two hundred miles down the island’s southern coast to Gasmata, known to the Japanese as Surumi. The village boasted a grass airstrip, used previously as a refueling stop by the RAAF, and on February 9 a unit of Special Naval Landing Forces went ashore and secured the site. Engineers of the 7th Establishment Squad immediately began making improvements to the field. Working quickly, they developed a forward base with a runway some 3,600 feet long and 100 feet wide.
The purpose for building the advance base was later explained by a naval correspondent: “Although the Surumi airfield … was capable of accommodating only a small number of fighters or serving as an emergency landing strip for land attack planes, it was highly important as a relay air base to the Port Moresby, Lae, and Salamaua areas.” Unmentioned by the Japanese was the defensive element provided by the forward base, which enabled Imperial Navy fighters to patrol the skies over central New Britain and intercept Allied attackers well south of Rabaul.
FLYING OFFICER GEOFF LEMPRIERE, 24 Squadron’s intelligence officer, was one of those individuals whose luck vacillated between fortune and misfortune. Remaining in Rabaul on January 22 in order to destroy classified documents, he missed the squadron’s evacuation. Then, after joining up with a band of Lark Force soldiers attempting to escape south along the coast, he was slowed by a random injury to his leg that developed into a badly infected ulcer. The party he was traveling with “borrowed” a small boat from a Catholic mission in the hopes of sailing to New Guinea, but they blundered into the harbor at Gasmata on the night of February 9 and were captured. This, however, turned out to be advantageous for Lempriere, whose infected leg would likely have become gangrenous if left untreated. Instead, a Japanese doctor at Gasmata provided expert medical attention—and probably saved his life.
More ironies followed. While Lempriere underwent treatment on the afternoon of February 11, three RAAF Hudsons attacked the transports being unloaded in the harbor. The mission was led by John Lerew, who of course had no inkling that his former squadron mate was literally right under his nose.
As luck would have it, the first A5M4 fighters assigned to the newly acquired base arrived from Rabaul at that very moment. An hour andtwenty minutes earlier, FPO 1st Class Satoshi Yoshino had led four of the open-cockpit fighters from Lakunai airdrome. As they approached Gasmata, Yoshino was alerted by radio that enemy bombers were attacking. His fighters were in a perfect position to strike.
For Lerew, descending to mast height to attack one of the transports, the timing could not have been worse. In a flash, Yoshino hit the Hudson in both engines. The right engine and wing caught fire, but Lerew continued his attack, releasing his bombs at an altitude of only twenty feet. He pulled up sharply, maintaining control of the burning plane long enough for the other three crewmembers to move toward the rear escape hatch. Just as the Hudson’s right wing separated and the doomed plane nosed over, Lerew squirmed out of the cockpit side window and parachuted to the jungle below.
Yoshino, having fatally damaged Lerew’s aircraft, next went after the Hudson piloted by Flg. Off. Graham I. Gibson. This plane also crashed, diving at a steep angle directly into a hillside. The Japanese claimed to have shot down the third Hudson as well, but Flt. Lt. William A. Pedrina and his crew managed to escape. The Aussie airmen fought hard and were officially credited with shooting down one fighter and probably destroying another, though only one Mitsubishi was actually hit, with total damage amounting to six bullet holes. After ensuring that the sky was clear of Australian bombers, Yoshino and the rest of his flight landed safely at Gasmata.
Lerew, meanwhile, survived his adventurous parachute descent into the dense jungles of New Britain and
The purpose for building the advance base was later explained by a naval correspondent: “Although the Surumi airfield … was capable of accommodating only a small number of fighters or serving as an emergency landing strip for land attack planes, it was highly important as a relay air base to the Port Moresby, Lae, and Salamaua areas.” Unmentioned by the Japanese was the defensive element provided by the forward base, which enabled Imperial Navy fighters to patrol the skies over central New Britain and intercept Allied attackers well south of Rabaul.
FLYING OFFICER GEOFF LEMPRIERE, 24 Squadron’s intelligence officer, was one of those individuals whose luck vacillated between fortune and misfortune. Remaining in Rabaul on January 22 in order to destroy classified documents, he missed the squadron’s evacuation. Then, after joining up with a band of Lark Force soldiers attempting to escape south along the coast, he was slowed by a random injury to his leg that developed into a badly infected ulcer. The party he was traveling with “borrowed” a small boat from a Catholic mission in the hopes of sailing to New Guinea, but they blundered into the harbor at Gasmata on the night of February 9 and were captured. This, however, turned out to be advantageous for Lempriere, whose infected leg would likely have become gangrenous if left untreated. Instead, a Japanese doctor at Gasmata provided expert medical attention—and probably saved his life.
More ironies followed. While Lempriere underwent treatment on the afternoon of February 11, three RAAF Hudsons attacked the transports being unloaded in the harbor. The mission was led by John Lerew, who of course had no inkling that his former squadron mate was literally right under his nose.
As luck would have it, the first A5M4 fighters assigned to the newly acquired base arrived from Rabaul at that very moment. An hour andtwenty minutes earlier, FPO 1st Class Satoshi Yoshino had led four of the open-cockpit fighters from Lakunai airdrome. As they approached Gasmata, Yoshino was alerted by radio that enemy bombers were attacking. His fighters were in a perfect position to strike.
For Lerew, descending to mast height to attack one of the transports, the timing could not have been worse. In a flash, Yoshino hit the Hudson in both engines. The right engine and wing caught fire, but Lerew continued his attack, releasing his bombs at an altitude of only twenty feet. He pulled up sharply, maintaining control of the burning plane long enough for the other three crewmembers to move toward the rear escape hatch. Just as the Hudson’s right wing separated and the doomed plane nosed over, Lerew squirmed out of the cockpit side window and parachuted to the jungle below.
Yoshino, having fatally damaged Lerew’s aircraft, next went after the Hudson piloted by Flg. Off. Graham I. Gibson. This plane also crashed, diving at a steep angle directly into a hillside. The Japanese claimed to have shot down the third Hudson as well, but Flt. Lt. William A. Pedrina and his crew managed to escape. The Aussie airmen fought hard and were officially credited with shooting down one fighter and probably destroying another, though only one Mitsubishi was actually hit, with total damage amounting to six bullet holes. After ensuring that the sky was clear of Australian bombers, Yoshino and the rest of his flight landed safely at Gasmata.
Lerew, meanwhile, survived his adventurous parachute descent into the dense jungles of New Britain and
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