THE FLIGHT Due to operational difficulties the flight leader (Corsair pilot) was forced to return to base immediately upon being airborne. The flight was commandeered by Capt, Lanphier, and was on course slightly after the scheduled time of departure. Three Corsairs developed motor trouble and were forced to return to base before the halfway point was reached. When the flight approached Treasury Island (25 miles from the target) it ran into severe weather, an area of thunder-heads, and a ceiling of absolute zero. Three additional Corsairs were forced to return. One Lightning developed operational trouble, one accompanied him on his-return to base, and another unable to make contact with the main flight, returned. Thus five Lightnings and one Corsair were successful in making their way, through and around the weather, to the target. The visibility was good at this point and the target was easily recognizable. Capt. Lanphier, still leading the flight, skimmed over the tree tops and swooped to the attack. He led three others over the enemy planes at rest on the Shortland side, they destroyed six planes, and caused one to smoke. The remaining P-38 and the Corsair took the Poporang side, set two afire and caused one to smoke. The attack consisted of the single run, made at a speed of 250 mph, and at an altitude of 50 feet with the planes strung in a line and about 100 yards apart. The flight had been forewarned, of the known AA positions in the target area, but both its quality and its intensity far exceeded the estimate. The first plane had just completed its run when the barrage began. The AA can best be described, perhaps, in, the words of the pilots, "Looked like a solid wall of the stuff," "More than I ever thought I'd see and get through," etc. Still there was not a single bullet hole in any of the planes. No enemy airborne aircraft were encountered. As the pilots headed for home, their mission successfully accomplished, they spotted a Jap destroyer cruising along about six miles east of the Shortlands. Although this was to be an "extra-curricular" activity,. there was no indecision whatsoever. They went in again, 50 feet over the destroyer (which was now firing its guns and making desperate evasive maneuvers). The first two P-38's silenced most of the AA fire, getting either the gunners or the guns themselves. The rest of the flight followed on through, until each man had made four passes at the vessel. When the pilots finally left, the ship had no way under, had a 15 degree list, the bridge was in ruins, and it was burning fiercely. One incident typifies the determination with which the attack was pressed. Lt. Barber came in across the target at so low an altitude that he lost a three-foot chunk of his wing tip as it clipped off the top of the foremast. The loss of the wing tip, incidentally, had no adverse effect on either the flying attitude or the landing performance of the plane. - 2 -