Evening star., 1943-04-21

using it, the Japs in their ARP
Navy plane coming home after
BY IRA WOLFERT.
1t. Ldrsens detail from Napy
Torpedo Squadron takes ne,p
planes from Norfolk, Va, to
Honolulu. In smashing Japs'
hedvy attempt to take Mid,Day,
all but one plane shot do,on,
but enemy fees. Gipen COM
n,dnd OF squadron, Larsen reor-
ganises and goes to aid OF ma
rines on Gudddlcandl, sinking
ships, bombing jungleS and
cleaning out enemy headquarters.
CHAPTER 10.
There were 8,O00-foot mountains
TO climb. That took lot of gas.
And before the fellows got to the
mountains, they knew they had no
gas to spare and that, in fact, it
would take plenty of luck for all
the planes to get back safely. They
had spent too much time making
sure they'd do some good for the
marines. They had maneuvered too
long and aimed too carefully. In
their anxiety to make sure, they had
come In too low, too, and Swede's
plane and Divine's plane had holes
In them from fragrants from their
own bombs and were flying heavily
and awkardly. The marines, who
had to stay there and finish up,
watched as the planes lifted them
selves from t:lat bucket of blood
and wheeled into air that had been
washed clean by rain and now was
being shined to sparkling by the
sun and thought, Lucky guys!"
The pilots hoped the marines were
right.
Engines were leaned out all the
way and the formation went along
at the slowest possible speed. II Ze-
roes had jumped them now, there
wouldn't have been a prayer for any
OF them. If the carrier had been
under attack or had been chased by
submarines or had had to move on
out for some other reason or even
If it was just having routine Difficult
ties in landing planes, then goodbye
Torpedo 8-goodbye to the planes
anyway, If not to the men. If there
were thunderheads in the way that
had to be got around, then that
would be enough to dump them.
Everything had to be just right.
Everything had to fall in exactly the
best possible place and that, Swede
thought, was too much luck for a
man to have. It wasn't too much
to hope for, just too much to count
on. Swede is not religious man.
He is like the rest of us and goes to
church when he can't think of a
reason not to. He sat there think
Ing Of all the luck the squadron
needed and then thought that God
had been very good to the squadron
these last two days and had led it
by the hand through all kinds of
dangerous and narrow passages.
All Land Safely.
The sun was very bright now. The
day was spread out like some gor-
geous sparkling. rolling. dappled
fathomlessly varied sea all over the
sky and Swede's thoughts ran quiet
ly and darkly through it. The
squadron, he thought, had a Job of
revenge to do. It had made only a
start on that job The rest of the
work still lay ahead. They had all
had quite some nerve when, without
consulting anything but their own
feelings, they had taken on that lob
Quite some arrogance there, thought
swede, for Vengeance is mine, saith
the Lord" That's what the Bible
says. Well, decided Swede, this would
settle 1t. If God arranged every-
thing to fall into the right place
now, the carrier, all the planes using
It, the Japs in their airplanes and
submarines, the weather and the
wind-if that happened, then Tor
pedo hadn't been arrogant in it's
decision. Torpedo had been
prompted to make 1t and had been
right to make 1t.
AL the planes landed all right.
swede had less than five minutes
gas left and one of the other planes
coughed out all empty before it could
finish taxing.
linen there were sandwiches and
then the whole air group was Or
dered out to spend the afternoon in
practice around San Cristobal. Bull
let Lou Kirns dive bombers and
Dave Shumway's fighters had been
having thicker going than Torpedo
3, but they were ordered out. too. The
football coach orders his squad to
do six laps around the field after a
hard scrimmage and the Navy Or
ders its squadrons to practice even
when the Bible tells them they Are
travelling on the beam.
Enemy Prepares for Conquest.
Late In the afternoon of August 8,
the carrier, It's mission Of attack
accomplished, began moving out Of
the area. In the night of August
30, Japs warships moved down the
channel, sneaked around Savo Is
land. surprised three Of our cruisers
the Astoria, the vincennes and
the Quincy-and the Australia
cruiser Canberra and knocked then,
over with an avalanche Of fire.
But the Japs had been surprised
by us IN the first place and were not
yet ready to exploit this great gain
they had made. Their task force
killed our ships and killed our men
and then withdrew to the jap bases
IN the west and north where a large
sea and land force was being thrown
together hastily to take Guadalcanal
away from us and keep us from ever
getting 1t back.
The Japs, eventually, were to
throw against Guadalcanal force.
greater than they used against
Singapore and the whole Malay Pen.
tnsula. But this first force Of theirs
was only as large as the one which
they, In their arrogance, had as
signed to the task Of taking Midway
and perhaps Hawaii.
It took the Japs two weeks tc
gather this force from It's station.