Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-04-26

riding the antiaircraft with them
two, three, five Zeros streaking out
of the clouds with scud streaming
off their wings like the smoke Of
battle.
He had time to count five Zeros,
or thought he had counted five, when
again the steadily linking and cork
screwing plane flew out Of his
hands, its pedals butting roughly
at his feet. The Jap gunners had
dropped down on him and were
bracketing him. For minute, in
his despair over the rut he was
travelling down, he thought the hell
with it, and went straight into the
fire and saw the smoke OF the ex-
plosion coil lazily over the wind
shield, and saw 1t torn away by
the speed with which he was NOV
ing. Conclusions were grabbing at
his plane steadily now, as with
hands, and his head jounced so that
it was hard to see his instruments.
But he had been shaken out of
his despair.
That's good" he thought Of the
conclusions, they make me harder
to hit" and began diving toward
bursts. first to one side, then to
the other and up and down, hoping
that the Jap gunners would be
smart enough to correct their aim,
counting on them to be smart
enough, knowing that If they were
too dumb to do that they'd kill
him sure.
Japs Were Tough.
The Jap ships were close now.
Swede had big black cruiser right
up against his eyes. All the ships
were keeping formation, waiting
for torpedoes to drop and pumping
their guns steadily. There must
have been 10000 pairs of eyes there,
stralning to see what he was going
to do and straining to act on what
he was going to do. He leveled off
and held level 10 seconds. The
ships wouldn't break formation.
They didn't believe him. He leveled
off again and held it and held it
until his brain felt so full of fright
it seemed bursting. Still the Jap
ships didn't break formation, Those
Japs were tough, the toughest they
could be, and fooling around wasn't
going to get them.
He was past the light cruisers now.
IN between them and some DESTROY
ers. They were throwing broadsides
at him from both sides and stuff was
going past him from both sides and
killing Japs. But they didn't care
about that. They couldn't. not then,
not with torpedo hung up there In
the belly OF a plane for them to
shoot at. That was the thing to get,
the torpedo.
Then the whole setup swan slug
glshly into focus for Swede and he
let go his torpedo and swung away.
He saw the Jap ships break forma-
ton and saw the little bubbline
streak of the wake of another tor
pedo going through the water like a
pencil stripe and wished it the best
OF luck and threw himself into the
job OF getting away from there. The
Jap guns were still after him, chasing
him, even over-running him and he
whipped and ducked and sashayed
along like a little boy pumping his
legs so fast they became bow-legged.
And right in the middle of that, a
voice spoke up startlingly into his
ears, saying, Nice work, Swede. You
got him square In the belly" and he
looked around pen-mouthed before
realizing the words had come
through the earphones and the voice
was Jack Elders. one of the dive
bombers.
Most Of the antiaircraft fire had
stopped now. Only the heavy stuff
was reaching this far. That meant
the Zeros would be on him to chop
him down any minute now. He looked
around him. He couldn't see any
zeros. He couldn't see anything.
not ships or any planes. The sky
had darkened so rapidly in those five
or six minutes of the attack that 1t
was practically night now.
Quiet in the Sky.
It was very quiet in the sky. There
was no feeling of death In 1t any
more. Whatever death there was
going on far below on the surface of
the sea did not come up into it.
rs everybody all right" said
Swede into the interphone.
"Okay here, sir" the tunnel gun
ner said.
"Yo here, sir" said the turret gun
ner.
That's good, because it was some
piece of business down there and
didn't know, mean, hell, we'll, I'm
glad we're all right now. Does
anybody see anything?"
There was no answer.
Where is everybody" cried
Swede. Where have they all gone
TOT"
Il saw some planes go down, sir"
Lawrence. the tunnel gunner, said.
Swede was circling around slowly,
staring into the swiftly gathering
darkness. How many? Ours or
theirs?"
1.-TWO or. three" Lawrence said.
His voice seemed to be chattering.
Three or maybe two, something like
that. They hit the water and burned
like match was thrown In them.
Maybe four Of them, sir, or some
thing like that"
Were they Japs or us?'
don't know, I'm not sure. said
Lawrence In his chattering voice.
Fighters Turn Back.
Once the planes had dropped their
torpedoes, the team broke up and It
was every man for himself. The
doors In the joint were AL knocked
down now. Each man chose his own
exit and trampled the air down ret
k}s4~ rssit Thrush II