The Last Flight of Bomber 31: Harrowing Tales of American and Japanese Pilots Who Fought in WWII's Arctic Air Campaign.

Wetterhahn, Ralph. The Last Flight of Bomber 31: Harrowing Tales of American and Japanese Pilots Who Fought in WWII's Arctic Air Campaign. Carroll & Graf, 245 West 17th St., 11th Floor, New York, NY 10011. 2004. 357 pp. Ill. $26.00.

The year-long Aleutians Campaign began in June 1942 as a diversionary measure by the Japanese to focus American attention away from their main operation, the invasion of Midway Atoll. While the Midway battle was a short, bloody affair lasting little more than four days, the fighting in the Aleutians was a costly, year-long, drawn-out series of encounters that many Americans at the time did not realize was taking place on their nation's far northwestern doorstep. But American flight crews and ground troops were fighting and dying in some of the most inhospitable places the planet had to offer, facing a lack of supplies and terrible cold, wet weather and terrain in the Aleutians. Even after the last Japanese vacated the area in mid-1943, Navy and Army Air Forces air crews flew long, often terrifying, missions against the most northerly of the Emperor's facilities.

The author is a retired Air Force colonel whose operational experience includes 180 missions in Vietnam as an F-4 Phantom pilot and as an exchange aviator flying the A-7E Corsair with VA-146, as well as a MiG-21 kill in January 1967 as part of the famous Operation Bolo. His considerable combat experience, training in mishap investigation, and demonstrated success as an aviation writer has equipped Wetterhahn to produce a colorful, fascinating book.

Little has been written about the PV-1 Ventura and PV-2 Harpoon medium bombers, with the recent exception of a volume in Osprey's Combat Aircraft series by Alan C. Carey, which was reviewed in this column. Carey mentions the loss of Bombing Squadron (VB) 139's Bomber 31 but devotes only a few paragraphs to this doomed crew. Thus, it remains for Wetterhahn to tell the full story, which he does with considerable skill. He has accumulated a lot of details and stories as a buildup to the main subject of the bombing campaign flown by the PV squadrons.

During one harrowing flight on 25 March 1944, VB-139's Bomber 31 and its six-man crew commanded by Lt. Walt Whitman did not return from a mission. The remains of their aircraft, including four bodies, were discovered by Soviet inspectors in 1962 in the desolate mountains of the Kamchatka peninsula. The specifics of the site were not released for nearly 40 years, and only recently have American investigators, including Col. Wetterhahn, been able to see the Ventura's final resting place first hand.

Besides describing the last mission of this particular crew, he also describes the agonizing, desperate flights made by American and Japanese crews, supported by several appendices and notes. The book is chock-full of combat descriptions of the tough little war, with sections of Venturas fighting the weather and Japanese flak and Oscar and Zeke interceptors. The VB squadrons were part of the Empire Express, which flew against the Japanese in an effort to divert Imperial supplies and men from supporting the resistance to the upcoming invasion of the Philippines. There are also many accounts of the Army B-24 and B-25 crews that partnered in the operation with the Navy.

It's a terrific story, well told and supported with numerous interesting photos of Venturas and Harpoons in the Arctic desolation that formed the stage for the drama played out nearly every day for two years. I highly recommend this book.

By Cdr. Peter B. Mersky, USNR (Ret.)