The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1944-07-06
W.N.u.FEATupEs

les.
.'It seemed the order had just
come through to evacuate, because
the Japs were coming, and what
with the language difficulty, this was
their way of announcing it. The
funny thing was, for weeks they'd
had a gang of men working to i'm
prove that field and repair the run
ways. These guys kept right on
sweating away up until the minute
the order to evacuate came through
then they went ahead sweating
just as hard to blow up what they'd
just been fixing.
'We were jittery - been going
through a lot of strafng-but finally
got our plane refueled, and loaded
twenty-four men aboard. We still
had no brakes on the right wheel,
but we all hoped together in unison
that we'd clear the runway. We
did.
''It was two o'clock in the morn
ing. AS we climbed for altitude we
could see refineries flaming all over
the is1and-fires and explosions-and
as we circled the field in the dark
for the last time, the Dutch down
below us threw switch and blew
up that beautiful new concrete hang
ar. 1t had huge arches like bridge
span, control tower, and everything
lit all came rolling up at us in
parting salute.
'Now we were headed for Aus
tralia, buzzing along at about 10000
feet. Pretty soon we came to scat
tered clouds which presently grew
into whole mess of thunderheads.
Our pilot nosed around for a while.
and then was trying to squeeze In
between two of them when suddenly
and violently the ship dropped 5000
feet. One soldier. who'd been lying
on the floor of the radio compart-
ment, went right up to the ceiling
of the plane. And stuck there. The
waist guns were jerked from their
mounts. The tail gunner of course
was so cramped he didn't have any
place to 60, but he reported that the
Two belts of ammunition on either
side of him lashed back and forth
until they braided themselves.
was in my bombardier's seat. and
I went straight to the top of the
plane, and stayed there with my
neck bent against the ceiling of the
navigator's compartment for what
seemed lii couple Of weeks but
probably w sn't very many seconds.
"The pilot had quite a problem.
He hadn't buckled his safety belt, so
he hit the ceiling like the rest of us.
But his official duties wouldn't per-
NIT him to stay there and be COM
Portable like the others, and yet he
couldn't get down. So he managed
to push the stick forward with his
feet, nosing the ship down so she
wouldn't go into a spin. He pulled
her out of 1t at about 1000.
when he got her Strengthened out
and crawled back in his seat, he
called all Of us over the interphones
and asked us If we d noticed swish
ing sound while back. When we
said we hadn't, he insisted he had,
and that it wasn't the air stream,
either. He claimed it was the swish
ing of the grim reaper's scythe.
Getting into Broome, Australia,
we began to worry about that bust
ed brake, and the momentum we
would have when we hit the field
with all these men aboard. We could
Tighten ship by having the guys bail
out, but the trouble was we had
only nine chutes. But when the
pilot called the airport, they re-
ported they had one runway which
ran uphill and was soft at the far
end-perfect for US, so we made q
beautiful landing"
''I was still back in Surabaya," !"
said the pilot, Frank Kurtz, "be-
cause ! had a couple of jobs to do.
The day we got Warrenfeltz off in
the Corregidor relief ship, the Colo
mel had told me he was leaving Ma
lang for Jokyakarta-the town we
.aled Jockstrap--and that I'd bet
tel oi' him there and he'd send me
out to Australia. All the other boys
OF the 10th were going that day.
"But asked him if I couldn't stay
over just little longer. was think
ing of the fighter pilots. No one was
looking after them; they had abso-
lutely no haison. When a place is
cracking up, everybody tends to
think of themselves. Why bother
about the fighters? They got in,
didn't they? Well, let them get out
again. The trouble was the fighters
had got in with belly tanks, hop
ping via Timor and Bali, which were
now held by the Japs.
1.-THE Colonel said I was absolute
ly right-maybe could help them.
You're under your own ORDERS he
said. I leave it to your discretion
as to how and when you come out.
Best of luck
ut wasn't until I'd hung up that I
realized that when the 10Th had left
| Java, there wouldn't be any way for
me to get out. The hotel by now
was emptying fast Of foreign uni
forms-Id bade the first echelon of
our Navy goodby. Poor old Java
was being eft to sink by herself. but
since the newspapers were still
about four days behind the actual
news, the people didn't realize it
yet. Things were moving fast.
THAT day we heard a big Jap
force was closing in off the north
coast, headed for the Java beaches.
We got reports from scout planes,
even from submarines, but we didn't
know just how big it was. Because
hanging over 1t was a Jap fighter
screen SO thick that our recco planes
didn't dare fly through to see.
1--WE got few reports from tiny