The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-06-02

, Only when we saw the white points
Of our Army Air Force star with
the red disk in the middle were
| we relieved. 1t hadn't occurred to
us that you can take the red sun OF
Japan and with a few strokes of
paintbrush make five white star
points around it.
(Shortly after this incident, che army air
force emblem sUas changed, and the red
central disk removed
1--WE didn't dream of this, but still
we watched what we were so sure
were P-40's. They were flying along
with US, about three thousand yards
away, apparently paying no atten-
ton. We didn't suspect they were
Japs, mapping out their attack.
"There was nothing about this ma
neuver which surprised us. for the
Japs so far had always attacked US
from the rear. Then they wheeled
in for their nose-on attack, and too
late we saw those Army Air Force
stars on their fuselages had been
crudely forged.
"They concentrated on our first
three planes, and remember now
that this first attack, which caught
us completely off guard and far
below our regular altitude, happened
in only a few seconds. One For
tress they hit only in the motor. The
next Fortress, they put an incendi-
airy through the bombay gas tank
they must have known through sub
versive activities in Java that we
didn't have leakproof ones yet in
that model. This set off the oxy-
gen system, and the whole Fortress
flared in front Of our eyes in a puff
of flame and smoke. Out OF this
we could see two or three para
chutes floating down. Maybe the
men dangling from them were alive.
More probably they had never pulled
the rip cords themselves, but the
explosion opened the chutes.
81 was working the top turret gun,
and from here I could see exactly
what was happening on the third
Fortress-C Captain Duke Duphrane's
ship-which was just on our left, and
very close. ! saw it, and so did
Sergeant Jim Worley, the bombar-
der, who was working the little 30
caliber nose gun, and had brought
down three Zeros. We all saw some
Of it, but Worley and I saw most
"First, we saw Duphrane's plane
shudder as the Jap tracers crashed
into its cockpit and into its bomb
bay. But she didn't 60 down yet.
For q while she continued on with
her chin up, like those pictures you
see Of Marie Antoinette or Mary
Queen Of Scots walking proudly to-
ward the scaffold. And she didn't
waver or finch, even when we could
see that dull-red flames from the
bursted gasoline tanks of that bomb
bay were sprouting out of her, from
the cockpit clear back to the tail.
''We surged just a little ahead Of
her nose, and from here we could
see Duke Duphrane and his co-pilot
both slumped over dead, their heads
leaning against the shattered pane
of the cockpit window. So it wasn't
any man who was keeping her chin
up. 1t was the Old Queen herself
who wanted to die this way.
"We dropped back and came in
little closer-you had an awful
feeling you wanted to help, and you
couldn't - and we saw Sergeant
Keightley, her radioman and right
waist gunner, climb through his es-
cape hatch and bail out, and his
chute open. And then her left-waist
gunner, doing the same on the 9TH
er side. We saw her tail gunner
bail out and his chute open-they
found him four or five days later
on an island.
"She was enveloped in red flames
now from nose to tail, and through
her windows we could see flames
simmer inside her cabin, and as
her plates melted she began to sink
in a steepening curve, and along
the wake Of that curve we were to
count seven parachutes, like seven
swirling dandelion seeds.
"But as yet she hadn't gone down
much, and our own pilot, Captain
Strother-a brave, skillful pilot (who
was presently to die-and every man
of his crew feels he gave his life
to save ours)-was keeping abreast
Of her, so that with our guns we
could keep the Japs away in her
last moments, and give her men a
chance to jump. M
"The last to leave her was Ser
geant Leonard Coleman, her turret
gunner-we could see him working
his SOS, but now he left his turret.
We saw him go by the side window,
and he was struggling to put on his
parachute-which he hadn't worn in
that cramped top turret, for it would
have interfered with his sighting and
Notwithstanding to get his arms
through it like a jacket among those
licking flames. We saw him 60 back
to the rear escape hatch, saw him
drop through it with his clothes
afire, saw him jerk the cord-he
must have done it Immediately, be-
cause by the time he had cleared
the flaming tail by twenty feet, we