Evening star., 1942-06-19

Oul liiot SokibnSt Wltll UAiC CAiCl1ly
was made by one Of the youngest
pilots in our scouting force. To
amplify his report, 1t. Comdr. Rob-
ert Dixon, skipper of the scout units,
few into the youngsters sector and
remained there two hours and so
minutes. During that time he had
number of brushes with enemy
planes, but remained over the hos
tile ships sending out radio mes
sages and directional signals to lead
the oncoming striking squadrons to
the target.
How did you manage to survive,
Bob. alone in the middle of enemy
air?" I asked him later.
Both he and I knew that he had
been flying a relatively slow plane
ordinarily no match for zeros.
1--WE ducked in and out of the
clouds" he answered, grinning a
little. when they came after us
(he had rear gunner in the scout
with him) they didn't press their
attacks home. They seemed to pre-
fer to make feinting runs. evidently
hoping to get my rear gunner to use
up his belts of ammunition so they
could close as he was reloading. My
gunner refused to play this game
and held his fire until they were
within killing range.
Finally. If they came in too
close, I would make a steep turn
and head toward them with one
wing low. This allowed me to be in
shooting position with my front
wing guns and also permitted my
gunner to fire forward over the wing,
too"
U. S. Dive Bombers Attack.
The first American attack came
when Comdr. Bill Ault. leading four
heavy dive bombers, and 1t. Jimmy
Brett at the head of IL torpedo
planes struck at Japanese carrier
No. /.
The Japs were using the same
protective screen for their carrier
that we generally did while cruis-
! ing" Comdr. Brett said later. 1T
was screened by several cruisers and
destroyers that we ignored, even
to the extent of flying right over
one cruiser while going in. That
cruiser didn't fire at us. She must
have mistaken us for some of their
own-the weather was so bad it was
an easy mistake to make.
I'VE slid through a bid of scud
and came out astern of the carrier.
Her lookouts recognized us and she
began a sharp right turn. All the
anti-aircraft guns in the unit opened
up on us, bounced us around some,
but didn't stop us.
Several enemy fighters-I saw
Messerschmitt types with liquid
fixed landing gear types mixed to-
gether-came at us, but we were in
the final run by that time, well
famed out.
Just before I let my fish (tor-
pedo) go I could see the carrier
well. Her decks we're empty-all her
planes were in the air, either de-
Tending the ship or pounding our
own carriers. We saw the whole Jap
vessel Jump as our torpedoes began
exploding. Then we were busy
lodging fighters, calling down our
own fighting pilots, and heading
home.
I'VE closed up into tight forma-
ton so all our gunners could get
cross-fire into any Jap fighters
bothering us. 1t was well, too, be-
cause II Jappies came down on us.
They came cautiously because we
we're flying only 80 feet above the
water.
Two Fail, Rest Flee.
after several gentle passes In orlr
direction, two of the Zeros got
caught in our gunners' converging
fire and dropped flaming into the
sea. The rest cleared out, and left
us alone. Our problem then be-
came one of nursing our fuel-we
were darned low-so that We could
make it back home. Thirty miles
out one planes tanks ran dry. The
pilot made a perfect landing. Later
a destroyer picked up the pilot and
his two men. The rest Of us made
it back. We could hardly believe,
from the way the Lexington looked
at that time, that she had been
hurt"
The fighters that Comdr. Brett
had called upon were led by 1t. Noel
Gayler. He emerged from that days
bitter air combats as the Navy's
leading ace. 1t. Gayler had three
other pilots with him and as they
slid down TO protect the torpedo
planes they found themselves in a
hot dogflght with only few feet
between their wings and the sea.
This ended with all of 1t. Gayler's
men shot down-one reported max
ing a forced landing into the sea-
but 1t. Gayler himself knocked