Evening star., 1942-12-23
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
This is the journal of six Ameri-
can airmen who were forced to
land in French West Africa, were
interned by the Vichy French
and spent seven months being
shunted over 5000 miles of jungle
and desert from one internment
camp to another.
There are four authors. their
diaries combined in a single mar
rative, beginning on the day early
in May when they left Brazil In a
BIS bomber en- route to a COM
bat zone in the East.
The entries are those of Second
1t. Daniel E. Kelley, Is, Of Waco,
Tex pilot; Second 1t. George A.
Young, jr., %, of Westwood,
Mass, co-pilot; Second 1t. Je-
rome M. Goldsmith. 23, of At
lanta, Ga, navigator, and Corpl.
John F. Tom, %. of Leakey, Tex,
radio operator.
The other two members of the
group, mentioned from time to
time, are Second 1t. Erich Downs,
%, Of Dallas, Tex, bombardier,
and Pvt. Hunbert H. Holmes, %,
OF Denver, Colo, gunner. The
diaries, of which this is the first
Of six installments, were pro-
cured by Joseph Morton, Associ-
ated Press war correspondent.
who is somewhere in Western
Africa.
May Sit. Kelley: We took of
from Brazil at 80 pm. just be-
fore leaving, lieutenant gave us a
tool box weighing $50 pounds
right after we got out the navigator
noticed that his compass and the
pilot compass were not reading the
same as they had on earlier legs Of
the flight. Went on. Got up to
10000 feet and headed across. The
moon came up about II and made a
beautiful night of it.
May 6-Lt. Kelley: According to
calculations, we should have been in
sight of the African coast line about
$50 am. We were on instruments
about Is minutes. When we should
have seen land, that is, according to
time. we didn't see any. Then the
navigator took a shot at the sun and
drew a line OF position. Flew on
with new heading for about one
hour. Later, we turned north. Flew
that way for about 80 minutes. Visi-
bility was very poor, but we finally
sighted land. 1t looked mighty good
Came in at point which finally
proved to be about 100 miles north
Of Conakry. Before sighting land,
we were tuned in to a field at Mar
shall, Liberia, where we were sup
posed to land Tried to work out an
problem. We never did
get definite position. -.
Airport Sighted.
Corpl. Tom: Called control tower
and asked them to turn on their
beacon on a lower frequency. We
called them several times and asked
them If they could see us. We could
see an airport, but the field at Mar
shall said it could not see US. They
gave us landing instructions and
then signed off
1t. Young: Our tanks were low
and the red lights we're showing
1t. Goldsmith: Our main fear
now was our fuel supply. We had
to find place to set that baby down
and fast. We headed for the field
not knowing where we were. But it
looked good to US. We seemed to
make a nice landing when suddenly
the left wheel or tire gave way and
We swerved from side to side before
,ur speed had been arrested. Our
ire probably was fiat before we
anded. The runway was grass and
It the end of it was tall, high grass
The wheels wouldn't hold now so we
ust kept going into that tall grass
where we came to stop. The ex-
laust from our engines set the grass
fire and we all got out as quickly
Is possible. Our only thought was
o keep the flames away from that
ship at any cost. So with all the
ire extinguishers and our leather
Jackets we went to work-all six of
is. 1t continued to spread quite
'apidly. The whole place was like
. roaring inferno and the heat was
.errif1c.
Look Up at Soldiers.
In few minutes we looked up to
ind ourselves surrounded by about
Is blacks with rifles and wearing red
fez hats. They we're led by a white
nan with pistol. They disarmed
US, taking away our pistols and in
doing so we discovered from the
few words spoken that we were in
French hands. We didn't know
whether or not they were friendly
but as they were armed and we
weren't, we didn't argue. They got
us away from the airplane as quickly
AS possible and took us to a little
shack near the field. The native