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

SnaKy ne was scared even 10 De
looking that way now. It was sev-
enteen hundred mile fight, and
there was a chance that there might
not be enough gas left at Del Monte
to get him back to Australia. But
the pilots, navigators, and ground
crews still on Mindanao were worth
their weight in gold to us, SO Al start
ed out
He got right over Del Monte
Field. Things looked quiet on the
ground, and he was circling, wait
ing for the signal to come on in,
which for some reason seemed de-
layed. Circling, Al couldn't under
stand this until from Australia, sew
enteen hundred miles away, crack
les radio message telling him un-
der no circumstances to land. Cor
regidor and Mindanao had surren-
dered to the Japanese while he had
been en- route.
There he was, eight hours from
home base and with only a few
hours gas left. But luckily he'd pro-
vided against this before he left.
He'd told the Navy that if the Philip
pines caved while he was in the air
and he couldn't refuel at Mindanao,
he'd beach his plane on little jun
gle island, and he showed it to them
on the map, so they could pick him
up If they could get through.
Nov he headed for this island,
looked its beach over. and set her
down in the surf. The rocks in
few seconds made junk of his big
four-motored Liberator.
'Then, according to al, the days
seemed like years, although only
five of them passed before sub
marine periscope popped up in the
cove and carefully scanned the hori-
zon for Jap planes before the craft
surfaced to take him and his crew
aboard.
THAT story got us. 1t had been
bad enough when we circled Malang
Field for Anamaet, but these boys
on Del Monte were our own. 1t isn't
pretty to fly over and watch the
end of war. There is no noisy
death rattle; it's just very still down
there. Nobody lights a flare path.
The green tower lights don't come
on. You know the enemy in his
gray uniform is maybe training your
own antiaircraft guns on you in the
dark, or herding around with bay
onets our own disarmed boys in
khaki who are listening to your mo-
tors, bitter because you couldn't
have come a little sooner, or be-
cause they couldn't have held them
back few hours more, so they
could have been taken out.
During March the hot spot was
Darwin, which the Aussies called
the Coventry of Australia because
the Japanese had come over on Feb
ruary nineteenth and not only fat
tened its little town of four thousand
but on the airfield wiped out an
American fighter group en- route to
the Java war.
"At that time it was only a little
Australian field with almost no anti
aircraft. The RAAF boys were good
lads, trying hard but getting no
where, lacking both training and
equipment.
"The American fighter group
perched on that field, which Slug
ger Pell was leading toward Java,
had no warning until they heard the
sound of the Jap motors. Slugger
wanted to save his planes if he
could, SO instead of diving for the
foxholes (the Japs were already
strafng) he tried desperately to get
his boys off.
Slugger was shot down at so feet
while his landing gear was still re-
tracing, and before he'd had time
to drop his belly tank. He tried to
bail out, but of course he was too
low. A previous squadron had ac-
tually managed to get into the air,
but Slugger's were all either shot
down on the take-off or killed in their
cockpits before they cleared the run
way, or else strafed and set afire
while they were taxing into posi-
tion. It had been a field day for the
Zeros.
"But by the middle of April the
Americans who had taken over at
Darwin had set up real field there.
In those early days we'd divided
North Australia into two parts. In
the east Buzz Wagner (who had
lost the coin toss with Bud Sprague,
remember?) commanded the fight
ers with headquarters at Townsville,
although his territory took in Port
Moresby on New Guinea. Colonel
Squeeze Wurtsmith had taken over
the western half, with headquarters
at Darwin.
WORD now came through that a
force of ten Jap bombers and three
fighters was on its way to Darwin.
It was what Squeeze had been wait
ing for. He hit them far out at
sea. Squeeze has a clever tactical
idea which l shouldn't describe IN
detail. But as the Japs approached
their target, our patrols pulled the
rest of the American fighter strength
off the ground. While one of our
flights chased off the accompanying
Zeros, the rest of the boys were
picking off Jap bombers, which were
sliding out of formation and going
down trailing smoke. They all had
to turn off before reaching the tar
get, dump their bombs in the sea,
and head back for their base at Ku-
pang on Timor Island-one of the
steppingstones to Java they'd taken
away from us. But Squeeze and
his gang followed them out to sea,
and shot down every one of the ten
bombers. Our boys returned with
out a man wounded or a plane