The Dangerous Low-Altitude Bombing Trick Used Over New Guinea
WWII After Action Reports
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The Dangerous Low-Altitude Bombing Trick Used Over New Guinea
What if the only way to survive was to fly directly at the enemy? By early 1943, General George Kenney faced an impossible mandate: cut the supply lines feeding thousands of Japanese troops into New Guinea. Every previous attempt from high altitude had failed. Bombs missed, fuel was wasted, and the transports kept sailing. So Kenney's crews invented a radical new approach at fifty feet above the sea. B-25 pilots learned to drop bombs that skipped across the water. The margin for error was measured in seconds. One misjudged fuse setting meant the aircraft would be destroyed by its own weapon. These men flew into the teeth of enemy anti-aircraft fire to deliver a blow that changed the course of the Pacific War. Who were the crews who flew this impossible mission, and what did they endure?
SOURCES:
Eric Bergerud, Fire in the Night: Wingate of the Chindits, the Air War in Burma, 2000. (Chapter on air power over New Guinea).
M.J. Strauss, The Bismarck Sea Engagement: The Final Japanese Naval Disaster in the Pacific War, 2006.
Douglas MacArthur, Reports of General MacArthur, Vol. II, Part I, U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1994.
Ronald H. Spector, Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan, 1985.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Records of the U.S. Army Air Forces, Combat Operations Records (Box 68, Fifth Air Force Mission Reports).
#WW2 #PacificWar #BismarckSea #MilitaryHistory #WW2History #AviationHistory #USAAF #PacificTheater #WarHistory #NewGuinea #SkipBombing #WWII #B25Mitchell #HistoryDocumentary #WW2AirWar
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Thank you for watching as we reconstruct World War II through battle reports, unit records, deck logs, archival material, and documented wartime events.
🎖️ Each episode examines what happened, who made the critical decisions, and what the surviving records reveal about the battle.
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The Dangerous Low-Altitude Bombing Trick Used Over New Guinea
WWII After Action Reports
6 views
The Dangerous Low-Altitude Bombing Trick Used Over New Guinea
What if the only way to survive was to fly directly at the enemy? By early 1943, General George Kenney faced an impossible mandate: cut the supply lines feeding thousands of Japanese troops into New Guinea. Every previous attempt from high altitude had failed. Bombs missed, fuel was wasted, and the transports kept sailing. So Kenney's crews invented a radical new approach at fifty feet above the sea. B-25 pilots learned to drop bombs that skipped across the water. The margin for error was measured in seconds. One misjudged fuse setting meant the aircraft would be destroyed by its own weapon. These men flew into the teeth of enemy anti-aircraft fire to deliver a blow that changed the course of the Pacific War. Who were the crews who flew this impossible mission, and what did they endure?
SOURCES:
Eric Bergerud, Fire in the Night: Wingate of the Chindits, the Air War in Burma, 2000. (Chapter on air power over New Guinea).
M.J. Strauss, The Bismarck Sea Engagement: The Final Japanese Naval Disaster in the Pacific War, 2006.
Douglas MacArthur, Reports of General MacArthur, Vol. II, Part I, U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1994.
Ronald H. Spector, Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan, 1985.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Records of the U.S. Army Air Forces, Combat Operations Records (Box 68, Fifth Air Force Mission Reports).
#WW2 #PacificWar #BismarckSea #MilitaryHistory #WW2History #AviationHistory #USAAF #PacificTheater #WarHistory #NewGuinea #SkipBombing #WWII #B25Mitchell #HistoryDocumentary #WW2AirWar
----------------
Thank you for watching as we reconstruct World War II through battle reports, unit records, deck logs, archival material, and documented wartime events.
🎖️ Each episode examines what happened, who made the critical decisions, and what the surviving records reveal about the battle.
👍 Like the video
💬 Share your thoughts
📤 Share with another WWII history enthusiast
🔔 Subscribe for more source-driven WWII documentaries
🔗 Subscribe here: @wwiiafteractionreports
Thank you for supporting WWII After Action Reports.
#WWIIHistory #WW2Documentary #MilitaryHistory #WarArchives #WW2