"Lanphier and wingman Rex Barber headed for the enemy which were slightly above and at their one or two o'clock position off their nose, rapidly closing toward them; they had hoped to position themselves for a right-turning pursuit-curve attack, but when about a mile in front and two miles to the right of the bombers, the Zeroes spotted them and dropping their belly tanks, dove down to intercept the P-38s, while the lead Betty nosed down in a diving turn to get away from the attackers. Meanwhile, Lt. Holmes, leader of the Killer's 2nd element, could not release his belly tanks, so in an effort to jar them loose, he turned off down the coast kicking his plane around attempting to shake them loose. Ray Hine, his wingman had no choice but to follow and protect him. So Lanphier and Barber were left as the only two going after the Japs for the first few minutes."

Roger Ames wrote that he could not personally see what transpired next, since he was at 18,000 feet, and the Killers were down closer to the jungle. But he had carefully read all available reports, and concluded that the following events had taken place: "As Lanphier and Barber were about to be intercepted by the Zeroes, Lanphier banked slightly left to turn head on into them, shot down one Zero and scattered the others. This gave Rex Barber the time and opportunity to go for the bombers without interference. As Barber turned right to get into position to attack the Betty bombers, his left boom and engine blanked his view and he lost sight of them briefly as they passed under his wing, and when he straightened around he saw only one bomber - going 'hell bent for leather' in a spiral turn down toward the jungle tree tops. The 2nd bomber, he learned later, had dropped behind the first and was below and behind Barber, who immediately went after the 1st Betty and started firing across the top of the fuselage at the right engine. As he slid over to get directly behind the target, his fire passed through the vertical fin of the Betty and he saw pieces of the rudder separate from the plane. He continued firing and was probably no more than 100 feet behind the Betty when it suddenly snapped to the left and slowed rapidly; as Barber roared by he saw smoke coming from the right engine. He believed the Betty went down into the jungle, but he did not actually see it crash."

"By then, three of the Japanese Zeroes were making firing passes on Barber's tail, as he took violent evasive action while he headed for the coast on the deck, at minimum altitude. Luckily for him, two P-38s (which were later determined to be Lts. Holmes

and Hine) saw his difficulty and chased the Zeroes off his tail.

Barber stated that he glanced back inland toward the area he had just passed, and saw a large column of black smoke rising from the jungle, which he believed to be the Betty bomber he had just shot down."

"In the meantime," continued Ames, "Lanphier, having shot down one and scattered the rest of the Zeroes' formation, found himself at about 6000 feet and looking down, saw a Betty flying across the tree tops, so he came down and began firing a long, steady burst across the bombers' course of flight ... from approximately right angles. (In another account, Lanphier claimed he was clearing his guns.) In both cases he said that 'he felt he was too far away to hit it', but to his surprise, the bomber's right engine and right wing began to burn - then 'the right wing came off ' the plane plunged into the jungle and exploded."

A search team, led by Japanese Army Lieut. Hamasuna, found the wreckage the evening of the following day - 19 April 1943 - and reported "that the 'wings and propellers had survived', but the fuselage had broken just ahead of the Rising Sun insignia, and the section forward from there to the cockpit had been burned out. No one had survived the crash, except possibly Chief Surgeon Takata, whose body was found next to that of Yamamoto. It was speculated that Takata may have placed Yamamoto, while still alive, in his seat where he was found, and then Takata died near him.

Yamamoto was found dead outside the fuselage, sitting on the cabin seat, with the seat belt on, as if he were still alive. He wore white gloves. His hand grasped his sword and his right hand rested lightly upon it. His head lolled forward as though he was deep in thought, but he was dead.

Yamamoto's watch had stopped at 7:45 "Lt. Holmes, having shaken loose his faulty drop tank, saw the second Betty bomber diving toward the sea at low altitude, and took after him, with Lt. Hine on his wing.

They had the bomber under heavy fire from the rear, when Rex Barber reportedly joined their attack and finished putting the crippled aircraft into the sea but, in the process, because of his excessively high rate of closure was struck by falling debris which damaged his intercooler and scraped his gondola.

"Lanphier then said that two Zeroes came after him and he called Mitchell to send someone down to help him. He unwittingly led them over a corner of the Japanese fighter strip at Kahili, then headed East with the Zeroes still on his tail, went into a high speed climb and finally lost the Zeroes at about 20,000 feet. Lanphier finally arrived at their home base - with just two bullet holes in his rudder ... in startling contrast to Barber's plane, which had 104 bullet holes, a knocked out intercooler and a large dent in his gondola."

Upon landing at Fighter II on Guadalcanal, none of the 15 surviving pilots were formally debriefed on the mission. (Lt. Hine did not return from the flight, and was listed as MIA) Lanphier was one of the first to land, and he got out of his plane shouting, in no uncertain terms, that he had shot down Yamamoto. He kept repeating "I got him. I got him. I got that son-of-a-bitch". Neither Major Mitchell nor Lt. Rex Barber could believe what they were hearing from Lanphier. "How," they thought "could Lanphier even know which Betty the Admiral was riding in?" No one saw him shoot at any aircraft.

When the returning mission pilots gathered in the headquarters tent, every one was talking at the same time and the only records taken were cursory notes that one or two intelligence officers made, and those were usually concerned with victory claims and confirmation information. Mitchell recalled "We had no one who could conduct debriefings in those days. We were uneducated then. We only knew what we ourselves had been through, and accepted each others' versions of what had happened."

No one questioned Lanphier's claim as he persisted in retelling his story over and over to anyone who would listen. While Rex Barber sat back, unable to understand how Tom could continue to