The fighter plane used by the USAAF 49th to counter the Japanese menace was the P-40 Warhawk.
Among the most harrowing sacrifices endured by “The Land Down Under” during that hellacious war was the 1942 Imperial Japanese raid on the port city of Darwin. As my National Interest colleague Peter Suciu put it in a January 29, 2022, article titled “During World War II, Australia Faced Its Own ‘Pearl Harbor,’” “the raid was a devastating blow and was the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia.”
What is sometimes lost in the pages of history is the fact that it wasn’t just the Aussies themselves who contributed to the defense of Darwin. A U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) fighter pilot unit made its impact therein as well, which we shall now discuss.
The USAAF 49th Fighter Group
The inspiration for this article by the Military Aviation History channel on MSN, in a video on or about March 24, 2025, titled “A Forgotten Campaign | USAAF 49th Fighter Group over Darwin.” As noted by the text blurb accompanying the video:
“The USAAF 49th Fighter Group provided Darwin with its only fighter defence from March to September 1942 against fast and well-armed Mitsubishi G4M ‘Betty’ bombers escorted by Mitsubishi A6M ‘Zero’ fighters.”
The group was commanded by then-Lt. Col. (eventual maj. gen.) Paul Bernard Wurtsmith. The fighter plane used by the 49th to counter the Japanese menace was the P-40 Warhawk, the plane made most famous by the American Volunteer Group (AVG), aka the Flying Tigers. The P-40 was inferior to the Zero in terms of speed and maneuverability but could withstand a lot more punishment thanks to its combination of armor and self-sealing fuel tanks, which improved its pilots’ chances of living to fight another day. By contrast, both the Betty and the Zero lacked these features, which gave them a rather distressing tendency to light up like a tinderbox when hit with a solid burst of machine gun fire; indeed, the Betty’s own crews nicknamed it the Hamaki (“Cigar”) due to its inflammability.
Results Attained by the USAAF 49th
According to video narrator Brian Weston:
“Over the period March to August 1942, Japanese records revealed 19 Japanese aircraft were lost in the raids on Darwin. Losses comprised 1 reconnaissance aircraft, 7 fighters, and 12 bombers, plus several more damaged. In turn, the 49th Fighter Group lost 19 fighters including four pilots, with another 8 pilots lost in non-combat related accidents. Given the limitations of the P-40E as a high-altitude interceptor and the low experience level of the bulk of the United States Army Air Forces pilots, the 49th Fighter Group can rightly claim to have done its job well.”
That air combat tally on the 49th’s part amounts to a 1:1 kill-to-loss ratio,
Life of the USAAF 49th After Darwin
Although the 49th’s mission in Darwin soon came to an end, the unit’s existence and participation in the war certainly didn’t. The group transferred to New Guinea in October 1942, followed by the Philippines in October 1944. Two months prior to the move to the Philippines, the 49th upgraded to the P-38 Lightning, which finally gave them true air superiority over the vaunted Zero.
Amongst the unit’s P-38 pilots was no less than Maj. Dick Bong, America’s all-time highest-scoring ace (forty kills) and Medal of Honor recipient.
Arguably the most famous member of the 49th in terms of postwar celebrity status was comedian Dan Rowan, one-half of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (the sketch comedy series that ran on NBC TV from 1967 to 1973). At the controls of a P-40N bearing AAF Ser. No. 42-104949 (and reportedly preserved for posterity under civilian registration N537BR), Rowan shot down two Japanese planes before being downed and seriously wounded in another P-40 in the skies over New Guinea.
I have not been able to ascertain if any of the veterans of the 49th Fighter Group are still alive (if any of our dear readers out there have any additional information, please let us know). As The National Interest has reported all often in the past few months, World War II fighter pilots (not to mention WWII veterans in general) are a dying breed, as can be seen from our articles on the passings of Col. Perry Dahl, Capt. “Duke” Hedman (America’s first WWII ace), Capt. John Angel Chu, Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway (the last surviving Battle of Britain pilot), and Lt. Col. Ed Cottrell.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
Image: Santiparp Wattanaporn / Shutterstock.com
