Letters From War Wednesday: World War II – Jim Gage
July 13, 2011
Posted in 13th Air Force, Everytown USA, Jim Gage, Letters From War Wednesday, World War II
Tags: 13th Air Force, Everytown USA, Jim Gage, Letters From War Wednesday, World War II
Brothers, Bob and Jim Gage, would both serve as bomber pilots in the Pacific Theater of World War II. This Letters From War Wednesday features a note from Jim, upon his return to the States following 58 successful missions.
Lt. James Gage - 13th Air Force
“Narrow escapes? There were plenty of them. But no one in my crew ever was hit. Our plane got a few holes knocked in it now and then, but nothing serious.
“…Our outfit was part of the 13th army air forces and was stationed at various times on Guadalcanal and other islands, in the Solomons. Our commander was Colonel Harry (Lighthorse) Wilson, the famous West Point football star.
“We mostly strafed Jap airfields at Rabaul and Bougainville and other places. Most of the time we flew B-25’s, equipped with 50-caliber machine guns in the nose.
“We ran into a surprise one day; that was the time the antiaircraft fire hit us from the top instead of the bottom. My plane and three others had been out bombing and strafing Jap barges. On our way home, with no bombs left except one 500-pounder in my plane and another 500-pounder in the lead plane, we spotted two big cargo ships in Matchin Bay, off Bougainville.
“It looked like easy pickings but the Japs threw up a heavy barrage of ack-ack so we veered off and circled around for a while. Then we opened up our guns and made a run over them from bow to stern instead of going in broadside as you usually do in skip bombing. The lead plane’s bomb hit one ship and my bomb was a near miss on the other ship and blew its stern out.
“Afterwards, as we circled the Bay strafing shore installations we were hit by the ack-ack that came down on top of us. …We flew so close to the treetops that the Japs’ shrapnel burst in the trees and then rained down on top of us instead of hitting the bottom of our plane. …At our base they wouldn’t believe we had seen anything in Matchin Bay until we showed them the shrapnel holes.”
Thank you for featuring letters from wartime. I enjoy reading the stories of soldiers and the men and women who helped support the war. I just finished a book based on the letters home of an American Woman who was living and working in Japan just after World War II ended. She was one of the first women to be part of the work inventorying the assets of the Bank of Japan. Great read that you might consider sometime. Keep up the great work! http://lettershomethebook.com