T H E A R M Y A I R F O R C E S I N W O R L D W A R I 1
February-made it possible to send some of the B - I ~ D ' sof the 19th
Group down to Australia for a depot overhaul. The imminent arrival
of ground crews of the 7th Group also helped to make possible the
occupation of a new base at Jogjakarta, 150 miles west of Malang.
Preparations at the field, occupation of which would eliminate a dan-
gerous concentration of all American bombers a t one base, were near
enough completion to permit reception of the first of the 7 t h ' ~ground
crews there on z I January.42Thereafter, the 7th Group officially was
based at Jogjakarta while the 19th remained a t Malang.
But as the Japanese pressed forward the Americans were given no
opportunity to get set. The main body of the enemy's Second Fleet
had moved out from Formosa en route to Palau, where it joined ele-
ments of the carrier force which struck Pearl Harbor on 7 December.
The z 1st Air Flotilla was moving forward to bases in Celebes, and the
increasing tempo of enemy air attack carried its warning of an
intended advance through Makassar Strait and the
At the same time, the Japanese sought an eastern anchor for their
advancing lines a t Rabaul in New Britain. On 2 0 January more than
I O O carrier-based planes struck at Rabaul, and others promptly hit
Kavieng in New Ireland. The attacks were repeated the following
day. T o oppose these assaults the Australians had scarcely a half-dozen
virtually unarmed Wirraways, an observation plane of slow speed and
thin armor. In actions which testified chiefly to the valor of the Aus-
tralian airman, these Wirraways were quickly destroyed. A few Hud-
son bombers escaped from the Vunakanau airfield, a t Rabaul, in
advance of a Japanese landing on 2 3 January which promptly overran
the weak defenses of the town. Most of the Australians standing guard
there were captured or killed, and those who escaped did so by taking
to the jungle. Simultaneously, Kavieng was also occupied. By the end
of the month, enemy land-based bombers and fighters, along with a
unit of float planes, had taken up their base in the Bismarck Archi-
pelago.""
Above Java the Japanese met stronger, though hardly effective,
resistance. O n 24 January four American destroyers created momen-
tary havoc among transports landing enemy troops off Balikpapan,
sinking at least four of them, but the Japanese had won the place by
2 5 AAF bombers struck at enemy shipping, too, and a t
widely separated points. Between z z January and 3 February, exclud-
ing reconnaissance flights, a t least fifteen missions representing eighty-
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