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Note: Copy of article sent to Vivian Paulson by Russell Paulson-Thought maybe you'd like this history of long Rangers. Save this letter as I want it. R
Headquarters
307TH Bombardment Group (HV)
APO 719-2 20 October 1945 The following news item is quoted from a recent issue of the Washington, D.C. "Star"-
EXPLOITS OF B-24 'LONG RANGERS; TO PROVIDE LIVELY POSTWAR YARNS HEADQUARTERS 13TH AIR FORCE, Philippines.-Here's what Daddy did in the big war if he was in the "Long Rangers" group, one of the famed B-24 outfits of the Jungle Air Force.
He was a member of a team which; Reached out from its South, Southwest Pacific and Netherlands East Indies bases to plaster the Japanese over an area of more than 8,500,000 square miles, considerably more than the area of the United States:
Struck at the enemy on more than 700 days of its three years in action, usually flying two or more missions a day;
Earned two Distinguished Unit Citations, swarded by direction of the President, for cracking the tough Truk and Balikpapan bases;
Helped neutralize the bristling bases of Truk, Yap and Palsu in less than four months to pave the way for the invasions of Guam, Saipan and the Caroline Islands;
Threw the Standard Operating Procedure book on B-24 Liberators out the window to put all four squadrons of the group in the air for 187 days with only one 24-hour period of inactivity in a six-month climax ending June 28, 1943-dropping 9800 tons of bombs in 37,000 air hours logged;
HELD 500,000 AT BAY: Harried and helped hold at bay some 500,000 bypassed Japs in the South and Southwest Pacific and the Dutch Indies after leading interference to enable other units to slip into position through the breaks it had made in the Jap line and pummel Japan's home islands;
Sunk 27,440 and damaged 112,525 tons of enemy shipping; Chalked up some of the longest B-24 combat missions of the war-13 hours to hit Yap, 17 1/2 hours to hit Balikpapan;
Shot down or badly damaged 482 Jap planes-sometimes as many as 25 per cent of enemy interceptive power on a mission; destroyed 170 on the ground.
If he runs out of statistics, daddy can tell the kids about: The first ultra-long range strike of the war Christmas Eve, 1942, against Wake Island, the first time U. S. land-based air power appeared in force; the "Long Rangers" flew a 2240-mile round trip from Midway.
FIVE 2600-MILE STRIKES; The five 2600-mile strikes against Japan's main source of oil, Balikpapan, Borneo, in conjunction with its sister Liberator group of the 13th Air Force, the "Bomber Barons" and some 5th Air Force Squadrons. the strikes knocked out the Pandansari and Edelneau refineries at Balikpapan and created the oil shortage that grounded Jap aircraft in the Philippines, the Indies, and at bases in China.
The first time a Jap naval fleet, consisting of three battleships, four cruisers and five destroyers, was placed under land-based bomber attack. the prize battlewagon Yamato and another battleship of the Kongo class were "rangerized" and badly damaged despite 16-inch guns fired at the Liberators in futile defense of this remnant of the Jap Imperial fleet.
The "Long Rangers"-the 307th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the 13th air Force, is commanded by Col. Clifford H. Rees, of Cynthiana, KY., and Fort Worth, Texas.
The group flew its last combat strike of the war on Aug. 11, 1945, hitting the Laha airdrome area on Amboina Island. It was a "practiced" mission leading up to a full-fledged blast at the Jap homeland as soon as the outfit could move into position on Okinawa.
[Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2 M-Z, Ed. 5, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Date of Import: 21 Jul, 1998, Internal Ref. #1.112.5.39286.170]
Individual: Paulson, Russell
Social Security #: 330-05-0388
SS# issued in: Illinois
Birth date: 16 Oct, 1912
Death date: Sep 1991
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