General Kenney was the commander of the 5th Air Force in the SWPA threater. He maintained a daily log which became the basis for his book published in 1949, titled General Kenney Reports. Kenny is viewed today as one of the greatest combat aviation innovators of his era.
From "General Kenney Reports"; April-May 1943. Kenney reports on the first encounter with Japanese fighters by RAAF Spitfire pilots, transferred to Darwin from Britain.
"The Australian fighter and bomber squadrons were slightly worse off than those of the Fifth Air Force. Two squadrons of Spitfire fighters, flown by Australian pilots trained in England, had arrived and were going into action at Darwin. They were a grand lot of lads but I was afraid they were in for a rude awakening. They had already hinted that with the Spitfire they would show us how to shoot down Jap airplanes the way it should be done. They were obsessed with the maneuverability of the Spitfire and had been trained in the maneuver type of combat, or “dogfighting.” That was all right in Europe as the Spitfire would outmaneuver anything the Germans had, but it was not good in the Pacific war, where the light Jap fighter outmaneuvered everything we had. I told Bladen, the Darwin commander, to warn them, but I was afraid those cocky rascals would do as they pleased until they learned the same lessons the rest of the fighter crowd
have had to learn-the hard way.
On May 2nd, twenty-one Jap bombers escorted by thirty fighters made a raid on Darwin. The Aussies intercepted with thirty-two Spitfires and knocked down five Jap fighters and one bomber. We lost thirteen Spitfires, seven of which were shot down; three landed at sea from engine failure; and three chased the Japs too far to sea and had to land in the water when they ran out of gas. Just what I had feared had happened. The Aussies had tried to outmaneuver the Nip fighters in the air. It couldn’t be done, even with the highly maneuverable Spitfire.
I sent Bostock to Darwin to talk with the kids and tell them that, if they didn’t stop that dogfighting business, I’d send them to New Guinea to serve with the Americans and learn how to fight a Jap properly. The Aussies who had been fighting the Nips for the past year or so were all sore at the Spit crowd for not taking advice. I guess they had to learn the hard way. We Americans haven’t much to say along this line, either. We hate to take advice from anyone else and seldom do."
My regards,
Widewing
