Bruce Gamble - Kangaroo Squadron: American Courage in the Darkest Days of World War II

I t is neither an exaggeration nor boastful arrogance to say that I was born to write this story. When I came into this worldon the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, no lessI became part of a large, extended family living in an old stone farmhouse in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Three generations resided in that wonderful home, including my uncle, John Steinbinder, a navigator in the squadron whose story is described herein.

My immediate family later moved from Bucks County, so I had little awareness of Uncle Johnnys military service during my youth. Instead I paid more attention to my fathers experiences as a B-29 pilot over Japan, which inspired me to serve as a flight officer in the U.S. Navy during the closing years of the Cold War. It wasnt until much later, after I was medically retired and began writing, that my interest in Uncle Johnnys wartime adventures revived. Sadly, by the time I began work on my trilogy about Rabaul, he had been diagnosed with Alzheimers. But fate took a turn. Not long before his death, I took possession of a footlocker containing his military papers and other memorabilia, including a handwritten diary filled with details of his combat tour with the Kangaroo Squadron in 1942. Many of his entries revealed the intense drama he experienced during combat missions, which made even the day-to-day commentary seem all the more interesting. And the more I learned about his squadron, the more impressed I became with the achievements those young men accomplished during the darkest days of the war.

While I worked on other books, I began gathering as much information on the Kangaroo Squadron as I could find. Considering the early period of the war, when setbacks and retreats were a daily occurrence and official records were frequently lost or neglected, it was a pleasant surprise to find that a wealth of documentation had been preserved by the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. Later, thanks to the assistance of numerous colleagues, I managed to track down the diaries, memoirs, and photograph collections of several other squadron members to supplement the official records and my uncles material. Now, almost sixty years after my arrival on that winter night, it is my honor and privilege to share this narrative account of the Kangaroo Squadron and its brave crews. My only regret is that so few members of Uncle Johnnys generation are still extant. We cant slow the march of time, of course, but it is my sincere hope that this book will enable another generation of readers to appreciate the courageous efforts of a few American aviators during the opening months of World War II. May their actions be remembered for just a little while longer.