Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-07-08

v
Smith is sure good all right.
When we started coming into
Japan, he skinned the waves so
close / could almost taste the salt
water from the spray in my mouth,
no kidding.
1T COST 20 CENTS
Our navigator-b bomber is guy
named Lieut.. Howard A. Sessler.
He's from Boston, and he's ready
TO go to work with his bombsight.
Hirohito, you better watch out
for guys named Sessler and guys
from Boston.
Now this will give you birds a
laugh. Here we are sitting up
over Japan in a few hundred
thousand bucks worth of airplanes,
and what kind of bombsight you
think we got?
The damned thing cost 20 cents,
no kidding. Doolittle - General
IDoolittle-he was afraid that in
case any one of us got shot down,
we didn't want the Japs to get
hold of those Norden bombsights.
So we rugged up sight that cost
20 cents.
But, brother, that sight is going
to cost Emperor Hirohito and
what they call the elder statesmen
several million bucks worth OF
stuff in a few minutes.
THAT'S OUR BABY
Few minutes! Right now. 1
mean. We just sighted the out
skirts of Kobe. The skies are still
vacant, and that scares you
little. One .fifty-two and we're
over the edge of the city. We're
coming in at 1000 feet.
Lieutenant Sessler is talking
over the interphone in his Boston
accent which always gives me a
hell Of a boot, it sounds so Eng
lish:
That's our baby" the looie is
saving. Ell see the target"
We roar across the city. raising
such an almighty racket the noise
kind of bounces back, it seems
like, and the Japs down there are
running back and forth in the
streets like so many ants in an ant
hill.
Buses are running back and
forth, but the Japs don't seem to-
catch on to the fact that the
Stars and Stripes Forever are
right up there over their heads,
equipped with plenty OF horse
power and plenty of bombs and
that darned old 20-cent bomb
sight.
There's our target.
LET 'ER GO, SEss'
She's an aircraft factory, mess
of buildings down there, scattered
over a block or better. There are
the docks.
All we got to do now Is let go.
Hirohito, the Yanks are coming,
sprinkling it along the course.
LET 'er go, Sess," Smith yells
to the bombardier.
l felt her go when she went. The
bombs, L mean. Sweet as you
please, that BIS takes a sudden
uplift. a little bit OF lurch, and
the minute / feel it know:
Hirohito, the Yanks have ar
rived.
/ can't see where the bombs
land. but l know we're square on
the target with the whole works.
We're rolling along at 240 m. p. h.,
now and that amt any cadence
count, either. We're well away
from that factory before the hell
starts breaking loose and the fires
start.
WAKE UP AT LAST
The Japs are waking up,
though. They start mild epidemic
that's what the lieutenant called
it-a mild epidemic of anti-air-
craft fire.
The stuff comes up like powder
.puffs, but we're high-tailing 1t
away from the barrage. The Japs
cant estimate our speed, and
they never catch up with us. We
don't give them a chance, either.
We drop right down almost to
water level and haul out of there
in a hurry. and there get salt
spray, it seems like, in my mouth
again.
/ wish 1 could have stuck around
TO sec the look on Hirohito'S face
when they brought him the mes
sageS that night.
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