AIR: Lost Sheep

At week's beginning Marine Major Gregory Boyington (TIME, Jan. 10) got his 26th Jap plane in aerial combat, tied the American records of Eddie Rickenbacker and Marine Joe Foss. But the mark is still to be broken.

Few days later came a terse notice from the Navy Department: tough, hard-flying, straight-shooting "Pappy" Boyington, who had built his "Black Sheep" into one of the best U.S. fighter squadrons) was missing in action. His Corsair had gone down over Rabaul in the very fight that put him at the top.

Over New Britain, U.S. fighter pilots saw their squadron leader, 23-year-old Army Major Edward Cragg Jr. (TIME, Nov. 29), close with a silver Jap fighter, knew he had found the man he had been looking for. Major Cragg, second ranking U.S. ace in the Southwest Pacific (17 planes), for days had been still-hunting the Jap pilot who had apparently shot down about a dozen U.S. craft.

U.S. airmen caught a glimpse of the Jap flashing by, saw the swatch of American flags painted on his engine cowling. There was no time to watch the fight but they saw the end. Ed Cragg's plane went down smoking, crashed into the sea.