The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1943-05-06


north toward the region of Swallow.
"Of course the Japs held that
coast too, but Buckley had worked
out an answer, all in the utmost
secrecy. He'd gotten in touch with
Colonel Wong, the Chinese military
observer. Wong had cabled Chung
king to investigate the vicinity.
Chungking cabled back that it could
be done
They said the Japs held the Swa-
tow region thinly-at no point did
they go more than ten miles inland.
So, at an agreed time, and at an
agreed rendezvous on the coast,
Chungking would send a raiding
party down to fight its way to the
beach and meet us.
There we would burn our boats
now useless with all torpedoes ex-
pended against Jap targets. The
Chinese couldn't hold that point long
but long enough to hustle US
through that ten-mile Jap-held strip
onto free Chinese soil. There trucks
would take us to the nearest air.
field, we would fly to Chungking, and
from there four-motored American
ferry-command plane would bring
us back to the States.
Where was the flaw? We couldn't
see one, unless somehow it leaked
out. Besides myself, only four iv-
ing people knew. They were De-
Long of our squadron, Captain Ray,
chief of staff, Colonel Wong, and Of
course the skipper here, who had
worked out every detail.
but before we left we knew there
would be plenty of action ahead for
us here, and told Buckley was
crazy to get out of this hospital,
and asked for his help. If they'd
let me get back to duty, I'd agree
to anything-promise to soak my
hand for so many hours day-any-
thing they said, just to get back
even on semiduty status.
$50 we staged it for the next
morning, when the ward doctor
would be dressing my hand at about
the same time the head surgeon
made his rounds. We tackled him.
I made my talk, and he seemed to
waver. Tell this bird you need me-
said to the skipper. We really do
said Buckley, but just then Peggy
overheard and queered the whole
thing. Certainly not!' she said. You
can't let him go back to duty with
his hand wide-open!' That swung
him back. 'Duty!' he growled. Who
said anything about duty? Two
weeks of it and you'd lose your
whole arm
II tried to argue-point out that
If the MTB's went out on a mission,
could hold on with one arm as
well as two, but Peggy had done it,
and now he wouldn't listen.
lone of these days you're 60
ing to find an empty bunk said.
I was gloomy all that next week,
but Peggy said I was a fool. That
there were plenty of well, fit men
to do my job. And that if I hadn't
been so damned stubborn in the
first place, and had got that hand
treated In time, I'd never have come
to the hospital, and never met her,
and she would never have been able
to break up my plan to get out, so
it was all my fault!
She's always had that cute way
Of seeming to storm at you and
dress you down, so that you ended
up by grinning and couldn't stay
mad at anything long.
$50 it went along for another
week, she leading me out for walks
every day to get some of those thir-
ty pounds back, and then one day we
returned to find that Buckley had
been by looking for me-said he was
going out on a raid that night, up
to Subic Bay looking for a Jap
cruiser, that he'd waited hoping to
take me, but finally had to leave.
''It set me almost crazy. If I
hadn't been out on that damned
health tour with a pretty girl, I
wouldn't have missed the raidi So
here I was while my gang was up
there tangling with a cruiser, may
be getting killed, because the Japs
had Subic Bay so thick with guns
that it was almost suicide to 60 In.
'All that night there was no news.
I was up at 5:30-'Any dope from
the torpedo boats?'-stil nothing.
But at seven they said, yes, Bulke-
ley had come back, managed to
sink cruiser and get away, but
the other boat was missing-proba-
bly, lost"
''It was a job we did for the
Army" explained Lieutenant Bulke-
ley describing the historic attack
of his P. T. Boat in Subic Bay men,
tioned.) "a couple of Jap ships,
one of them an Imperial Navy aux
ihary cruiser with 6-inch guns had
been Smelling our 155-millimeter
emplacements on Bataan-blasting
them with heavy stuff. The major
in charge had been wondering
how to get rid of them and had
phoned Admiral Rockwell, who gave
us permission to tackle the job. We
knew they were based in Subic Bay,
probably in Port Binanga. Subic
is on the west coast of Luzon, Just
north of Bataan. I decided to send
two boats-the 81 boat, which was
Lieutenant Belongs, and the "a
boat, which was Kelly's, now COM
manded by Ensign Chandler. I went
along in it for the he'll Of it.
eve tested everything-tuned the
motors, creased torpedoes, and got
under way at nine o'clock, chugging
north along the west coast of Ba-
taan. It was very rough. We throt-
tied down to thirty knots, and even
then we were shipping water, but we
got off the entrance to Subic Bay
about half an hour after midnight.
Here, according to plan, the two
boats separated. belong In the 81