Size:

This reconnaissance 5th Air Force photograph comes from the bring back collection of Sgt. Eugene Thompson. While Sgt. Thompson served as an air gunner on combat missions aboard the infamous B-17 and B-25 in the South Pacific against the Japanese.

This is one of the only ‘personal’ photographs in the entire bring back collection as it shows the side show of one of the 5th Air Force B-25 bombers flying over an unknown island in the South Pacific. This photo most likely did not have any reconnaissance or strategic value but was taken for more a personal nature at the other pilots and aircrew flying a combat mission. It is unknown in this is the plane flow in by Sgt. Thompson or if this photo was taken from Sgt. Thompson’s plane to another B-25 flying with them in formation. Either way it shows a personal look at what these pilots and bomber crew saw on a daily basis and provides a unique look at the 5th Air Force in theater.

While the specific location that this photograph was taken over is unknown, when analyzing other photographs within the same collection that are labeled and named, we believe it to be taken from one of the many aerial combat missions of the New Guinea campaign. Often overlooked today, the New Guinea campaign was the longest of the Pacific War, with 340,000 Americans fighting more than half a million Japanese.

5th Air Force History:

This air force lost most of its men and equipment in the defense of the Philippines after 7 Dec 1941. Later in Dec 1941 headquarters and some crews and planes moved to Australia, and in Jan 1942 they were sent to Java to help delay Japanese advances in the Netherlands Indies. The Fifth did not function as an air force for some time after Feb 1942 (the AAF organizations in the Southwest Pacific being under the control of American-British-Dutch-Australian Command and later Allied Air Forces). Headquarters was remanned in Sep 1942 and assumed control of AAF organizations in Australia and New Guinea. The Fifth participated in operations that stopped the Japanese drive in Papua, recovered New Guinea, neutralized islands in the Bismarck Archipelago and the Netherlands East Indies, and liberated the Philippines. When the war ended in Aug 1945 elements of the Fifth were moving to the Ryukyus for the invasion of Japan. After the war the Fifth, a component of Far East Air Forces, remained in the theater, and from Jun 1950 to Jul 1953 it was engaged in the Korean War.