TALK GIVEN BY MAJOR WILLIAM P. FISHER (AC) BEFORE G-4 OFFICERS, WDGDS. MARCH 20, 1942. Col. Thomas: Will you tell us where you served in the Pacific Theatre? Major Fisher: I was at Clark Field when the War began. The 19th Group had been over there about a month, and we were attached to it as soon as we arrived. There were 4 Combat Squadrons. We had B-17' s at Clark Field although 2 Squadrons had been removed before the War started. The morning of the 8th there were 2 Squadrons at Clark and those 2 were destroyed. The remaining 2 Squadrons started operating from Del Monte, using Clark as an advance base as long as was practicable. After about a week, we gave up Clark Field. After leaving Del Monte, we operated from Darwin. That's the general picture until Java. I will try to give you a short picture of the Bataan show. While the B-17's were still operating, the remainder of the 19th Group withdrew down to Bataan. We were down on Bataan until the 29th of December. At that time the 19th Group-- all of the Ground Echelon and everything except the combat Crews that were operated-- evacuated from Bataan by ship, as Infantry for a month. The Japanese had made their big landing. The 19th Group was there until Col. Eubank began to evacuate Combat Crew members by bombers and took crew members down to Australia. That was going on continuously. The last airplane was sent in around the 26th of January from Darwin. They were operating from Darwin bombing bases on the Group. Then we got - 1 - |