367 anti-aircraft guns. Close to 400 Japanese fighters. And one man who had already survived 86 missions when nobody else from his unit was still alive.
On November 2, 1943, Major Raymond Wilkins led eight B-25 Mitchells into Simpson Harbor, Rabaul — the most heavily defended base in the entire Pacific. His mission: destroy Japanese warships before they could reach the Marines landing on Bougainville. The briefing officer told the crews straight — not everyone was coming back.
Wilkins was twenty-six years old. The last original member of the Third Bombardment Group. Every pilot he'd started with in February 1942 was already gone. Now he was flying a shot-up bomber into a wall of fire, and the choice he made in the next ninety seconds would determine whether five crews behind him lived or died.
What happened over that harbor earned him the highest military honor the United States can award. But the full story of how — and why — has never been told like this.
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