The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-06-09
CHAPTER XIV

'When that chute cracked open,
the jerk pitched him out of the har-
ness head-first, and as the chute bill
lowed loosely back of the planes tail,
we saw him dropping down with his
clothes smoking, getting hitler and
hitler. Oh, Heavenl I couldn't look
any more.
'The plane was settling faster,
In that steepening curve now, be-
cause it was all over. So we who
have seen a Fortress die in battle
can tell you how they do it. They
die like the men who fly them and
fight in them would want them to
die! They die like the great Sky
Queens they are. And Queens die
proudly.
"Just then heard our pilot Cap
tain Strother over the interphones,
telling Jim Worley, our bombardier,
that he'd opened the bomb-bay
doors, and for the bombardier to
60 back and salvo all the bombs
and the gas tanks carried there.
"Well, Jim Worley is about to
obey, but just then he sees a Zero
coming right in on us, head-on-
and his gun there in the nose is
the only one who can handle this
attack, so he's got to stay on it.
"He gives her one burst and then
starts to salvo his bombs and gas
tanks, but there's crashing sound,
and the controls don't work. He
doesn't realize bullet has wrecked
his controls-doesn't know what has
happened.
"Then all Of sudden-Bang!-
there's hell of an explosion inside
our plane, and dust, and the stink
of gasoline. After seeing what had
just happened to the other two
planes, we thought it could mean
only one thing. We must be on fire!
And later on, ask me about that
railroad spike.
"But somehow there were no
flames, so we kept on pounding
away at the Zeros swarming around
us-it was the only thing to do. What
had happened was that a bullet had
smashed into our compensatory
gen tank, and also cut a gasoline
feed line, so that gas was squirting
all over the cabin, but we didn't
know it then. Finally the tail gun
ner, seeing gas streaming along the
planes belly past him to trickle off
the tip of the tail, guessed what
had happened, and called out to the
rest of us over the interphones for
Gods sake not to smoke. With that
cabin filed with pure oxygen and
gasoline fumes, it would have been
a bad idea. Don't forget to ask me
about the railroad spike.
"When we got back to our field
and were telling about it, someone
asked our tail gunner if he wasn't
scared when, right after watching
those other two 60 down in flames,
that bullet burst our oxygen system
with big bang. No. he said,
there wasn't time to be scared.
But if someone had pushed rail-
road spike into my mouth, I would
have bit the head Of it off, clean and
sharp
"The Flying Fortress was de-
signed for the high skies, and il
you keep her in her groove, for her
crew she's the safest plane in the
air and for her enemies the most
deadly. We found this out not from
any book, but we learned it that
day in combat, which is learning it
the hard way. And we hoped it
wouldn't take too long for this les
son to percolate upstairs"
"On the way home," said Frank
Kurtz, "three of the remaining Forts
hit heavy afternoon rainstorm.
Visibility and ceiling were zero, and
for hours they few around the is
land of Madura, off the coast Of
Java, looking for place to land.
When gas was almost gone they de-
eided to beach them. Luckily no
one was killed, but two of the three
were completely washed out on the
seashore rocks-they set fire to the
wreckage so the Japs couldn't find
out anything about the planes. But
Lieutenant Fred Crimmons did a
magnificent job of setting his plane
down on the beach in the rain. He
made two passes, looking at his
gas in between, then squared away
and brought her in-she held firm,
sinking only a little. ! had the har-
bormaster's wrecking barge, with
tools and Dutch engineers, on its
way before daybreak. They were
having a little trouble with the ma
tives there - they were warned
against Jap parachutists, and our
boys had to yell at them a password
the Dutch had taught them to use if,
we were shot down: sKancha Kom-
paneel' It means Our Army they
explained to us.
"They worked a full day--shoring
up the plane, building base of
logs and sand under it, clearing a
runway strip. And then, in Java's
regular afternoon rainstorm, in
came { i Freddy onto Surabaya
Field. He explained he'd stripped
the plane Of everything he could un-