Eubank, William Emanuel, Jr., Maj Gen

The 43rd began full operations in the theater in mid-November 1942 from bases in northern Australia. For the next year, the 43rd was one of two heavy bombardment groups in MacArthurs Fifth Air Force, carrying the war to the Japanese at places such as Salamaua, Lae, Hansa Bay, Wewak and Rabaul. After participating in the watershed Battle of the Bismarck Sea, the Group began gradually re-equipping with the B-24 Liberator after the decision was made to discontinue support for two heavy bomber types in the theater, thereafter diverting all of the B-17 aircraft resources to Europe. During June of 1943, the unit experienced several B-17 losses over Rabaul as the Japanese attempted to develop successful night fighting tactics against heavy bombers.

In November of 1943, as part of the re-equipment with the B-24, the units 63rd Squadron received a replacement package of aircrews and aircraft with special, radar-equipped B-24s that had the mission of conducting night radar search and destroy missions at low altitude against enemy shipping targets, eventually ranging around the entire Pacific perimeter of Asia. This unit operated exclusively at night and conducted its highly successful shipping search and attack flights separately from the other three squadrons. These continued to fly standard heavy bombardment missions against the far-flung land targets of the Southwest Pacific Theater from New Guinea to the Netherlands East Indies and the Philippines, until finally reaching the shores of Japan itself. The 43rd was one of the key units participating in the famous raids on Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea during the spring of 1944, and on the oilfields at Balikpapan, Borneo during the fall of that year. In 1945, it was instrumental in battering the industrial targets, ports and transportation infrastructure of Formosa to rubble. Along the way, the 43rd adopted the name Kens Men, after three famous theater leaders who were key to the history of the unit: General George C. Kenney, commander of 5th Air Force, Gen. Kenneth Walker, C.O. of Fifth Bomber Command, who was lost on a 43rd Bomb Group mission over Rabaul on January 5, 1943, and Ken McCullar, one of the most successful early squadron commanders.

B-24J-190-CO "The Dragon and his Tail"
Unit: 64th BS, 43rd BG, 5th AF, USAAF
Serial: 973 (44-40973)
This plane operated from Ie-Shima Island during 1945.
 

 

B-17F "The Joker's Wild"


On July 11, 1943 took off after midnight from 7-Mile Drome near Port Moresby piloted by Lt. Ralph K. De Loach and an ad-hoc crew. Private Clinton was flying his first combat mission that night. Their mission was to bomb Rabaul. Over the target, problems developed with the right wing's no. 3 and no. 4 engines, but the bombs were successfully dropped over the target.

Returning, the bomber was caught in a violent storm, with the two engines on the right wing malfunctioning. The pilots could not hold a straight course and got lost and ran low on fuel. Since co-pilot Moore had previously ditched a B-17, DeLoach handed the controls over to him.

The B-17 ditched off Kakau and the Makau Mission (near Boga Boga) off Cape Vogel. During the ditching, three of the crew were injured. The worst injury was engineer Smith who had been seated between the two pilots and suffered a broken back. The entire crew escaped the aircraft, deployed their life rafts an were aided ashore by friendly villagers who gave them food and shelter in their village.


 

On 10 August 1945, in one of the final bombing missions in the war in the Pacific, more than 20 B-24s of the Fifth USAAFs 43rd Bomb Group targeted Oita, a Japanese home island city on Kyushu. Shown here are the Consolidated B-24 Liberators of the Far East Air Force departing the target area. Of special interest is the elaborate Nose Art displayed on late war Liberators such as this one from the 64th Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group, 5th USAAF.

The B-24s in the painting were part of one of the Far East Air Forces last bombing missions against the Empire of Japan. Seen here leaving the target, the city of Oita on the Japanese home island of Kyushu, elements of the 64th Bomb Squadron, 43 Bomb Group, 10 August, 1945 were part of a twenty-plus B-24 raid by the 43 Bomb Group on a mission dubbed a milk-run due to the light-to-nil defensive opposition generated by the Japanese. In the foreground, #973 bears the flamboyant artwork covering the complete port side of the aircraft which would immortalize it and its creator S/Sgt. Sarkis E. Bartigian, who was assigned to the 64Tth Sqdn. ground echelon. Bartigians exuberant creations decorated the sides of a number of 43rd Bomb Group B-24s late in the war, but this one, THE DRAGON AND HIS TAIL was the most well known and photographed. After meeting an ignominious end in the smelters at Kingman, Arizona following the wars end, #973 recently was reincarnated in all its glory on the port side of the Collings Foundations B-24





B-24 Liberator "Stormy Weather" of 43rd Bomb Group -