No Merciful War

November 1941: War is coming to the Pacific. In Europe, the Nazis are triumphant. England is under siege by air and sea. France has fallen to the Nazi Wehrmacht, which in turn fell on Soviet Russia. The Red Army is in full retreat, with the Nazis at the gates of Moscow. In the Pacific, Japan has been at war with China since 1937. Her war industries depend upon imports of scrap metal and oil from the Allied nations. When an embargo is placed on imports to Japan, they are left with a year's supply of oil to supply their armed forces. Japan surrounds American possessions in the Philippines on three sides. The US Army is making a desperate, last-minute attempt to reinforce the Philippines garrison, but the clock is ticking for the Japanese, with their oil running out. The armed forces of Imperial Japan may attack the Philippines at any moment. Two brothers, Jack and Charlie Davis, are pilots in the US Army Air Forces. They are part of the reinforcements sent to the Far Eastern Air Force, charged with air defense of the Philippines. For Jack and Charlie, in a time when the US is on the brink of world war, a simple question must soon be answered: what will I do when the Japanese come?

As the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy rolls south to the oil-rich Netherlands East Indies, a handful of Allied airmen and sailors stand in their way. Two brothers, Jack and Charlie Davis, pilots in the US Army Air Forces, are among that handful who face overwhelming odds to buy time for America to gear up to fight the war in the Pacific.

Jack and Charlie Davis, along with a new companion, Jimmy Ardana, are part of the Allied effort to stop the Japanese at Port Moresby in May 1942. But the Allies have received little in the way of reinforcements, and the only fighter available to face the Japanese Zero is the difficult to handle Bell P-39. Charlie flies dangerous reconnaissance missions to determine the location of the Japanese Navy. Jack, supposedly on his way home to the States, is diverted to be a flight commander in the 8th Fighter Group at Port Moresby. If the Japanese take Port Moresby they can cut off the convoy routes from America to Australia, leaving Australia isolated and vulnerable. The situation, in early May of 1942, is grim, but the question is the same one Jack and Charlie have faced since December 8, 1941: can we stop the Japanese with what we have?

By July 1, 1942, the United States has been fighting in the Pacific for nearly seven months. The Japanese advance halted west of Australia at the island of Timor, and from Timor the Japanese stage bombing raids on Darwin. In the north, the Japanese hold the former Australian possessions of New Ireland and New Britain, including the town of Rabaul in the north of New Britain. Holding Rabaul gives the Japanese possession of Simpson Harbor, a deep-water port that the Japanese turn into a formidable forward base, swarming with Zeros and antiaircraft weapons. Rabaul begins to earn an evil reputation among the bomber crews of the USAAF and RAAF who fly there. In May the Japanese tried to take Port Moresby, the Allied base on the south coast of Papua New Guinea. They were turned back at the Battle of the Coral Sea. In June, the Japanese were soundly defeated at the Battle of Midway in the north Pacific. Both sides suffered losses but neither the Empire of Japan nor the Allies were close to being beaten. East of Salamaua and Lae on the western end of the Huon Gulf, the north coast of Papua New Guinea is a no-man's land. Jack Davis has been sent home, and Jimmy Ardana takes his place as Boxcar Red Leader. Charlie Davis and his crew continue flying missions in their increasingly worn and patched B-17E, Bronco Buster II.