Us Official Photographs
Japan's merchant marine under attack
THE ENEMY'S BEST: Three of the most effective units of Japan's merchant marine are shown under attack in this series of photographs. At left is a 3,800-ton freighter-transport (32). In the upper picture, a near miss explodes to starboard and in the lower photograph, the geysers and smoke of a second bomb obscure the ship. At right is a 10,000-ton tanker (31) of the Nippon Maru class, one of the largest of the foe's fleet tankers. In the background (30) is the 8,500-ton tanker Naruto. The 8,000 to 10,000-ton vessel is regarded as the enemy's most effective merchant marine weapon for the supply of outlying bases, combining speed, long range, and large cargo capacity. We saw a large, undamaged freighter transport directly in our line of flight. We had begun violent evasive action immediately after entering the harbor and now we dropped lower, all the time skidding violently. It was my idea that the ack ack on the ships was firing over us because we were so low and they must endanger their own vessels if they aimed directly at us. I could not strafe this vessel, but straightened out just before reaching it and, at my signal, the co-pilot dropped two one-thousand pound bombs, the second by accident. The first hit squarely into the ship at the waterline (confirmed by my wingman) while the second bomb skipped over and exploded just beyond the transport. The vessel was later beached according to photographic reconnaissance made of the harbor. (From narrative report by Capt Harvey Minor, 13th Attack Squadron.) THE ENEMY IN ACTION: A graphic illustration of the concentration of Japanese anti-aircraft assembled against any air invading force is shown in these two photographs. Over the shore line may be seen bursts of anti-aircraft fire accentuated by the white clouds which form a persistent veil around Rabaul. This fire, probably directed from the north and northwest shores of the harbor was calculated to strike the neutralizing bomber force which escaped over the southern ran
