THE PILOT REPORTS:"The vessel was beached ..."
At left is a 3,800-ton freighter-transport (32). In the upper picture, a near miss explodes to starboard and in the lower photograph, the geysers and smoke of a second bomb obscure the ship. At right is a 10,000-ton tanker (31) of the Nippon Maru class, one of the largest of the foe's fleet tankers. In the background (30) is the 8,500-ton tanker Naruto. The 8,000- to 10,000-ton vessel is regarded as the enemy's most effective merchant marine weapon for the supply of outlying bases. "We saw a large, undamaged freighter-transport directly in our line of flight. We had begun violent evasive action immediately after entering the harbor and now we dropped lower, all the time skidding violently. It was my idea that the ack-ack on the ships was firing over us because we were so low and they must endanger their own
vessels if they aimed directly at us. I could not strafe this vessel, but straightened out just before reaching it and, at my signal, the co-pilot dropped two 1,000-pound bombs, the second by accident. The first hit squarely into the ship at the waterline (confirmed by my wingman) while the second bomb skipped over and exploded just beyond the transport. The
vessel was later beached." (From Capt. Harvey Minor.) THE ENEMY IN ACTION: A graphic illustration of the concentration of Japanese antiaircraft assembled against the air invading force is shown in these two photographs. Over the shore line may be seen bursts of antiaircraft fire accentuated by the white clouds which form a persistent veil around Rabaul This fire, probably directed from the north and northwest shores of the harbor was calculated to strike the neutralizing bomber force which escaped over the southern ranges. Pilots and intelligence officers have confirmed that the assemblage of enemy defensive strength at Rabaul was probably the most concentrated barrage ever encountered by an American attacking force in this theater. The most potent batteries were concentrated around three volcano craters which afford a field of fire over the entire harbor and its approaches. |
  
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THE ENEMY'S BEST: Three of the most effective units of Japan's merchant marine are shown.
