Target: Rabaul Read Online Free PDF

Kenney his undivided attention for an hour. The opportunity was beyond Kenney’s wildest hopes. Roosevelt asked for a detailed briefing on SOWESPAC, which Kenney enthusiastically provided—emphasizing the crucial, still-evolving role of air power. He found the president easy to talk to, and “surprisingly familiar with the geography of that part of the world.” When Kenney finished, Roosevelt smiled and pointed to a tablet, saying: “Write down on this pad what you need. Be reasonable about it, and I’ll see what I can do, even if I have to argue with the whole British Empire about it.”
    Kenney left the meeting hugely impressed. “The Roosevelt charm is no myth,” he wrote. “I believe he is going to get me some airplanes.”
    Kenney was right. A few days later, Roosevelt called Arnold into the Oval Office for a discussion. Of equal importance, Kenney was featured on the March 22 front cover of Life , America’s most popular weekly magazine. Henry Luce, the magazine’s editor, described Kenney as “one of the great aerial tacticians of the war … successful in the South Pacific in spite of a relatively small number of planes.” That same day, Arnold sent for Kenney and informed him that he had “squeezed everything dry” to give SOWESPAC more planes. The Fifth Air Force would get another heavy bomb group, two medium bomb groups, two fighter groups, a new troop carrier group, and assorted “odds and ends.” Justifiably proud, Kenney gave a nod to his Pacific theater rivals. “SOPAC will have to get some aircraft too to keep peace in the family,” he noted, “but I’m supposed to get the real increase.”
    Although Kenney expected to see the Fifth Air Force grow by five hundred aircraft, the challenge would be integrating mismatched types. For example, one promised fighter group was equipped with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, a massive single-engine aircraft that, according to Kenney, “no one else wanted.” The other unit flew the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, a twin-engine fighter that Kenney was much more familiar with. The two aircraft used completely different engines and had no structural parts in common; therefore, spare parts and maintenance could not be shared. But Kenney was a realist. Having put so much effort into acquiring whatever he could get, he jumped at the chance to take the P-47 outfit, the 348th Fighter Group, off someone else’s hands.
    On March 25, Kenney was back in the White House, this time for a solemn event. Two months earlier, Brig. Gen. Kenneth N. Walker had participated in a daylight bombing raid on Rabaul, despite Kenney’s repeated orders to stop flying combat missions. The head of V Bomber Command, Walker had further risked censure by altering Kenney’s strike plan from a dawn attack to a daylight raid. Kenney was infuriated to learn that his subordinate had violated two separate orders, and subsequently informed MacArthur that he was not only going to reprimand Walker, but suspend him for a couple of weeks. Then came word that Walker’s B-17 had not returned from the mission. After an exhaustive search turned up no sign of the bomber or its crew, the focus on Walker shifted from punishment to appreciation. MacArthur recommended him for a Medal of Honor, which Congress approved on March 11. Two weeks later, Kenney attended the ceremony in the Oval Office and watched Roosevelt give the medal posthumously to Walker’s oldest son. Impressed with the president’s sincerity and kindness in putting the teenager at ease, Kenney noted in his diary that “FDR really did a swell job.”
    After the presentation, Roosevelt asked Kenney to stay behind. He was eager to know whether Kenney was satisfied with the proposed aircraft arrangement. Kenney answered truthfully that he’d always want additional planes, even if he “got a million more.” Careful not to sound ungrateful, Kenney reassured the president that he was pleased about the planes he’d been promised. Chuckling at