Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC
air superiority over Rabaul facilitated the establishment of air supremacy
el~ewhere.~S
While South Pacific forces were moving up the Solomon Islands chain
toward Rabaul, General Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific forces
were consolidating their hold upon the northern coast of New Guinea, contributing
to the isolation of Rabaul, and at the same time establishing bases
for an advance westward in New Guinea and then northward to the Philippines.
Advances planned by Southwest Pacific Headquarters were threatened
by the Japanese air forces at Rabaul, but Rabaul commanders were in
general more concerned with the battles takingplace in the Solomons than
with Allied advances in New Guinea. Attacks on New Guinea from the
north were, therefore, rather sporadic. Of much more concern to SWPA
commanders was growing Japanese air strength at Wewak, some 500 miles
northwest of the still developing Allied base at Dobodura. By the end of
July 1943 some 200 Japanese aircraft were in place at Wewak, where there
were 3 airfields and the other installations needed for a major air base, all
heavily defended by antiaircraft emplacement~.~~
Heavy bombers could reach Wewak from Port Moresby or Dobodura,
but by the spring of 1943 there was no thought of sending them there in
daylight without fighter escort. B-25s and P-38s also could reach Wewak
from Dobodura, but operating at extreme range, they badly needed an
intermediate base where damaged planes, or those low on fuel, could find
refuge on the return flight. Bases closer to Wewak were definitely needed
for supporting fighters, and two were established before the end of the
sumn’cr of 1943. The first was at Tsili Tsili, redubbed Marilinin by
General Kenney, who feared that the real name might be descriptive.
Here natives cut out a runway suitable €or fighter operations before the
end of July. Kenney had carefully kept his planes away from Wewak,
hoping to lull the Japanese into a false sense of security. Thus, the
stage was set for one of the most effective airfield strikes of the Second
World War.47
By mid-August, 2 heavy bomb groups operating from Port Moresby
had 12 B-17s and 52 B-24s in commission, and Kenney’s other bomb
groups had 58 B-25s that had been modified to give them 6 forward-firing
machineguns and an attack radius of 550 miles. His strength in P-38s, the
only fighters with range for long-range escort, was well over
Every available bit of this strength was thrown against Wewak’s 4 airfields
on August 16, when intelligence reported that more than 200 Japanese
fighters, light bombers, and medium bombers were there. Heavy
bombers began taking off from Port Moresby at 2100 and continued until
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