Evening star., 1943-04-18

turning, but enemy routed. Lar-
sen organizes surDiDors and re-
placements into ADengers OF Tor
pedo 8.
CHAPTER 7.
The first flight Of Avengers Of
Torpedo took to the air over Quad
alcanal in the back Of the historic
morning of August 7. There were |
no Jap ships around for them to
torpedo, 50 they were carrying
bombs.
Everybody on board the carrier
knew how anxious Torpedo 8 was
to get at the Japs, so there had
been kidding to the effect that
they wouldn't get any, and the kid
ding took the line that when zero
hours came or, as it was called, D
hour, H day, Torpedo 8 would find
no gas in its, planes or no engines
or no propellers or, anyway, no
something or other that would pre-
vent it from even taking of. This
had made 1t. Dewitt Peterkin and
Clyde Hammond, whose responsible
ity it was to have the planes ready
to 60 up into the air and climb all
the way out on limb, and they
had said that not only would every
single plane in the squadron be fit
to take the air but they'd bet on It,
A number of crafty businessmen on
the carrier had heard of this brash
and heated statement and had roped
off Peterkin and Hammond and
had made them put up the money.
So there was considerable inter-
est in the take-off, and as the
| planes hurtled off one by one the
businessmen were advising Peterkin
and Hammond not to count their |
chickens before they were Matched.
and Peterkin and Hammond were |
counting them. SWede, who was
leading the first flight, took off last.
AS he gunned his motor and let her
go down the deck great gout OF oil
shot out of it and caught the busi- !
nessmen, the engineering crew and
the plane handlers in their respec-
tive kissers.
But Swede was hot to go, so he |
Just kept on going. The oil was all
over his windshield and he couldn't
see anything except oil, but there
was no ignition switch on his mind
| that he could turn and make him
self stop going.
Arrange a Rendezvous.
Torpedo had arranged to rem
devious in the sky, circling five min
utes and then going on, leaving be-
hind anybody who had not showed
up by that time. Swede had not
showed up, so the rest went on, Bar
| mum acting as flight leader.
It was a soot-black, rainy blowy |
morning, and Swede was in the |
middle of it, listening intently to
his motor, hoping that whatever it
was that was shooting oil would
stop, and, when it stopped, wonder
ing If he had enough oil left to keep
his motor from grinding itself up.
The indicator showed there was
enough, and Swede thought, 'Indi-
Gator, If you're lying that's the last |
thing you'll ever do," which as a
matter of fact was correct, since |
if it were lying it and everybody else
would wind up In the water.
In the meantime he kept Slowing
his plane around to look out the
sides, hoping he'd catch glimpse
of the others. Once he did and
went chasing after them, but they
had gone somewhere else and he
couldn't see where that was because
OF the oil.
Nobody was using his radio then.
That had been the orders-radio
silence until the Japs were hit and
made a noise Swede knew where
the target was and figured to 60 on
to it alone and maybe get there be-
fore the others had finished it off. A
torpedo bomber flying alone is fox
running in second place when
fighter planes jump him, but that's
chance a man takes when he is
hot to get somewhere and doesn't
mind the manner of his going and,
anyway, there were plenty of clouds
around. Swede figured, if he saw
Zeroes, he could jump into cloud
and wrap himself up in it, although
how he expected to see Zeroes with
oil all over his windshield is some
thing he forgot to take into ac-
count.
The Oil Washed OFF.
Then the oil started to clear oil
his windshield. The gusty wind blew
fierce little SQUALLS of rain against
| it. The rain cut like knives. Dawn
was starting to scoop out the dark
ness and radios opened up in the air
all around. There's the objective,
hit It," Swede heard suddenly in the
soft, high voice of the American
South and the loneliness went all
out of the foreign air around him
and he felt at home and as If this
we're the start Of good morning
at home.
Torpedo 8's objective was at the
eastern end of Florida Island across
the basin of water from Guadalcanal
that same basin which in little
while the Navy would learn to call
Iron Bottom Bay" and the ma
rines "Sleepless Lagoon" The radio
cracked constantly now in Swede's
ears. The Orange commander and
Red commander were having quite
talk. "Ill take him." said a Middle
Western voice and then there was
a whole stream of blue language
followed by the explanation, II told
you to watch out for a tal-end
Charlie unless you got eyes on the
back Of your head" and the answer
| II, a n1liet hut hea w. .hraat thed uoica.