"Hoowey Caldwell was up above and one of the zeros or a couple of them got after him. The photographer had a picture of a 20 millimeter shell that was coming at him and was going to knock his arm off at the shoulder. He took a picture of it and they showed it later. Caldwell had 200 expended shells in his cockpit, but his armored plating in there had pretty welll saved him. He had an airelon shot off, one wheel wouldn't come down. One of his elevators was shot up on his tail and he landed her aboard; hedidn't catch fire. She rolled up on the deck until the hook caught. When the hook caught she rolled up one wing, but she stopped by then and they reached up and got him out. His wounded rear gunner got out. They suspected that the photographer was dead, but weren't sire until they got him out.

If your local library has microfiche records that go back that far, check out the July 22, 1944, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. In that issue, there is an article entitled "We Avenge Pearl Harbor", by Eugene Burns.

There were four people on the plane that day:

1. Commander Howard Caldwell (Sparks, NV)
2. Kenneth C. Bratton (Oxford, MS) in the turret
3. Robert Wilder Morey (Los Angeles, CA) in the rear tunnel
4. Paul T. Barnett (Corpus Christi, TX) behind the commander, taking photographs

Caldwell was directing the attack on Rabaul Harbor from 14,000 feet. AA batteries apparently realized this and kept shooting at him even as the bombers started their dives. He was left alone with two escorts (Carlton Banks Roberts of Riverside, CA, and H. M. Crockett of Salt Lake City, UT) when they were attacked by eight Zeros at the same time.

Bratton's turret gun was knocked out, and he was seriously injured in the knee and hip.

Barnett was shot in the head by a Zero attacking from the portside just moments after he snapped a picture of the incoming plane.

Morey was injured by another Zero shooting from the rear, above the stabilizer where he could not bring the tail gun to bear. But, as Caldwell veered the plane and Morey was able to shoot down the Zero.

The plane limped back to the Saratoga. As Caldwell approached the carrier, he had one wheel down and one up, no flaps, and no elevator controls. As he passed over the signal officer, he held up two fingers to signify that he had two wounded aboard (Morey had already determined that Barnett was dead).

As he flew the length of the carrier, the engine briefly conked out and the plane nearly settled close to the water, but the engine caught just in time. The plane's hook caught the wire on the next time around.

The first page of the article has another picture of medical corpsmen removing casualties from the same plane, just as Caldwell is climbing out of the cockpit. However, it's a Xerox copy and I don't expect it to scan very well. My father (one of Barnett's older brothers) still has the original.

There is quite a bit more detail about the attack on Rabaul in the article. I've tried to scan and convert it with OCR software, but ended up with mostly gibberish. At some point in the future, I'll try it with the original.

Paul Barnett

The picture you requested was wittness by R.W. "Spider" Webb ARM 2C BOMING SQD AIR GROUP 12 USS SARATOGA November 5TH 1943. The name of the injured person shown is Kennith BRATTON GUNNER in a plane flown by Air Group Commander CALDWELL, latter promotted to Vice Admiral. Also in the plane was an ARM FIRST C named MORRIE, also wounded in the plane was a SQD, Photographer sitting behind Commander CALDWELL who was shot taking photographs of the attack on RABAUL Harbor and killed on that mission. All aerial photographs of the attackon RABAUL Harbor that you'll ever see were taken by Barnett. Commander Caldwell was the last plane to land because one of his landing gear was shot away and he landed on one wheel. Also killed at REBAUL Harbor was DONALD BETTS ARM 2C from Charles City, Iowa. ARM 2C James of Missouri was also killed. Wounded during this attack was my brother Forest Webb (now deceased) and George Riser of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Missing in action in battle was Donald Betts, last seen standing on the wing of the SBD5 Dauntless that he was in that crashed in the harbor.

FB Webb and George Riser both recovered from their wounds. Webb was transferred to the Navy Rocket range at Tower Control, Falon Nevada and Riser returned to his Squadron.

At sundown on November 5th, 1943 fellow shipmates buried Barnett and James at Sea.

Along with the Saratoga was the USS Princeton, they also suffered casualties from the same mission.

**Special Notice**
If anyone knows the whereabouts of Martin M. Reddy, ARM 1C Bombing 12 please let me know. During that time frame, Martin was from around 42nd and Broadway in New York City.