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
accomplished by bomber effort.’” Beginning that night, Allied naval
forces made their bid to break up the invasion effort only to suffer
one of the more serious defeats of the war.’02 Enemy landings on the
northern coast of Java were under way by the night of 28 February,
and early on the following morning, I March, the last air mission of
any importance from Java bases was carried out when all available
pursuit planes-nine P-~o’s,six Hurricanes, and four Brewsters-were
thrown against one of the landings. In the face of heavy antiaircraft
fire, the planes attacked at low level to sink several small boats and to
strafe AA batteries on shore, but the enemy took his toll. Lt. Morris
C. Caldwell crashed into the sea; Lt. Cornelius Reagan was last seen
in an apparently vain attempt to land his blazing P-40; another P-40
went down after its pilot had succeeded in bailing out; and of the
surviving planes, all sustained varying degrees of damage.Io3 Then,
before any of the American planes could be made ready for a return
to the air, Japanese fighters swept over the Ngoro field, which here-
tofore had escaped the enemy’s attention, and riddled with machine-
gun fire all the remaining P-40’s. Thus ended on I March the opera-
tions of the 17th Pursuit, whose surviving personnel now joined the
hurried and confused effort to evacuate Java while there was yet
time.Io4
All of the American pursuit planes which reached Java, except
those aboard the Sea Witch, literally had been used up or had been
destroyed by the enemy. The twenty-seven crated P-40’s brought in
by the Sea Witch had reached Java a t the height of the confusion
immediately preceding the invasion, but time did not permit their
being assembled. They were finally shoved into the water to prevent
their capture by the enemy.Io5 The P-40’s aboard the Langley had
gone down with that gallant ship on 2 7 February. As it approached
Java, two American destroyers, the Edsall and W h i p p l e , had joined
it to serve as escort early in the morning of the 27th. At approxi-
mately 0900 an enemy aircraft came over, and before noon nine twin-
engine bombers with fighter escort attacked the three vessels. On the
third bombing run the Langley received five direct hits and three near
misses, and soon sank. Though two of the P-40 pilots were injured,
none were killed. T h e survivors having been picked up by the de-
stroyers, the wounded pilots were subsequently transferred to the
tanker Pecos, which then headed for Fremantle with a total of ap-
proximately 670 men. It was hardly under way, however, when
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