Evening star., 1943-09-21

about it and I suppose lot of other
outfits did. And the memoranda
went through channels that directed
it back to the States. At Eglin Field
in Florida, where the Toxic flyers
trained, that sort of thing is gone
about very scientifically. I under
stand they acted on our memoranda
by recording the action of the bombs
with stop watches and cameras and
studying the characteristics of i'm
pact and all that sort of thing
Finally they came back with an
answer:
There is no such thing as skip
bombing, it is ricocheted- bombing. {"
Two Ships Sunk.
During the day the word came
over the teletype that the Forts had
sunk two large ships of the japanese
convoy and left others in distress.
Then we started worrying the other
way. Perhaps the Forts had dis
persed the convoy and it wouldn't
be coming our way after all.
But that evening we got the news
that made us all tingle. The con-
voy had been joined by eight more
ships. There were now 20 of them
instead of the IA first reported. And
they were steaming toward us in
Vitiaz Strait - coming right down
our street. It was clear that we
were going to have a crack at them
in the morning, If the weather
didn't get worse-and the weather
was improving.
In the morning the overcast still
looked high enough for us to fly
through the gap in the Owen STAN
ley Mountains and on to the Bis
marck Sea. I took a cup of coffee
for breakfast and got back to oper-
ations. Geedub Clark, our COM
manding officer, got his strike order
just before $3.50 am. That was part
of the directions for the fight
which had been worked out at the
advanced echelon of the 5th Air
Force at Port Moresby, three miles
away, by 1t. Gen. George Kenney
and his staff.
Capt. Clark conducted the brief
ing from the strike order. The IL
pilots picked for that run were
sitting on the desks or standing
about the little room. The IL gun
ners and 2 photographers who were
to 60 were right outside where they
could hear. So were the pilots and
the crews off duty. So were a lot
of others. Everybody knew what
was cooking.
Act as Cleanup" Squad.
Capt. Clark raped for order.
1--WE are the so-called cleanup
squad on this show" he said. He
told us we were to fly one minute
behind the Beaufighters of the
Royal Australian Air Force.
by the way" he said, giving us
his cherubic smile, I'VE will have 40
P-38s over U.s."
That was good news. We didn't
know there were that many P-38
fighters. or Lightnings, in New Gui-
nea. We dismissed the Zeros right
there.
I'VE will follow the Beaufighters
in," he said, when we sight the
convoy. I can't tell you just how you
are to make your attack. will pick
out ship and from then on it will
be the individual responsibility OF
each pilot to attack where he will be
most effective. Let's make sure we
don't all crowd on one ship.
"Au bombers will rendezvous at
exactly $3.50 at Cape Ward Hunt"
Set Watches for Trip.
That is about 160 miles from Port
Moresby, over the mountains and up
the coast. -..-, :.
With that he arched his left arm
above his eyes and peered at the
pilots regulation wrist watch with
its big second hand racing around
the dial
Each man was lingering the set
screw Of his own watch.
"The time is exactly" he said with
the intonation and pause of a radio
announcer $3.50 o'clock"
We all set our watches
Good luck!" he said. See you up
stairs"
Tomorrow: Attack.