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In the first week of August, 1942, a lone B-17E of the 93rd Squadron, 19th Bomb Group , is completing its third successive day of high-level reconnaissance missions over Japanese bases in the Southwest Pacific. Simpson Harbor at Rabaul, New Britain, is loaded with ships and Japanese Zeros have scrambled from Lukanai airstrip to attack the bomber. Captain Clyde Webb, the B-17 pilot is fortunate that the harbor area was not cloud covered and thunderstorms now provide cover for he and his crew as they return to Port Moresby. A few days later our U.S. Marines land at Guadalcanal, a few islands away from here. Later that month Captain Webb was killed when his B-17 was hit by anti-aircraft fire from Japanese naval ships, crashing into the sea during a low-level attack at Milne Bay.