The 3rd Bomb Group’s Combat Debut: Prelude to the Royce Raid
The Pacific War raged on as the men endured the Bataan Death March.
By April 1942, the 3rd Bomb Group was about two weeks into training on the B-25. This training was suddenly put to the test when an order came through for any operational 3rd Bomb Group B-25s to fly to Port Moresby for a raid on the Japanese airfield at Gasmata on April 6th. These planes and crews came from the 13th Squadron, since they already had their new bombers. Six B-25s took off from Charters Towers, Australia on April 5th for a night’s stay in Port Moresby, prepared to hit Gasmata on the 6th. The 13th Squadron C.O., Capt. Herman Lowery, would lead the strike.
The next day, five of the B-25s took off (the sixth was unable to) without a fighter escort due to the distance to the target. This was the official combat debut of the B-25. The 350-mile flight from Port Moresby to Gasmata was pushing the…
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Posted on December 20, 2014, in Uncategorized, WWII and tagged aviation, family history, History, Military, nostalgia, Pacific War, veterans, WW2, WWII. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
Pacific Paratrooper 
Fascinating story all round, flying without maps and using celestial navigation for bearings, that is improvisation, the setbacks must have been dauntingand frustrating.
Ian
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I can’t even imagine. My father used to say – ‘Necessity is the mother of invention.’ and I see that more than once or twice in this war……
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Thank you very much for the reblog! 🙂
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No problem. Some information is better done by others rather than myself. You site also deserves the added attention.
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Thanks, that is very kind of you. It’s nice seeing all the different ways bloggers present information. You have a great system going on as well.
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I appreciate the compliment.
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It seems that it was never a lack of men willing to fight.
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Once we went in, it was all the way it appears. But even back then there were those ready to run the other way. Thanks for visiting today, Dan!!
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