400th Bombardment Squadron

Dewey Hooper was assigned to the 400th Bombardment Squadron, 90th Bomb Group, Fifth Air Force.  The 90th, a wing made up of four bomber squadrons, was known as the “Jolly Rogers”.  In September 1942, the unit moved to Hickham Field, Hawaii (today Hickam Air Force Base, Joint Base Pearl Harbor), and in November deployed to the South Pacific.  The wing was based at the Iron Range airfield in Queensland, Australia.  The 400th, nicknamed "The Black Pirates".  flew the B-24 Liberator, a four-engine heavy bomber, across the Coral Sea on missions against Japanese forces in East New Guinea (today Papua New Guinea).  The unit began combat operations once it arrived at Iron Range.

Iron Range is described in an account in the Dewey Hooper Collection entitled "Cross in the Clouds" as “…a dusty red scar gouged in the rainforest”.  It was located in the tropical northeastern coast of Australia.  It very quickly became apparent to the flight crews of the 400th and other squadrons that the weather in the area was just as dangerous as the enemy.  Tropical storms blew aircraft off course, and on more than one occasion, Allied aircraft went missing, with their surviving crews later found in the jungle.  Some crews and aircraft disappeared completely, never to be seen again.  The region is very mountainous, and pilots experienced near misses with mountains when visibility was poor. 

Iron Range was just one airbase on the Queensland coast; other bases included the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) airfield at Garbutt, a suburb of Townsville, as well as RAAF Amberley, near Brisbane; both bases are to the south of Iron Range.

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B-24 Liberators at Iron Range in 1942 (Courtesy Peter Gunn, Australia at War website; used with permission)