Evening star., 1943-04-20

WV w
Far East. Some 1Uent to the
Philippines, others to Australia
and to JaUa. Capt. Thomas
reached India, ,Dtere most OF the
squadron began a bombing cam
paign that endured is months
and earned the title of most
traueled bombing squadron OF
the war." The story OF this air
saga was 1Dritten by Capt.
Thomas in Algeria, and is being
published in Jour daily INSTALL
ments, of Uhich this is the
second.
BY CAPT. ROWAN T. THOMAS.
SOMEWHERE IN ALGERIA (HD.-
For several weeks during the Burma
disaster our FortreSSes were called
on to evacuate civilians and Army
personnel from Burma. One of these
places was Magwe, where the last
plane took off, with the japanese
on the outskirts of the town.
Its. P. ]. Kyle of Arlington, Va;
Scott Douglass of Baraboo, Wis;
Alexander Rodriguez OF Houston,
Tex, and others made repeated
trips, removing hundreds of civilians,
particularly women and children.
Many never had flown before and
became airsick. Time was so vital
that none was able to take any
belongings. Many were i'll when
taken aboard.
One Fortress piloted by Maj P. j.
Long of Albuquerque, N. Mex, With
Capt. Traubert Price of Newberry,
S. c., and Its. Milton Svoboda,
Portland, Oreg.; Steve Jerbic and
Lloyd A. Severson, both of River
side, Calf, helping, could not leave
women and children behind and
took 43 passengers in one trip!
Flew Over Mt. Everest.
Burma wasn't the only place We
bombed. Maj. Max R. Fennell of
Yreka, Calf; 1t. Bill Stewart Baton
Rouge, La; Capt. Harry Shilling,
Harrisburg. Pa. (our present en-
gineering officer. and 1t. Llewelyn
C. Daigle. Bangor Me, took an oc-
casional jaunt over Mt. Everest and
ran a raid or two on Peiping or
other points in China, just to let
the Japs know it could be done. They
usually returned with tales of MAJ
Gen. Claire Chenault's AVG boys.
About the time Maj. Gen. Louis H.
Brereton began to give the Japs
some of their own medicine with
interest. Rommel started his march
directed at the Nile Valley. Help
was needed there, so the squadron
took off for Palestine with the II
airplanes which it was still operat-
ing after six months of hard use in
desert heat. Gen. Brereton went
first.
Our trip to the Middle East re-
uuired numerous desert landings in
Iran, Iraq and points from the
Ganges to the River Jordan, but all
arrived safely in the Holy Land.
Bombing in dead earnest, we
pounded land targets and secured
the Mediterranean for enemy con-
voys. We operated in conjunction
with the Halverson detachment (B-
"a Bomb Group commanded by
Brig. Gen. Harry Halverson and be-
gan weaving Rommel from his
much-needed supplies.
Followed RommeTs Retreat.
When Rommel gave ground, we
followed. Under the command of
Col. Micky Mcclure, a much-hked
man. we lived and fought a lot in
ErJyr,t onG tIi,oD II Of
the best places we were ever sta
toned The desert life and fighting
were thrilling.
One of our jobs in the Middle
East was reconnaissance. Maj.
Johnny LAWN of Seattle, Its. Herb
Mengel of Pittsburgh and Harvey
Seeley of Lansing, Mich, flew a
Fortress over the targets at ex-
tremely high attitudes almost daily
and took pictures which we're sent
to us for study and use as a basis
for attacks.
Johnny had a narrow escape over
Crete one day when he lost two mo-
tors and had to get down to $500
feet to make the return flight. I
suppose Johnny knew more about
what the well-dressed enemy wore
than any other man in the squad
ron.
We were attacked at various times
by Messerschmitts Macchis, JU 88s
and Focke Wulf 1905, but in some
manner we were able to do good
work with small losses. No one in
our squadron was killed in the en-
tire Middle East campaign although
we had some members of the late
arrivals club" and injured men.
Attacked From Dead Ahead.
Col. Horace Wade of Magnolia,
Ark, and Capt. Andy Anderson of
Dahlonega. Ga, two of our oldest
men in combat experience, once had
a fighter attack them from dead in
front during a skirmish at $4,000
feet. 1t. Grady Jones, Columbus,
Ga, their navigator and 1t. Don
(Air Raid) Wilder of Savannah,
Ga, their bombardier, were in the
nose of the airplane.
1t. Wilder was peering through
the transparent nose and saw the
fighter as he dived toward them.
1t. Grady sat just behind 1t. Wilder
and manned the gun.
Il saw him coming and it looked
like the whole leading edge of the
fighters wing was afire," said 1t.
Wilder. Il shouted here he comes,
Grady and almost showed the back
of my bombardier's seat off its
mooring. I shouted again, get him,
Grady, get him and all the while
was trying to back up and couldn't.
Then Grady, in his slow Georgia
drawl said: 'Whur is he, 1 don't
see nothin'.'"
The fighter shot out an engine and
damaged another, but none of the
personnel was hurt. Capt. Jappert
Broadwell of Angler, N. c., and 1t
Frank Leidecker of Rochester, N. Y,
and crew were nearby in the forma-
ton and winged the fighter just be-
fore he perfected his aim on the nose
of Col. Wade's plane. AS he passed
over, Sergt. Robert Starevich of
Bremerton, Wash, blew him out of