Strafer - Mission to Kavieng by Jack Fellows

Major Chester Coltharp, commanding officer of the 498th Bomb Squadron, 345th Bomb Group, 5th USAAF is seen sweeping into the Kavieng, New Ireland Japanese seaplane anchorage, the 5th Air Force's target for destruction on 15 February, 1944. Major Coltharp's B-25D, "Princess Pat" and 1st Lt. G. D. McCall's "Near Miss" are the embodiment of the legendary Major Paul I. "Pappy" Gunn's revolutionary gun-toting field conversion of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber to the devastating tool of destruction that was to become known as "the Strafer".