The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1944-08-03

the Swoose's crew chief. eve got
just a minute and half's notice
that the Japs were coming. Now
the General could have stepped
down into a foxhole and been per-
fectly safe there, watching the Japs
pound the field. But not our Gen.
eral-he wanted to save that plane,
and we had. to run like hell to jump
in, the General leading everybody,
slam the doors, and lam out of
there. We had to take off down wind,
which was bad, missing a little hill
by a lot less than 100 feet. We
wouldn't have missed it if it hadn't
been for those smart trees they have
on New Guinea growing on top of
that hill-the most intelligent ones
I've ever seen. Because they saw
us coming and ducked. I happened
to be looking out and saw them.
Then I looked back, and bombs
were already breaking on the field
right In the dust of our take-off.
1.-The Colonel here, who of course
was doing the plotting, pulled a
smart one. The Japs were right
on top of US, so he hugged the
ground figuring then the Zeros
couldn't dive on us without mash
ing their own propellers into the
/ bush. We went hell for breakfast,
wiggling in and out of gullies hardly
DO feet off the ground, and then out
over the sea, where we could see a
al - ~
all kinds of rank aboard that day
Australian Air Force generals and
other visiting firemen-and some of
them weren't used to scuttling
through gullies in a four-motor
plane, and by the time we got into
! that cloud they were sprouting some
gray hairs.
"By May, though" said Frank,
''we began to get the situation in
hand at Moresby. We got some dis
persal fields back in the hills for
our planes and an operational alarm
net so now we can intercept, and
also the Zeros run into an intense
cross fire from the ground which
sends them trailing off across the
jungle on fire. So presently STRAIT
ing is out, and we have only regular
raids by high-altitude Jap bombers
pounding the field. Our fighters are
getting better every day, and pretty
soon they're chasing them out over
the coast, jettisoning their bombs,
which whistle down harmlessly to
tear up empty jungles.
"For while we had labor prob
lem. The tame village natives we'd
hired to work on the field didn't like
the bombs, and when the alarm
sounded, instead of jumping into the
foxholes they'd beat it into the jun
gle, and maybe not come back for
a couple of days. However, this
soon stopped, because the cannibal
head-hunters who lived in the jun
gle used to stalk them and chase
them back, and as between the
bombs and the head-hunters, the ma
tives chose the bombs, so we got
plenty of work done.
by now we weren't worried
about Port Moresby. We had that in
fair shape, and our bombers were
going over almost every day to
pound the Japs. But we were un-
easy about the other shore of New
Guinea. The Japs had already dug
in at Lac and Salamaua-suppose
they came on down the line and put
in an airfield at Buna, right opposite
Moresby? They could cause us plen-
ty of trouble, intercepting our bomb
ers on the way out and back.
General Brett was particularly
anxious. and wanted to move in and
take Buna in May. There was MOTH
ing there then but a native village
and an old Catholic mission. But
Melbourne said no, because it would
mean landing troops to defend our
airdrome there.
But the Air Force knew If the
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