Japanese Pilots Were Horrified When B 25 Eight Gun Noses Sawed Ships Apart

Japan Never Expected B-25 Eight-Gun Noses To Saw Ships Apart Eight machine guns. One mechanic who could not sleep. And fifteen minutes over the Bismarck Sea. SUMMARY This documentary tells the story of how modified American B-25 Mitchell bombers helped destroy a Japanese convoy in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. In March 1943, Rear Admiral Masatomi Kimura led eight transports and eight destroyers from Rabaul toward Lae, carrying nearly 6,900 soldiers of Japan’s 51st Division. He believed the sea still belonged to Japan. For over a year, American high-altitude bombers had struggled to hit moving ships, and Japanese officers trusted speed, anti-aircraft fire, and fighter cover to protect them. But in Australia, Major Paul “Pappy” Gunn had been changing the rules. At Eagle Farm Airfield near Brisbane, Gunn and his team ripped the bombardier’s compartment out of B-25s and packed the nose with eight forward-firing .50-caliber machine guns. These aircraft were no longer ordinary bombers. They were low-level strafers built to rake ships from bow to stern, suppress anti-aircraft crews, and clear the way for skip-bombing attacks. General George Kenney listened when others would not. William Benn developed the skip-bombing method. Ed Larner and the 90th Bombardment Squadron brought the tactic and the weapon together. On March 3, 1943, the Japanese convoy was attacked from multiple altitudes. B-17s drew the guns upward. Australian Beaufighters came in low and tore into bridges and gun crews. Then the B-25 strafers arrived at wave height. At 1,500 yards, eight guns opened fire. At 600 yards, the bombs skipped across the water. In minutes, transports burned, destroyers broke apart, and thousands of Japanese soldiers were thrown into the sea. The battle did not end the war in New Guinea in one day, but it changed the rules of the Pacific. Large Japanese transport convoys to Lae were stopped. Reinforcements would now move by submarine or barge, in numbers too small to save the campaign. This is the story of a mechanic’s grief, a general’s willingness to listen, and the day the B-25 became a saw. CHAPTERS 00:00 Fifteen Minutes in the Bismarck Sea 01:02 The Convoy Leaves Rabaul 02:56 Pappy Gunn at Eagle Farm 05:20 George Kenney Listens 06:47 Building the Eight-Gun B-25 08:16 William Benn and Skip-Bombing 10:11 Benn Disappears 10:44 Ed Larner Inherits the Weapon 11:18 The Convoy Is Detected 16:32 First Attack on March 2 19:04 Kenney’s Full Plan 20:52 Japanese Gunners Look Up 21:37 The Beaufighters Arrive 22:18 The Fatal Mistake 23:26 Ed Larner Attacks Shirayuki 25:38 John Henebry Attacks Teiyo Maru 27:35 The Killing Lasts Fifteen Minutes 28:32 Seven Transports Are Gone 31:20 The Survivors in the Water 33:37 Pappy Gunn Gets the News 34:20 Japan Changes Its Supply Strategy 36:10 The Long Death of Lae 39:14 The Strafer Becomes Standard 40:36 Pappy Gunn’s Family Is Freed 42:53 The Legacy of the B-25 Strafer 43:25 What the Bismarck Sea Cost Japan INSIDE THIS DOCUMENTARY ▸ How Pappy Gunn modified the B-25 Mitchell ▸ Why Japan underestimated low-level air attack ▸ How skip-bombing changed anti-shipping warfare ▸ Why Beaufighters and B-25s were so deadly together ▸ How the Bismarck Sea disaster crippled Japan’s New Guinea campaign ▸ Why the eight-gun B-25 became one of the most feared aircraft in the Pacific SOURCES & REFERENCES • Fifth Air Force Battle Reports • Battle of the Bismarck Sea Records • George Kenney Wartime Accounts • Paul “Pappy” Gunn Biographical Records • 90th Bombardment Squadron Reports • RAAF No. 30 Squadron Beaufighter Records • Japanese Convoy and 51st Division Records • New Guinea Campaign Histories #WorldWarII #WW2Documentary #B25Mitchell #BismarckSea #PacificWar