As Joe Foss scanned the skies on January 25, 1943, he spotted a large formation of 100 Japanese bombers and escort planes flying toward Guadalcanal. With only 12 fighters in his attack group, the Marine Corps captain recognized he was impossibly outnumbered.
That didn’t stop Foss, though. The cigar-chomping, tough-as-nails American ace with 26 kills in World War II gunned his Grumman F4F Wildcat into action and ordered his pilots to use the overcast conditions to their advantage as they attacked the overwhelming enemy force.
By darting in and out of the clouds, the aptly named Foss’ Flying Circus quickly shot down four Japanese fighters and tricked the bombers into thinking they had encountered a much larger squadron. The Japanese withdrew from attacking strategically important Henderson Field on Guadalcanal and flew back to their base without dropping a single bomb.
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