7 Dec 2014 Walkabout
7 Dec 2014 Walkabout The morning of 7 Dec 1941 was as quiet as any Sunday in northern Illinois. But, in the afternoon, my future father was called back to the airfield at Langley Field, VA were he worked all night to prepare the B-26 bombers to depart the following day. Then, at 0700 on 8 Dec 1941, less than 18 hours after the first bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor, the 22nd Bomb Group, the Red Raiders, took off from Langley Field headed for Muroc, CA to fly shore patrol. My father was a crew chief on one of those B-26s in the 33rd squadron. From Muroc, they boarded the airplanes and flight crews onto ships and sailed to Oahu. At Hickam Field, they reassembled the planes and island hopped to Australia.
The 22nd BG was one of the first units to take offensive action against the enemy. From from bases in northern Australia, they flew bomb missions without fighter escort against Japanese bases and shipping around New Guinea and the surrounding waters. As the war continued, they island hopped toward Japan while also moving from B-26s to B-25s to B-24s bombers.
