The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1944-04-13

"Next day we headed out over
the Java Sea toward Borneo and,
following instructions, found likely
looking river, dropping down to low
altitude, and began following 1t back
upcountry, and then, just on sched-
ule, we made out Samarinda Field
in the late-afternoon sunlight in spite
Of its camoufage. And it was the
best job we'd ever seen, better than
Malang. We'd had practically no
time for camoufage at all in the
Philippines. But here the Dutch
had hewed this field out of the teem-
ing jungle-uprooted the stumps,
leveled it off, planted it with grass,
and then coveredit with wooden saw
horses that would knock the stuffing
out Of any plane that tried to land
through them. Only when you cir
cled the field, out came crowd OF
natives on the rum suppose they
were wild men Of Borneo the Dutch
had tanned. They would remove
the sawhorses only from that par
ticular runway you were supposed
to use, and the minute your wheels
touched the ground they'd start re-
covering the runway behind you.
They didn't intend that the Japs
should sneak in and take that field
by surprise. We took our hats off
to the Dutch for that job; they'd
done everything to defend their is
lands that any people can do with
it's bare hands.
mo sooner had we TAXED up to
the revetment than up came pref
ty blonde Dutch nurse ina starched
white Red Cross uniform, looking
anxiously at us as we climbed out,
just in case we'd been hit by Zeros
on the way in and some of the boys
were wounded.
Fright away we went to pilots
meeting, where we lined out the
mission for Davao Bay. We knew it
was a long pull out there and back,
with the target itself more heavily
defended than anything south OF For
mosa. Also, it made you mad to
think that this heavily defended Jap
target was in our own Philippines,
where our boys were still fighting.
It was even on the same island OF
Mindanao with old Del Monte Field.
$50 why put it off? Let's eat and
then get going out there where we
can paste them. The crews were
putting some final touches on the
motors and gassing the big brutes
up, so we TAXED out from our dis
persal places and were in the air
and gathering into formation about
one o'clock.
1.-THE Japs, we knew, seldom flew
at night, but we were flying in V
of V's. Jim Connally, George
Schaetzel, and l made up the third
fight, which, / might point out, is
the dirty spot, because in those days
you could expect most Jap attacks
from the rear. Then, we started
that long climb for altitude-which
means safety for the Fortress, hell
of a big and vulnerable target near
the ground.
''But while we are still climbing,
George Schaetzel is tagging. Engine,
trouble, we later found out. George
drops out entirely, which leaves Jim
Connally and me alone to handle the
dirty spot.
presently the formation levels
off, and then ahead of us we see
an enormous black mass of weather
in what is left of the dWindling twi-
light. It's laid out horizontally right
across our path-starting at about
$4,000 feet, it seems to 60 on up
forever.
$50 what do we do? Our orders
are to keep in formation, so we can
all hit Davao at the same time, and
not 60 over dispersed at intervals,
where the Zeros, rising at the first
alarm, can slaughter the stragglers.
"But If we go into this cloud bank,
maybe it goes on for miles and we'll
lose each other inside Of it, and nev-
er be able to assemble for the at
tack.