Aircrew who witnessed this incident were incensed. Capt. James Murphy recalled, “ I wanted to vent some of my anger and kill every Japanese son of a bitch I could find.” Three P-38 pilots dove their aircraft to engage the Japanese planes that were shooting the B-17 aircrew in their parachutes. All three P-38s were shot down, but not before taking five Japanese fighters with them.

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Certainly, some aircrew were motivated by revenge, but most felt that military necessity justified their actions. In fact, Allied aircrews had commenced strafing survivors immediately after the initial attacks—before the loss of Lieutenant Moore’s plane. And aircrews who hadn’t witnessed Japanese fighters fire on the Americans in their parachutes also participated in the strafing of Japanese survivors. A tactical report by 2d Lt. Charles Howe detailing his March 3 attack in B-25-C1 No. 980 is typical: “Considerable time was spent after the release of all my bombs on strafing survivors and supplies which were strewn as far as the eye could see. On one strafing run against a previously damaged destroyer, I caught the survivors in the act of launching lifeboats. After firing for about seven seconds, I ceased firing to find the lifeboats overturned and the crowd of men attempting to gain the lifeboats definitely out of action.”

At the time, strafing Japanese survivors was not controversial. The public’s view was consistent with a comment made by one officer who flew on these missions: “The enemy is out to kill you and you are out to kill the enemy. You can’t be sporting in war.” The public rejoiced after hearing media reports that Japan suffered fifteen thousand casualties at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. The New York Times and other newspapers ran the story on their front pages, and Life magazine featured General Kenney on its cover.

Enemy documents and diaries subsequently recovered from the convoy’s wreckage revealed that those initial estimates of Japanese losses were exaggerated. One report, compiled from Japanese sources, placed the losses at 2,890. Another, compiled by the Allied Translator & Interpreter Section, suggested the Japanese lost 6,912. Despite this, Kenney and MacArthur steadfastly refused to revise their claims. Kenney threatened “action against those responsible” for questioning his assessment of the battle. A Fifth Air Force intelligence officer accused Kenney of ordering that reports and evidence suggesting lower Japanese losses be burned. MacArthur said at the time that he thought “the navy was trying to belittle the whole thing because they weren’t in on it.…It’s against the rules for land-based airplanes to sink ships, especially naval vessels. It’s bad enough for them to sink merchant vessels. They ought to be sunk by battleship gunfire or by submarines. But for airplanes to do it, especially if they aren’t naval airplanes, it’s all wrong.”

Regardless of the exact number of soldiers who perished and ships that were sunk, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea was a complete and decisive victory for Allied air power. Only 820 Japanese soldiers, minus their equipment, supplies, and weapons, made it to Lae. Kenney’s congratulatory message to his staff summed up the effort well: “Air Power has written some important history in the past three days,” he wrote. “Tell the whole gang that I am so proud of them I am about to blow a fuze.”

This article was written by Lawrence Spinetta and originally published in the November 2007 issue of World War II Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to World War II magazine today!

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