The Zeros formed up in two flights of three, each in a “V” formation.
As a concession to security, and to permit the Combined Fleet commander to see something of his deployed forces, the flight path made its first landfall at the southern tip of New Ireland, then turned south along the east coast of Bougainville, past the Japanese bases at Buka and Kieta, then on to Buin. 18, 1943 the two Japanese Navy G4M (Betty) bombers carrying Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto (in G4M Betty bomber #1) and Chief of Staff Matome Ugaki (in Betty #2) took off at 0600hrs from Lakunai airfield, on New Britain’s east coast and were joined by six escorting Zero fighters from No. The following is a detailed description of the interception and is based on Si Sheppard’s book We Killed Yamamoto. But for the P-38 Lightning unit that was ordered to find, intercept, and shoot down his aircraft, at extreme range, it was still one of the toughest jobs of World War II.
#BETTY BOMBER CREW POSITIONS CRACKED#
In 1943, US codebreakers cracked the secret of Yamamoto’s flightplan for a forthcoming visit to Rabaul. Yamamoto’s plane was no longer in sight dominating the horizon was a column of black smoke boiling from the dense jungle into the air.Īdmiral Yamamoto was Japan’s mastermind behind Pearl Harbor, and he was a top target in the war that followed.
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