Oliver Mitchell

Three weeks after the Americans appeared to challenge their claim to the Solomon Islands, the Japanese stepped up efforts to reinforce their garrison by sea. High-speed destroyers did double duty as troop transports; each ship could carry a few hundred infantrymen on every run. The appearance of blue-toned bombers – the Navy’s workhorse SBD Dauntless – were a significant fly in this ointment. Under strength and undermanned, the dive bomber squadrons worked overtime to intercept the incessant reinforcement runs – a “long, seemingly endless trial” in the words of historian Barrett Tillman.

On 28 August, a pair of scouting bombers spotted four destroyers near Santa Isabel Island, bound for Guadalcanal. Their report reached Henderson Field at 1730, and soon eleven Dauntlesses were en route to intercept. Thirty minutes later, this second flight found the destroyers at a point about fifteen miles north of Ramos Island. Under a rain of 500-lb bombs, one destroyer, the Asagiri, exploded and sank almost at once. Another warship, Shirakumo, was badly damaged and left dead in the water.

Second Lieutenant Oliver Mitchell was not about to let the last destroyer, Amagiri, escape unscathed. He pulled his aircraft around and bore down on the racing vessel, intending to pepper the deck with his forward-facing guns and give his radioman, PFC Frank Schackman, a chance to rake the destroyer with the free gun in the rear. Their single Dauntless was no match for the Amagiri’s hail of antiaircraft fire, however; after absorbing several hits, Mitchell lost control of the plane and it plunged into the sea. No parachutes were observed.

Mitchell and Schackman were declared dead on 29 August 1943. Both Marines received posthumous decorations: an Air Medal for Schackman, and the Silver Star Medal for Mitchell.