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The World War 2 Mission to Settle a Grudge
Operation Vengeance was an unbelievable success, but one tainted with controversy
The mission had succeeded with barely a hitch. As the planes returned to Guadalcanal at noon on that April day, the pilots all held a feeling of excitement, even if their radio silence forbade them from expressing it. Captain Thomas G. Lanphier, Jr. finally broke the silence.
“That son of a bitch will not be dictating any peace terms in the White House,” he radioed to the control tower.
The “son of a bitch” was Admiral Isokoru Yamamoto, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, the mastermind behind the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor sixteen months prior and, consequently, one of the men most hated in America.
After that day, however, Yamamoto would not be planning any more attacks. Nor would he would be leading the Combined Fleet. The plane that had been carrying him to inspect his bases in the Solomon Islands was instead burning in a jungle near Bouganville, a victim of the U.S. fighter planes that were now landing back at Guadalcanal.
Lanphier was one of the first to land. Climbing out of his cockpit, he claimed “I got that son of a bitch. I got Yamamoto.” He immediately put in a claim for downing the Mitsubishi G4M…
