Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-06-04

l
gunboats, tramp steamers, all going
hell for breakfast. And then 1 saw
them-a big formation of about twen-
ty-seven bombers. By then I was
beginning to learn that if we saw
planes in the air, they would be
Japs, not ours. Then came another
formation of twenty-nine, and still
another of twenty-six.
IF they were after shipping, we
shouldn't get too close to the other
boats, SO 1 changed course. They
wheeled majestically around the
bays perimeter, and each time they
Passed Manila load would go whis-
ting down and presently huge col
umns of black and white smoke be-
| gan rising-we could even see some
fires, although we were still eleven
miles away.
| Where in hell is our air force?'
our crew kept asking me- why in
Christ's name don't they do some
thing?'
But the thing that really got me
was that these big Jap formations,
circling the bay like it was a parade
maneuver, each time would sail i'm
pudently right over Corregidor!
Didn't they know we had anti-air-
craft guns?
"They knew all right, but it turned
out they knew something didn't.
For presently all twenty of Corregi-
doris 3-inchers opened fire, and it
made me sick to see that every one
of their shells was bursting from
| 5000 to 10000 feet below that Jap
formation. Those pilots were as safe
as though they'd been home in bed.
Later found out what the Japs ap-
parently already knew-that the
Rocks anti-aircraft guns didn't have
the range. And only then did it be-
gin to dawn on me how completely
| impotent we were.
"When the Japs cleared OUT" con-
tinued Bulkeley, kelly. and I head
ed for Manila and locked about
three o'clock. When we reported,
| Commander Slocum told me the Ad-
miral was considering sending our
three boats on a raid off Lingayen,
and were we ready? We said we
were rarin' to 60. So he said to
stick around a couple of hours, and
meanwhile to load the boats with
| files, records, and so forth, because
they were moving headquarters. 1t
had escaped so far, but right here
on the water front it was too vul-
nerable - sure to get smacked.
| Through the open door we could see
the Admiral comforting with his
| chief of staff.
But just them" said Kelly, Com
| mander Slocum looked down at my
arm, which was in a sling, frowned,
and said should get over to see the
| fleet doctor. The doctor took off
the bandage and began to talk tough.
Said he couldn't do anything, and
that l was to get that arm to
hospital as fast as I could
Il was dead set on that raid, but
| l decided it wouldn't be tactful to
bring that up, so said, Aye, aye,
| SIR and skipped it. We loaded the
| boat with records, and then went
| back to headquarters, where we
were told that the Jap convoy off
Lingayen included eight transports
and at least two battleships Zone of
these must have been the one that
Colin Kelly later goD, but that we
weren't going to be sent They were
saving us for bigger things
My God!' my junior officer
said later, I didn't know they came
any bigger! What do they think we
arc?'
Anyway the Admiral pattcd
| Bulkeley on the shoulder and said,
We know you boys want to get in
there and fight, but there's no sense
sending you on suicidal missions
| just now
so that was that and we went on
out across the bay, to our matched
| village.
You might call the next few days
quiet for US, although my arm be-
| gan giving me hell
presently Buckley dropped in on
us in the Al boat, bringing us some
stuff issued by the navy to replace
| everything we'd lost at our quarters
| in Cavite-a shirt each, underdraw-
ers, a few tubes of toothpaste, and
ldLoi S-t"o lOl td(l GOdl, one
the men and one for the officers.
| But with each razor there were only
three packages of blades, so we saw
boards in the offing.
Buckley had heard about my
hand from pharmacists mate and
| asked me if l could stick it for two
more days until he could relieve me.
He himself had to be on call for
consultation with the Admiral, while
they needed DeLong and his boat for
courier duty. l said sure
But the next few days were hell.
| The whole arm began swelling, and
my hand was the size of catcher's
mitt. The nights were worse because
l couldn't lie down for any length of
i time. Also l had to keep my arm
held up, or blood running down into
it would drive me nuts, and it stiff
ened that way. The doctor at Mari
veles kept offering me morphine, but
| l didn't dare. There might be an
emergency where we'd have to get
the boats out to sea quickly Rulke