Mission Accomplished by Roy Grinnell

"Bogies, 11 o'clock high!" shouted Lt. Doug Canning, breaking a two-hour radio silence. Maj. John Mitchell had led sixteen P-38s of his 339th Fighter Squadron from Guadalcanal's Henderson Field to Bougainville on 18 April 1943 to intercept the Betty bomber carrying Japanese Combined Fleet commander Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Now, after flying 400 miles at 50 feet above the water, navigating by pure dead-reckoning, the flight sighted two Betty bombers escorted by six Zeroes descending toward Ballale Island. Maj. Mitchell and twelve Lightnings climbed to provide high cover while Capt. Tom Lanphier and Lts. Rex Barber, Frank Holmes and Ray Hine, the designated 'attack flight,' turned to intercept the bombers. As they climbed toward the Bettys, Lanphier saw three Zeroes diving to defend the bombers and turned sharply into the lead fighter, leaving Barber to continue the attack on the bomber. Curving in behind the lead bomber, Barber raked the descending Betty from wingtip to wingtip. Thick black smoke began to stream from the right engine and the bomber snapped to the left. Moments later it sliced into the jungle, the crash site marked by a rising column of black, oily smoke. Turning toward the coast, Barber finished off the second Betty now under attack by Frank Holmes, and downed a Zero that had belatedly joined the battle from nearby Kahili Airdrome. Shortly after, Mitchell called Mission Accomplished!

Signatures: Includes some or all of the following:

Rex T. BARBER

John W. MITCHELL

Besby HOLMES

Doug CANNING

Lou KITTEL

Roger AMES

Jack JACOBSON

Del GOERKE

Larry GRAEBNER