Operation PLUM: The Ill-fated 27th Bombardment Group and the Fight for the Western Pacific

7. Royce’s Raid—Overshadowed by Doolittle

7 Royce’s Raid—Overshadowed by Doolittle The Japanese captured the airfield at Gasmata on the southern coast of New Britain on February 8. Their carrier-based planes in the Solomon Sea then used the field to launch attacks on Allied positions and to soften up the defenses for their planned invasion of New Guinea. Gasmata On April 5 Davies and his B-25s flew to Port Moresby. There he met with Group Captain (colonel in the U.S. military) James Hewett, the commander of the Australian 9th Operation Group, who requested that Davies’s B-25s bomb the Japanese airbase at Gasmata. He told Davies that the B-17s’ highaltitude bombing had been ineffective, and his own Australian twin-engine bombers could not make the eight-hundred-mile round trip with a full load of bombs. The six Mitchells, led by Herman Lowery with Davies on his wing, took off for Gasmata on April 6. Because of the distance necessitating an extra fuel load, only four 300-pound bombs were carried by each plane rather than the usual eight. Nevertheless, the raid caught the Japanese by surprise, with thirty enemy bombers claimed to have been destroyed on the ground. This was the very first American mission with the B-25. They worked flawlessly, and all returned safely. Mangan recalled those first months flying out of Port Moresby in 1942: “We never had fighter escorts with our B-25s. On the Gasmata raid, we saw no Jap fighters on the ground or in the air. We encountered none and had little damage. The one thing we learned was that Gasmata was too far away from Port Moresby. We had little fuel left upon return.” The Mitchells headed back to Charters Towers on April 7. When they landed, the returning pilots described the action over Gasmata to an attentive crowd. But the mission pilots themselves were more interested in the latest Royce’s Raid 175 hot rumors. They were told a really big secret mission—a long haul over water—was in the works. Their curiosity grew moments later when Davies, Gunn, and McAfee rushed out of headquarters and jumped in another plane to fly to FEAF Headquarters in Melbourne. The 27th Reports states, “The next day it became a certainty that something was in the wind when the 13th along with some 90th squadron ships took off for Brisbane to pick up bomb bay [fuel] tanks.” Bataan Gang—Grasping for Straws Onboard the evening flight to Melbourne were Davies, McAfee, and Pappy Gunn. Davies and Gunn thought they might be disciplined for their brazen theft of the Dutch B-25s. They spent the night in Sydney and then took off before dawn for Melbourne. Once there, they had a four-hour meeting with Brig. Gens. Harold George and Ralph Royce. The topic of this top-secret conference, attended by other high-ranking officers and Capt. Frank Bostrom, a B-17 pilot from the 19th Bomb Group, was when and where to strike Japanese positions in the Philippines. Earlier, on March 29, Brig. Gen. Richard Sutherland had informed General Brett 8. Northeast Australia, New Guinea, and surrounding islands with airfields used by U.S. Army Air Corps, 1941–42. Courtesy University of Chicago Press O P E R A T I O N P L U M 176 that MacArthur wanted an offensive air mission to the Philippines. After MacArthur arrived in Melbourne to assume his new command, Wainwright contacted him in late March requesting that a squadron of bombers be sent north to help get supply ships loaded with food, gas, and oil through. Those vessels were already in Philippine waters several hundred miles south of Corregidor at Cebu City and Iliolo, but their captains would not attempt to run the Japanese naval blockade without significant military support. This request was likely the initial motivation for the proposed raid. MacArthur wanted both his troops on Bataan and Corregidor and the Philippine citizens to know that they were not forgotten—his “I Shall Return” speech was not just momentary political appeasement. Then again, the general felt additional pressure to pull off such an air raid, for his old employer, President Quezon of the Philippine Commonwealth, had just arrived in Melbourne. Quezon too was adamant that something more be done regarding military air operations in the Philippines. Sutherland told Brett that it was up...