Evening star., 1943-06-06
CHAPTER VII.

Through mutual friend in
Honolulu l met Capt. Colin Kelly
few days before the war and he told
me he had come out to the Philip
pines prepared to fight. Before he
left Hawaii to ferry his Bit out to
Manila he spent three days studying
the data on the japanese inundated
islands and other Pacific islands
gathered by John Williams, Homo
lulu neWspaperman. The Bits
were to fly from Honolulu to Wake,
and then across japanese inundated
islands at night and land at Rabaul
in New Britain. From there they
were to go to Darwin and then up
to the Philippines.
For three days Kelly studied and
made notes and copied maps. When
he had finished, he stretched his
long legs out in front of his wicker
chair and ran his big hands through
his thick black hair.
We're sure in a hell of a fix out
there. aren't we?" he said.
What are you going to do about
IT." Williams asked.
We'll, I'm going out and bomb
the first thing 1 see and blow it to
bits" said Kelly.
They started rehaShing the old
argument as to whether airplanes
could sink battleships. Kelly had
some decided ideas about that. He
promised, I'm going to put an end
to that argument personally by
sinking one of those Jap ships"
Kelly got his chance on Decem-
Der II and dropped his bombs on
the japanese battleship Haruna and
left her blazing, although, appar-
emily, she did not sink.
On his way home two Zeros
dropped out of a cloud and got on
the gunless tail of his plane and
shot it up so badly that it wobbled,
on fire, toward the ground. Kelly
stuck at the controls until the rest
of the crew had parachuted. Be
fore he could jump his plane eX-
ploded in the air.
Capt. Jesus Villamor of the Phil
ippine Air Force, fought, too, in
9-year-old plane that proved bet
ter match for the Zero than did the
P-4O. Villamor and six other men,
bers of his squadron were flying
P-26s, which the United States Army
long decided were obsolete. Those
were the only planes that MacAr-
thur could get for the Philippine
Air Force he was trying to build.
Villamor, short and thick-set and
a fine pilot, was graduate Of West
Point and had learned to fly at
Kelly Field and Randolph Field. In
the first two weeks Of the war he
flew his PCS so we'll that he won
two Distinguished Service Crosses.
Once. with one Of his two guns
tanlmed. he tackled formation Of
36 enemy bombers and brought
down two Of them Another time he
tangled successfully with cloud
of zeros.
Altogether Villamor and his
squadron had about six airplanes
and they flew them as long as they
held together-Which was about 10
days. After the first few days they
ran out of ammunition for their
machine guns and the pilots took the
useless guns out of the ships to
lessen the weight, and flew them on
scouting missions. I saw a lot of
Villamor and his fellow pilots dur
ing the first three weeks of the war
and many times, at their request,
It
Try to get the United States to
send some decent planes out here
quickly" I wrote stories, too, but
the censors killed them.
The young American pilots who
still had P-40s performed epic feats
Of heroism in the early days Of the
war. 1t Boyd Wagner became the
ace of our Air Force, destroying
many japanese planes in the air and
on the ground at the airfields which
the enemy quickly built in Northern
Luzon. During one such strafing at
tack. Buzz Wagner's wingman, 1t.
Russell NJ. Church, was hit by anti
aircraft fire over the Jap field at
Vigan. Church dived his burning
plane over the field and released
his bombs. Then he crashed, max
ing no attempt to jump out in his
parachute. Even the Japanese were
impressed by his courage and de-
termination and they honored him
with a heros funeral.
1t. Samuel H. Merett attacked
Japanese transports landing troops
in Northern Luzon. He strafed the
landing boats and. when his plane
was hit by antiaircraft fire, dived
into the side of an enemy trans
port. The plane and transport both
blew up. Joseph Moore and Jack
Dale, Carl Gies and Randolph Kea-
tor and a dozen other of our young
pilots fought the Japs in the air as
long as they had planes.
In an hour and half we reached
Tarlac, capital of Tarlac Province
and the biggest Luzon city north of
Manila. We drove down the wide
main street. and I telephoned Cronin
from the Tarlac exchange. All the
other public phones along the road
had been closed. and most of the
buildings in Tarlac, like those in the
villages, were boarded and closed.
Rx xx
"The telephone lines to the north
have been cut, but I'm going on up"
I told Ray. You probably won't
hear from me for few days, but
I'll get the story in as soon as pos
sible. Where we 60 will depend on
how things look ahead. Well prob
ably spend the night in Baguio. I've
always wanted to see it."
"Okay. but you better look OUT
l.