Richard Ira Bong: American World War II Ace of Aces

all around the cockpit and the third was trailing a long column of smoke.” Before he escaped the rest in a dive, one Zero shot up his left wing and engine, causing a coolant leak. “Feathered left engine and landed at home field safety,” Bong wrote after he returned to Horanda, requesting — and receiving — credit for “two certains and one probable.”

During a high-altitude patrol north of Buna on March 29, 2nd Lt. Clay Barnes led Bong after a suspicious lone airplane that turned and raced toward New Britain. After a 20-mile chase at 400 mph, they caught up with their quarry, a Mitsubishi Ki.46 twin-engine army reconnaissance plane, over the Bismarck Sea. On his fourth firing pass dead astern, Bong hit the Ki.46’s fuel tank, and the plane disintegrated in flames. His ninth victory tied him with Lynch as the leading American ace in New Guinea. Soon afterward, Kenney promoted Bong to first lieutenant.

By this time Bong had established his fundamentals of success. He explained one in a letter to his mother on April 10, 1944, that included advice for his younger brother, who was planning to join the Army Air Forces: “He must not get contemptuous of any airplane, no matter how simple and easy it may be to fly. Don’t just get in and fly it, but know what makes it tick….If he forgets, why, any airplane in the world can kill him if he isn’t its complete master.” Bong regarded aerial combat as a game whose risks made life interesting, but he was not above quitting a fight if he judged the odds were too heavy against him. He claimed to be a poor shot, yet his squadron mates stated that he hit whatever he fired at 90 percent of the time. Bong said one secret of his success was a policy of getting close enough to “put the gun muzzles in the Jap’s cockpit.” Another was his penchant for engaging his opponents head-on, which gave the P-38, a stable gun platform with firepower superior to the Zero and Oscar, a distinct advantage. At least 16 of his victories were attained in head-on gun duels.

On April 1, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto launched Operation I, a massive air offensive meant to reverse the Allied advance that had been gradually gaining momentum in the wake of Japan’s failures at Midway, Guadalcanal and New Guinea. During a Japanese attack on U.S. shipping in Milne Bay on April 14, Bong became a double ace when he shot down a G4M1 off Cape Frere. On that same day Yamamoto, satisfied that Operation I had accomplished its goals — thanks to overoptimistic claims by his aircrews — concluded the air campaign. On the 18th, he flew off to inspect the air base at Ballale, only to be intercepted, shot down and killed over Bougainville by P-38Gs of the 339th Fighter Squadron.

After another stint of Australian R&R, Bong went through a “dry spell” until June 12, when his flight engaged eight Ki.43s of the 1st Sentai, en route from Wewak to strafe the 9th Squadron’s new airstrip at Bena Bena. In a series of duels with the nimble Oscars, Bong managed to get a deflection shot into one, scoring two 20mm hits mid-fuselage and watching it spin down. Bong returned with a flat right tire and his right tail boom riddled with 7.7mm hits that had severed hydraulic lines, but he just smiled as he surveyed the damage.

Ten Lightnings of the 9th Squadron were flying a sweep over the Markham Valley on July 26 when they encountered 10 Ki.43s and 10 new Kawasaki Ki.61 “Tony” fighters just beyond Lae. Failing to score in his first pass at the slim Tonys, Bong dived his P-38G to gain speed, then went head-on at an Oscar and set it afire. He next blew part of a Tony’s rear fuselage away and downed another in a left-hand turn from the rear quarter. Another head-on pass shredded a second Oscar. Bong’s quadruple success in that fight was matched by 1st Lt. Jim “Duckbutt” Watkins, while Captain Gerald R. Johnson accounted for an Oscar and a Tony, returning in spite of the latter’s colliding with his Lightning and tearing away the lower tail assembly.