Surprise over Gusap
The IHRA comes through for us with an eye-witness account of flying a mission over New Guinea.
Today’s post comes from the diary of Capt. Albert L. Behrens, a pilot in the 822nd Bomb Squadron.
November 15, 1943
Strike! Wewak. About 85 B-25’s were to participate in this raid. We left at 8 AM to pick up fighter escort over Gusap and then to Wewak. I was flying #3 position in the last element. We arrived at Gusap and started circling at 9000 feet. I heard a terrific explosion in the navigation compartment and smelled odors of cordite and gasoline. I turned around and thru the smoke Pete came up holding his hands in front of him – he had been hit bad. Both wrists were cut to the bone and blood was gushing out. Norb called Brownie to come forward and then he got out of the co-pilot’s seat to give first aid to Pete. I now had fallen out of formation and with the gas…
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Posted on February 27, 2016, in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. 29 Comments.
Pacific Paratrooper 
Great First Hand account, Story’s like these really bring home the fact these Pilots and Crew were all individually Heroes in their own way, also it demonstrates the ferocity of what they faced in each and every mission.
Great reading.
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So true, Ian. Glad to see you also read the reblogs. IHRA does some fantastic research, wish I had the budget to get their books [and Matthew Wright’s].
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I’d say that’s a fair definition of a bad day at the office. I hope Pete lived to read it and laugh.
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By the way they describe his injuries and the immediate care he received – I would say he recovered. I appreciate your interest Frederick.
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Excellent first hand narrative gp, many miracle landings were performed by these great Pilots.
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The helicopter pilots in Nam pulled a many a stunt off – I often wondered if they were the children of these men.
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I recall Marshalling in about twenty choppers heading off for an operation insertion, thos Chopper Pilots would fly in formation, one behind the other guided by ther red light, rotor blades a few feet apart, unbelievable.
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They were something else!!
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It seems as though a lot of people are wondering whether or not American fighters accidentally shot down this B-25. Friendly fire incidents unfortunately happened from time to time.
What we can add is this: The official combat narrative refers to the plane as ‘a SSF [single seat fighter], thought to be a Tony [Allied nickname for the Ki-61 Hein].’ There is no way of knowing for certain which fighter hit Capt. Behren’s B-25. However, eight P-40s from the 8th Fighter Group are known to have engaged Japanese aircraft near Gusap, and one of the P-40 pilots briefly fired on Allied B-25s (mistaking them for Ki-49s, or ‘Helens’) during the engagement.
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Thank you for your additional research and thorough replies to the readers.
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You’re welcome!
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Thany you wünsche dir eine gute neue Woche liebe Grüße Gislinde
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Danke, Gislinde.
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Some of these are hard to read.
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Yes, they are. But ones that the survivors wished to tell.
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And I know it is important to tell these stories honestly. War is awful. Too many folks don’t really understand that.
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And they tell me so, too!!
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It is inconceivable to us civilians what these men endured during the war, and lived to tell of it. Resourcefulness and ingenuity in the face of total chaos and death. Yes, they had amazing skills.
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Beautifully said, Lavinia.
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Did I read it right that they were shot by P-40 or P-39? It was amazing they could manage to land the plane with so many things broken as that.
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Someone was sure looking out over them! With so many aircraft in the raid, it was bound to happen.
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It’s possible that they were on the receiving end of friendly fire, but we did some additional research and still can’t verify it one way or the other. Here’s a video dealing with plane identification:
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Amazing skills.
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And at such young ages! Thank you for reading, Ann.
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Very cool!
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These eye witness accounts do bring the events into perspective, right?
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And they make history come to life!
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I think I read that right. They were hit by friendly fire from a P40 or P38? Somehow, that makes it worse, so it was good to hear that they survived the ordeal.
Best wishes, Pete.
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We looked into this further and the answer is, it might have been American fighters accidentally firing at the B-25. It might have also been a Japanese fighter. We haven’t been able to get to the bottom of this mystery though.
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