1/Lt T.J. Lynch 39th FS/35th FG 20 May 1942
 

Tommy Lynch was involved in a combat at 0755 in which he was badly shot up and forced to land. He claimed to have damaged a Zeke.

At 0900 he is aloft again to claim two kills over Waigani, NG. Assuming Lynch landed severely damaged and probably very shaken after 0800, did he then fly a second sortie minutes later?

Lynch is a favourite subject of mine and therefore my intent is not to dispute the records but to question them not him. Although I do dispute the Newspapers descriptions of him as a handsome Hollywood leading man. His nose shows he was a... mediocre boxer? :)

best regards

Keith

Re: 1/Lt T.J. Lynch 39th FS/35th FG 20 May 1942
 

There is a unit history of the 39th here:

http://usafunithistory.com/PDF/30-49...INING%20SQ.pdf

Pages 10 and 11 concern combat in May, including May 20th. For what it is worth a couple of lines in the report may be of interest. An anonymous 39th pilot who kept a personal record of the early operations, wrote of the day and these appear to be comments from that pilot.



"Lts. (Green), Adkins, Lynch, Wahl and Carey the first of our Sq. to participate in combat activities in New Guinea."
"One of the pilots, Lt. Tom Lynch, was destined to become a great ace of the Pacific war. He was also the rare sort of pilot who naturally took to leadership position."

"One of his traits was that he only claimed victories which were absolutely sure kills. His score would have been much higher if he had claimed every enemy plane that may have gone down before his guns. Another remarkable fact was that he scored three of his victories in the Airacobra."

On May 20, Tommy Lynch scored the first victories for the Squadron. Whatever the result of the combat, the 39th journalist recorded some telling attitudes about the weapon at hand (the P-39):

"Lts. Lynch, Wahl, and Adkins, flying in a 5-ship flight in cooperation with the 35th Sq., 8th Pur. Group,
intercepted 6 Zero fighters at around 15,000 feet. When first sighted, the enemy, who were flying
loose echelon, observ· ed our head·on attack. Lt. Lynch reported hits on 2 E/A but no results were
determined. After attack E/ A pulled around on our planes' tails and our pilots dived away. Lts.
Wahl and Adkins reported no results. Enemy casualties were probably 2 Zeros. Our casualties had
Lt. Lynch's plane shot up but landed safely. Lt. Carey bailed out of plane and was injured when he
hit the ground." Comments: Lt. Adkins: "Could have done better with a truck; it's more
maneuverable and will go higher."
Lt. Wahl: "Could have done damn good with altitude ship."
"Apparently, Lynch was granted confirmation of two victories probably on the basis of wreckage identification of the Zeros in the
jungle."

I read this to mean that the hits Lynch claimed on the first two "results undetermined" zeros were later "confirmed" to be shot down. There was not a second flight on the 20th.

Re: 1/Lt T.J. Lynch 39th FS/35th FG 20 May 1942
 

Cheers mate. It's all a bit vague isn't it? I noticed the same lack of decisive evidence in some of his later victories. Firing at an enemy plane which he then lost sight of was another "confirmed" victory.

best regards

Keith

Re: 1/Lt T.J. Lynch 39th FS/35th FG 20 May 1942
 

Keith,

It was not uncommon for fighter pilots from all Nations to be shot up on a previous flight and get another machine and fly a second sortie later. Galland (was shot down twice the same day), Deere (need to check...maybe my memory is not correct here).

To some kind of airmen, the fact they were shot (the machine) did not disturb them mentally or psychologically, to take off very soon after for a further sortie (maybe revenge their previous one?).

The description of R Swank is pretty clear: the machine was pretty shot up...the pilot may have been untouched or not wounded at all...just scared a lot (or not even scared, just "Pissed off" with himself or with the P-39 performance.

A.

Re: 1/Lt T.J. Lynch 39th FS/35th FG 20 May 1942
 

The attitude of the pilot is not an issue. There was no second flight according to RSwank, and his info is usually "on the money". The P-39 was a poor performer but could have gained hits on enemy aircraft. However it is an issue that the versions of the combat recorded at the time stretch from no damage seen, to one possibly damaged to two confirmed destroyed. The possibility of wreckage being found (where and by whom?) is very unlikely. The USAAF was desperate to present an image of success and I suspect this allowed an unrealistic assessment to be made and promoted. At this time in the war the claims of both US and Japanese air forces were ridiculously optimistic and very like the RAF in ETO in 1941, but the RAF realised that accepting these fantasies caused serious damage to morale rather than enhancing it (rival squadrons inventing higher and higher scores because they saw their competitors claims being accepted) and to strategic planning.

Re: 1/Lt T.J. Lynch 39th FS/35th FG 20 May 1942
 

Looking at all the medals and awards that Lynch received, his first medal was a Silver Star awarded in July, 1942. It was given for action occurring on May 26, when Lynch shot down his "third" Zero.


https://www.newspapers.com/article/t...ews/125944279/

Re: 1/Lt T.J. Lynch 39th FS/35th FG 20 May 1942
 

Intriguing. I see where you are going. He is decorated for a combat where he (and two others) claimed a Japanese fighter, but not for the earlier combat where he is credited with two kills and force landed? It looks as if the earlier victories were added to his scorecard at a later date.

Also I believe the policy in theatre was to toss a coin where two or more pilots claim the same victory. The victory on May 26, 1942 might have been just such a toss-up.

K

Re: 1/Lt T.J. Lynch 39th FS/35th FG 20 May 1942
 

An article in the Washington, Pennsylvania "Daily Reporter" dated June 22, 1942 has a story that includes Lynch and refers to an action that took place on June 16, 1942. In that 16th action, Lynch broke his arm and was then medically evacuated to Australia.

Of interest to us is that the article refers to Lynch's credits at this time as being "two" Zeros (not the "three" we would expect). I will try and set up a link to the story (it is on my Google Drive) and I should be able to share it:


https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...3n?usp=sharing

Re: 1/Lt T.J. Lynch 39th FS/35th FG 20 May 1942
 

Cheers, mate

K

Re: 1/Lt T.J. Lynch 39th FS/35th FG 20 May 1942
 

"On 20 May, 15 Zeros led by Lieutenant Commander Nakajima Tadashi departed Lae
around 0800, and for this mission Nakajima mixed up the tactics. Rather than the normal low-level sweep, he took his time to climb to 30,000 feet in the hope of exploiting the altitude advantage.

"As the Zeros approached Moresby, their crews were amazed to see ten Airacobras ahead at the same altitude and both sides quickly engaged each other. Sakai Saburo later wrote that he was concerned about the sluggishness of the Zero's controls at such a height. However, the Japanese had yet to realise that the P-39s were an even poorer performer at altitude, as their superchargers worked only up to around 12,000 feet. On this occasion there were no losses to either side."

South Pacific Air War Volume 3, p.168,
Claringbould, Michael & Ingman, Peter,
Avonmore Books, 2019