When America’s Greatest Ace Took on 9 Japanese Zeros
It is March 11th of 1943 and just over the surface of the Pacific Ocean, a P38 Lightning screams forward at over 400 mph. In her cockpit, the future American ace of aces, Major Richard Bong. In this moment, however, he is still an upandcomer, and today he will be in for the fight of his life. Coming around in his gun sights are nine Japanese Oscars.
Somehow he has ended up taking them all on by himself alone and with nowhere to run. But how did he get here? And more importantly, how will he get out? And would he become the first American fighter ace to walk away from a oneon-one dog fight? At this time, the fight for the Pacific is in a heated back andforth battle. The American forces are slowly pushing forward, led by their air power.
But it is no simple struggle. Japanese pilots are still experienced and high in numbers, filling island airfields all across the region. And today they would attempt to bring punishment to one of the American air bases, giving them trouble. In the middle of the Pacific at Doadura airfield in North New Guinea, a handful of P38s are scrambled as the alarms are sounded.
Reported just a few minutes ago was a large Japanese bomber raid headed in their direction. This is the home of the 49th Fighter Group and specifically the 9inth Fighter Squadron who serve as escorts for the bombing raids in the fifth air force. In the cockpit of one of the Lightnings was a young lieutenant by the name of Richard Bong, a Wisconsin boy who was quickly making a name for himself as one of the best pilots in the 49th Fighter Group.
Just a few weeks prior, he had scored his fifth kill and had officially become a fighter ace. As he gets his wheels rolling down the runway overhead, the enemy is now here. He and the other Lightnings push their throttles forward to get off the runway. About the time their wheels come up, they hear impact. Japanese bombs pound the runway and airfield behind them.
Lightnings explode on the ground and fires are ignited all around the base. The boys had just made it up and now they had to answer. They pointed their noses skyward and began to climb towards the raiders. And you might be thinking, TJ, I thought that Bong flew the famous bare aluminum P38 named Marge. And you were right.
He did, but not yet. In fact, Richard Bong had not even met Marjgery, his future wife, yet at this time he was just another Army pilot in the Pacific, flying just another olive drab P38. Here, from inside his cockpit, he looked out as his fellow P38s formed up in echelon formation.
They were now headed to get in front of the raiding party and cut them off on their way home. A few minutes later, the Lightnings were in position and right on schedule, the enemy formation turned around and began flying towards them. The attackers can now clearly be seen. A large flight of G4M Betties, but they are not by themselves.
Escorting them are 25 KI43 Oscars, commonly called the Army Zero. The Oscar was a formidable opponent in the right hands. It was quick and extremely maneuverable like the Zero. Its downfall, however, was also the same. It would often burst into flames with a well- aimed burst from an enemy aircraft. And there was perhaps no better pilot in the Pacific theater at placing well- aimed burst than Richard Bong.
At approximately 11:15, the Lightnings turned in to the path of the Japanese raiding party. The flight one at a time went in on runs after the Betty’s. Bong blazed through the formation and went after the last bomber in the flight, landing hits with a good volley of fire, but the Betty stayed in the air.
Richard Vong would pull off of his run and prepared to turn around for another pass as he was now in a good position for an attack from a stern. But as he began this second run, tracers flew by his cockpit. The Oscars were now diving and a large group of them were coming in after the American interceptors. Bong looked around and to his shock, he was now alone.
In the attack run on the Betty’s, he had somehow lost the rest of his flight. This meant that in his current position, he was in trouble. He had no option but to dive away from the engagement, trying to evade the Oscars with the lightning speed advantage. And this would normally be a good strategy. But in this particular dog fight would not work as planned for the upand cominging American ace.
And in a moment, this dog fight is going to be presented with painstaking detail and cinematic beauty. And that’s because it was made here with this video’s sponsor, War Thunder. In case you’ve never tried it, War Thunder is the most comprehensive vehicle combat game ever made, where you can enter graphically beautiful battles in more than 2500 tanks, planes, helicopters, and ships from more than 10 nations spanning more than a 100red years of history.
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of premium account available just for a limited time. So don’t miss it. Now, let’s get back to Bong in the Pacific. As Bong’s P38 roared downwards, he knew that most of the time the lightning would leave his Japanese adversaries behind. And on many occasions, even if it did not, his opponents would simply pull off and stay with the larger engagement above.
But today, that wasn’t the case. The Oscars stayed on his tail. And as the lightning reached a speed of over 475 mph, he put some space between himself and the bandits, but not enough. As the Pacific water got closer and closer, he eventually ran out of altitude and had to level off. Speeding along the ocean, he looked back and could see only one Oscar left in the distance.
He decided he could take on just one fighter and pulled a 180° turn to take him head on. But in doing so, he saw what his eyes had missed. This Oscar was not alone. Instead, nine KI43s were still in hot pursuit. Coming at them headon, he lined up the first fighter in his sights and pulled the trigger.
He moved the yolk slightly and then fired again at a second. Then after one more slight turn, he opened up on one more. All while the Oscars were firing right back with tracers flying by his cockpit. With the centermounted machine guns and cannon on the P38, Bong had learned to shoot with deadly accuracy.
He was already an elite pilot, but in the P38 he was lethal and was able to fire off from farther and with better aim than the Oscars firing back at him, who also at this moment had to ensure that they did not strike each other in the quick pass. After his guns finished firing, Bong looked back. He believed that he had hit them, but closing at over 700 mph and jumping from target to target made it very difficult to be sure.
He pulled into a left turn and looked out the P38’s canopy. Behind, he saw the group of Oscars turning as well. In their flight were two Oscars on fire and one trailing a long line of smoke. Now at zero altitude and with an angry group of Japanese pilots who had a turning advantage, Bong elected to quit while he was ahead. He leveled out and set a heading towards Doadura and pushed the throttle to the max.
The Oscars splits and latched on to his tail. They would get into firing range for just a few moments and opened up. Bong later reported that at one moment he saw three different streams of tracers flying by his canopy. As he weaved through the stream of bullets, one burst would find its target. Bong felt a thud and his lightning jerked as a Japanese fighter drilled his left wing and engine.
Luckily, it did not slow him down. And in a few moments, the higher speed of the lightning left the Oscars behind. But the damage would be done. As Bong raced for home, eventually his left engine began to sputter and he was forced to feather it. The trusty P38, however, continued on and after a while, Doadura was in sight.
With some careful handling, Lieutenant Bong brought down his aircraft onto the runway with fires still smoldering from the bombs that had just recently landed. He got out of his aircraft and filed his claims. A sixth and seventh kills confirmed with one more probable. In the history of aerial combat, there are very few pilots who have survived a oneon- nine dog fight.
But unbeknown to these Japanese pilots, the man at the controls of the lightning that they were chasing would go on to become the ace of aces, the highest scoring American pilot in history. and this particular engagement would go down as one of his finest moments. Don’t forget to download War Thunder for free on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, or mobile now by using my links at the pin comment or description.
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