Evening star., 1943-04-19

natives simply as "Pa" Laudahl.
Their diet during the two weeks
consisted of palm butter, kasava
(potatoes), bananas, plantains, wild
rice and chicken.
At Accra, on the African gold
coast, I ran into my old friends, 1t.
Charles (Buzz) Blankenhorn of
Butte, Mont, and 1t. Willard HaW-
kins Of Little Rock, Ark. We had a
poker game at nearby Acha Mota
College. "Hawkeye" was involved
in wreck coming back to his quar-
ters one night and injured his leg.
He was a bit dazed and walked
around talking to himself. Some
one said, "Hawkeye, I think you
have broken your leg" and Hawkeye
retorted with one Of his favorite ex-
pressions, Don't tell me your trou-
bles, sweetheart, I have plenty of my
own"
We never tired of recalling our
flights over the vast jungle portion
Of South America. We saw lots
of strange animals, native huts,
swampy rivers Gncluding the Anna
zon), dense green trees and tangled
growth. 1t was a trip which made
us all thankful for the compass, be-
cause that instrument was the only
thing that knew where we were
most of the time. Later, flying over
Africa, we found nothing but Sahara
sand and Soffocating heat.
Varied Personnel.
Our personnel in India came from
many units, and from these we
formed still others. We were a part
of the old 10Th Bombardment Group
(the first overseas), under the COM
mand Of Brig. Gen. Eugene Eubanks,
and later the 7th Bombardment
Group and the old 18th Squadron" /"
under command of Maj. Gen. Louis
Hyde Brereton. The "Old 9th" was
the largest part of the famous
"Brereton's Bengal Bombers," which
was given acclaim several months
ago for deciding the fate of India.
India reminds me of our old
friend, Capt. Frank Sharp, Salem,
Greg. and his crew-Lt. Herb. Wun-
derlich (co-pilot), of Williston, N.
Y, and 1t. Jack Horner (navigator)
Montgomery, Ala-who with Maj.
Jack Toomey made a daylight raid
on Rangoon with only two Fort
resses. (Maj. Toomey of San An
tonic, Tex, now is missing in ac-
tion.)
Maj. Toomey succeeded in getting
away, but a swarm of Zeros caught
Capt. Sharp and a running battle
of the most desperate kind ensued.
Six or seven Zeros were shot down,
but by that time there was no hope
of staying aloft more than a few
minutes longer, SO the order was
given to bail out at will. The plane
had only two engines in operation
and was riddled with machine-gun
fire.
Behind Jap Lines.
The crew bailed out behind the
Japanese lines (this was during the
Burma campaign. Capt. Sharp and
1t. Wunderlich were luckier. They
crash-landed in a rice paddy just
across the enemy lines in their own
territory. They walked for % days
through the steaming Burmese
.jungles, living from the land, but
finally reported for duty with their
old squadron. -a' H.
/. Mentioning India always recalls
to us some of the hardships en-
dured during those early days. The
sand blew constantly. We suffered
particularly from severe dysentery
which we nicknamed ''kerachi
kramps" and a skin rash called
desert heat" The temperature was
so high it was dangerous to walk
bareheaded.
To give you an idea of the ire
mendous distances we flew to reach
our targets, will say that we some
times made flights of $500 to $500
miles in two days to bomb Rangoon,
Mandalay, Moulmein, Akyab and
other points in Burma and China
Some day-long hops were as long
as 1000 to 2,i00 miles, or distances