The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1944-04-13

the Domb sight IN the compartment
below The bombardier has his sem
sitive fingers on those controls,
keeping the target ahead framed in
the cross hairs. Every time he
moves them fraction of an inch,
the change is registered in that PDI
needle on my instrument panel. I
can't see the target, of course, but
If follow the needle can't miss it.
"Now our nerves are Tightening
up. / glance fleetingly ahead and
see Cecil Combs in the lead plane,
going over the target. Since we're
bringing up the rear, Cecil is about
nine miles away, and his big For
tress looks about the size of a wren.
That sky ahead is filed with dirty
soot-gray ack-ack puffs, making a
spotty layer above him. The Japs
on the ground have cut their fuses
just little too long to pick off
Cecil, but know that in very few
seconds more I'm going to get a
closer view of this ack-ack. l pray
Cecips bombardier won't miss, al
though he's too far ahead for us to
see his bombs leave. Damn it,
Stone, now lay 'em down the alley,
boy But that Lid won't miss; he's
one of the best bombardiers in the
business. Now he's laying his train,
Pearl Harbor style, on those Japs,
who are lying there without steam up
only again I'm raging. Here we
are, with a Pearl Harbor setup for
a target, but only ten of US, while the
Japs hit Hawaii with many scores.
my navigator has laid aside his
tools in the compartment below, and
now comes crawling up through the
trapdoor to squeeze back through
the bomb bays, between the rows of
bombs and gas tanks, into the radio
compartment, where he'll man a
machine gun against Jap fighters.
There's no interphone talking
now except between gunners. We've
broken radio silence-the hell with
it now. We see them down there
and of course they see us up here.
Anything we can do to bring the for
nation in right is okay. So now the
earphones crackle with the excited
cross talk OF macnlne-gunners, all
peering out their windows on the
lookout for Zeros.
II take quick glance out Of the
side window to make sure I'm not
ahead Of Jim. I've got to stay even
with him SO my gunners can pro-
tect his tail and his gunners can
protect mine. And / wonder how in
hell that first flight has done, but
don't dare look up to see If Combs
has turned off the target yet. !
must stay glued to that needle-my
co-pilot is glued to it too. giving me
the corrections on my run.
ut must be as carefully timed as
violin duet. My bombardier be-
low there needs the gentle touch Of
violinist on his controls and !
must follow with equally gentle
pressures on the rudder. II he gets
excited, and in correcting an error,
moves his controls too far, then,
following that weaving needle, I'll
push pedal too far and we'll throw
the Fortress out Of her groove.
''I'm almost praying he won't do
this. Come on, boy / mutter to
him, don't let it run down your
leg, now-don't overcorrectl'
''Now ! take the risk Of just one
glance away from the needle
through the windshield to see the
second flight just going in on its
bomb-release line. The ack-ack fire,
which for the first fight was too
high, is now breaking below the Sec
ond fight. That means they'll see
they've bracketed US, and next time
they make a change in fuses down
below-about the time our third
fight is going over-they'l have us
square.
"Just then I hear a gunner shout
ing over the interphones:
Fighters, coming up at nine
o'clock!' ! can't see them yet-won-
der where they're coming from.
Maybe off a carrier. Then why
didn't we make a run on that? May
be Cecil did, and missed. Maybe
my >bombardier sees it and we are
making our run on it. No, think,
they're probably off the ground. The
Japs have probably got the country
side around Davao laced with land
ing strips by this time-the enter
prising little so-and-sos.
LAY your patch doiOn on the table in
front OF you. At fscelue o'clock the hour
hand poin. straight ahead. 1t three
o'clock il points to the right. 1t nine
o'clock il points to the ieff)
'Now my own gynners are talk
ing: They're coming up in long,
slow spiral, like hornets out of a
nest-coming up so straight you can
even see their bellies. / get the first
rumble Of the antiaircraft fire as
the ship flutters. A quick glance
ahead shows the puffs are right on
our level now.
"Then / get mad again. Because
it said in our schoolbooks that the
Jap antiaircraft fire couldn't hit any
thing above $4,000. Here we are,
laying it to them from almost twice
that altitude, and they're putting il
right back up to US.
"Then / get feeling Of exulta-
ton. Because down under us and
not far ahead now is that Jap Pearl
Harbor setup-big ships with stone
cold boilers. Now they must be run
ming frantically around the engine
rooms trying to stoke the fires and
get steam up, knowing while they're
hurrying that it's too late-just as
they knew at Pearl Harbor, but all
you can do is hurry, SO your do il