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October 23, 1942 was a typical day for American troops at Esprito
Santo, but for the crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress it would become
a most memorable day. Early that morning the Japanese began shelling
the field. Lt. Ed Loberg, a former farm boy from Wisconsin, was
ordered to take his B-17 up for a reconnaissance mission to determine
where the Japanese guns may be located. Not finding anything
they returned to the field. The brakes failed on the B-17 upon
landing, and they hit several parked Navy aircraft. Fortunately
for Loberg’s crew a 100 pound bomb dislodged in the crash
did not explode. Later that day the crew boarded another B-17
and went hunting out to sea. Around mid-day the crew noticed
a PBY being attacked by a Kawanishi H6K “Mavis” flying
boat. Diving the B-17 straight down, the Mavis and the Flying
Fortress soon entered a rain squall. The windows were black with
clouds and rain, and the plane was buffeted by strong winds.
Emerging from the squall at low altitude into blinding sunlight
the B-17 emerged only fifty feet from their adversary. Immediately
every gun on both aircraft began firing in a broadside exchange
reminiscent of age old sailing ship battles. Thousands of bullets
criss-crossed the narrow spread of air, and the Fortress shuddered
from the impact. Tracer bullets from the B-17 pelted the Mavis
like darts with many ricocheting off its armor. The Mavis made
a tight turn, and Loberg turned inside him to avoid the mortal
sting from the Mavis’ tail guns. In and out of rain squalls
this interesting dogfight continued for 45 minutes. The Mavis
kept very close to the wave tops to protect is vulnerable under
belly. Several times during the fight the Mavis disappeared for
three of four minutes into clouds, but each time as it reemerged
Loberg’s B-17 resumed the attack. Twice the B-17 passed
over the H6K so close that the jagged bullet holes in the Mavis
and the round glasses on its two pilots could be seen clearly.
Finally, the Mavis began smoking, and the Japanese plane dropped
into the sea and exploded in a large ball of flame. In the words
of Ira Wolfert, a war correspondent, who was on the flight; “During
the duel, the Fort that I was on, with a bullet in one of its
motors, and two holes as big as Derby hats in its wings, made
tight turns with half-rolls and banks past vertical. That is,
it frequently stood against the sea on one wing like a ballet
dancer balancing on one point, and occasionally it went over
even farther than that and started lifting its belly toward the
sky in desperate effort to keep the Jap from turning inside it…
Throughout the entire forty-four minutes, the plane, one of the
oldest being used in the war, ran at top speed, shaking and rippling
all over like a skirt in a gale, so many inches of mercury being
blown into its motors by the superchargers that the pilot and
co-pilot, in addition to their other worries, had to keep an
eye on the cowlings to watch for cylinder heads popping up through
them.” Others on Loberg’s crew that day were B. Thurston
the co-pilot, R Spitzer the navigator, R. Mitchell the bombadier
and E. Gustafson , E. Jung, G. Holbert , E. Smith, and P. Butterbaugh
who manned the guns during this unusual dogfight. Both Mitchell
and Spitzer were wounded during the battle. |