The first was the 12th April 1943 attack against Port Moresby, led by the Commander of the 751st Kokutai, Masaichi Suzuki. Leading a combined force of seventeen G4M1s from the 751st and twenty-seven from the 705th Kokuta.

The real sting in the formation's tail was 131 Zero fighters which escorted the formation from Rabaul. The escorts were comprised of carrier Zeros flying from Rabaul for the Operation. Among them were 23 Zeros from Zuikaku, 14 Zeros from Zuihō.

Their target was the series of airfields behind Port Moresby at 10:25 in the morning from 25,000'.  Targets included Schwimmer (damage unknown). At 7-Mile Drome they set a fuel dump on fire. At 17-Mile Drome they destroyed  three B-25s of the 3rd Attack Group and fourteen other aircraft were damaged, including RAAF ones, and several fuel dumps were set ablaze at 7-Mile.

The 751st Kokutai, being in the lead, took the brunt of American resistance put up by P-38s and P-39s. This unit lost six G4M1s to the Americans, and another was written off in a crash-landing at Lae. The following 705th Kokutai, led by Lt. Commander Tomo Nakamura, had eleven G4M1s damaged during the attack, including some crew fatalities, but its losses were limited to one bomber destroyed in a force-landing at Lae alongside the one put down previously by the 751st.

The two main defending American units over Moresby's airfield complex were the 41st Fighter Squadron and 80th Fighter Squadrons, flying Airacobras and Lightnings respectively.

P-38G 42-12857 force landed at 30 Mile Drome (Rogers Drome): and another P-38 piloted by Alger force landed at 7-Mile Drome (Jackson Drome).

Four Airacobras were lost: P-39D 41-38351, P-39D 41-38402, P-39 piloted by Keating and P-39 piloted by Ferguson. All Airacobra pilots bailed out, survived and returned to duty later.

41st Fighter Squadron pilot, Richard Culton
Richard Culton piloting P-39D 41-38351 engaged an A6M2 Zero which he later claimed, when another Zero opened fire from his six o'clock. Pieces of 20mm shrapnel exploded off the engine block of his Allison engine and lodged in Culton's neck.  He bailed out and landed near Haima village where he was given a cup of tea, before being returned to his squadron later that afternoon in a U.S. jeep which pulled into the village looking for him. His fighter had meanwhile crashed about two kilometers NW of the Village.

2/Lt Richard D. Kimball
While Culton was tangling with the Zeros, 2/Lt Richard D. Kimball bailed out of P-39D 41-38402 north of the airfield complex, and did not return to his base until eight days later. As Kimball would later recount, his parachute became tangled in a tree, and there he remained until natives climbed up and cut him loose. For eight days he followed natives back to Moresby, following ridgelines wherever possible. The wreckage of Kimball's fighter lies in deep jungle beyond the Sogeri plateau.

Japanese Losses
G4M1 Betty crashed on Mt. Albert Edward returning from the mission.

References
Thanks to Edward Rogers, Richard Dunn, Osamu Tagaya for additional information.