The Pittsburgh Press (March 6, 1942)
Fighter support lacking, bombers get out of Java
U.S. airmen who held off Japs for week retire to Australia as enemy pursuit planes gain superiority, make fields untenable
By Harold Guard, United Press staff writer
Melbourne, Australia –
U.S. heavy bomber squadrons were removed from the island of Java last weekend by American airmen because lack of fighter protection made it impossible to continue the punishing blows they had dealt the Japanese throughout the East Indies campaign.
The Japanese, smashing into Allied defenses as I left Java aboard a warplane, were apparently making every effort to speed up conquest of Dutch territory in order to concentrate their offensive strength in the south – toward Australia – before the Allies can complete mobilization of their fighting power here.
These are the outstanding impressions I carried from Java after weeks of reporting day-by-day advances of enemy forces down the Malay Peninsula and across the rich Dutch Indies.
The U.S. Air Force, based at secret airdromes cleverly hidden in the Java mountains, fought magnificently. American pilots checked the Japanese invasion for at least a week by battering attacks on the enemy at sea and on land.
But gradually, the enemy’s numerical superiority in fighter planes made itself felt. It was understood that a number of U.S. planes were destroyed on the ground late last week when they were sorely needed and that fighter plane reinforcements had not arrived as expected.
That was why it was necessary to remove some U.S. airplanes from the area to avoid being picked off on the ground by the machine guns of enemy fighter planes.
Men of the Air Force did not hide their anger over conditions which made it necessary for them to leave when they were badly needed, but even on the afternoon of our departure, the Japanese dropped calling cards [bombs] in the center of the field where a number of U.S. planes were momentarily expected to arrive.
Java’s trouble was the same as Malaya’s. There were numbers of RAF fliers as well as American pilots in Java when I left, but they had nothing to fly. They had hammered the enemy relentlessly but they could not go on indefinitely without reinforcements.
Anti-aircraft protection too weak to save planes
The cost of operating heavy bombers without adequate fighter protection had become obvious to anybody. Even the anti-aircraft protection in Java – sometimes less effective than it had been in Malaya – was not sufficient to prevent the eventual loss of the big ships if they were left on the island.
I left Djokja, in southwest Java, on Sunday in my second retirement before Japanese troops.
NOTE: Mr. Guard left Singapore last month on a ship that was heavily bombed from the air as the Japanese closed in on that city.
I visited Allied headquarters earlier but found that the High Command had been removed to India where “the war might be prosecuted” generally with greater effectiveness.
A U.S. consul, formerly at Singapore, was advising all Americans to leave at once. Most of the press corps decided to leave for the south coast, but some correspondents, including W. H. McDougall of the United Press, remained in Java.
We made the trip from Bandoeng in an ancient, protesting jalopy, with a Javanese driver named George, who seemed always to be lost in the pitch-black darkness.
We got to an airfield just in time to fling out bags aboard a departing heavy bomber. The American pilots all bewailed the conditions that made it necessary for them to leave. But as we waited at the field, more bombers arrived under orders to leave Java as soon as circumstances permitted.
Bombers take to air to avoid destruction on the ground
It was during the afternoon that Japanese bombers found our airdrome and dropped bombs in the center of the runway.
Late in the evening, the opportunity arrived to leave the sun-scorched red-sand desert that served as a runway. I talked with two bomber pilots who had been through much of the aerial fighting in the East Indies.
They told how bombers were taken into the air from Java bases merely to avoid destruction as Japanese warplanes approached. Some of them flew around until they found a Japanese ship or another target and bombed it.
One pilot told me that he bombed a Japanese armada that had so many transports it “stretched to the horizon.”
Upon arrival in Australia, I found airmen at desert posts who hadn’t seen a cigarette for weeks. Fortunately, I had some to give them.
There is an atmosphere of war everywhere in Australia. The people acutely realize they lost many good fighting men in Malaya, but recruiting is progressing rapidly and extensive defense measures are being taken.
Time after time, people have asked me about the Malaya and Java campaigns in great detail and wanted to know how long the Dutch could hold out in the Java mountains.
I could only reply that the Dutch are confident of their ability to hold out, but on the basis of Malaya, I believe the lack of air support will be a terrible handicap.