SHOW FOR GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 232, 1 October 1943, Page 3

SHOW FOR GENERAL

DESTRUCTION OF BOMBER O.C. South Pacific Base, Sept. 19. A fighter pilot of the 13th. Air Force unknowingly put on a performance for Lieut.-General Millard F. Harmon, Commanding United States Army Forces in the South Pacific, when he downed a Japanese bomber in. night combat over an island in the Solomons. Gazing into the skies, the General heard an explosion, observed a small fire of short duration, followed by streamers of fire falling from the bomber, whose destruction he himself verified. What had happened was that First Lieutenant James A. Harrell, in a P--38 Lightning at 22,000 feet, had. spotted a Jap several thousand feet below him, took a dive at it and while going straight down, fired a biu-st without observing the results. A few minutes later another bomber appeared. With the searchlights illuminating it, the lieutenant followed it, closed up slowly, and approached from directly behind. Then the searchlight went off the target. He fired a burst, which missed, and immediately fired again, with the result the general witnessed, for there was heavy smoke and pieces flew from the bomber. Then the pilot was momentarily blinded by a muzzle blast, and when he pulled up the bomber had disappeared.