Published February 7, 2026
By Phil Reyburn
Technical Sergeant Marvin B. Wolverton’s military occupation was that of an Airplane Armorer and Gunner assigned to B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. During World War II, he served in the following battles and campaigns in the Pacific Theater: Solomons Campaign; East Indies; Bismarck-Archipelago; Papua, New Guinea; and Guadalcanal Campaign. With the Eighth Air Force in England, Wolverton saw action in the Air Offensive over Central Europe, Northern France, Normandy, and the Rhineland.
On his uniform he wore these decorations and citations: Purple Heart; Distinguished Flying Cross with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster; Silver Star; Air Medal with 10 Oak Leaf Clusters; European Theater of Operations Ribbon and 11 Bronze Stars; and the Asiatic-Pacific Ribbon.
Before World War II Marvin “Pee Wee” Wolverton was widely known around Quincy for his athletic prowess. The 5’9” and 140 lbs. Wolverton was the smallest man on the 1934 Quincy Blue Devil football team’s offensive line. “Pee Wee” started at center, winning the job due to fight, grit, and determination. After high school “Pee Wee’s” athletic skills were such that he had a four year 353-game minor league baseball career where he batted a healthy .295.
After registering for the draft on October 16, 1940, Marvin enlisted in the army on December 7, 1940, a year before Pearl Harbor was attacked. He was trained as a gunner and due to his size was a belly gunner on the Flying Fortress.
Wolverton was in a squadron of B-17s that arrived in Hawaii too late to participate in the Battle of Midway. The planes did, however, take part in the unsuccessful search for the fleeing Japanese fleet before returning to the United States.
No more back in the United States, than Marvin was sent to Australia, arriving July 15, 1942. He was now part of the Fifth Air Force, 43rd Bombardment Group flying in the Southwest Pacific theater. By mid-September 1942, the B-17s were stationed at Port Moresby, New Guinea, bringing them closer to the fighting in the Southwest Pacific.
Beginning in the fall of 1942, the air force began the assault on Rabaul at the western end of the island of New Britain. Rabaul’s location and harbor made it the ideal staging location for Japanese ships, aircraft, supplies and troops for the New Guinea and Guadalcanal campaigns; therefore, its neutralization was a primary objective of American and Australian forces.
The Fifth Air Force found that high altitude bombing of moving ships was not delivering results. Experimentation with skip bombing began. Like a kid skipping stones on water, the bombers would attack mast height and skip bombs into Japanese ships. Major William G. Benn took charge of implementing skip bombing with the 63rd Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group. Test runs were positive. The final exam would be Rabaul’s Simpson Harbor.
At midnight October 22, 1942, the 64th BS hit Rabaul from 10,000 feet attracting the Japanese searchlights and anti-aircraft guns while the 63rd BS took on the enemy’s ships with skip bombing.
On May 18, 1943, the Herald Whig printed an AP wire service article stating that “nine airmen who gleefully lighted a torch . . . a flaming . . . enemy cargo ship. The fires of which could be seen for 80 miles —wear the air medal for meritorious achievement today. The burning of the Japanese cargo ship in Simpson Harbor at Rabaul, New, last Oct. 23 so thoroughly illuminated the bay that other American bombers were able to pick out other vessels as excellent targets. Among those decorated for this was Marvin B. Wolverton, Quincy, Ill.”
Belly Gunner Wolverton continued to accrue missions and participated in the pivotal Battle of the Bismarck Sea. The Japanese continued to bring escorted cargo ships filled with supplies and reinforcements to the fighting in New Guinea, but this was coming to an end as American and Australian airpower prepared to establish its preeminence over the Japanese navy.
On February 28, 1943, a convoy of 16 Japanese ships made up equally of destroyers and troop ships, covered by fighter aircraft departed Rabaul to reinforce and resupply Lae, New Guinea. A patrolling B-24 Liberator sighted the convoy on March 1.
Eight B-17s took off the next morning in search of the Japanese convoy. When it was located, the B-17s rendezvousing P-38 fighter cover was late, leaving the bombers to take on the Japanese fighters. The three-day battle resulted in eight Japanese transports and four destroyers sunk, and at least 90 aircraft lost. While approximately 3,000 Japanese soldiers drowned. Allied losses were six planes and 13 killed.
In a May 30, 1943 interview with the Herald Whig, Marvin Wolverton recounted his part in the battle. “‘I rode the turret under the belly of my ship. We call it the ‘goldfish bowl.’ I was scared at first, but when we started shooting, I forgot fear in my excitement. I guess it was like being in a duck blind when the ducks come swooping in from everywhere. The Zeroes would slip under our belly to doge the wing guns and some came so close I could have kicked them if I could have kicked [them] quickly enough. When they were under us, they were “duck soup’ for the [belly] turret guns. I was given official credit for downing three Zeroes. The squadron got more. Things happened so fast it was hard to tell what was happening. Every man in every crew did his best.’”
“For his work in the Bismarck fight,” the Herald Whig reported, “Wolverton, won the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Silver Star. . ..”
The newspaper’s interviewer commented that the 26-yeard-old Sgt Wolverton was “modest and shy . . . looking more like a schoolboy than a hero who did far more than his part in the epochal battle of the war in the Southwestern Pacific.”
Phil Reyburn is a retired field representative for the Social Security Administration. He authored Clear the Track: A History of the Eighty-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, The Railroad Regiment; and co-edited “Jottings from Dixie:” The Civil War Dispatches of Sergeant Major Stephen F. Fleharty, U.S.A”.
SOURCES:
Army of the United States Honorable Discharge filed October 15, 1945, at the Adams County, Illinois Recorder’s Office, Book 15, Page 109.
“Boys In The Service.” Quincy Herald Whig, August 10, 1944, 2.
Find a Grave. Marvin Bernard “Pee Wee” Wolverton.
Glines, C. V. “Victory in the Bismarck.” Air Force Magazine, August 1996, 88-93.
“Marvin ‘PeeWee Wolverton.” Quincy Herald Whig, October 9, 1998, p. 23.
“Our Men In Service.” Quincy Herald Whig, May 24, 1943, 10.
“Our Men In Service.” Quincy Herald Whig July 28, 1943, 4.
“Our Men In Service.” Quincy Herald Whig, February 8, 1945, 16.
“Quincyan Liberated.” Quincy Herald Whig, May 24, 1945, 17.
“Sgt. Wolverton, Bombardier Is Awarded Medal.” Quincy Herald Whig. May 18, 1943, 4.
“Sgt. Wolverton is a prisoner of war of the Germans.” Quincy Herald Whig, January 5, 1945, 10.
“Sgt. Wolverton Is Reported Missing In Action Since Oct. 6.” Quincy Herald Whig, October 26, 1944, 16.
“Sgt. Wolverton Tells of Battle for Bismarck Sea. Quincy Herald Whig, May 30, 1943, 2.
“Two Quincyans, Free Prisoners of War.” Quincy Herald Whig, June 28, 1945, 16.
