Us Official Photographs

B24 Liberators attack Tarakan Island

Pioneering the attack route to another principal source of Japan's petroleum supply, a strong force of Consolidated B-24 Liberators from the 13th Air Force attacked Tarakan Island, Borneo, 18 Nov 44. The Liberators, veterans of Balikpapan, the "Ploesti of the Pacific"--dumped more than 100 tons of explosives and incendiaries with results described as "excellent". Explosions were followed by fires that enveloped the island with black smoke rising 15,000 feet. This Liberator was photographed passing over the burning oil tanks, whose destruction will hamper still further Japan's strangling sea traffic to the Philippines. Tarakan, with two important fields was occupied in Jan 42, the first Netherland East Indies oil producing center to fall to the Japs.