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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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.
Subscribe for forgotten WW2 stories ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@ww2dispatchh
Like if you think this story deserves to be remembered.
Comment below — where are you watching from?
#worldwar2 #ww2 #militaryhistory #ww2stories
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LearningTranscript
00:00At 6.45 in the morning on November 2nd, 1943, Major Raymond Wilkins was leading eight B-25s toward Rabao.
00:09Japanese radar had already picked up his formation.
00:13He was 26, flying his 87th mission, the only man left alive from the original 3rd Bombardment Group.
00:22Below him sat 367 anti-aircraft positions and close to 400 Japanese fighters defending the most fortified base in the
00:32entire Pacific.
00:34The briefing had taken place three hours before.
00:37Quiet room. Ashen-faced crews sat while intelligence officers laid out what they were heading into.
00:45Simpson Harbor was full of Japanese cruisers and destroyers, reinforcing enemy operations near Bougainville.
00:52Two days prior, Marines had gone ashore on Bougainville.
00:56If those ships left harbor, the whole invasion was finished.
01:025th Air Force wanted them at the bottom.
01:05The briefing officer didn't sugarcoat it. Some of them weren't making it back.
01:11Wilkins understood the odds better than anyone in that room.
01:1445 airmen would be dead or unaccounted for by sunset.
01:19Over the last 20 months, he'd seen every man from his original group disappear.
01:24Some went down in flames over New Guinea.
01:27Others crashed into the Coral Sea.
01:30A few never came back from long-range sorties, and nobody knew why.
01:35He'd shown up in February 1942 with dozens of crews.
01:40Now it was just him.
01:42He was leading eight modified B-25 Mitchells with forward-firing guns toward the hardest target in the entire theater.
01:51The plan was straightforward and savage.
01:54Come in at masthead height, 50 to 100 feet off the water.
01:59Skip bombs along the harbor surface into the sides of ships.
02:03Strafe the decks with eight .50 caliber guns while releasing ordnance.
02:08Get clear before the Japanese fighter force showed up in full.
02:12Intelligence estimated nearly 200 defenders spread across five airfields.
02:18On top of that, 173 carrier planes had flown in from the combined fleet on November 1st.
02:25Air groups off Zuikaku, Shoukaku, and Zuihou were now staging out of Rabao.
02:31Wilkins scanned his instruments as they crossed the Solomon Sea.
02:34Fuel was solid, both engines running clean.
02:38His B-25, which the crew called Fifi, had been retrofitted at Eagle Farm Airfield outside Brisbane.
02:46Four A&M .250 caliber machine guns bolted into the nose.
02:51Four more in external pods along each side of the fuselage.
02:55That gave him enough firepower to put 800 rounds a second into anything in front of him.
03:00The whole technique had been worked out through months of trial and bloody error across the Southwest Pacific.
03:06Most of the pilots who helped develop it were already in the ground.
03:10The retrofit program had begun in early 1943.
03:15Stock B-25s weren't surviving low-altitude ship attacks.
03:19They needed guns pointing forward to knock out deck weapons during the approach.
03:24Mechanics stripped out the bombardier stations and bolted in fixed machine guns instead.
03:30The idea was straightforward.
03:31Rake the decks with sustained fire, skip the bomb into the hull at the waterline, and get out at full
03:38power before fighters caught up.
03:40But idea and execution were two different animals.
03:44The first attempts ended with planes shot out of the sky before they got close.
03:49Crews had to learn timing.
03:51Come in low enough to slip below ship radar, fast enough to give gun crews only seconds to respond.
03:57The ones who figured it out survived.
04:00The ones who didn't became lessons.
04:03Rabool's radar had given them a 30-minute heads-up.
04:06Fighters would already be scrambling from Lakunai, Vunakanau, Rapopo, Tobera, and Borpop.
04:13Anti-aircraft teams at 367 positions around the harbor were manning their weapons.
04:20Wilkins held his altitude and bearing.
04:22His wingmen kept tight behind him.
04:25They called Rabool the Pearl Harbor of the South Pacific.
04:29Volcanic ridges encircled a natural harbor big enough for hundreds of vessels.
04:34The Japanese had turned it into their primary stronghold in the Southwest Pacific.
04:38Command centers sat inside concrete bunkers. Radar gave them early detection.
04:44The base had more anti-aircraft firepower than Darwin and Port Moresby put together.
04:495th Air Force Intelligence called it the most dangerous target they'd faced in the entire war.
04:55Wilkins had made it through 86 missions by doing things right.
04:59Check fuel every 10 minutes.
05:01Monitor engine temps.
05:03Keep radio chatter to zero.
05:05Rely on your wingmen.
05:07Same rules that had kept him breathing since February 1942.
05:12But the math worked against everyone sooner or later.
05:15Past a certain point, survival stopped being about ability.
05:19It was just probability.
05:21And probability always catches up.
05:25How would Wilkins handle what no bomber crew had come through alive?
05:29Please hit that like button.
05:31It helps others discover these stories.
05:32And subscribe.
05:34Back to Wilkins over Rabool.
05:36The coast materialized ahead.
05:39Dense green jungle running down to water so blue it looked fake.
05:44Wilkins brought the formation down to 100 feet.
05:47Salt mist started coating his windscreen.
05:50The group tightened up.
05:51Seven B-25s trailing behind him.
05:54Crewed by men who were betting their lives on his judgment.
05:58The mouth of the harbor spread out in front of them.
06:01The anchorage was packed.
06:04Cruisers.
06:05Destroyers.
06:05Transports bunched up near the wharves.
06:08More ships than Wilkins had seen in one place for months.
06:12Then a gun cracked.
06:14Heavy anti-aircraft battery on the ridge to the north.
06:18The round detonated 200 yards out.
06:21A black puff marking the burst.
06:24Other batteries opened up.
06:27Wilkins shoved the throttles ahead and dropped to 70 feet.
06:32367 guns pouring fire at eight planes flying straight at them just above the water line.
06:39Wilkins stayed on course.
06:41His thumb found the gun trigger.
06:43First ship was 600 yards out.
06:47In 90 seconds, nothing would be the same.
06:50At 500 yards, he opened up.
06:53All 8 .50 calibers sent lines of tracers toward a Japanese destroyer.
06:57The airframe shook with recoil.
07:00Spent brass flew around the cockpit.
07:02His co-pilot had his hands on the bomb release.
07:06400 yards.
07:07Rounds chewed across the destroyer's deck, punching through steel and crew stations.
07:12300 yards.
07:14The Japanese returned fire.
07:1620mm rounds from the destroyer's own mounts.
07:19Heavier caliber from the shore guns.
07:22The space between Wilkins and his target was a crosshatch of tracer and bursting shells.
07:27His B-25 jerked as impacts punched through wingskin and fuselage panels.
07:32He kept the trigger down.
07:35200 yards.
07:36The bombs dropped.
07:38Two 500-pounders skipped across the water like flat rocks.
07:43Wilkins hauled back on the stick.
07:45The first bomb slammed into the destroyer below the waterline near the engine spaces.
07:50The second connected amidships.
07:52Both went off.
07:54The hull tore open.
07:56Secondaries started cooking as the magazines went up.
07:59Wilkins was already passed, pulling up to 200 feet, banking hard to the left.
08:04Something felt wrong with the aircraft.
08:06It was sluggish on the controls.
08:09Wilkins checked behind him.
08:10The vertical stabilizer had been blown off.
08:13Shrapnel had ripped through the entire tail section.
08:16Hydraulic fluid was streaming from ruptured lines.
08:19The plane wanted to drop its right wing.
08:21He fought the stick just to keep her level.
08:24Behind him, the rest of his formation was pressing the attack.
08:27Two more destroyers were hit.
08:29A transport ship went up in flames.
08:32But the Japanese fighters were on them now.
08:35Zeros from the carrier groups.
08:36Quick, agile, lethal at treetop height.
08:40Wilkins watched one B-25 blow apart as a Zero's cannons hit its fuel tanks.
08:45Nobody got out.
08:47The wreckage slammed into the water, doing 200.
08:50The flak got heavier.
08:52Japanese gun crews had figured out the American exit path.
08:55They tracked the retreating B-25s with calculated fire.
09:00Shells burst in tight sequences.
09:02Another Mitchell took rounds and flipped over.
09:05It hit the harbor and came apart.
09:09Wilkins counted what he had left.
09:11Six planes total, his own included.
09:14Both engines were still turning.
09:16That counted for something.
09:18Oil pressure on number one looked passable.
09:20Number two was running warm, but nothing dangerous.
09:23Hydraulics were finished.
09:25The landing gear would have to be cranked down by hand if he got home.
09:29If.
09:31The fuel cells hadn't taken a hit.
09:34One more thing that hadn't gone wrong yet.
09:36Another ship loomed ahead.
09:38Heavy cruiser.
09:40Larger hull, bigger guns.
09:43Its anti-aircraft batteries were already shooting.
09:46Wilkins had two choices.
09:48Turn away and head for open water.
09:51Or go in again.
09:53His formation was broken up now.
09:56Every bomber fighting on its own.
09:58The cruiser was swinging around to bring more weapons to bear on the withdrawing planes.
10:03By the book, he should pull out.
10:05He'd done the job.
10:07One ship destroyed.
10:10His plane was chewed up, but still airborne.
10:13Leave while he still could.
10:16Wilkins had survived 87 missions by going by the book.
10:20Walking away now would make it 88.
10:23But the cruiser had its guns on his wingmen.
10:26Its batteries could reach every one of them.
10:29If nobody shut those guns down, more B-25s were going into the water.
10:35Wilkins looked at his co-pilot.
10:37Young guy.
10:38Only his third time out.
10:40Eyes the size of saucers.
10:42Waiting to be told what to do.
10:44Wilkins decided.
10:45He pushed the throttles to the firewall and swung toward the cruiser.
10:50The co-pilot knew what it meant right away.
10:52They were out of bombs.
10:54This was guns only.
10:56The point wasn't to put the ship under.
10:58Just to pull every barrel on that cruiser away from the rest of the squadron.
11:04The cruiser sat 800 yards ahead.
11:07Wilkins brought her down to 50 feet.
11:10With the tail shot up, precise flying was almost out of the question.
11:14He worked throttle and rudder to compensate.
11:17The whole plane shuddered.
11:19Metal howled.
11:21600 yards.
11:23The cruiser's guns came around toward him.
11:25Every anti-aircraft weapon on that vessel opened up at once.
11:2940 millimeter.
11:3125 millimeter.
11:3213 millimeter machine guns.
11:34The sheer volume of fire was beyond anything Wilkins had ever faced.
11:39Tracers made a solid curtain.
11:41He flew straight into it.
11:44500 yards.
11:45His windscreen blew in.
11:47Glass sprayed the cockpit.
11:49Something tore into his left arm.
11:52Searing pain.
11:53He didn't stop firing.
11:56Eight guns raked the cruiser's topside.
11:59400 yards.
12:00The aircraft was shaking itself apart.
12:03Holes punched through the wings one after another.
12:06The number two engine hiccuped.
12:09300 yards.
12:11Would Wilkins close the distance before his battered B-25 came apart around him?
12:15Or would the Japanese gunners put an end to it first?
12:18Wilkins kept the trigger squeezed.
12:20200 yards from the cruiser.
12:22Eight .50 calibers hammered rounds into the ship's upper works.
12:26Some gun crews threw themselves flat.
12:29Others were cut apart where they stood.
12:31Sustained fire raked the bridge.
12:34Glass blew out.
12:35Plating curled back from the impacts.
12:38100 yards.
12:40Wilkins let go of the trigger and pulled back hard.
12:42With the stabilizer gone, the plane barely responded.
12:46He used raw engine power to drag the nose up.
12:49The B-25 scraped over the cruiser's main mast with maybe 20 feet to spare.
12:54Smoke was streaming from the number two engine now.
12:57Oil pressure falling fast.
13:00Cylinder head temps pegged against the stop.
13:02He'd pulled it off.
13:04Every gun on that ship had swung toward him during the run.
13:07That was the whole point.
13:09Behind him, the rest of his squadron was clearing the harbor.
13:13Five B-25s gaining altitude away from Rebell.
13:16They were going to get out.
13:18The cruiser had quit tracking them.
13:20It had been too busy trying to kill Wilkins.
13:23The price showed up immediately.
13:26Number two engine locked up.
13:28The prop spun free with no power behind it.
13:31Wilkins hit the feathering switch and retrimmed.
13:34One engine.
13:35Shot up airframe.
13:37He banked toward the harbor mouth.
13:39The Japanese fighters were out there, waiting.
13:42Three zeroes dropped in from altitude.
13:45Classic high side attack.
13:46They had the height and the speed.
13:49Wilkins had neither.
13:51His top turret gunner opened up.
13:53Tracers arced toward the incoming fighters.
13:55The zeroes broke apart.
13:57Two peeled left.
13:59The third dove straight down the middle.
14:02Cannon rounds stitched up the length of the fuselage.
14:05The radio compartment took direct hits.
14:08Wilkins heard a scream on the intercom.
14:10Then nothing.
14:11The zero tore past underneath.
14:14His gunner reported strikes, but the fighter stayed in the air.
14:18It climbed away and set up for another pass.
14:21More zeroes piled in.
14:23Four.
14:24Six.
14:25Eight.
14:26The carrier groups had found him.
14:28One shot up bomber limping along by itself was a gift.
14:33Wilkins couldn't outrun them.
14:36Couldn't dodge them.
14:37His good engine was already pushed to the limit.
14:39The mangled airframe dragged so hard that speed kept bleeding away.
14:44Another zero rolled in.
14:46Port side this time.
14:47The waste gunner fired back.
14:49Sparks flashed along the zeroes wing route where rounds connected.
14:53But the Japanese pilot held his line.
14:5520mm cannon fire punched into the B-25's left wing.
14:59Fuel erupted from a punctured cell.
15:02The self-sealing lining was supposed to handle this.
15:05It didn't.
15:06Raw avgas trailed back across the wing surface.
15:10A single tracer would turn the whole aircraft into a torch.
15:14Wilkins nosed over.
15:16The dive bought him airspeed but pushed him closer to the anti-aircraft batteries underneath.
15:21There were no good options left.
15:23The harbor exit was still two miles ahead.
15:26Zeroes circled him like wolves.
15:28His gunners were hammering away non-stop.
15:31Ammo belts were running short.
15:33The coast slid beneath them.
15:35Jungle canopy and black volcanic stone.
15:38Still Japanese territory.
15:40The zeroes kept pressing.
15:43Methodical.
15:44Disciplined.
15:45They knew he was finished.
15:48One chewed up his rudder.
15:49Another tore his left aileron clean off.
15:53The B-25 was barely staying airborne.
15:56More scrap metal than airplane at this point.
15:59Held aloft by velocity and stubbornness.
16:03Wilkins looked at the gauges.
16:05Fuel pressure on number one engine jumping around.
16:08Oil temp creeping up.
16:10The damaged wing was producing uneven lift.
16:13He fought it with rudder and throttle adjustments.
16:17Every input on the controls was a wrestling match.
16:21His wounded arm pounded.
16:23His sleeve was heavy with blood.
16:26The co-pilot reached over to help, but the stick needed both hands.
16:31They made it past the shoreline.
16:33Open ocean stretched ahead.
16:36That was something.
16:37A chance.
16:39Thin, but better than going down over enemy ground.
16:44The zeroes came around for another coordinated pass.
16:48Three angles at once.
16:50The top turret went silent.
16:52Either the gunner was dead or his belts were empty.
16:56The waste gun was still chattering.
16:59Short, controlled bursts.
17:01Whatever he had left.
17:03More rounds hit home.
17:05Number one engine coughed.
17:07Missed.
17:08Caught again.
17:09It wasn't going to hold.
17:11The fuel leak was spreading.
17:13Wilkins could taste avgas in the air.
17:16The panel was lit up with warnings.
17:18Hydraulics dead.
17:20Electrics failing.
17:21Oil pressure on the last working engine dropping steadily.
17:25Two options.
17:26Push for friendly lines 50 miles out.
17:29Or put her in the water now while he still had some authority over the aircraft.
17:34The engine took the decision away from him.
17:36It seized.
17:38Instant quiet.
17:39Nothing but wind and the sound of zeroes behind him.
17:43The B-25 started dropping right away.
17:46Wilkins trimmed for best glide.
17:4990 knots.
17:50Three or four miles of range from this height at best.
17:53The zeroes were still shooting.
17:56Either they hadn't noticed the engines were dead.
17:58Or they didn't care.
18:00Another cannon burst rattled through the fuselage.
18:03He set up for ditching.
18:05Called it out on intercom to whoever was left.
18:08Gear up.
18:09Flaps up.
18:12Touchdown along the swell line.
18:14Not across it.
18:15The co-pilot came back on the radio.
18:17The waste gunner didn't answer.
18:20Wilkins figured the worst.
18:22Ocean was coming up fast.
18:23Deep blue fading to green near the surface.
18:26Swells running about four feet.
18:28He lined up parallel.
18:30For an airplane missing most of its tail and with one wing torn to ribbons, the B-25 glided surprisingly
18:37well.
18:38Wilkins held it steady.
18:40500 feet.
18:41300.
18:42100.
18:43Would Wilkins walk away from a water landing in a bomber that was already disintegrating?
18:49Or would the Pacific swallow the last man from the third bombardment group?
18:53The B-25 struck the surface at 90 knots.
18:57The nose bit in.
18:58A wall of water blasted over the cockpit.
19:01The impact slammed Wilkins forward into his straps.
19:05Metal cried out.
19:07The fuselage crumpled.
19:09The plane spun sideways and started coming apart.
19:12Water flooded through the blown out windscreen.
19:15Cold.
19:16Black.
19:17Wilkins popped his harness.
19:19Tried to move.
19:20His left arm was dead.
19:23The wound was deeper than he'd realized.
19:26The co-pilot was wrestling with his own buckles.
19:29Blood streaked down his face from a cut over one eye.
19:33The B-25 was going under fast.
19:36Nose first.
19:37Water already up past the instruments.
19:40Wilkins pushed himself upward and back.
19:43Located the overhead escape hatch.
19:45Grabbed the handle.
19:47Pulled.
19:48Nothing happened.
19:50The frame had bent on impact.
19:52He yanked harder.
19:54His bad arm shrieked at him.
19:56The hatch stayed put.
19:59The co-pilot freed himself and moved to help.
20:02Both of them pulled together.
20:04The metal groaned.
20:05The hatch shifted a fraction.
20:08Not far enough.
20:10Water reached their chests.
20:12Coming up fast.
20:13The tail was already submerged.
20:16The nose was pointing nearly straight at the bottom.
20:19One last effort.
20:21Wilkins braced with his good arm and both legs.
20:24The co-pilot pushed against the seat for leverage.
20:27The hatch broke free.
20:29Popped open.
20:31But those seconds had cost them.
20:33Water came in through the opening almost as fast as they could move.
20:37Wilkins shoved the co-pilot through first.
20:40The kid needed to make it.
20:42The co-pilot went through and vanished.
20:45Wilkins caught the hatch frame with his right hand and hauled himself up.
20:48Left arm hanging dead.
20:50Right arm and legs doing all the work.
20:53Halfway out.
20:54The bomber shifted.
20:56Nose dropped further.
20:57The lurch threw him back down into the cockpit.
21:00He was underwater now.
21:02Couldn't see.
21:03Couldn't get air.
21:04He found the hatch opening by touch.
21:06Pulled himself toward it again.
21:08His chest was on fire.
21:11The plane was going down and taking him along.
21:14He kicked.
21:15Reached.
21:16Found open sky.
21:18He came up, choking.
21:20The co-pilot was ten feet away, treading water.
21:23Behind them, the B-25's tail section jutted up at a steep angle.
21:27Trapped air in the hull kept it floating a few seconds longer.
21:31Then it slid under.
21:33A ring of bubbles marked the spot.
21:35The last plane from the original third bombardment group was at the bottom.
21:40Wilkins tried to swim.
21:42His left arm was useless weight.
21:45Blood spread through the water around him.
21:48The wound was bleeding freely now.
21:50Salt water made it burn.
21:52He kicked to keep his head up.
21:55Scanned for other survivors.
21:56Found none.
21:58The radio operator and waste gunner had gone down inside the fuselage.
22:03The zeroes were still circling.
22:05Low.
22:06One came in on a pass.
22:08Wilkins braced for bullets.
22:10They didn't come.
22:12The Japanese pilot flew by and rocked his wings.
22:15Acknowledgement.
22:17Then the fighters banked back toward Rabool.
22:20The sky went empty.
22:22Wilkins floated.
22:23The co-pilot paddled over.
22:25Asked how he was.
22:27Wilkins couldn't answer.
22:29Couldn't form words.
22:31Blood loss was pulling him under.
22:33His vision went soft at the edges.
22:36The co-pilot grabbed hold of him.
22:38Fought to keep his head clear of the waves.
22:41Two men.
22:42No raft.
22:43No signal equipment.
22:4550 miles from anyone who could help.
22:48They held on maybe 40 minutes.
22:51Could have been less.
22:53The co-pilot hung on as long as his strength lasted.
22:56But Wilkins kept getting heavier.
22:59Pulling them both down.
23:01The kid faced a choice.
23:03Go under together.
23:04Or let go.
23:06He let go.
23:08Wilkins sank beneath the surface one last time.
23:1126 years old.
23:1487 combat missions complete.
23:17The final man from February 1942.
23:20They never found his body.
23:22The ocean claimed him.
23:24In the days that followed,
23:26intelligence officers reconstructed his last actions
23:28from intercepted transmissions and survivor testimony.
23:32Two ships put down.
23:33The heavy cruiser's batteries knocked out of action
23:36during the critical withdrawal window.
23:39Five B-25s that made it home because of what he did.
23:43All of it went into after-action paperwork.
23:45But Wilkins never learned the full outcome.
23:48He died thinking he'd done what was needed.
23:51Covered his squadron.
23:53That was enough for him.
23:55The Medal of Honor recommendation came later.
23:58Posthumous.
23:59His family back in California would eventually receive it.
24:02The woman in Australia he'd meant to marry
24:05would find out he was never coming home.
24:08The co-pilot was recovered three days afterward
24:10by a Navy patrol boat.
24:12Half-starved.
24:14Sunburned raw.
24:15Barely conscious.
24:17He gave his account of Wilkins' last sortie.
24:20How the Major could have broken off after the first attack.
24:24How he wheeled back to pull the cruiser's fire.
24:27How he nursed the airplane all the way down to the water.
24:30Every word went into the official file.
24:33Back above Rabaul, the surviving American planes were clawing their way home.
24:38Five B-25s.
24:40Spread out.
24:42Each one running solo for base.
24:44Japanese fighters chased them.
24:46The fight wasn't finished.
24:48More men were going to die before the day was done.
24:51The only question was how many would touch down alive.
24:56But something was different now.
24:58The heavy cruiser Wilkins had hit wasn't shooting anymore.
25:02Its gun crews were still picking themselves up after the strafing pass.
25:06Getting reorganized.
25:08Those few minutes of silence gave the other bombers a window to get past the harbor guns.
25:13Minutes made of seconds.
25:15Lives hanging on those seconds.
25:18One B-25 limped home with three engines knocked out.
25:22Made it back on the fourth.
25:25Another absorbed 72 separate hits.
25:28They counted every one on the ground.
25:31The pilot brought it in with no hydraulic pressure.
25:34No braking.
25:35Rolled past the end of the strip and tipped onto its nose.
25:39The whole crew climbed out and walked away.
25:41A third bomber went into the ocean 20 miles short.
25:45A PT boat fished them out.
25:48Would anyone from Wilkins formation survive long enough to tell what happened over Simpson Harbor?
25:53Or was November 2 going to take every last one of them?
25:57Five B-25s from Wilkins formation made it into Allied airspace by 10.30 that morning.
26:03Two trailed smoke behind them.
26:05One was missing half its tail assembly.
26:07Another was running on a single engine.
26:10The fifth looked undamaged from a distance.
26:12Close up, it was shot full of holes.
26:14More than 300 fragments and bullet impacts.
26:18The ground crew tallied them once it was parked.
26:21Dobidura Airstrip in New Guinea took them in.
26:24Ground teams sprinted toward the planes as the propellers wound down.
26:28Medics dragged bleeding men out of turret positions and waste compartments.
26:32Three dead on arrival.
26:34Seven more wounded.
26:35The survivors barely spoke.
26:39Hollow stares.
26:40They'd seen Wilkins go down.
26:42Seen other Mitchells come apart in midair.
26:45A few had spotted the co-pilot floating out there.
26:48Nobody saw the Major come back up.
26:51Intelligence officers started the debrief right away.
26:54Results came before morning.
26:57The mission had a defined purpose.
26:59Pin the Japanese warships inside Simpson Harbor.
27:03Keep them away from the marine landings at Bougainville.
27:07The debriefers needed answers.
27:09How many ships gone?
27:11How much damage dealt?
27:12Whether the whole thing was worth it?
27:15The crews gave their reports in flat voices.
27:19First kill was Wilkins.
27:21Destroyer.
27:22Direct bomb strike.
27:23Verified.
27:24Second target.
27:25Heavy cruiser.
27:26On fire and dead in the water.
27:29Third.
27:30Another destroyer.
27:31Snapped in two and going under.
27:34Fourth.
27:35A transport.
27:35A blaze at dockside with ammo stores going off.
27:39The debrief officers wrote it down.
27:42Checked one account against another.
27:44Assembled the full picture.
27:46The overall toll was devastating.
27:49Eight B-25s lost.
27:52Nine P-38 Lightning escorts gone with them.
27:5545 aviators dead or missing.
27:58The worst single day 5th Air Force had seen since the whole campaign started.
28:05The math was ugly.
28:07Eleven percent of the strike force wiped out.
28:10Nearly one in four bomber crewmen killed.
28:13But the objective was met.
28:16Japanese ships never left port.
28:19Not a single vessel sortied toward Bougainville.
28:22The Marines locked down their beachhead with no interference from the sea.
28:28Strategic win.
28:29Tactical bloodbath.
28:31The cold arithmetic of warfare boiled down to entries on a ledger.
28:36Ships weighed against men.
28:39Ground gained weighed against lives spent.
28:42One crew brought back a different kind of story.
28:45Dick Walker.
28:47Sergeant with the 13th Bombardment Squadron, 3rd Bombardment Group.
28:51Wilkins Group, different squadron.
28:54What Walker witnessed that day exposed something uglier about leadership when things got bad.
29:00Walker's squadron came at Rabool from a separate heading.
29:04Eight B-25s in formation.
29:06Same orders.
29:08Same targets.
29:09Same wall of guns waiting.
29:12They reached the harbor entrance.
29:15Flak started bursting.
29:17Fighters launched.
29:18Their squadron commander was supposed to take them in.
29:21He didn't do it.
29:24At the critical moment, the commander pulled out of formation.
29:28Banked away.
29:29Headed back toward New Guinea.
29:31No attack.
29:33No explanation on the radio.
29:35Just gone.
29:37The seven B-25s behind him suddenly had nobody out front.
29:43Radio protocol kept anyone from asking questions.
29:46They banked to follow their leader away from the fight.
29:49Walker wasn't having it.
29:51He broke off on his own.
29:52One B-25 against Simpson Harbor.
29:56Against 367 gun emplacements.
29:59Against 400 fighters.
30:02No element partner.
30:03No backup.
30:05Nothing but anger and refusal to watch his commanding officer quit.
30:10He went in right on the water.
30:12Picked out a target.
30:13Merchant ship.
30:15Fat and stationary.
30:16Lined up on it.
30:17The flack was heavier than anything the briefing had described.
30:22Shells detonated in clusters.
30:24Tracers saturated every inch of airspace.
30:28Walker flew through all of it.
30:30His plane started taking hits the moment he entered the harbor.
30:34Wings.
30:35Body.
30:36Tail.
30:37Tail.
30:37He kept the nose pointed at the ship.
30:40Five hundred yards.
30:42Four hundred.
30:43Three hundred.
30:44His guns chewing the merchant vessel apart.
30:47The ship's deck coming to pieces under concentrated fire.
30:52Two hundred yards.
30:54He punched off his bombs.
30:56Skip delivery.
30:57Textbook.
30:58Both weapons hit below the waterline.
31:01The hull buckled inward.
31:03The ship started to lean.
31:05Walker yanked back and climbed away.
31:07The zeroes found him fast.
31:10Six.
31:11Eight.
31:12Ten, maybe.
31:13Walker lost count.
31:15His gunners were burning through belts as fast as they could load.
31:18The B-25 was riddled but still in the air.
31:21The fighters took runs at him.
31:24Walker threw the bomber around in hard, evasive breaks.
31:27Anything to throw off their tracking.
31:30His plane was harder to bring down than anyone expected.
31:33It soaked up punishment and stayed flying.
31:36He got out.
31:38Alone.
31:39Single bomber.
31:40One ship on the bottom.
31:42One man who wouldn't turn tail.
31:45He touched down at Dobadura an hour and a half after Wilkins went into the water.
31:49His airplane had 43 holes through it.
31:52His crew had scratches and bruises.
31:55Nothing life threatening.
31:57They stepped out of the plane furious.
32:00Their squadron leader had walked away from the fight.
32:03The reckoning came that same afternoon.
32:06Walker and the other crews cornered their commander.
32:09Wanted answers.
32:11Got nothing useful.
32:12The commander offered justifications.
32:16Weather conditions.
32:17Overwhelming defenses.
32:18Sound tactical judgment.
32:20Nobody bought a word of it.
32:23The operations officer sided with the commander.
32:26Covering for him.
32:27Both men looking out for their own records.
32:305th Air Force Command dealt with it behind closed doors.
32:33The squadron commander and the operations officer got new orders.
32:38Stateside.
32:39Effective immediately.
32:41No public proceedings.
32:42No formal charges.
32:44They just vanished from the theater.
32:47Fresh leadership stepped in.
32:49The whole affair was buried in classified records.
32:52It would be decades before the complete story came out.
32:56Meanwhile, over Rabaul, the larger battle was still raging.
33:00The full strike had involved 72 B-25s.
33:04Not only Wilkins 8.
33:06Not only Walker's squadron.
33:08Multiple groups attacking at the same time.
33:11The Japanese defense was spread too thin.
33:15Too many aircraft coming from too many directions.
33:18Not enough interceptors to cover everything.
33:20The Americans kept pushing.
33:23But the casualties kept climbing.
33:25Another B-25 fell at 1115.
33:28One more at 1123.
33:30P-38s and Zeros tangled at 12,000 feet.
33:34Two lightnings blew apart.
33:36A Zero corkscrewed into the harbor.
33:38The air battle lasted a solid 90 minutes.
33:42Would the deaths of 45 men actually protect the Marines on Bougainville?
33:46Or had 5th Air Force just spent lives for nothing?
33:49The answer showed up inside 48 hours.
33:52The Japanese warships at Rabaul stayed right where they were.
33:56No movement toward Bougainville.
33:58No strike against the Marine positions.
34:00Imperial Navy headquarters at Truk got the damage assessments from Simpson Harbor.
34:05Seven vessels sunk or crippled.
34:08Port defenses temporarily out of commission.
34:11Fighter numbers reduced from combat attrition.
34:14The combined fleet's carrier air groups took losses too.
34:18Eighteen zeroes shot down.
34:20Another twelve wrecked past the point of repair.
34:24Pilots dead.
34:26The veteran flyers from Zuikaku, Shokaku, and Zuiho.
34:30Men who'd trained for years.
34:33Impossible to replace in 1943.
34:36Japan's pipeline for new aviators couldn't keep pace with American output.
34:41Every man lost counted double.
34:44American signals intelligence was reading Japanese message traffic.
34:48Decrypted dispatches showed the real damage.
34:52Rabaul's command had reported the November 2nd strike as the most violent air assault they'd ever endured.
34:57Low-altitude skip bombing had proved brutally effective against ships sitting in harbor.
35:04Port infrastructure was hit.
35:06Morale was cracked.
35:08More critically, Japanese high command concluded that Rabaul could no longer support major fleet activity.
35:14The combined fleet pulled its carrier air groups out by November 10th.
35:19Shipped them back to Truk.
35:22Risking more irreplaceable pilots wasn't worth what Rabaul offered anymore.
35:27The base itself still stood.
35:30But its ability to project offensive power was finished.
35:34On Bougainville, the Marines pushed their perimeter outward.
35:38No Japanese naval harassment.
35:40No cruiser bombardments.
35:42No destroyer raids on the supply lines.
35:45The beachhead survived.
35:47Then expanded.
35:48By the middle of November, three full divisions had come ashore.
35:52With artillery, armor, logistics.
35:55The invasion held.
35:58The strategic math was stark.
36:01Forty-five American airmen killed in exchange for seven ships destroyed.
36:05And one major enemy base effectively taken off the board.
36:10Bougainville secured.
36:11Lives traded for objectives accomplished.
36:14Clinical calculations.
36:16The kind that end up in official campaign histories.
36:19Figures without identities.
36:21Data points without human beings attached.
36:25But the survivors cared about identities.
36:28Wilkins.
36:29The radio operator who died in the crash.
36:31The waste gunner who never got out of the fuselage.
36:34Bomber crews from other aircraft.
36:37Lightning pilots who didn't make it home.
36:40Every one of them had people.
36:42Families.
36:44Someone checking the mail every day.
36:46The war rolled on.
36:48The dead didn't.
36:505th Air Force started reviewing Wilkins' actions immediately after the raid.
36:55Multiple eyewitnesses corroborated his attacks.
36:57Two vessels destroyed.
36:59The cruiser's batteries neutralized.
37:01His formation shielded during the retreat.
37:03The decision to re-engage with a plane that was falling apart.
37:07The last strafing pass that soaked up enemy fire.
37:11The Medal of Honor had specific requirements.
37:14Conspicuous gallantry in action.
37:16Voluntarily risking life beyond what duty demanded.
37:20Direct contact with hostile forces.
37:23Wilkins checked every box.
37:25His group commander filed the recommendation on November 5th.
37:29Three days out from the mission.
37:31Written statements from surviving crewmen followed.
37:34The paperwork worked its way up the chain.
37:37Group headquarters.
37:38Wing headquarters.
37:395th Air Force Command.
37:41General George Kinney reviewed it in person.
37:44Kinney ran every air operation in the Southwest Pacific.
37:48He'd seen plenty of Medal of Honor submissions.
37:51The majority got turned down.
37:54The bar was deliberately high.
37:57Wilkins' file was something else.
37:59The supporting evidence was conclusive.
38:01Kenney signed off on November 20th.
38:04Sent it forward to Washington.
38:07Army Chief of Staff George Marshall had it on his desk by December.
38:11Marshall approved.
38:13President Roosevelt gave final authorization in January 1944.
38:18The Medal of Honor was conferred posthumously on Major Raymond Harrell Wilkins.
38:24His family got word in February.
38:26Telegram first.
38:28Official correspondence after.
38:31The medal itself arrived later still.
38:33Handed over at a ceremony in California.
38:36His mother and father accepted it.
38:39His younger brother stood with them.
38:42The woman in Australia wasn't asked to attend.
38:45She learned about his death through back channels.
38:48A letter he'd written three weeks before the raid arrived two months after he was gone.
38:55The letter was about the future.
38:57After the war ended.
38:59Going to medical school.
39:02Becoming a physician.
39:04Maybe making a life in Australia.
39:06Maybe going home to California.
39:08Plans laid out in page after page of careful handwriting.
39:13None of it came true.
39:15The Pacific had already decided.
39:19The letter turned into a keepsake.
39:21Put away alongside photos and service documents.
39:25In the Southwest Pacific, the fighting went on.
39:28Fifth Air Force hit Rabool again.
39:31November 5th.
39:32November 11th.
39:34Each raid smaller than the one on the second.
39:37The Japanese had hardened their defenses.
39:40More guns emplaced.
39:42Better radar coverage.
39:44The target was tougher than ever.
39:46But something shifted after Bloody Tuesday.
39:50American air crews knew it was possible.
39:53Rabool could be struck.
39:55Ships could be killed in the harbor.
39:57The fortress had limits.
40:00Morale climbed even as the casualty lists grew.
40:03The November 2nd raid entered unit legend.
40:07The day 5th Air Force showed it could hit the worst target in the Pacific
40:11and come out the other side.
40:14Dick Walker kept flying missions.
40:16Finished his combat tour.
40:19Made it through the war alive.
40:21He talked about it in later years.
40:23The commander who turned and ran.
40:26The solo attack he made out of pure defiance.
40:30Wilkins fighting until the ocean took him.
40:34Walker's account became part of the evidentiary record.
40:37Confirmation that everything reported about November 2nd was exactly what happened.
40:42Other crews cycled home.
40:44Replacements showed up.
40:46Green pilots.
40:47Young.
40:48Still learning.
40:49They heard about Wilkins during workups.
40:52The last original member of the 3rd Bombardment Group.
40:55The major who turned back into a wall of fire when his airplane was riddled with holes.
41:01The standard they were measured against.
41:04The 3rd Bombardment Group was awarded a distinguished unit citation for the November 2nd operation.
41:11Groupwide recognition.
41:12Every man who took part was authorized to wear it.
41:16Living or dead.
41:18The citation rendered the mission in official prose.
41:22Target description.
41:23Enemy opposition.
41:25Outcomes.
41:27Losses sustained.
41:29Made everything sound orderly and professional.
41:31The actual experience had been pure violence and disorder.
41:36Would Wilkins' sacrifice survive beyond official paperwork and boxed up medals?
41:41Or would history file him away as a number in a battle nobody remembers?
41:46History held onto him.
41:47Not right away.
41:49Not everywhere.
41:50But the story didn't die.
41:53Wilkins' Medal of Honor citation entered the official archives.
41:57Military historians wrote up the Rabaul raids in their Pacific War accounts.
42:01The November 2nd mission showed up in Air Force historical reviews.
42:05Brief references.
42:06Footnotes.
42:07A paragraph here and there inside longer works.
42:10But the tactical breakthroughs traveled fast.
42:14Skip bombing was adopted as standard 5th Air Force procedure by December 1943.
42:20Every B-25 unit in the theater went through the training.
42:23The modifications Wilkins had flown with went into factory production.
42:28Forward-mounted machine guns.
42:30Reinforced nose assemblies.
42:32Additional cockpit armor plating.
42:35The aircraft that killed him became the blueprint for hundreds that followed.
42:40The methods kept getting refined.
42:42Crews adjusted their approach geometry.
42:45Experimented with altitude.
42:4750 feet proved more effective than 100.
42:5040 feet got people killed.
42:52They worked out the margin.
42:54High enough that spray didn't blind the windscreen.
42:57Low enough to stay beneath radar detection.
43:00Veterans passed the knowledge to newcomers.
43:03Lessons paid for in lives.
43:07Rabaul stayed on the target list into early 1944.
43:10But the nature of the raids changed.
43:13The Japanese withdrew their capital ships.
43:16Left behind destroyers.
43:18Submarines.
43:19Smaller vessels.
43:21The heavy fleet units moved back to Trook.
43:24Then further still as American forces advanced.
43:28Rabaul ended up cut off.
43:30Surrounded.
43:31Eventually left to wither on the vine.
43:34The fortress that cost 45 men on November 2nd was never taken by storm.
43:41American planners changed the approach.
43:43Why bleed for a base you could simply starve?
43:46The Japanese garrison sat at Rabaul until the surrender.
43:50Resupplied by submarine.
43:52Slowly wasting away.
43:55Strategically meaningless.
43:56The November 2nd raid had started that slide into irrelevance.
44:013rd Bombardment Group flew missions through 1945.
44:05Different crews.
44:07Different planes.
44:08The founding members were all gone by the middle of 1944.
44:12Killed.
44:13Sent home.
44:14Transferred out.
44:16Wilkins had been the last of them.
44:17When he died, the group's original generation died with him.
44:22Everyone who followed was a replacement.
44:24The B-25 Mitchell went on to become one of the most widely manufactured bombers of the conflict.
44:30Close to 10,000 rolled off the lines.
44:33Every allied power flew them.
44:36The airframe turned out to be remarkably versatile.
44:39Close air support.
44:40Anti-shipping strikes.
44:42Medium altitude missions.
44:44Photo reconnaissance.
44:45Wilkins went down in an early variant.
44:48The models that came after incorporated every hard lesson from sorties like November 2nd.
44:53His family kept his memory to themselves.
44:56No press appearances.
44:58No public statements.
45:00The Medal of Honor went into a glass case.
45:03His belongings were packed into boxes and stored.
45:06Letters.
45:07Photos.
45:08The dress uniform he'd worn before shipping out.
45:12His parents passed away in the 60s.
45:14His brother looked after everything.
45:16In time, he turned it over to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson in Ohio.
45:21The exhibit is modest.
45:22A single case in a sea of hundreds.
45:26Wilkins Medal of Honor behind glass.
45:28A portrait in uniform.
45:30A short summary of what happened on November 2nd.
45:33Most people walk right by.
45:35The World War II wing is enormous.
45:38Too many names.
45:40Too many acts of courage.
45:42Individual stories blur into the background unless someone stops long enough to read.
45:47Veterans from the 3rd Bombardment Group got together every year.
45:50Reunions.
45:51They'd sit and talk about the guys who never came home.
45:55Wilkins always came up.
45:57A glass raised.
45:59A quiet moment.
46:00The gathering shrank year after year.
46:0350s.
46:0560s.
46:0670s.
46:07Eventually, too few old men remained to make the trip worthwhile.
46:11Dick Walker made it to several of those reunions, shared his account of the commander who fled.
46:17Of Wilkins going down swinging.
46:19Of his own lone attack, born out of fury.
46:23Walker died in 1998.
46:26Heart gave out.
46:2876 years old.
46:30His obituary noted his military service.
46:33Single paragraph.
46:35No specifics.
46:37The co-pilot who went into the water with Wilkins never talked about it publicly.
46:41He separated from the Air Force when the war ended.
46:45Went into teaching.
46:46Got married.
46:47Had kids.
46:49When his students asked about the war, he kept it short.
46:53Said he'd served in the Pacific.
46:55Left out Rabool.
46:57Left out watching his aircraft commander slip underwater.
47:01Carried it privately until he died in 2003.
47:05The woman in Australia built a new life eventually.
47:09Married another man.
47:11Raised a family.
47:13But she held on to Wilkins' letters.
47:15The ones he'd sent before November 2nd.
47:19Accounts of missions.
47:20Talk of what they'd do when it was all over.
47:24The last one reached her in January 1944.
47:28By then the telegram had already come.
47:31She read his words, already knowing he was dead.
47:35She kept those letters the rest of her life.
47:38Her children discovered them when they sorted through her things.
47:42One letter stood apart from the others.
47:45Dated October 28th.
47:47Four days before Rabool.
47:49Wilkins wrote that he could feel his luck thinning out.
47:5386 missions behind him.
47:55Every other man from his original group was gone.
47:57He understood the numbers.
48:00Nobody outran the odds indefinitely.
48:03But he also wrote about obligation.
48:05About the crews counting on him.
48:08About seeing the thing through.
48:10The letter closed with a promise.
48:13Once he hit his 100th mission, he'd put in for reassignment.
48:16Come back to Australia.
48:19Marry her.
48:20Build the life they'd been talking about.
48:22He never flew mission 88.
48:25The promise went under with him somewhere in the Pacific.
48:29Today's Air Force officers study the Rabool operations in professional military coursework.
48:35Case studies covering leadership under pressure.
48:38Tactical adaptation.
48:40The calculus of acceptable losses against mission requirements.
48:45Wilkins appears in the lesson plans.
48:48Model of commitment.
48:50Of self-sacrifice.
48:51The treatment is detached.
48:54Analytical.
48:55Stripped of feeling.
48:56Just principles distilled from what happened.
48:59Would the generations that followed ever grasp what Wilkins and 44 others paid over Simpson Harbor?
49:05Or would they fade into another line item in a war that consumed millions?
49:11The data tells its own version.
49:14Seven ships destroyed or knocked out of action at Rabaul.
49:18Japanese naval capability disrupted.
49:21The Bougainville landings shielded.
49:24Strategic goals met.
49:2645 American flyers dead.
49:29Within acceptable parameters by military reckoning.
49:32Mission accomplished.
49:35But data leaves out the human part.
49:38Raymond Wilkins was 26 years old.
49:41He'd come through 86 missions, when the average crew didn't last 20.
49:47He was making plans.
49:49Medical school.
49:50A wedding.
49:51A whole life waiting on the other side.
49:54He gave all of it up in those final moments above Simpson Harbor, when he pointed his nose back at
50:01that cruiser.
50:02The decision wasn't complicated.
50:05His formation was pulling away.
50:07The cruiser had them in its sights.
50:11Somebody had to absorb those guns.
50:14Wilkins could have flown on.
50:16Not a soul would have faulted him.
50:18His plane was wrecked.
50:20He'd already sunk a ship.
50:22Job done.
50:23Time to go home.
50:24Every procedure he'd ever followed said, break off.
50:29He turned back instead.
50:31Not because someone ordered him to.
50:34Not because any manual called for it.
50:37Because five bombers loaded with men he knew were about to get torn apart.
50:43And he was in a position to stop it.
50:46The arithmetic was basic.
50:49His one plane.
50:50His one crew.
50:52Set against five planes.
50:54Five crews.
50:56That trade only works if the man making it cares more about the others than himself.
51:02That's what the Medal of Honor is actually about.
51:06Not just courage in combat.
51:08Plenty of men showed that.
51:09Not just getting the job done.
51:12That was the baseline.
51:14The Medal exists for the moment when a person accepts their own death so that others get
51:19to live.
51:20When everything that says run is overruled by something deeper.
51:25Duty.
51:26Loyalty.
51:28Love for the men beside you.
51:31Wilkins reached that moment at 800 yards from a Japanese heavy cruiser.
51:35He firewalled the throttles on a plane that was dying underneath him.
51:40Pointed it straight into massed anti-aircraft fire.
51:43Made himself the target so his squadron wouldn't be.
51:47Bought life for men he'd never see again.
51:51Men who went home.
51:52Built families.
51:54Grew old.
51:55Lived out the decades he never got.
51:58His death gave them that.
52:01All five B-25s he shielded landed at base that day.
52:05Torn up.
52:07Ventilated with holes.
52:08But intact.
52:10Twenty-five men walked away who might not have otherwise.
52:14Some went back up for more missions.
52:16Others shipped home when their tours ended.
52:19They took the story of Wilkins with them.
52:22Repeated it in debriefs.
52:24Put it in letters home.
52:26Handed it down to the crews that came after.
52:29One pilot from that formation named his firstborn Raymond.
52:33Another carried a snapshot of Wilkins tucked inside his flight log for four decades.
52:38A third drove out to California after the war and sat with Wilkins' mother and father.
52:43Told them what their son had done over Rabool.
52:46Gave them the details no telegram could carry.
52:49The tactics Wilkins proved in combat became standard operating procedure.
52:55Masthead level skip bombing.
52:57Thousands of sorties flown using the approach he helped validate.
53:01Ships sent to the bottom across the Pacific.
53:04Rabool to the Philippines.
53:06New Guinea to Okinawa.
53:08The method succeeded because men like Wilkins put it to the test under fire.
53:12Worked out the problems.
53:14Died getting it right.
53:15His B-25, the one they called Fifi, never took off again.
53:21It rests on the ocean floor 50 miles off Rabool.
53:25Saltwater has eaten through everything by now.
53:28Aluminum gone.
53:29Steel corroded to nothing.
53:31But the airplane did what it was built to do.
53:34Sank two warships.
53:36Saved a squadron.
53:38That's a better record than most bombers ever posted.
53:42The woman in Australia eventually made her peace with losing him.
53:46It took years.
53:47She understood the reasons.
53:48War.
53:49Obligation.
53:50The cost of doing what needed doing.
53:53But understanding it in her head was different from accepting it in her chest.
53:57The future they'd drawn up together dissolved on November 2nd.
54:01She constructed a different one.
54:03But she never let go of the pilot who swore he'd come back.
54:06His parents never mended.
54:09A child's death leaves a wound that doesn't close.
54:12They went to the ceremonies.
54:14Took the Medal of Honor.
54:15Put it on display with pride.
54:17But the medal wasn't their son.
54:20Nothing was.
54:21They lived another 20 years with that absence.
54:24The 87 missions Wilkins completed represent 87 separate occasions where death passed him by.
54:3187 rolls of the dice that came up in his favor.
54:34Skill kept him alive.
54:36Luck covered the rest.
54:38Each time, fate gave him one more day.
54:43Number 88 was different.
54:45Maybe the luck finally dried up.
54:47Maybe the numbers simply caught him.
54:49Or maybe he'd arrived at the moment every combat flyer knows is out there waiting.
54:55Pilots who'd been through it understood.
54:57Nobody flies forever.
54:59The statistics won't allow it.
55:02Enough sorties and the math closes in.
55:05Wilkins held out longer than almost anyone around him.
55:08He was aware of that.
55:09Put it down in writing.
55:11Felt it in his gut before that last takeoff.
55:14But he climbed into the cockpit anyway.
55:16Because the seat couldn't stay empty.
55:19That's the real story behind Rabool.
55:21Not the skip bombing technique.
55:23Not the tonnage sunk.
55:25Not the campaign objectives checked off a list.
55:28The story is about regular men doing things that shouldn't have been possible because the situation demanded it.
55:35Because the people next to them needed it.
55:38Because turning away wasn't something they could carry afterward.
55:41Major Raymond Harrell Wilkins died doing exactly that.
55:47His shot up B-25 put two warships on the harbor floor.
55:51Then kept his squadron breathing.
55:53Then carried him down into the Pacific.
55:5626 years old.
55:59Medal of Honor.
55:59The last original member of the third bombardment group.
56:04Hero.
56:06If this story hit you the way it hit us, do us one thing.
56:10Tap that like button.
56:11Every like signals YouTube to put this story in front of more people.
56:16Hit subscribe and turn on notifications.
56:18We're pulling forgotten stories out of dusty archives every single day.
56:23Stories about ground crews who improvised weapons out of spare parts.
56:26Stories about pilots who kept flying burning planes so their crews could bail out.
56:32Stories about men who stood alone against everything and refused to break.
56:38Real people.
56:39Real valor.
56:40Leave a comment right now and let us know where you're tuning in from.
56:44Are you watching from the United States?
56:46United Kingdom?
56:48Canada?
56:49Australia?
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56:53You're not just watching a video.
56:56You're part of keeping these stories from disappearing.
56:58Tell us where you are.
57:00Tell us if someone in your family wore the uniform.
57:03Tell us if you'd ever come across the name Raymond Wilkins before today.
57:08Just let us know you showed up.
57:09All right.
57:10Thanks for watching.
57:11And thanks for making sure Raymond Wilkins isn't forgotten.
57:15This man earned the right to be remembered.
57:18And you're making that happen.
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