From the 382nd Squadron History by Capt Frank White (AFHRA):

Another visit was made to Truk on May 11th [1944] by eleven of our bombers. The airfields at Moen, Param, and Eten Islands were attacked by thirty-three two thousand pound block-busters with telling effect. As many as twelve searchlights were in operation on this night and one of our planes A/P #988 ["Bombs Lullaby"], experienced interception by Jap night fighters, one of which was shot down by the tail gunner, Sergeant Daniel J. Keyes. The following account was related to the Intelligence Office [Capt Frank White] by the co-pilot [Lt. Chester "Clem" W. Clafin] upon their return to base.

"As we crossed the reef going to the target, I saw an unidentified plane on our right and about 1000 feet above us. Our altitude was eleven thousand feet. I called it over the interphone and the top turret gunner saw it too, and fired a short burst at it whereupon it broke off the attack, peeled off and went under us. During this time we were doing violent evasive action consisting of dives, turns, slips and skids. By this time we were over the target, and when we leveled off for our bombing run, we were immediately caught in the beams of four or five searchlights. Very intense A/A was also experienced. We dropped our bombs on the target and headed east, resuming evasive tactics, the searchlights still held us, despite the evasive action employed, and kept us illuminated for the next five minutes. The searchlights went out and we saw a Betty was seen above us at about one thousand feet. By this time we had dropped down to five thousand feet. The Betty dropped four phosphorous bombs, and the fact that at the moment we were making a sharp turn to the right was the only thing that prevented the bombs from hitting us as they burst right at our altitude. Shortly after this incident the tail gunner saw the outlines of a single engine plane coming at him from six o'clock at our altitude, with orange jets of flame spurting from the leading edge of its wings. The tail gunner drew a bead right between the orange jects and fired a long burst. The enemy fighter then swerved suddenly to the left and down, and then exploded in a blinding sheet of flame. During the following thirty minutes, we were followed by a twin-engined plane that looked like a Betty below us, and two smaller planes presumed to be fighters off to our right, all out of range of our guns. These planes finally left and made no other attacks."

All, planes returned to base, and except for three or four bullet holes in the intercepted A/P # 988, no damage to our B-24's.

Record	Events	Title	Source Website	Type	Created	Actions
Balser, Ralph E	Casualty, Military Service, Other, People	US, WWII Army and Army Air Force Casualty List, 1946	Fold3	Child Record	Oct 23, 2013
Chester W Claflin			Fold3	Memorial	Oct 31, 2013

Ralph E Balser

Source Documents