The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-05-26
CHAPTER XIII

81 now watched this last four fall
ing through what was practically
striped fog made by Jap pom-pons
coming up at us. We could see the
Japs crowding the rails, trying to
jump overheard as the bombs gath
cred speed. The first bomb plunked
into the water alongside, but the
other three went smack! smack!
smack! right down what had been
her promenade deck, and it looked
like she was coughing up into the
sky kind of confetti made up Of
planking splinters and Jap infantry.
My right wing man, who was re-
leasing his bombs synchronized with
, me, scored four hits across the back
of this ship.
"You ought to hear Beardshear,
our tail gunner, tell about it. Not
having any Zeros to keep him busy,
he was enjoying the scenery and
playing Yankee Doodle on the deck
planking with his .50-calibers. He
says we passed over so close that
he looked down the tunnels, and he
called to us over the interphones
that he could see what they were go
ing to have for chow-rice and fish
heads. Then we made our turn,
and went on back to Batavia, which
was crowded with refugees from
Singapore.
"About this time" said Frank
Kurtz, 81 got word from the Colo
mel that at last some American P-40
fighters were on their way up from
Australia, equipped with belly tanks
so they could take it in hops, land
ing for fuel at Kupang airdrome on
Timor Island. It was part of my
1iaison job to get them settled with
the Dutch fighters at their airdrome
at Gnoro. It was another beauti-
fully hidden field. The Dutch had to
lead them to it with an escort plane.
''When they landed l found there
were nine, led by my old friend
Major Bud Sprague, whon1 hadn't
seen since the Philippines. asked
him where Buzz Wagner was, and
he said Buzz just hadn't been lucky.
They'd told them in Australia that
one of them had to stay behind
and give the newly arriving fighter
pilots a little extra training, while
the other would lead the squadron in
Java. Buzz and Bud had tossed
an Australian shilling to decide it,
and Buzz had lost; he was, stuck
with that training job.
"The Dutch fighter pilots, who are
just as prancy as ours, were all ex-
cited and doing their stuff. They'd
led Bud in formation, and now they
were putting on show for him.
They'd dive onto the field in an at
tack string, and just before they hit,
they turned almost straight up in
the air and then, few thousand
feet up, that string opened out in
all directions like the petals of
rose.
"Bud had to admit the Dutch were
good. But he said he had to take
one Of his planes up for test that
afternoon and show 'em how to fly.
''Bud hit it off with them right
away. He praised the camouaage
on their field. When he came back
next day, heard him take his own
youngsters in hand. OF course it
was the old hooey, but he gave them
Dne serious warning.
"'This is the best-camoufiaged
field We'll ever operate on he told
them, so remember don't want
anyone to cross this field with Zero
on his tail. Bail out, beach it, but
don't come back here with COM
pany.' AS a result, the Japanese
didn't find Gnoro Field until two
days before the end.
''Not long after they came, rang
Bud up with queer assignment for
the boys. We were doing every
thing possible to stop the Japs from
swarming over onto Sumatra from
Malaga. The Forts were out past
ing their landing barges morning
and night. We were using them
practically as heavy pursuit skim
ming down under the weather to
chase landing barges going up the
rivers.
$50 we asked Bud to deliver a lit
tie strafng, and off they went, car
rying belly tanks to get them there
and stopping off at Andir. They
went to work with 30-pound frag-
mentation bombs and their machine
guns, and when they got back Bud
reported the P-40's had had Japs
diving of those barges in full field
equipment. He sank quite a few
and drowned hundreds of Japs, and
every P-40 got back to Java.
"But they were closing in on us
from still another direction. We
could no longer operate from those
advance fields at Kendari and Sam
arinda across the Java Sea. The
Japs had moved into Borneo and
the Celebes. So we waited for what
we knew was coming. They must
be stacking Jap bombers onto what
had been our own fields there
within easy range Of Java.
eve didn't have toswait long. One