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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Summer Reading
From: Michael Dorl
Date: 2010 Aug 03, 14:12 -0500
From: Michael Dorl
Date: 2010 Aug 03, 14:12 -0500
Thanks to all who made suggestions, now I have a lot more to read! I have a book titled "Combat WWII Pacific" edited by Congdon and Mitgang. It's a collection of extracts from other sources. Among them is a chapter titled "Raid on Balijpapan" on the first B24 raid on the Japanese held oil refinery at Bilikpapan. The source cited is "Big Distance" by Duell, Sloane, and Pearce but I've never been able to find that. There were 72 bomber in six groups. Take off weight was 68,500 lbs, 20,500 lbs over design and 8,500 lbs over 'normal' overload. The planes took off just after midnight and flew individually to a dawn rendezvous some 1035 miles from the take off point and 220 miles form the target. The first group of 12 planes met at that point within 13 minutes.
