The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-05-19
CHAPTER XII

and he seems to have developed en-
CINE trouble. We're down to $4,000
feet. And I'm the lead bonbardier.
"But now the whole plan is again
altered: I get it over the command
radio. We're to lay them in chains
across this target. So l set up the
bomb sight again, put the cross
hairs on that cruiser.
"It Is perfect run. I even have
time to take my eye off the sight,
and fire bursts at two more Zeros
as they attack from the front. They
start way out ahead, to the left and
a little below us. Now, coming on
in at me, they cross over and up,
toward the center of my fuselage,
their guns pounding, and then slip
on back and dive straight down and
away.
81 get one because he miscues.
"Then I jam my eye back onto
that bomb sight. Everything is rid
ing pretty-the cross hairs right
where I want them, the bombs about
ready to be released.
"a second before the bombs leave
my plane, / see that Jap cruiser
starting to turn (he's figured our
bomb-release line to the hair) He's
turning toward us as I watch the
bombs 60 down. By the time they
arrived, the cruiser is three-fourths
through turn of 1870 degrees. The
first bombs are falling short-three
of them. Now mine conceive direct
hits on the cruiser, the other two
going over. The plane back Of me
gets some direct hits. My left wing
mans string is barely in front of
the cruiser, my right wing mans
string is barely behind it - the
damned thing seems enveloped in
bombs churning the water, and de-
bris flying above the foam. Boy,
that Japanese captain just turned
the wrong way! y.
"But now our formation swings
and heads for home, Zeros still
swarming around us, and we're still
losing altitude to stay back to pro-
tect the Major, who seems able to
use barely enough throttle to keep
her in the air. After forty minutes
the last Zero drops away; they're
short of gas and daren't chase us
any further.
Presently, over the command ra-
dio:
Robinson to Skies. Go ahead
'Skiles answering
Radio the base at Malang to
have an ambulance ready. We have
two badly wounded men aboard
''We wonder who they are. One
is probably the tail gunner, since
we saw Robinson's plane taking so
many tracers there. The other must
be their radio operator, or else they
could have sent their own dot-dash
message back to base.
meantime our radio operator is
telling Malang to have the ambu-
lance out. Our plane is now leading
the formation. Major Robinson's just
behind us. We've drifted slowly
down to 1000 feet altitude, protect
ing Robinson. Then, all of a sud-
den, Robinson's plane swoops down
beneath us about 1000 feet, and the
incline sends 1t scooting on out in
front of us, heading a little toward
the coast Of Borneo. Is Robinson
going to beach her? And now over
the command radio:
'Skiles to Robinson. Is there
anything wrong?' our pilot asks.
'sBut there is no answer. We
watch. Now Major Robinson is max
ing a gradual turn, as though to
rejoin the formation. But halfway
in the turn his plane starts nosing
over, goes into a dive, goes faster
straight down at the sea. We
watch, holding our breath. Just be-
fore he goes in, his tail elevator
blows off. The poor guy must have
had the stick clutched back into his
stomach trying to pull out of that
dive, and the terrible air pressure
on those elevators ripped them off.
There's a huge splash-hame-a spi-
raj of black smoke, and widening
circle of yellows, reds, and black,
which is burning gas and oil on that
topaz-green water.
''The second after it hits call
Lieutenant Duphrane on the inter-
phone.
"'My God. Duke I said, did you
see that?'
Eyes he said. And then in a
minute he said, Thank God those
Japs didn't see IT,
''The formation circles above the
dead Queen. We circle until the fire
dies away, peering down at the Wild
ening disk of oil. But there is no
sign of anything else on the surface.
'.Until then it hadn't seemed like
q battle--just game. But now
feel like someone had kicked me in
the CUTS. There were guys on there
I'd drunk with, We'd sat around
and Lied to each other. I'd seen it
happen, but ] couldn't believe what