Squadron and Major Perry 0. Stoddard was connected with the fifth bomber command at Port Morsby.

DEVELOPED NEW IDEAS

Capt Henry H. Harlow and his crew were the. first to be shipwrecked and spent a week in the jungles of New Guinea.  First Lieut. John I. Compton was Squadron operations officer, First Lieut.  Kermit F. Meyers was navigation officer and First Lieut.  Jack I. Carlson was intelligence officer.  Lieutenant Carlson also took part in the-MacArthur evacuation.

Navigators were First Lieut.  Robert W. Elliott, First Lieut. Robert K. Jones and First Lieut. Harold E. Snider.  They have the distinction of completing more than 50 bombing and reconnaissance missions and in the year's activity the squadron didn't lose a. plane due to inefficiency in navigation. The Kangaroos were the first to mount movie cameras in the bombers gun positions, thus getting films for gunnery training, aircraft identification and verifying enemy planes destroyed.

By bringing these experienced, battle-wise men from combat zones to teach new crews the fact of war, the Air Forces has taken a long step forward in its training program.