FIVE MONTHS’ WORK IN PACIFIC

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 227, 22 June 1944, Page 4

FIVE MONTHS’ WORK IN PACIFIC

New Zealand Dive-Bomber Squadron Returns

ATTACKS ON AIRFIELDS After approximately five months in the Pacific area, during which time they harassed enemy gun positions and bombed Japanese airfields with marked success, a Dauntless squadron of the Royal New Zealand Air Force has returned to New Zealand. The only dive-bomber squadron of the R.N.Z.A.F., its function was to cover the enemy guns and allow the torpedo-bombers through, and in the role of an anti-flak escort for the Avengers it performed well. The squadron had its first taste of real action at Bougainville where the Japanese were beginning to make trouble around the perimeter. Once established there, after the servicing unit had prepared the way—digging themselves in under constant fire from Japanese artillery—the squadron lost no time in getting into action. They arrived at their base at midday on March 22, and at 5.30 the next morning they carried out their first operation. The squadron’s tent lines were close to the front line and shelling was going on all the time, particularly heavy while the ground crews were starting up the aircraft. Usually the shelling would begin at dawn and the squadron would go up above the enemy positions in an endeavour to pick up the gun flashes so as to pinpoint the guns. For the first two days the squadron did local work, attacking gun positions around the perimeter. From then on their job was to supply 1aircraft each day for the major strike on Rabaul. From an average strength of lo aircraft, the squadron sent up 1— every day but one for nine weeks —a particularly fine record. On that day there were eleven aircraft available, several having been shot up the previous day. Bombing Strikes Described.

Interviewed on his return to New Zealand. Squadron Leader T. J. Mac Lean de Lange, of Auckland, Commanding Officer of the R.N.Z.A.F. Squadron, described the bombing strikes on Rabaul. The target was usually an aerodrome, he said, and the strike would consist of 60 Allied Dauntless dive-bombers and 30 torpedocarrying Avengers. The task of the Dauntlesses was to cover the gun positions defending the field, and each aircraft was allotted a gun to coyer. This was done earlier, at the briefing, when the crews were shown photographs of the target, which were studied carefully. In a series of intense and deliberatelyplanned assaults on enemy airfields, the living crews did their job well, and lett behind them strips whose surfaces were pitted and scarred through merciless pounding. Just how accurate was their bombing is shown by the following confirmed report: Official results of three bombing attacks on Japanese airfields t>y Dauntless and Avenger aircraft disclosed that 254 hits had been scored on the runways At Vunafcanau 96 hits were scored, at Lakunai, 84, and—in a second attack there—74. All these hits were confirmed, but there were other occasions when the bombers were successful, but no confirmed results obtained. . • k "The rear gunners did a great job ot work, too.” said Squadron Leader de Lange. “While the bombers were coming out of a dive the gunners would strafe the guns on the ground like fury. Very often thev silenced them for the period of "he attack. It was also their responsibility to maintain radio communication and by being always on the job and getting messages through they were more than once instrumental in saving lives. Enemy Gun Positions Blasted. The Dauntless crews blasted enemy gun positions with the same determination and accuracy with which they battered airfields and strips. Their bombing was too accurate for the Japs’ peace of mind. Just how many guns were credited to the squadron is not known,. but 10 direct hits and from six to eight damaging hits were confirmed. To h.nock out a gun an aircraft has to place its bomb within a five yards’ radius of the target. If the bomb falls wide of the mark, it does not necessarily mean the bomb-aimer has failed. Far* from it. The im P act quite likely throw up so much debris around the gunner on the ground that his judgment will be impaired and accurate Sh ln tl the later "stages the ack ack seemed more intense, said Squadron Leader de Lange This was probably because the strikes were smaller and the ground forces were no doubt concentrating their fire on the fewer aircraft. There is certainly nothing wrong with the Dauntless as a dive-bomber, he added. They did a great job, and stood up to the hcav stuff admirably. Nyurally, we would have liked them to be faster. The fi Dhterbombers had that advantage; they were Dauntless squadron flew their aircraft to an American base and handed them over before their return. They came back to New Zealand in aircraft of the New Zealand Transport Squadron. It was a fast trip. They left Guadalcanal at 3 a.m. one day and at 6 o clock that evening they were in Auckland.