From: Cub Driver loo

Holguin's list mispelled the name of Harlan
Pease, so I had no idea when it posted it that the list struck so
close to home.

Harl Pease flew with the heavy bomber group out of Mareeba. He took a B-17
which was not signed off as flyable and joined a mission to Rabaul in the
summer of '42. He lost an engine on the way out but didn't abort, made it to
Rabaul and was shot down by intercepting Zeros. Various stories floated around
about this episode but the one I have tended to believe is that, with a full
bomb load, full gas load and only three engines, he was unable to maintain
formation and the Zeros naturally fell on him as easy prey and he and his crew
were gone before they got near to bombs away. But the official version is that
he stayed with the formation blasting Jap fighters right and left, made the
bomb drop and only then got shot down. If he was trailing the formation, he
should have aborted and brought his plane home, bombers being worth their
weight in gold in that theater in those days, and not pointlessly gotten it
destroyed. If he was maintaining station in the formation, then his decision
to go on was sensible although it took courage, considering the risks involved.
And I imagine the Jap fighters would have spotted that feathered prop and gone
after him as an easy kill even were he tucked in tight. Another case where the
"real truth" may never be known.


Chris Mark