WELCOME
40th FIGHTER /
FLIGHT TEST SQUADRON ASSOCIATION

July 4th and 5th had been more eventful than usual for the pilots of the 35th Fighter Group stationed at Port Moresby. Several small scale night attacks were made by Japanese bombers early in the morning of July 4 which caused no damage but ruined everyone's sleep. Independence Day for the Americans began with a fighter sweep by their counterparts, the Zero pilots of the Tainan Kokutai based at Lae. The Cobras of the 39th squadron were hit hard in combat with twenty Zeros over 12 Mile Field. Three U.S. fighters were shot down but all of the pilots bailed out successfully and soon returned uninjured. Later that morning and throughout the rest of the afternoon Lae would be subject to three waves of attacks by U.S. B-17, B-26 and B-25 bombers which tore up the runway and burned several Zero fighters on the ground.

The next day, July 5, two flights of 40th squadron fighters departed for Cape Waria to provide escort for B-26's returning from an attack on Salamaua. At 1006 20 Betty bombers escorted by Zeros appeared over Seven Mile and bombed the dispersal area, hitting several planes. Paul Gambonini wrote in his diary, "A raid by 20 Japanese bombers hit our field - hit 2 B-26s, burned up one P-39 (mine) [P-400 no 61], one car and about 5000 gal. of gasoline." No U.S. fighters were able to intercept the Japanese strike which departed unscathed except for some minor damage from the 3.7" Australian anti-aircraft guns.

On the morning of July 6 the alert was sounded at 0902 with the report of twenty Japanese bombers heading towards Port Moresby. This would be the 69th raid on Port Moresby since the beginning of the war. In six minutes seventeen Airacobras of the 39th and 40th Squadrons took off from 7 Mile and 12 Mile fields and began climbing. Before they could reach sufficient altitude the Betty bombers arrived overhead at 0920 with an escort of ten Zero fighters. During a second pass they dropped their bombs along the ridge overlooking the dispersal bays at Seven Mile. A small bomb dump was destroyed but there were no casualties. The only opposition that the Japanese strike faced over Port Moresby was the Australian AA brigade which engaged the bombers during both passes but reported no hits.

As the Japanese planes headed home the decision was made at some command level that the retiring bombers would be pursued beyond the vicinity of Port Moresby. This action was unlike previous interception doctrine and was probably influenced by the uncontested attack of the previous day. While eight 35th FG planes stayed over Moresby, eight 40th Squadron P-39's and P-400's (C/O Capt Egenes, Lts. Gignac, Kirtland, Shroeder, Shriver, Stephens, Trout and Welker) and one 39th Squadron plane doggedly pursued the retiring Japanese force over the Kokoda mountains before catching up with eighteen of the bombers on the opposite coast near Buna. The Type 1 Betty bombers were flying at 21,000 feet with six Zeros providing escort, three above and three to the rear. The Red Devil pilots apparently caught the Japanese fighters unaware as they managed to make their attacks on the bombers before the Zero pilots could engage them. Numerous Bettys were hit and one was seen to emit smoke but all kept formation before entering a cloud bank. Thereafter a brief combat ensued between the Zeros and the Airacobras. The spotter's station at Ambasi [north of Buna] reported, "... dog fight seen N.W. of Ambasi at 1010K/6. 18 twin engined bombers were seen to emerge from clouds after 10 minutes of cannon and M.G. fire."

Upon regrouping for the flight back to Moresby it was realized that Lt. Welker was missing but apparently no one saw what happened to him. When the 40th pilots reached the Kokoda Pass they inadvertently encountered the remainder of that morning's strike force, consisting of four Zeros covering a single bomber which had developed engine trouble. Flying at a height of 11,000 feet four of the 40th pilots were ambushed by the Zeros which made diving attacks at them. Capt Egenes wrote in his report, "4 Zeros were over Kokoda Pass, and attacked us on the way home. We were barely able to outspeed them at 10,000 feet. We were indicating 350 m.p.h. in a very slight dive. Their probable speed about 340." The eight remaining fighters returned safely to home with the last plane landing at 1055. Japanese records state that fifteen of the bombers suffered damage with one crewman killed and four wounded. The Zero pilots claimed three U.S. fighters shot down and one probable for no losses.

While Lt. Welker's fate was unknown to his squadron mates his combat with three Zeros was witnessed by several groups of people along the coast at Ambasi, Buna and the residents of the Anglican Missionary station at Gona. The Reverend James Benson lived there with two Mission "Sisters", teacher Mavis Parkinson and nurse May Hayman. Benson would later write,

"I remember with special clarity one other incident before the coming of the deluge. It was early in June [July], and about eleven o'clock in the morning. The children were out in the playing-field and I was just going across to bring them in when an American fighter flew low overhead heading towards Buna. I watched him until he was almost out of sight; I saw the pilot was heading for another plane far out to sea; I saw them circling, and heard the distant rattle of gunfire; then two other planes came diving out of the cloud, and the American returned on fire and losing height. He came over the palm trees just above our heads: I think perhaps he was trying to land on the playing-field. Miss Parkinson apparently thought so, too, for she called the children off. But it was all over in a flash. I saw something white fall from the plane, then trees blocked my vision."

Welker apparently attempted a last minute bailout. Benson estimated that he had jumped at about 200 feet but that the parachute had only partly opened. His broken body was found by the two sisters at the foot of a tulip tree along the southern side of the church. Benson saw his plane explode in flames near a creek just beyond the mission compound. "While the two Sisters carried the body of the pilot into the church, I rushed towards the creek, but I saw at once that the plane was a single-seater [and there were no other crew members] and there was nothing I could do."

Later in the day Benson collected Welker's papers and id tag and wrote a description of what he had witnessed, sending all to Allan Champion who was the Resident Magistrate for the Buna area. Champion radioed the news of Welker's death to Port Moresby and it was received by the 40th Squadron at 1715. Champion also forward the identity disc and papers to Port Moresby and sent one of his men to Gona to see if anything from the plane could be salvaged.

Benson recalled that later that day, "... we buried [him] in our little cemetery overlooking the sea and the mountains; and that evening I wrote to his father. I told him all we had seen, and what we had done." The letter was sent to Kokoda in the morning with the government mail. Natives from near Buna visited Benson on the 7th and told him that "...they had seen the fight clearly, and that the American was attacked by three Japanese."

Based on Benson's description it would appear that Lt. Welker pursued one Zero out over the sea but was then attacked from above by two other Tainan fighters who hit his plane and set it on fire.

Two weeks later on the afternoon of July 21 Rev. Benson and the two sisters were shocked to see Japanese invasion forces anchoring off the coast. They made a hurried departure and the Mission station was soon occupied by the Japanese. The church, school and homes were occupied while supplies were cached on the grounds and A/A positions established. During the next few weeks the compound would be targeted by US and RAAF planes and bombed heavily. Gona would not be recaptured by Australian forces until early 1943.

Benson, Hayman and Parkinson began a long odyssey to try and reach safety in the face of the rapid Japanese advance. After four weeks of intermittent hiding and flight Benson became separated from the group during a Japanese ambush. All three were subsequently captured and the two sisters were executed, a fate common to most soldiers, airmen and missionaries who fell into Japanese hands during the Buna campaign. However, Rev. Benson was sent to Rabaul where he spent the rest of the war as a POW.

After the end of hostilities Benson returned to Gona to rebuild the mission station. On September 12, 1946 he was visited by RAAF Sqdn/ Ldr Keith Rundle who was charged with investigating missing U.S. and Australian air crews in the Buna area. The burnt out wreckage of Welker's P-400 Airacobra (AP-377 - no. '66') was still where it had crashed but no trace of his grave could be found. Rundle reported that it was likely that it had been destroyed in the bombing of the Gona Mission. During a stay in England Benson would write his memoirs which were published in 1957 as "Prisoner's Base and Home Again." He included many accounts of the war as he witnessed it including the account of what happened on July 6 to a young 40th Squadron pilot.