The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-06
AVOIDS CRASH LANDING WITH
 SKILL, COFFEE
DY LLOYD TUPLNN0 nltea Press Staff Correanonal

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 Headquarters, Fleet Air Wing Four, (Up)-Seven men rode back from pAramushlro Island recently in O battlo- -bllstered Ventura bomb. CT with flying skin, e spare com- pass, some ingenuity, Q Jug of eof. fee, and perhaps Q guardian spirit Co thank for thelr return,
 The flying sklll was displayed by Lt. John w, Pool Of Corpus Christi, Texas, aided by Ensign Bernard Rlelly of pottsville, Pau who wheel- cd Into Q cloud bank after the can non shell from Japanese fighter exploded Inside their stubby-wlnged plane. But before evadlng the fight. CTS, Pool and his gunner, Arthur Haycraft of Cedar Rapids To-, sprayed two enemy planes with tracers,
 Pool and his crew had been on raid against the northern Japan. csc island when jumped by enemy flghters--seven coming in low and eight or ten lowering above in the sun, The flight that followed was short and fast; but, like all air combat in the North Pacific, the battle with guns was only half flight home in . damaged plane the fight. The long oVer.water still re. mained,
 Compass Knocked Out
 The Jap fire had knocked out the compass and ,othe! instruments in the pilots compartment, but Ensign Jack Warner of Edinboro, Pa, the navigator, went to work with the spare compass still undamaged des. pite the shell explosion within the plane,
 "1 was working over one of the men and Pool was calling for Q heading, He was in the fog and wanted course home" Warner said, "T'd never worked with this type of compass before, but finally Rielly and I got c course worked out. It must have been okay be- cause later we got the other lnstru- ments working and were headed straight home"
 It wasn't until after the radio operator, Lee Lawrence of Ruthven, h., notified the field that the ship was landing with wounded men that the crew discovered the hydraulic system had been shot out,
 Pool headed the plane down but aS soon Ns the wheels were lowered for 0 landing--oreatlng pressure on the hydraulic system-the hydraulic fluid squlrted from the explosion- shattered feedline, spraying the ins terior of the plane With an oily fluid
 1T thought we had hit the water for sure" Warner said,
 Clraled Field
 Pool took the plane up and eirs eled the field, and the engineer, Charles Scott of Turloek, Calf, squeezed the broken line with his pliers to stop the leak,
 But we still needed some fluid to make up for tho juice lost, 80 we could got the flaps down." Pool said. Luckily wed been too busy on the way back to drink our coffee or cans Of orange juice - one of which was conveniently torn open by e shell fragment. So we poured it oil Into the hydraulic filud con. tainer. It was just enough to bring the pressure up 50 we could land"
 The crash crew stood by as Pool brought the plane in low for Q per- feet landing, holding the wheelless tail up until the plane slowed down and the tail elattered over the land. ing mat,
 The crew jumped out and headed for the interrogation room,
 "fll be along In 0 minute" Riel. ley said,
 Tn Q moment he joined the group, In his hand was 0 small crucifiX.