The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1944-03-30

"Then we looked them over. They
were all about high-school age. Half
of them didn't speak English, and
the Job was to get them to under
stand you. Of course they didn't
know what to do with a rifle, but
this didn't matter, because we had
only fifteen rounds of ammunition
per man-not enough for an hours
target practice.
1.-THE Field Artillery part of it all
consisted of the name, plus six
sights for old World War French
75-millimeter field guns. The guns
themselves had been sunk on a sup
ply ship in Manila Bay. The sights
had been shined up and were in
prime condition.
Eve didn't encourage these kids to
keep their rifles loaded, being afraid
| that If one of the guns went off in
the dark they would start banging
| away and shoot each other and
| maybe US, so we gave them bayo-
net practice instead. Early in JAN
uary they moved us over to Caygay-
en- on Mindanao Island-we heard all
| the troops from all the islands were
to make stand there But no Japs.
| They gave us section of the beach
a mile and a half long to defend If
! they came.
fright behind our lines there was
a small Jap colony. We knew they
were there, of course-we'd gone
through their houses looking for ra-
dio equipment, anything they might
use to send information to the Davao
Japs-and we posted a small guard
around them. But they'd slip out and
| go on down to Davao to Join the
Davao Japs, and there wasn't much
we could do to stop it. We we're only
handful ourselves. I didn't care
much for that country-particular
the pythons.
$50 I was tickled to death when
; word came to go back to old Del
Monte Field, where the planeless
aviators were being assembled for
evacuation to Australia, where we
would get safely back into the air
again.
81 got to Del Monte on March thir-
| teenth and we were all ganged up on
the field, where we were expecting
Bits to carry officers and men to
Australia At 9 p. m. we heard the
motors of a plane and turned on our
landing lights. But it didn't see
them and kept on going. We didn't
know it then, but we didn't have AL
priority, for those planes that night
were intended to take out General
Macarthur and his party and their
baggage and records-only the Gen.
eral hadn't yet arrived. But we
supposed the planes were for US.
"About IL p. m. we heard another
plane and snapped the landing lights
on, and this time ii saw them and
landed. Out of the Fortress stepped
Lieutenant Pease of our own 10Th
Bombardment Group. He told us
the other plane we had heard was
Godman's-it had got mixed up and
bumped into the sea.
"But Pease was Immediately
called over by General Sharp, who
told Pease that General Macarthur
had been delayed, and that the plane
should wait over few days until he
came.
"Now Pease didn't want to wait
over for single hour of daylight on
Del Monte Field, for by that time
the Jap planes were swarming over
the place. Pease knew the Air Force
was trying desperately TO hang onto
what few Forts they had left, and
he realized that if he stayed over the
next day the infantry would make
him quite comfortable in a foxhole
at the edge of the field, where he
could watch his plane become the
prize for a japanese turkey shoot
for Del Monte by this time was as
unsafe as Clark had been, fact the
infantry didn't seem to have quite
grasped.
$50 Pease explained to Sharp il
would be all right with him, provid-
ed General Macarthur understood
what he was getting into, that he
had a fine plane here except that il
had just come from the Java wal
and was slightly out of repair. Il
was too bad, for instance, that the
superchargers were out, but he
hoped he'd be able to clear the run
way on the take-off and not slip of
into a cartwheel at the end of it
spilling the Generals party and al
that baggage all over central Minda-
mao. And then, if he did take off
there was the little matter of his by
draulic system, which had gone bac
on him, SO when he came to land the
brakes wouldn't work, and he might
not be able TO stop when he came
to the end of the runway.
"Well, General Sharp decided thai
it certainly wasn't suitable, and tolc
Pease he'd better get started back
to Australia before dawn.
'Pease,' l said, I'm goin' will
you. You don't know it, but you go
a new navigator for this trip. Be
cause I'm not goin' to stay in thi
damn place no more.
'Well, Pease agreed to let m,
work out my passage that way, anc
also said he could take off fifteel
other planeless aviators if they didn'
mind the risk. He didn't have mucl
trouble with this call for volun
teers. / think most of them by thi
time held my views of life on tn,
| around