Skip Bombing

by James T. Murphy

Overview

Murphy was one of a very small number of volunteer pilots who, with their flight crews, started bombing at low altitudes in B-17 flying fortresses in the Southwest Pacific. The aircraft were flown at a 200-foot altitude and at 250 miles per hour at night. One-thousand pound bombs, equipped with four-to-five second fuses, were dropped from the B-17s. On March 3, 1943, the Japanese made a desperate move to re-supply their forces on New Guinea. Twenty-two cargo, transport, and war ships proceeded toward New Guinea using bad weather for cover. They were found in the Bismarck Sea. The Allied Air Forces—using skip bombing—sank all twenty-two Japanese ships. Murphy was credited with sinking nine Japanese ships during his year of combat, including one in the Bismarck Sea battle. Skip bombing became a tactic that helped the U.S. win the war in the South Pacific.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275945404
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/24/1993
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

JAMES T. MURPHY retired from the United States Air Force as a Lt. Colonel in 1965. He served with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama from 1965 to 1982. He was deputy manager of the Saturban V Program initially, then Director of Program Development for over ten years and Director of Administration and Program support when he retired.

Table of Contents

Prologue
Photographs
Maps
Illustrations
Introduction
July to September 1942
September to October 1942
October 1942
October to November 1942
November to December 1942
January to March 1943
Battle of the Bismarck Sea, March 1943
March to April 1943
April to May 1943
May to June 1943
Index