hw97karbine
Airman 1st Class
- 215
- Mar 23, 2025
This incident happened during what became known as the action off Bougainville where a United States Navy aircraft carrier task force centered around USS Lexington on its way to raid the Imperial Japanese military base at Rabaul was attacked by a force of land-based bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
In the ensuing engagement, the Japanese air group lost 15 of 17 bombers sent to attack the American carrier group. The United States lost only two fighters in defense, and no ships were damaged. As a result of the loss of surprise, however, the Americans retired without raiding Rabaul as originally planned.
The aircraft visible in the clip is a G4M1 of 4th Kōkūtai's 1st Chûtai commanded by Lieutenant Commander Takuzo Ito, the group's commanding officer. Together with seven other "Betties" his formation was attacked by two Wildcats, flown by Lieutenant Edward "Butch" O'Hare and Lieutenant (junior grade) Marion Dufilho. During the first pass, Dufilho's guns jammed, leaving O'Hare to attack the bombers alone.
O'Hare employed a high-side diving attack from the right side of the formation, accurately placing bursts of gunfire into the outside "Betty"'s right engine and wing fuel tanks. When the stricken craft, commanded by Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryosuke Kogiku (3rd Shotai), lurched to starboard, O'Hare switched to the next plane up the line, that of Petty Officer 1st Class Koji Maeda (3rd Shotai leader). Maeda's plane caught fire, but his crew managed to put out the flames with "one single spurt of liquid...from the fire-extinguisher." Neither Maeda or Kogiku had sustained fatal damage, and would catch up with the group before bomb release.
With two "Bettys" knocked out of formation, albeit temporarily, O'Hare initiated another firing pass, this time from the left side. His first target was the outside plane, flown by Petty Officer 1st Class Bin Mori (2nd Shotai). Aiming across to the far side of Mori's bomber, O'Hare's bullets damaged the right engine and left fuel tank, forcing Mori to dump his bombs and abort his mission. With Mori out of combat, O'Hare next targeted Ito's senior wingman, Petty Officer 1st Class Susumu Uchiyama (1st Shotai), whose plane did not recover from its dive.
Having shot up four bombers, O'Hare returned to the left side for a third firing pass. By now, Ito was nearing the bomb release point, which left very little time to take action. The first plane to go down was Ito's deputy, Lieutenant (junior grade) Akira Mitani (2nd Shotai leader). Mitani's departure left Ito's command plane exposed, and O'Hare opened up on it. O'Hare's concentrated fire caused the plane's port engine nacelle to break free of the wing. The resulting explosion was so violent that the 1st Chûtai pilots were convinced that an AA burst had struck their commander's plane. With a gaping hole in its left wing, Ito's plane fell out of formation.
As the surviving "Bettys" withdrew, Ito's command pilot, Warrant Officer Chuzo Watanabe, managed to regain enough control to level his plane. He tried to steer his damaged plane into Lexington, but missed and flew into the water near the carrier at 17:12. Maeda, witnessing the event, believed that both Ito and Mitani (who had gone down moments earlier) had crashed "bombs, crew and all" into the carrier. The crippled plane is seen barely remaining airborne while flying on one engine and does not survive the concentrated anti-aircraft fire coming from the carrier.
