The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-05-19


me set Of captains bars, so !
could talk up to them. Presently I
was dealing with everyone = the
Dutch and the British, too.
'The Dutch, for instance, were
begging for help in Sumatra. It's
that long island which parallels Ma
laya, pointing down in the direction
Of Java. The Japs weren't in Singa-
pore yet, but already they were
swarming across the narrow seas
from Malaga trying to grab the oil
refineries at Palembang. So the
Colonel sent the Forts"
"We got to Palembang the last
week in January" said Sergeant
Boone, the gunner. 'The Dutch
there were certainly. swell to us.
There is huge refinery in the town,
and they took us to club sponsored
by Standard Oil Company-a pal
ace. All the club members would
drop around to be sure the Air
Corps had place for the night. A
Dutch officer took the rear gunner
and irysalf to his quarters. He'd
married an American girl, so he
spoke good English. We had on only
greasy coveralls, but he took us
right into his quarters-all air-con-
ditioned and mosquito-proofed. The
native couple they had as cook and
houseboy gave us the first home
cooked meal we'd tasted since the
war.
"The Dutch officer was a fine
looking big blond guy. He brought
out clean pajamas for us, and some
of his uniforms we could wear for
dinner. He was depressed. Early
in January he had evacuated his
wife and child to Java-for safety,
although that seems queer to say
now. He himself was staying be-
hind, in command of native ground
troops, to defend those refineries.
He hadn't heard from his wife. You
could see he was very much in
love with her. Also that he didn't
think much of the military setup
they had in Sumatra, so he doubt
ed that he would ever see her again.
"He'd been back on visit to Hol-
land just before the Germans came
in. Since then he'd had only one
letter from his -smuggled
out. She had had a couple of Ger
man maids from over the border.
They made good servants for the
heavy work, but just before the sur
prise invasion they'd been called
back to Germany. It was the same,
she said, all over Holland. So no
wonder, he said, that the Germans
knew the name of every Dutch Off
Ger in Holland. The morning of the
invasion, the Gestapo would knock
at the door, and when the officer
opened it, would shoot him down
in cold blood. This was why, he
explained, the Dutch Navy was so
incapacitated for officers. He was
very bitter. He was in wonderful
physical condition-been leading ma
tive troops through the jungles. Said
his wife was high up in the Java
mountains and hoped she was safe.
Next morning we left on mission
and never saw him again"
''We came up little later" said
the Bombardier, "and by the time
we got there, the Japs were moving
into the rivers mouth, just below
Palembang. The weather was over
cast-a ceiling of 1000, so we had
to work down below that. None
Of us liked it, because a Fort is a
hell of big easy target so close to
the ground-never built for that. AS
we came in, so close to the ground,
our radio operator called Skies on
the interphone.
Captain he said, oxygen
doesn't agree with me, but I'm will
ing to begin chewing it any time
now,' and I broke in, You can say
that again.
Captain Northcott was leading
the mission-six planes we were,
and when we sighted the target he
called over the command radio, as
signing our fight to a transport on
the left.
''It was monster, huge Maru
liner which I've seen as a luxury
cruise boat tied up to the San Fran
cisco docks. Suddenly she cut loose
a hell of an antiaircraft barrage at
us, all coming from this one trans
port-a regular Fourth of July at
three o'clock in the afternoon. It
was like looking down into a cone
of fire, with this transport at the
tip, and smoking red-hot rivets,
they seemed like, whizzing up at us.
They were rocking us around when
suddenly we shuddered violently and
almost went over on our back. An
ack-ack shell had burst under one
wing near the fuselage. Big pieces
of it tore huge hole just where the
wing joins the fuselage, and one en-
bedded itself just few inches from
Captain Skiles.
1--WE were already on our run, al
most at the release line, and the
jar had thrown out the bomb sight
it was completely imperative. But
I'd done some practice low-altitude
bombing at Muroc back in the