“Right boys, I know you all want to leave for some well-deserved R&R”, spoke Boyington to his man.
“Watch out here comes trouble”, whispered Jake into Peter’s ear.
Boyington ignored the whisper.
“A Catalina discovered Japanese ships approaching one of the islands. Now that we gained air superiority they are trying to sneak troops through the backdoor to push us of the island”
“Now it comes”, whispered Jake again to Peter.
“So before we can enjoy our rest, we will have to kick those japs back!”
“I told you so” said Jake to Peter as they left the briefing room. Peter tried to ignore Jakes words. The last thing Peter wanted to do was getting killed on his last mission.
The Corsairs soared through the sky towards the Japanese vessels. In his cockpit, Peter prayed to God to guard over him on this mission. Then he realized that probably everybody on this mission was praying for a safe return.
“There are no atheists in a cockpit”, Peter thought.
Boyington’s words over the radio brought him back to the harsh reality of war.
“Men, bad news, it seems that the Japs have already started unloading their landing vessels. We have to destroy these vessels before they can send more soldiers on land.
Peter cursed, attacking landing vessels meant that they would have to fly low, strafing the boats. Off course any Japanese soldier with a rifle would be firing at them. There would be a lot of lead in the sky.
“Enemy vessels below”, Peter had spotted as first one the Japanese boats.
“Ok, Muller, you lead the attack”.
Peter pushed his Corsair forward in a shallow dive. Being the first to attack would improve his survival changes. If the Japs were unprepared, he might drop his bombs before they could return fire. But if they would be expecting him, there would we be a wall of fire awaiting him.
The landing boats grew bigger and bigger in his gunsight. Peter spotted also two sampans protecting the landing crafts. Those sampans would be equipped with anti aircraft artillery. But their guns remained silent, they weren’t expecting them.
Peter shifted his sight on the row of landing vessels. He would try to strafe them all in one run and drop his bombs on the second sampan.
He pulled the trigger. His machineguns blasted, kicking up water around the landing boats. Bullets ricocheted on the vessels, killing any unfortunate soldier still inside.
As he pulled out of the dive, Peter released his bombs. The safety pins were released and a small propeller armed the bombs.
Peter feared that he dropped the bombs to late, until he heard a tremendous explosion. An enormous blast shook his aircraft.
Peter checked his aircraft. Everything seemed still to work. Behind him his bombs had hit the last sampan. On of the bombs must have hit an ammunition room, because the explosion had completely evaporated the boat.
That was the signal for the other Corsairs to attack. But it also warned the Japs. Soon the sky was filled with tracer fire as ground troops and sailors fired at the brave American flyers.
Peter had climbed to a safer altitude to prepare for his second strafe. But he did not like the resistance of the Japs.
Tracers flew past his cockpit as the gunners started to return fire.
Peter had enough of that sampan hurling shells after him. He rolled his aircraft on its back and dove towards the sampan.
His dive was so steep that the gunners aboard the sampan could not elevate their guns high enough. Not that it mattered, because Peter’s bullets rained down on them.
An orange fireball erupting from the aft deck was the sign for Peter to pull up. With a tremendous speed the Corsair flew over the water, almost touching it.
The Corsairs circled over the helpless Japanese vessels, picking one landing craft after another. Without air cover, these boats were sitting ducks.
Only when the last pilot had expanded his last bullet, did the Corsairs head for home. But the harm had been done, the back of the Japanese force was broken before it could set a foot on land.
When the last Corsair came to a stop on the airfield, a collective sight of relief went through all the pilots. They made it. They survived their tour of duty. For some of them their first one, for others their second or third one. One thing was sure, there would come a next tour of duty.
But for now they could relax, head for Australia and enjoy the comforts of a real bed without being harassed by mosquitoes or zeros. And that was all Peter asked for.
The End