The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-05-21

VIII answer to the name or SndgD or Purser's Spitfire CPurser's" in Armys GID. And the Walrus has
 The Walrus has the body lines of soulful cod, completely under slung from a pair of Wright Bro- thers' wings and a maze of enough wiring and struts to trap any sea- gull who might find his way in be- Sembles a prehistoric leather winged pterodactyl out of King Kong or Conan Doyle's Lost World' It is believed to be the monster offspring of the mismat- ing of rowboat and an absent minded Gremlin. Transcendent- alists have even maintained it is the materialized form Gremlins sometimes assume when they be- come visible.
 All right, go on, insult the Wal rus. Later we'll get around to the reasons why the Fleet Air Arm sWears by and at the most ma ligned plane in the world. But that requires facts, and somehow facts seem shabby and earthbound com pared to anything as whimsical as a Walrus.
 I've gone on antisubmarine pa- trol in Walrus squeezing past pilot and observer and wedging myself in as inactive rear-gunner among the thousands of gadgets that go into the Shagbat's role of utility plane" A crane dumped us ignominously over the side; Walrus are rarely catapulted when their ship is at anchor.
 Felt Like Motorboat
 There was a thunderous roar from the single pusher engine be- tween the wings as we taXied into position. In bare seconds we were "on the step' tail in the air, while the aquatic minded Walrus made up it's mind to be airborne. Briefly, I felt I was in racing outboard motorboat. Then, almost as soon as an autogiro, we lifted off and skinned sedately along few yards above the surface. Somehow it felt more like lighter-than-ai than Warplane
 The Shagbat's favorite altitude seems to be below 1000 feet, al- though they are encountered well up in the 'teen-thousands. It de- bends on the mission. Spotting gunfire, a Walrus might stay well up to avoid enemy ack-ack fire Hunting subs, the Walrus can hover over the surface like an angry sea- gull coming to rest.
 Wal1us history, because of its note of Whimsy, consists more of unconfirmed anecdote than docu- mented record. Anecdote credits four German fighters to the bats. One victory was in Norwegian wa ters, where Messerschmitt was said to have found a Walrus flying so slowly that the Nazi could never get in more than two or three rounds per attack. The Walrus gunners kept their guns on the ME as long as it was in range and, after half an hour of ring around the rosy, shot it down.
 The same scene is supposed to have happened over the Channel The German pilot, told by his res cuerS that he had been downed by Walrus, blushed shook his head frantically and screamed "Nein Nein! Schpitfeuerl' all the way back to port.
 Jerry Number Three was am- pushed in 1940 by a Walrus which had patrolled one Norwegian ford so much that every detail was mem- orized. ChiVVied by a MeSser- Schmit, the Walrus flew un the fjord straight at set of telephone wires and ducked nimbly under meath, while the speedier, less ma neuverable fighter flew into the wires and crashed
 Didn't Signal Turn
 Number Four is similar enough so that it may be an attempted i'm provement on the story. During the Narvik campaign, it claims an at tack Walrus flew straight down Main street at the town hall, but turned sharply down a side street without signaling, while the Ger man crashed into the steeple.
 With the Walrus so nautical that its speed is diagnosed in knots rather than miles per hour, there are bound to be Seafaring anecdotes. One Walrus, out of gas and unable to find its parent ship during an Arctic convoy, sat down beside a merchantmen. It was lowed 300 miles to port, refueled, and flew off unchanged.
 Another in the South Atlantic, similarly forced down, made sail with parachutes and ran before the wind 100 miles to the Dakar coast. The crew, realizing that relations with Dakar were touchy to say the least then, anchored five miles off shore and thec scuttled the Walrus, after persuading pair of native