Evening star., 1942-08-18
Churchill Flew UP Front Most
OF Time, Pilots Disclose
Soy They Almost
Cought Him With
No Short Snorter'
BY LELAD STOWE,
Foreien Correspondent OF The Star
and CHICAGO Daily News.

and Chicago Daily News.
MOSCOW. Aug 18.-Two young
Americans, members of the Royal
Air Force ferry command, piloted
the B-24 Liberstor in which VIM
ston Churchill and w. Averell Har-
riman, President Roosevelt's per
sonal representative. flew to Mos
COW and they had the British Prime
Minister in the cockpit with them
most OF the way.
En- route, they almost caught Mr..
Churchill without his short snor-
ter" card-which means he would
have had to pay them each 81 as a
fine. But the Prime Minister pro-
duced his short-snortered 10-shill-
ing note in the nick of time. so they
collected his signature as a fellow
member of the Transoceanic Flying
Clan.
The Americans are William Van
derkloot. %, of Sarasota, Fla, pilot
and Jack Ruggles, q. of San Fran
cisco. co-pilot. In the last Kings
birthday honors list, Vanderkloot was
awarded the Order of the British
Empire for the remarkable job he
did early in the ferry command, in
stalling radio ranges for the North
Atlantic. Ruggles served with the
Chinese Air Force four years ago
and was wounded while there. They
call Mr.. Churchill the boss" and say
he is great guy.
"Up Front Most Of Time.
Most of the time the boss was
up front with U.S." Ruggles said.
He wants to know everything. all
about the instruments and every
thing else. He had maps out and
kept checking our position. He al
ways wanted to know exactly where
we were. I guess he spent more
time in front than with anybody
in the back.
"It was kind of funny when we
we're flying over those Persian
mountains from Bagdad to Tehe-
ram" Ruggles laughed. You know,
those peaks are pretty nasty. 1t
was a very clear day so we had a
swell view. The boss asked. Say.
aren't we flying rather close?' Bill
said about 1000 feet, and the boss
said he thought they'd look better
from higher altitude, so We moved
up another thousand.
Once, when he was sitting beside
Bill. Bill asked the boss: Are you
a Short -Snorter, sir?' The Prime
Minister said he was, but that his
card was in his briefcase in the
back.
"I've got minutes to produce
my card. Those are the rules" he
(ChurchilD said.
Had Never Heard of Rule.
well, we never heard of that
rule, but we didn't have nerve
enough to tell him that by all the
rules we knew he owed us each
buck for not having his card on his
person when he was challenged.
Anyhow, he signed our 10-shilling
notes-there it is. suppose that's
the signature of the most famous
Short Shorter in the world.
You know, we few over some
mean looking terrain in Africa
French territory it was. The boss
asked what if we couldn't go on
what would we do. I said. oh, we
could make a belly landing with
wheels up. Might knock the kite
around bit but nobody'd get hurt.
Then the boss said, But. if we had
to land down there we'd probably
be made prisoners-I've an idea
he said. that the Nazis would like
to get their hands on me. Prob
ably they'd shoot me-
I'VE couldn't argue about that.
but, Bill said, anyhow, they'd never
get chance to intern us around
here.
Everything's okay Well get
you to Moscow, all right he said"
The term short snorter" began
as spontaneous gag among group
of American flyers and is being per-
petuated as an informal good fel-
lowship club in aviation circles.
Chief requirement for acceptance
as short snorter" is that one must
have flown an ocean, at least once,
in any capacity. whether as a flyer
or passenger. Pilots of the ferry
command, presumably, all are mem
bers of the Club"
A short snorter" is required to
carry a one dollar bill, duly in