Everyone Thought He Was Trapped — Until He Turned the Ambush Into a Massacre скачать в хорошем качестве

Everyone Thought He Was Trapped — Until He Turned the Ambush Into a Massacre

The morning sun hung low over New Guinea on April 7th, 1943, casting long shadows across the primitive airstrip at Port Moresby. Captain Richard Thomas “Duke” Sinclair stood beside his P-38 Lightning fighter, watching the mechanics perform final checks on the twin engines while mentally preparing himself for what would be his sixty-third combat mission in the Pacific theater. The Lightning was a distinctive aircraft, its twin booms and central nacelle giving it an unmistakable silhouette that Japanese pilots had learned to fear and respect. It was fast, heavily armed with four fifty-caliber machine guns and a twenty-millimeter cannon, and it had the range to escort bombers deep into Japanese-held territory. But it was also complex, requiring skilled piloting to exploit its advantages, and unforgiving of mistakes. Sinclair was twenty-seven years old, a professional pilot who had been flying since he was sixteen and had accumulated over four thousand hours of flight time before the war even started. He had twenty-two confirmed kills, making him one of the leading American aces in the Pacific, and he had earned a reputation as a pilot who could handle situations that would kill less experienced aviators. His squadron mates called him “Duke” because of his calm, almost aristocratic demeanor under pressure, the way he could face the most desperate tactical situations without apparent fear or panic. Some thought the nickname was a compliment. Others thought it was mildly mocking, suggesting that Sinclair’s carefully controlled exterior hid a lack of the aggressive fire that characterized the best fighter pilots. Sinclair didn’t care what they thought. He knew his own capabilities, knew that his survival through sixty-two previous missions was not luck but the result of careful planning, tactical awareness, and ice-cold execution under pressure. Today’s mission was straightforward in concept but dangerous in execution: escort a formation of B-25 Mitchell bombers to attack Japanese shipping at Rabaul, the major enemy base on New Britain. Rabaul was one of the most heavily defended targets in the Pacific, protected by hundreds of anti-aircraft guns and dozens of Zero fighters flown by experienced pilots. Going to Rabaul was always dangerous. Going there with a small escort force was close to suicidal.