OWN LOSSES: None

NARRITIVE OF ACCOUNT:
.....Major Carnagey's division had poor luck in being assigned airplanes very late because of a bogey scramble just before the scheduled takeoff of their mission. This caused Lt. Schaeffer never to be able to catch the division and consequently return early as he could find no one to join with, The other three were too late to rendezvous with the bombers but did observe the good results of the bombing that the field was completely covered with hits and three or four fires, including a huge oil fire were started. They escorted the bombers back and pancaked at Munda 1240.
Lt. McLean's division was minus Lt. Hughes, who, off late, failed to locate the others and was dangerously alone so after observing the fires on Ballale, returned to base. Lt. Koetsch was forced to return just after takeoff because his wheels failed to rise. This left Lt. Hazlett and Lt. McLean alone and it was at 24,000 feet over Ballale that they saw about eight (8) Zeros, four coming in from behind and four below, probably intending to strike at the bombers. They chose the target below to make their initial runs on and each picked a target. Hazlett had a good chance, which was ruined because of malfunction of his guns, only one worked. He had lots of speed and came up for three more runs after recharging his guns and had finally got three operating but could not observe the damage inflicted by his shots. A Zeke finally got on his tall and put some holes in his right wing so he dove out and came home, escorting some bombers. Lt. McLean, in the meantime, had made his first pass with too much speed and after pulling up and making some more passes, he finally saw the Zeke on Hazlett’s tail. He immediately turned into him and as the Zeke turned with Hazlett, McLean got a good burst into the enemy plane. He followed the ship as it smoked and later observed it to crash into the sea. Lt. McLean then tried another Zeke and got a good shot at him but only one gun worked and the result of this firing was unobserved.

COMBAT REPORT OF 1st. Lt. C. T. McLean
....."Saw Zeros pulling in behind our formation. Hazlett and I rolled over from 24,000 feet, came down on tail of two Zekes but had too much speed and bursts were too short to get them. Pulled back up to about 15,000 feet, made a 90° turn and rolled over on four different Zekes, shot at one and went down into two other Zekes. Was closing on one's tail when he started a turn. I opened on him and he began smoking after short burst. I followed him until his plane rolled over and was going straight down; looking back a few seconds later I saw a big black smoke on the water. I turned into another Zeke, which had turned away from me. Only one gun fired on this burst but after he turned I was able to drag my fire through him and then back. Returned to base. No more contact."

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