A History of the 70th Bombardment Squadron (M) in Early World War II
The 70th Bombardment Squadron, constituted on 20 November 1940, was activated on 15 January 1941 at Langley Field, Virginia as part of the 38th Bomb Group. At the time of activation, the 70th consisted of one officer, Lt. Leroy L. Stefonowicz, and nineteen enlisted men. On May 15, 1941 seven flying officers, Sharp, Eddy, Larson, Boden, Hawkins, Jones and Griffith, were assigned as a nucleus officer cadre to the 70th Squadron.
The 70th moved to Jackson, Mississippi in the summer of 1941 where the squadron began receiving the new B-26s from the Martin plant in Baltimore. Most pilots greatly admired this aircraft for its speed and its power while, at the same time, treating it with the deep respect it demanded. During the summer and fall of 1941 the squadron grew to a strength of approximately 300 men consisting of about forty officers and two hundred-sixty enlisted men.
A period of frenzied activity followed the Declaration of War in December 1941 while the squadron prepared for assignment to India. First, however, the aircraft and crews were sent to Savannah, Georgia for coastal search and anti-submarine patrol duty which lasted from 9-14 December 1941. About January 18, after much confusion, many orders and counter-orders, the 70th received orders for overseas shipment and left shortly by troop train for the San Francisco Port of Embarkation. The destination was rumored to be India or Burma.
In San Francisco, the Ground Echelon, composed of three officers and 204 enlisted men, boarded the Tasker H. Bliss and sailed on January 31, 1942. While at sea, the original destination of Rangoon was altered to Brisbane, Australia, since Rangoon was under attack.
The Air Echelon remained in San Francisco for about six weeks until ordered to report to Patterson Field near Dayton, Ohio to receive new production B-26s and undergo further training. On May 20, 1942 the squadron was detached from the 38th Bomb Group and the 70th became an individual Squadron, destined to go to war as a separate unit without a Group Headquarters. Bombardiers and Navigators were assigned at Patterson Field and a decision made that the B-26 would be flown from California to Hawaii instead of being disassembled in California, deck-loaded and shipped to Hawaii.
Having been equipped with thirteen new production B-26B aircraft installed with long range fuel tanks, the Air Echelon was ordered to California to prepare for deployment overseas. On 2 June 1942 the thirteen planes, separated into Flights “A,” “B,” and “C,” took off at intervals on the flight from Hamilton Field, California to Hawaii. The long overwater flights of approximately 2400 miles took on the average between 12 ½ to 14 hours to complete. The Battle of Midway, June 4-5, was underway when the squadron arrived at Kipapa Gulch, an airstrip high in the hills of Oahu, and was alerted to stand-by for an imminent attack. At Kipapa Gulch the squadron received training on torpedo tactics and filled the days with loading ammunition, loading and unloading bombs, practicing bombing runs, and regular aircraft test flights.
The Ground Echelon had by this time arrived in Brisbane Australia. It then traveled to Melbourne, Ballarat, and Wagga Wagga before returning to Brisbane to board the S.S. Batavia on its voyage to Fiji.
On July 1 the Air Echelon at Kipapa received orders to move on and departed Oahu on July 3 heading for Fiji by island-hopping across the Pacific, from Oahu to Christmas and Canton Islands and thence to Fiji. The departure from Oahu was marred with tragedy, however, when the plane, piloted by Lt. Fred Durbin, experienced a right engine fire shortly after becoming airborne and crashed off the end of the runway. The pilot and co-pilot, seriously injured, survived, but two of the crew did not. The last of the 70th Squadron’s aircraft completed the journey to Fiji on July 9, 1942 where the Air and Ground Echelons were finally re-united.
Once established on Fiji, the squadron maintained alerts, conducted long-range search missions at sea and engaged in serious training for combat. Administratively the squadron was part of the Second Island Air Command at Fiji and answered to and were supplied by them. Operationally, the 70th was assigned to the 13th Air Force in New Caledonia which had the authority to order the squadron into combat. When the squadron was on Guadalcanal, it was under the operational control of the U.S. Marines.
On the evening of 14 November 1942, 10 B-26s of the squadron arrived at Cactus (Guadalcanal) trained and ready to use torpedoes against enemy ships during the First and Second Battles of Guadalcanal. On the 16th, the squadron saw its first action in an attack on the Japanese invasion force dropping 100, 500 and 1,000 pounders, not torpedoes, on the transports and landing parties. All transports were reported to be afire and the squadron was ordered back to New Hebrides due to gas shortage.
On the morning of November 18 the squadron raided Bougainville Strait, with B-26s, B-17s and P-38 planes bombing targets in the harbor and being pursued and attacked by Zeros. A B-17 was shot down, crash-landing on the water at Baga Island, just off Vella Lavella. All survivors reached shore in rubber rafts and were rescued the following afternoon by a PBY.
Returning from Guadalcanal to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides the squadron experienced the loss of Capt. Callaham and his crew. Callaham’s plane was flying just off the water in a driving rain when it was forced to ditch in a heavy sea due to engine failure. All lives were lost. With this loss and others the B-26 inventory of the squadron was down to nine aircraft.
The 70th was ordered back to Guadalcanal in January 1943 for additional combat duty. During a bombing run over Munda, Captain Eddy’s aircraft was hit in the right engine and set afire by Japanese anti-aircraft. The crew, with the exception of the co-pilot, parachuted to safety, but landed in the water off the Japanese-occupied island of Rendova. After spending two or three days on the island, they were rescued by two submariners and brought aboard the Grayback, an American submarine on war patrol. It wasn’t until they arrived in Brisbane sixteen days later that the Army learned of their rescue.
During January on Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, the 70th was shelled by Japanese warships, fired upon by artillery from the hills, bombed regularly day and night, experienced food shortages and lack of sleep, was subjected to malaria and other tropical diseases, lacked aviation fuel and spare parts, yet the squadron was able to fly combat and search missions on a regular and frequent basis. Munda Airfield was bombed eleven times during January. Raids and reconnaissance missions were conducted regularly on Bougainville, the Japanese seaplane base at Rekata Bay was attacked, Kolombangara Island installations were raided, and skip-bomb attacks made on Japanese supply ships.
During this time, two unique missions occurred. On January 20, 1943 Major Stefonowicz and Lt. Gil Smith volunteered for night missions to seek and destroy a tanker reported to be moving along the eastern shore of Bougainville with 30 Zeros strapped on its deck. The tanker was not located but Stef found a destroyer, made a low-level attack, and got a direct hit on the ship. During a search north of Guadalcanal, Capt. Sharp’s plane encountered a four-engine Kawanishi Flying Boat, code name “Mavis.” Sharp’s turret gunner raked the Mavis with fire, but not before Sharp’s aircraft was hit in the right wing by cannon fire. A coast watcher later reported that the Mavis crashed off Santa Isabel Island, in the Solomons northwest of Guadalcanal.
On February 4 when the squadron was ordered back to Fiji, only two of the squadron’s six remaining B-26s were fit for combat. Later in the month the 69th Squadron turned all of their 26s over to the 70th bringing the inventory up to thirteen planes again. Gradually over a period of weeks starting in May, the 70th Squadron began receiving B-25s, and as the B-25s were received, the B-26s were transferred to the Fifth Air Force in Australia.
The 70th Bomb Squadron and the 69th Squadron were incorporated into the 42nd Bomb Group during the month of March 1943. After almost a year, the 70th had a parent Group Headquarters. The new Group and its 75th and 390th Bomb Squadrons arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia on 15 April to join the 13th Air Force along with the 69th and 70th.
By September 1943, after some 15-16 months in the South Pacific, most of the Air Echelon had rotated to the U.S. Essentially, all of the Ground Echelon stayed behind, however, serving additional months of duty on various islands in the Pacific involving movement to Guadalcanal, then to the Russell Islands, later to Stirling Island, and back to Guadalcanal before returning home.
This history is a greatly condensed version of my book, Bombs Away! published in 1998. Many of the lengthy narratives, diary entries and details of various events have either been reduced in size or omitted entirely.
Harold V. Larson Brig. General, USAF (Ret.) December 2004