The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-04-07
CHAPTER vi

and he can't keep up this rate OF
climb-and half an hour later Pease.
AS we come to the rendezvous point
where we're due to make our turn
and 60 straight in on our target,
only thirty-five miles away, Lee
Coats drops out-his motors we can
see are weak, he can't make the al
titude.
''That leaves just my pilot, Jack
Adams, and Vandevanter to go on IN
alone. When we thought there would
be six planes, we had planned to
divide into two flights of three planes
each. The flights were to come in
on the target at three-minute inter-
walls and at different angles.
"There are just two planes now,
so Jack decides he'll pretend he is
one flight and Vandevanter will play
like he was the other. The two OF
us against this big gang of Jap ships
we are closing in on.
$50, as agreed on, we come in
first-fying north to south. But the
overcast is so thick we have to get
down to about $4,000 before we can
see the target, and there it is-we're
glimpsing it and then losing it and
glimpsing it again through breaks in
the clouds-a row of transports and
naval craft escorting them.
when we come in on the target,
I'm down there in the lower jaw.
But now my job as navigator is
temporarily over, so ! can leave it
and 60 back to the bomb bay, where
the bombs are hanging in racks on
either side of a little aisle.
"Now the bomb-bay doors are
opened, and light comes up around
the bombs. And now the bombs are
away. I lean over to look down
through the open bombay doors,
feeling a little woozy because my
oxygen mask is, back by my seat in
the navigator's compartment, and
Just before Jack Adams from his
pilots seat slammed those bomb
bay doors closed, looking down be-
low the belly of the ship think /
see something, but then the doors
slam shut and there is only black
ness. So run back to the naviga-
tors compartment, and, boy! there
they area whole gang of Zeros
coming up after us. How did I feel?
Just the way anybody feels the first
time, no matter what they pretend
later-it scared the hell out of me.
"There were five Of them after us
climbing up and in on our tail.
Our bottom gunner shot down the
nearest one, but the other four kept
coming in a tight formation. Jack
Adams began wish-washing our tail
up and down to give our top gun
ners a chance at them-no reason
why the bottom gunner should have
all the fun-and sure enough, the
top gunner picked one out of that
formation. That left three.
$50 then Jack pulled a cute one.
He throttled back suddenly and one
Zero overshot us to the left, which
made him clay pigeon for our
side gunner, who picked him off.
Then still another came up under
our stabilizer in the tail, and our
bottom gunner got his second for
the day. That made four Zeros
down and one to go-and it was still
going for us in spite of all we could
do.
"We'd dribbled on down through
the bottom of that cloud, and Jack
was looking for nice beach to set
her down on. But there wasn't any
beach-only jagged rocks with white
surf wrapped around them-and we
kept losing altitude.
''The hell with those, so Jack
nosed her in toward land, still losing
altitude fast, and then right ahead
of us we spotted a big clump of
trees-about sixty feet high. Well,
there wasn't time for anything but
a prayer, and not any long rambling
one either. But Jack handled the
situation beautifully. He pulled her
nose up as high as he dared and
just cleared those trees, and then,
cutting the remaining two motors so
we wouldn't have to climb out of her
in flames, he made as nice a belly
landing in rice patch as you could
hope for.
you've forgotten that one re-
manning Zero? Well, I hadn't, be-
cause it had followed us all the
way down. I crawled out as fast as
/ could and started running away
from the plane parallel to the wing.
. The funny thing was Bill Railing,
the co-pilot, was either stunned or
felt comfortable right where he was.
Anyway, he stayed right in his seat
while this Zero circled and then
came in, right along the line of our
wing. ! just had time to fall down on
my chin and then it all happened in
split second, The Zero's guns
opened up, so that the first slugs
began kicking up the dust about
thirty yards away in. . Straight line
just q yard from my chin as she