Bougainville
25 Squadron flew in its SBD-5s to Guadalcanal on 22 March, escorted by four Venturas and one C-47 from 40 Squadron. A Catalina from 6 Squadron stood by at Halavo in the Florida Islands as a safety aircraft.
At Guadalcanal NZ5055, piloted by F/O Bruce Graham, swerved on landing at Henderson Field and collided with an oil-drum. The 'plane was written off.
From Henderson Field the squadron flew to Piva on 23 January. While in transit, the gunner in NZ5063 inadvertently fired his stowed machine-guns and caused considerable damage to the fuselage. The guns were not supposed to be able to be fired while pointed at any part of the aircraft.
Upon landing at Piva, the New Zealanders found themselves on a narrow beach-head, with Japanese forces shelling and attacking the perimeter.
The first mission flown from Piva was an artillery-spotting exercise undertaken by MacLean de Lange and his gunner at 0615 on 24 March. Over the course of the day, the squadron flew three more sorties against the Japanese. So close were the enemy, that during one of these raids, ground crew on the airstrip were able to watch the pilots drop their bombs.
Read more about this topic: No. 25 Squadron RNZAF