The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1944-07-27

and were whirling over and over
in their squirrel cages, Jap and
an American to each cage, while
the first flight kept up the heavy
cleaver work-chopping into that
bomber v from behind, or some
times going out ahead of it to turn
and come in for bust on its nose.
They were forcing it lower-when
they'd peel off and come in for a
pass, it was fun watching both mo-
tors light up.
"a good many Jap bombers got
over the target, but you couldn't
call it a bomb run. Most of their
bombs went wild, as always hap
pens in a disrupted attack, and
many others salvoed their bombs in
the desert so they could run away.
But those which did get over Dar-
win ran into Bofors ack-ack fire.
The battery was operated by an old
Crete gang of Aussies-the tough
est hombres in the business-and the
American P-40's had pushed the Jap
bombers so low that the ack-ack
could really rip into them. They
were between that cleaver in the
air and buzz saw on the ground.
Two or three Jap bombers dribbled
right down onto the field, whole
wings shot off or else blown into con-
fetti. The Japs tried to use their
chutes from the burning bombers-
which should explode the fairy tale
that Japs are too fanatical to use
chutes-yet even they caught fire.
"Most of the first Jap bomber
fight got over Darwin, but only part
of the second, while the third jetti-
soned its bombs and ran like hell for
Kupang.
Squeeze Wurtsmith had thought
of that. He'd put fresh P-40 squad
ron into the air with full belly tanks,
and it chased the Japs almost half
way home, chewing off a bomber
every few minutes. One-third of
that Jap bomber strength got back
to Kupang, and our boys think may
be one of the eleven Jap fighters
may have got home, but they doubt
it.
"You see the estimated range of
a Zero using belly tanks is about
twelve hundred miles. It's five hum
dred and ten miles from Kupang to
Darwin, and to go and return is q
thousand and twenty miles. That
leaves tiny safety margin that is
more than used up if the Zero has to
do any fighting en- route. which
consumes tremendous quantities Of
gas.
ALSO by first hitting the Japs far
out at sea, Squeeze forced them to
drop their belly tanks-they can't
fight while carrying them-and be-
gin using their precious wing-tank
gas long before they got to the tar
get.
"An through the Australian war
our fighters must have knocked off
hundreds of Zeros which we've nev-
er claimed. We fight them until
their gas is almost gone, and when
they finally break away and start
for home, they slide quietly into
the sea with dry tanks.
"Those fighters at Darwin are a
great gang of kids, and they've in
vented their own service uniform,
which might not pass parade inspec-
ton back here. It consists of a
long duck-billed hunters cap, usu-
ally red, plus a pair of white cotton
shorts and nothing much else. They
don't like clothes because of the
fire hazard-cloth soaks up squirting
gasoline, which will drop off naked
flesh. They won't wear ordinary
shoes. This started when one of
them had to bail out in the desert
back of Darwin and when his chute
cracked open, the jerk tipped his
shoes off, He had to walk barefoot
for days over the Australian desert.
Now they wear tennis shoes or cow
boy boots, which won't flip off This
costume includes belt, to which is
attached jungle kit on one side
and as on the other. The As
they keep covered with cellophane
candy-bar wrappers so it won't rust.
They look more like pirates than