Shoestring's End

By the end of 1942, the Japanese base at Rabaul on the island of New Britain is still the major strategic factor in two theaters, the South Pacific, which includes Guadalcanal at the southern end of the Solomons chain, and the Southwest Pacific, which includes New Guinea. Possession of Rabaul allows the Japanese to strike Allied forces in either theater.

Jimmy Ardana returns to the 35th Fighter Group after recovering from malaria and assorted jungle fevers. The war of the 35th Fighter Group revolves around air support for the Allied troops fighting the Japanese Army at Gona and Buna. The 35th has one squadron equipped with P-38s, but the rest of the group soldiers on with increasingly worn P-39D Airacobras.

Danny Evans is now command pilot of Bronco Buster II, the aging B-17E he inherited from Charlie Davis. The 19th Bomb Group has left the theater. Danny Evans and Bronco Buster II now fly for the 43rd Bomb Group. The only other heavy bombardment group in the 5th Air Force, the 90th, equipped with B-24s, suffers continual failures of equipment and training but are gradually improving. Neither group is up to full strength.

Tommy “Chinkerbell” Bell makes a major mistake and finds his true home.

New replacements arrive, still largely untrained beyond graduating flight school. Jimmy and Danny will have to deal with these pilots as best they can. Some will live. Some won’t.

The Japanese have given up on reinforcing Buna and Gona by sea. Instead, they will reinforce their southernmost base at Lae on the Huon Gulf. While the action in the South Pacific theater centers around the Marines and the naval battles around Guadalcanal, in the Southwest Pacific it’s still the Royal Australian Army and Air Force and the American 5th Air Force taking the fight to the Japanese.

Turn the page. The time is one minute after midnight, December 24, 1942.