Richard E. Smith
Richard E. Smith poses with
P-38H "Japanese Sandman II" 42-66905

(photo Oct - Nov 1943)

  Richard E. Smith
  
Double Victory Mission on July 21, 1943

We were up there flying up from Saidor, and were up over the bay there at Madang, on the north coast.  We were looking for a Japanese submarine that was reportedly in the area, but we never found that sub.  Instead, we ran into some Japanese plane.  I shot down one, and I remember that he bailed out, that is all I remember.  The second one I got, oh about fifteen minutes later.  You have to understand that its was very difficult to even find somebody most of the time!  We were up there at 30, 31 thousand feet usually, and there is a lot of space.  That was the first mission where we had seen the TONY [Ki-61] and some guys thought they were Messerscmitts, you know, because they looked a lot like them, with their inline engines. So, we reported these new planes, but that was the first time we saw Tonys in the air.

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