From: (Peter Stickney)

Repair of a damaged engine at Del
Monte wasn't entirely out of the question. It had been used as a
fighter base since just before hostilities broke out. If the
repairs didn't require R1820 specific parts, they might just have
been supplies and people available to perform them.

There were three "main" strips at the Del Monte Plantation, designated by
number. No.1 was the only one suitable for B-17s to get in and out of. B-18s
also operated out of there and one was destroyed on the ground by strafing
Zeros a couple of weeks after the opening of hostilities. The carcass was still
there months later, having been looted of any useable components. 19th bomb
group mechanics evacuated from Luzon ended up at No.3, about 8 miles, about
half an hour by truck, from No. 1 with no transportion available and no
orders. No. 3 was a narrow grass strip edging a canyon 500 ft deep on one side
and a boulder field on the other. (No. 2 was a fighter strip.) They were left
stranded there for some time; in fact they were still up there in early April
when 3 B-17s and 10 B-25s flew up from Australia and landed at No. 1 strip to
give the Japs a little of their own back (these B-25s were technically owned by
the Dutch but the 3AG had "borrowed" them). Maj. Gen. Ralph Royce was flying
the lead B-17 and when he found out there were 19th group B-17 mechanics left
in the lurch at No.3 he issued orders in no uncertain terms to get them down to
No.1. And he ordered the B-25s to fly over to No.3 so the Japs wouldn't be
able to nail all the bombers in one pass over the No. 1 strip, which they were
hitting daily. It was a tough squeeze to get the B-25s into that little strip.
Col. John Davies, who had been with the 27th Bomb Group in the PI when the Japs
attacked on Dec 8 and then evacuated to Australia when that group was sent down
to Java and then to Australia, where it merged with the 3d, led the B-25s.
Fortunately he had been to Del Monte before and knew the strip.
The next morning the B-25s took off to hit a Jap airfield at Cebu and on the
way were bounced by a couple of P-40s who apparently thought they were Nells,
but veered off, without firing and disappeared. When they blasted the jap
airfield there were Jap fighters in the air, but they didn't go after the B-25s
until after bombs away. Maybe they thought they were friendlies. But then
they came after them pretty hard. the firepower the B-25s put out seemed to
surprise them and after one close in pass they didn't push in too close. So
they didn't even put one hole in the 25s.
The B-17s were tasked with hitting targets at Luzon but one had engine trouble
and wasn't able to get off. The mechanics brought down from No.3 were
definitely needed (but no spare parts). They worked on it all morning and
were still at it when the other 2 B-17s returned and they left off to refuel
and rearm them for another strike. At this point the Jap air force showed up
and bombed the hell out of the field, destroying the B-17 under repair and
damaging the other two, so no second strike for them. The Japs missed the
B-25s at No.3, they being pretty well camoflaged by the ground crews who had
pushed them in amongst the boulders and trees. They refueld and rearmed and
went to Davao. On the afternoon mission the B-25s were escorted part way by a
P-40B and a P-40E. The P-40B could not keep up with the climb rate of the
B-25s--the E could--and it fell behind. The flight was intercepted by Petes
who dove on the climbing bombers and then circled around for a follow-up attack
which was broken up by the lone P-40E and the tangled mess of them spun down on
the P-40B which apparently knocked one of the Petes out of the sky. Anyway one
went down in flames. The B-25s flattend their climb and left the Japs and
P-40s behind.
There had been two P-40Es being worked on at No.3 when the B-25s left on their
second bombing raid, but while they were gone the Japs raided the field and one
of them failed to get airborne when they scrambled and crashed at the end of
the runway. The pilot was trapped in the flaming wreckage and because Gen.
Royce had ordered firefighting equipment (such as it was) to be brought down to
No. 1 to be ready to save the B-17s (and it turned out to be needed with the
bombing raid), the fire couldn't be put out and he burned to death. The body
was still smoldering in the wreckage when the B-25s got back. It was too hot
for anyone to get close. The body could be smelled cooking all that evening.
The ground crews worked all night to repair the bomb damaged B-17s. They got
them flyable, but without hydraulics, no brakes or superchargers (same problem
Pease had with his plane the month before when he flew up to get MacA). They
left the next morning with VIP evacuees, including Cmdr Bulkeley, the PT boat
skipper who had got MacA down from Luzon. A P-40 pilot stowed away. The two
B-17s were escorted along their way by one lone P-35. Two Petes intercepted
the huffing and puffing B-17s as they groaned out of the field so that P-35 was
needed. The pilot chased those Petes all over Del Monte plantation.
Gen. Royce decided the state of repair of the B-17s didn't suit him, so he
hitched a ride back on one of the B-25s, that were purring like contented cats,
since the 3AG had had enough sense to bring along some of their own
groundcrewmen to see that they stayed in good shape.
The B-25s flew two more missions the next day, returning from their second
mission at dusk. Their long-range tanks were refitted and they took off for
Australia at midnight. They took some fighter pilots along as excess baggage.
Everybody was dead beat, it being a damned long flight up from Charters Towers
to Del Monte and then immediately two combat missions back to back followed by
two more then next day and then fly right back to Australia. Those crews were
absolutely--ab-so-lute-ly--dead beat. But all 10 planes made it back without
mishap. One of those amazing unsung performances where everyone was stretched
to the limit and beyond, did their jobs to spec, overcoming very high risks and
unexpected obstacles of all sorts, yet completed the mission as good as it
could possibly be done, got no particular thanks (hey, it was what they were
paid to do), gave no particular thought to having done the job, and just went
on to the next near-impossible challenge.
The 19BG ground crews were left abandoned at Del Monte No. 1 AFAIK. But, hey,
they were enlisted men, so who cares, right? Except that their skills were in
very short supply during the next few months. If they could have been gotten
out maybe Harl Pease and his crew, among others, wouldn't have ended up
enduring Jap hospitality on Rabaul.


Chris Mark