More Planes, More Planning

Texas-born Lieut. Colonel Richard H. Carmichael is 29 years old; he finished West Point only six years ago. Rated a strict disciplinarian in the loosely disciplined Air Corps, he was given command of General MacArthur's Flying Fortresses last summer, the third commander of an off-&-on outfit within six months. Colonel Carmichael's strong point was his experience in this war with this war's planes: he started the war as a captain flying a B-17 out of the Philippines, learned what it meant to dodge anti-aircraft and swarms of Japanese Zeros while trying to make a bombing run over a target.

Last week Colonel Carmichael put on his first big show over Rabaul, Japanese naval and air base 600 miles northeast of Port Moresby, 700 miles northwest of Guadalcanal. For once, he had enough planes: more Fortresses than anyone had ever had before in the Southwest Pacific. For once, the raid was well planned. First the Australians went over Rabaul in their Catalina flying boats, loosed their bombs shortly after midnight. Then, about 4 a.m. when the Japs were comfortably in bed again, the Fortresses began coming in.

The first dropped flares and bombs, then went down low and shot out the Japanese searchlights. Soon the fires of Rabaul provided a guide visible for 35 miles. The Fortresses kept coming for an hour and a half, from different directions and at different levels, until 60 tons of bombs had fallen on Japanese warehouses. Many were piloted by old hands who had seen the war through Java and the Philippines.

Colonel Carmichael himself circled the target for an hour and a half during the attack, piloting his own plane, with 34-year-old Colonel Frederic H. Smith Jr. (one of Admiral Ernest J. King's numerous sons-in-law) as observer. Colonel Carmichael was pleased as punch with his first big raid. Said he: "I had what amounted to a grandstand seat at the Yankee Stadium." Early next morning Colonel Carmichael's flyers visited Rabaul again, dropped 40 more tons on its supply dumps, warehouses, machine shops, barracks and jetties.

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