Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

172 Pacifica Military History
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Nineteen XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack
Bougainville/Bonis and Buka airdromes; 23 42d Medium Bombardment
Group B-25s, six USN PVs, and 24 AirSols F4Us, attack
Chabai; and four B-25s attack coastal villages on Bougainville while
conducting antishipping patrols.
VMF-216, in F4Us, displaces to the Banika Airdrome from the
New Hebrides to relieve VMF-211 of patrol duties.
SOUTH PACIFIC AREA: MajGen Hubert R. Harmon is named South
Pacific Area Deputy Commander for Air, and Col Earl W. Barnes becomes
commanding officer of the XIII Fighter Command.
November 24, 1943
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: More than 20 V Bomber Command
B-24s attack Gasmata. This concludes a five-day bombing offensive
amounting to 133 B-24 sorties and 63 B-25 sorties.
CHINA: Five 11th Medium Bombardment Squadron B-25s and 16
Fourteenth Air Force P-40s attack Hanshow; and two B-25s attack Amoy.
EAST INDIES: Eighteen V Bomber Command B-25s attack shipping
at Halmahera.
GILBERT ISLANDS: An IJN submarine sinks the escort carrier USS
Liscome Bay off Makin Atoll at 0513 hours. Six hundred forty-four men
are killed, including many airmen from VC-39 and RAdm Henry M.
Mullinnix, the Carrier Division 24 commander.
VF-16 F6F pilots down two G4Ms and 10 A6Ms near Makin
Atoll at 1230 hours. One of them, Lt(jg) Alfred L. Frendberg, achieves
ace status when he downs three A6Ms.
Work is begun to rehabilitate and improve the former-IJN
airfields on Betio and Butaritari islands, both of which will be needed
to support the projected advance to the Marshall Islands.
INDIA: Airfield-construction units begin reaching Indian bases from
the United States.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: Twenty VII Bomber Command B-24s based
at Nanomea Airdrome attack land targets and shipping in Maloelap Atoll;
and Task Group 50.1 carrier aircraft attack Mille Atoll.
NEW GUINEA: More than 30 V Bomber Command B-25s, B-26s,
and A-20s attack Kalasa; and 15 B-25s and A-20s attack Finschhafen.