The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1944-07-20

labies and the others are big blues.
They hunch low and run through
the scrubby gum trees. I got tired
living out of cans, so I borrowed q
gun and shot big blue, and the
Aussies showed me how to eat it.
You throw away all but the tail,
which you make soup of, and 1t
tastes like thick chicken broth.
"If we wefe near a ranch we
might see sheep, and we also shot
some of these and ate them. The
Australian law is that any traveller
can kill sheep for eating, but he
must skin it and leave the hide on a
fence post for the owner. ! got my
first bath in a river we ran onto
twenty miles out of Port Hedland.
Finally ! got to Melbourne, where
the Air Force was gathering again
and found they had me down as a
deserter, but it wasn't any trouble
getting that explained"
81 got out of Java by boat" said
the Gunner. ''They loaded us on a
train at Jockstrap and took us to
learn, where a Dutch freighter was
waiting to take out fifteen hundred
of us. They told us we were bound
for Perth, town in Southwest Aus
tralia-about the same location and
size as San Diego in the States.
Alongside us at the dock was a
troopship of Aussies from Singapore.
Before that they'd been in Egypt
hadn't been home for years. Their
boat was bound for Adelaide, way
round on the other side of Austria
lia-same location as Miami. But
lots of them lived in Perth. When
they heard we were going there,
they all skipped ship to come aboard
with us. We divided our food and
lent them our mess kits. They'd
lost everything at Singapore. They
probably caught hell for it, but they
didn't give a damn.
''The first day out we sighted a
Jap plane, but it stayed up for a
while, watching us. We had stuck
machine guns in the belaying-pin
holes, and kept the soldiers hidden
below decks SO they wouldn't know
we were carrying troops. Our gun
ners were hidden, too. But when
this Jap started down to strafe, one
of our gunners gave the show away
by opening fire too soon-otherwise
we would have got him.
eve zigzagged for five days, and
then at Perth were loaded into a
troop train for Melbourne. was in
the coach next the engine, and the
Australians couldn't do too much for
us. The engineer drew a can Of hot
water from his boiler and made us
some tea out of his strictly rationed
supply, apologizing because it
wasn't stronger.
II guess l was about the last one
of us to arrive"
weren't" said Harry Schrieber, the
navigator, Indignantly. Because
what about me?"
1--WE weren't worried about you,
Harry" said Frank with a grin.
I'VE thought you were dead. Way
back in the Philippines, when Jack
Adams plane didn't come back to
Del Monte Field from that mission.
We had given you up months ago.
What had you been doing, anyway"
Trying to get out of the damned
Philippines, said Harry. "And I
didn't manage it until the day before
General Macarthur did-the six
teenth of March l think it was"
Harry was the last man to
come" said Frank, land now that
the gang was together we could start
doing business. You see Lieutenant
General Brett, who had been COM
manding the United Nations Air
Force under British General Wa
veil, who was supreme commander,
needed plane to take him around
the war zone. His B-24 had been
lost at Broome, remember. Colo
mel Eubank recommended me to
General Brett as his personal pilot
and senior air aide, and I selected
the crew. Of course when it came
to picking the plane itself, the Gen.
eral ordered d, because all the
E's with tail guns were needed for
combat and he wanted those planes
saved for the boys who would be
going out on missions.
"But when it came to which . we
would pick, it had to be the Swoose,
because there was no other left. Ev-
cry plane, even of the same model,
handles little differently. I'd flown
our DIS out from the States, through