Evening star., 1942-10-07


and I am not sure whether 1 am
standing on my head or my feet.
I only know that 1t. Nuremberg is
a pilot would bet on any day.
Plane Called Jersey Jerk.
Somehow we are in closely knit
forma ton again, so close we can
almost reach out and touch our COM
panion planes.
All our planes bear the unofiicial
names given them by their crews
something like the names of race
horses. In our V-shaped final ele-
ment of this raid is Snow White"
Our plane is the Jersey Jerk"
They come at us-enemy pursuit
planes. There are at least four OF
them. One charges in while the
others cautiously hang outside. He
comes at US, the final plane.
Our tail gunner is Sergt. Norman
F.. Brandt of Manitowoc, Wis, and
Norman is ready for him. He puts
up fire which beats him of. The
glass above Norman's head cracks as
a bullet, presumably, glances of It,
That was the only scar we got. I
owe my life to Norman.
But on leaving us the attacking
plane goes for The Witch which
Is just ahead of us to the left. Then
other enemy fighters come in. One
is an Italian Macchi. the other is
German Messerschmitt, and they
are after The Witch"
At this second I cannot see the
attacking planes, but can see The
Witch's' side being drilled with holes
-27 holes as later proved by count.
Fire at Attackers.
We all fire at the attackers. Big
bullets. half an inch thick, are flying
all around The output of IS guns
from our planes is concentrated on
them.
The Witch is taking the brunt of
the attack. A big window on its side
is open. There stands the gunner,
exposed from the waist up. firing at
them. A bullet crashes into The
Witch's' side and goes right through
the gunners knee He does not
finch. He sticks to his gun and
keeps firing.
He Is Sergt. Norman Frost of
Miami, Fla.
Two other men in the Witch are
slightly wounded. They are Tech
nlcal Sergts. Joseph E. Farmer of
st. Charles, Va, and Marvin L.
Breeding of Dallas, Tex.
In their compartment is Henry
Gorrell of the United Press, whom
l have known and competed with
since the days of the Spanish civil
war. For the first time, feel sorry
for Henry. But no need to. He is
splattered with Frost's blood, but
he Is not hit. He puts tourniquet
on F'rost's leg. The other two
wounded sergeants help and only
when the job is finished do they re-
veal that they are injured (although
not dangerously, too.
Every Gun in Action.
We are flying close together and
every gun we can train on the at
tackers is in action. Blood has
been drawn on our side and all
our sergeant gunners are angry
swearing as they shoot.
One OF the attacking planes goes
down In smoke. the pilot descending
to the sea by parachute. The other
goes down in flames. The pilot
balls out, but his parachute does not
open. The pair which attacked q
formation such as this are death
or glory boys and they got the
former.
We now sweep across the southern
stretch of Greece and out to sea
All our bombs have fallen in the
harbor. None has fallen on the soil
OF Greece; we do not want to kill
Greeks.
The navigator Of "The Witch" is
Second It. Peter L. Vlahakes OF
Newark, N. j.. who is getting his
first glimpse of the land of his an
cestors and we are bombing only Sc
miles from the town his father left
30 years ago to 60 to America.
For me, this is special day. A
year-and-a-half ago 1 was bombed
from the Olympus line to Their