The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-07-01

New Haven, July IAN unusua
tale of how Yankee ingenuity tanned
savage head-hunting Indians intc
working for American airmen at 6
flying field deep in India, was re-
counted today by an Aviation Cade
in training at the Army Air Force!
Technical Training Command
school.
1t took Aviation Cadet Aaror
Dinaburg, of New York, So days or
troopship to get across to India
and adventures which he will re-
member for the rest of his life. H.
was assigned to medical corps uni
as a laboratory technician. His out.
fit was on its way westward almos
to the Orient to serve with an All
Transport section of the 10th All
Force of India.
Stopping briefly at Capetown a
the extreme tip of Africa on the see
journey to India, he relates thai
"the English people in Capetowr
went all out for us. They escorted
us all around town, fed us well
even though they were running low
on steaks and coffee, and were swell
hosts"
DISSEMINATING at fist coast port
of India they piled into rickety
Indian train and sat amongst med
ical and Army supplies-including
a big load of bombs-and rode across
1 Il or
directly across the country straight
to our destination which was north
east of u.s. said he. eff we did that
we would have had to pass through
the desert portion of the country
which was inhabited by tribe OF
natives known as the Hurs, who
had a quaint habit of pillaging anc
derailing trains that came their way
So we made a wide loop and de-
toured northward to avoid that re-
gion.'
Setting up their base almost over
the line into China at an advanced
field where American transport
ships jumped off for the last HOP
into China, they got set for plenty
of action. Bombed and strafed by
Jap planes many times, there is
one raid that sticks in this Com
munications Cadets mind.
81 was in our barracks at about
o'clock Sunday afternoon when we
heard a commotion outdoors and
heard the planes. I went outside
and couldn't recognize the ships off
hand They were pretty high-at
about $4,000. Then one of the boys
ran out of the radio shack right next
to our barracks and yelled: It's a
raid. They're Japs. They've been
catching hell at a lot of other
placeSn
I'VE counted "a bombers overhead
and then they began dropping their
load on the field. Big black putfs of
smoke doomed out from each spot
as the bombs hit. A few seconds later
their escorting zeros got to work on
strafng us. One Nip came right
down at us. He was aiming for that
radio shack and British ack-ack
gun that was behind us.
HE came looming down fast, his
cannon firing shells at us and his
machine guns blazing away. A
couple of the boys in the radio
shack opened up with Tommy guns
and the rest of us ran like ever fol-
cover. We dived into tea patch
and tried to hug the earth. One OF
the boys next to me began firing at
the ship with a .30-.30 rife. The
British battery got that guy but not
before he put some shrapnel from
his 20-mm. cannon into the men
manning the gun. 1t all happened
in few seconds but it seemed like
a year"
And then there was the time, he
recountS, when the story got around
of how some of the spunky Ali
Transport men deeper in the hill
country-and closer to the JapS-
had trained the Maya Indians to
work for them. THE Nagas were a
matchmaking tribe and were feared
by the natives in that area but the
boys up in the hill country had a
pltUly AopooAll "AAo AiAetN
friends with them, and actually
hired them to work. And they did
good job
The College of the City of New
York biology graduate, also told how
the Yanks in India hired Indian ma
tives to work for them personally, at
rupee a week. A rupee is worth
lust about 30 cents. Even a private
could live like a fabulous Indian
prince, with his own personal valet
and house boy. Recounted Dinaburg
For that rupee week we got our
barracks scrubbed, Gil shoes shined
buttons polished, and they did our
laundry too, but there we ran into
trouble. In India the natives do
their laundry in the nearest river
and beat the clothes with stick on
a rock. 1t didn't do our buttons any
good and for a while all we were
doing was sewing on new buttons
We finally convinced them that
more civilized methods were better.
But we had a hard time until we
picked up a little Hindustani. Be
fore that our arms were worn out