The First U.S. Aerial Victory
EDITOR’S NOTE: The question of which pilot scored the first American victory of World War II may never be known with any certainty because of the lack of official claim confirmation of 2nd Lt. John Dains’s actions. But we present the facts, as they are now known, below.
Soryu’s air group commander, Lt. Takashige Egusa, was in the lead to attack the ships. He personally chose to bomb the cruiser USS New Orleans.
His wingmen hit the destroyers Cassin paired with Downes, in dry dock with the battleship
Pennsylvania.
The second Shotaicho (leader of three planes) aimed for the fuel tanker Neosho during its sortie. Both his wingmen went for the cruiser
Helena next to the long “1010 Dock.” As the third bomber in the Shotai pulled up, PO2c
Hideyasu Kuwabara, the radioman and aircraft commander, must have seen their bomb miss the ship.
As they pulled away from their dive, Kuwabara’s pilot, PO3c Kenji Maruyama, lost track of the Soryu aircraft ahead of them. Kuwabara directed his pilot to set a course for the carrier Soryu due north, flying just west of the Koolau Range.
They passed east of Wheeler Field and noted two cars headed north at high speed. One car was lagging behind the other by a mile or two. Kuwabara directed his pilot to strafe the cars. They almost got the second car, driven by 2nd Lt. Harry Brown; with his roommate, 2nd Lt. John Dains; and the 47th Pursuit Squadron executive officer, 1st Lt. Bob Rogers. The lead car was driven by 2nd Lt. George Welch with 2nd Lt. Ken Taylor. All were fighter pilots racing for a civilian airfield at Haleiwa.
There, a dirt runway paralleled the beach, where the entire squadron of P-40s and P-36s had been temporarily relocated for gunnery practice. As they were to do only target practice, the armorers only had .30-caliber ammo to load on the planes. Without .50 caliber for the cowling guns, only the four smaller guns could be armed.
Welch and Taylor got the first two P-40Bs in the air direct from the parking area under the trees. When Brown arrived, Dains quickly grabbed the next ready P-40 and got in the air. The executive officer, Bob Rogers, took charge of the field and told a crew to move a P-36 out from the tree line so that Brown could get a straight shot down the runway.
Brown got to the plane just as Maruyama and Kuwabara, who had followed the cars to the airport, circled to strafe the airfield. Brown hid behind the P-36, which took the brunt of the strafing. Maruyama was so enthused that he hit the handle to drop a bomb, which he did not have!
Maruyama turned north over the ocean, and although Dains did not survive to file a report, witnesses saw him catch up to the bomber. He chased the Aichi east to the northern tip of Oahu as they traded bullets, and then south, where witnesses watched him shoot the plane down just east of the tiny community of Kaaawa.
Dains swapped his P-40 for a P-36 and made another sortie with some 25 fighters. As they returned to Wheeler to land, AA from Schofield Barracks shot down Dains’s aircraft. Those souvenir hunters first on the scene became really quiet when the U.S. insignia came into view.
While the Victory Credit Review Board may need to convene to rule officially, Dains achieved not only the first USAAF aerial victory of the day but also the first of WW II in American service. As of now, however, the record books don’t give him that credit. Either Taylor or Welch hold that claim, but it isn’t known which was actually first.
The search continues to determine the aircraft that got airborne that morning. The Wheeler aircraft marking system is still unknown. Guidance to the witnesses, photos of aircraft and people, and documents or letters that may solve such details would be greatly appreciated.