George Raymond Quarternik

On 7 January 1944, a sizable strike force – forty Marine dive- and torpedo bombers, with a 72-plane fighter escort – took off from the newly-established Piva North Airfield on Bougainville. This would the field’s first strike against the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul (a similar mission planned for 5 January was scrubbed by the weather) and the Marine Corps sent a correspondent along to witness the historic event.

“We roared over St. George’s Channel at 15,000 feet with New Zealand P-40s scissoring closely above and a high cover of Navy Hellcats and Marine Corsairs,” wrote 1Lt. Penn T. Kimball. “The sky toward Rabaul was a vast jumble of diving, weaving, rolling fighters, their wings licking tiny slivers of fire…. We weaved crazily to avoid patterns of high explosives. A dive bomber piloted by 2nd Lt. John T. Sowle was hit directly on its tail. He pulled off smoking, but despite Zero attacks limped far enough toward home for a water landing and rescue.”

The scene aboard Sowle’s Dauntless (SBD-4 06770) was much more chaotic. Sowle “felt a sudden jar and heard a sharp explosion. Smoke and debris drifted up from the bottom of his cockpit.” The rear-seat gunner, PFC George Quarternik, cried out that he was hit; Sowle turned to see that Quarternik “had turned in his seat and was slumped forward with his head hanging down to the right.”

Japanese fighters bedeviled the Dauntless; Sowle played dead, yanking his plane into a steep dive and leveling off at 4,000 feet. He set a course for New Britain and limped homewards with a damaged engine, a smashed rudder, and a motionless PFC Quarternik in the rear cockpit. A heavy storm forced him to lose altitude, and the plane’s motor finally quit. The SBD hit the water approximately 100 miles from New Britain, breaking in two just behind Quarternik’s guns.

Before the crash landing, Sowle attempted to rouse Quarternik by shouting and waggling the plane’s wings. As he prepared to evacuate, Sowle “examined [Quarternik] and noted 4 or 5 jagged holes in the back of his jacket, and no sign of life.” Quarternik had not moved since Sowle’s first check, and the pilot concluded that the gunner had died moments after being hit. Sowle boarded his life raft and floated away from the sinking SBD.

Sowle survived his ordeal and returned to duty with VMSB-236 within a few days. Read his survival report here.