Piercing the Fog - Air Force Historical Studies Office

Piercing the Fog
One of the burning ships from the Japanese convoy that Generals Kenney and
Whitehead caught off Finschhaven, which they bombed. All eight transports carrying
a division of reinforcements sunk, as did four of the eight destroyer escorts. The Battle
of the Bismarck Sea was the first major air victory in the Southwest Pacific.
On February 26, Kenney flew to Port Moresby. There he and Whitehead
traced the routes of all previous Japanese convoys from Rabaul to New Guinea.
Comparing the tracks of earlier convoys, the range of Allied aircraft, and the
expected weather, the two men decided to hit the ships as they passed
Finschhaven, New Guinea, probably at 10:30 AM one day during the first week
of March. PA0 and A-20 aircraft that could not reach the convoy would beat
down Japanese air operations at Lae to protect the attack. Kenney directed that
crews and squadron commanders practice tactics and run a full dress rehearsal
on February 28.36
Kenney was pleased as he watched crews practice on the afternoon of the
27th. That same day a reconnaissance aircraft found a break in the clouds
through which the observers counted seven vessels thirty miles southeast of St.
Mathias Island. Kenney speculated that the ships could be the ones for which
he and his men waited, but the weather was still too bad for anything more than
continued ~urveillance.~~
On the 28th, Kenney's men briefed him on Japanese air strength: 115 on
New Britain, 51 on New Ireland, 177 in the Solomon Islands, 206 in the NEI,
and 35 in New Guinea. The low figure for New Guinea was normal; on January
31 only 16 enemy aircraft had been reported on the huge island. That was one
of the things that worried Kenney. He viewed Japan's air forces as immensely
flexible, able to shift quickly from base to base, to come through his sketchy air
warning system and hit him with great effect, given the the chance and an able
commander. Japanese airmen commonly attacked Allied positions on New
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