The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-05-10
W.N.u. RELEASE

it Just about ready to be taken back
to the factory in Running for over
haul, the Japs would catch Ii again.
Finally one morning Ajax must have
said, "The hell with it" For when
the "Jin-bao" came he went and got
into the crippled fighter to take off
before the Japs could get there to
strafe it again. He told me later
that he was tired of seeing it sitting
on the ground as target; whether
1t would fly or not, he was going to
get 1t taxying as fast as it would go
and at least make it harder to hit
than it had been in the revetment.
Well, Ajax did better than taxy-he
got off. But the story of it all
reached me later on.
was on the ground that day, and
didn't see it. But I heard Ajax talk
ing on the radio, and I heard his six
guns when he caught one of the
Zeros. Just little later I saw the
trail of black smoke that marked
the enemy ship going down. I was
glad to hear Ajax talking that morn
ing; for minute I'd thought that
smoke might be he, going down in
that luckless Number 104. All the
time he'd been flying the ship he'd
been having to pump the landing
gear up manually, for the hydraulic
system had been shot up by the
Jap strafer days before. Added to
this, an exertion which Is no pleas
ant task at fighting attitudes, was a
more painful experience. The cards
were stacked even more heavily
against Ajax In this jinx ship, for
his electrical system was shorting
out.
On his take-off from Hengyang, as
ne gave the ship the gun Baumler
had felt terrible electrical shock
through his sweaty hand on the stick
control. He couldn't turn the stick
loose or the ship would have crashed
in the take-off run; so he grinly
held on. Take hold of the spark
plug of your car some time while the
engine is running, and you'll feel
just about what Ajax felt. But he
kept holding it until he was at an
altitude where it was safe to turn
the stick loose, get out his handker-
chief. and wrap it around the stick.
Even after he had been through
the fight and came in to land at
Lingling he had to take some more
of the shock cure, for by that time
the handkerchief was damp and the
electricity was jumping through it.
He couldn't stay long on this last
field, for the Japs were on the way
back in waves; SO he reserviced and
TAXED out to take off. Though the
engine was now missing badly, Ajax
couldn't wait-the Japs would be
there in matter of minutes.
He tried a take-off with the cur
rent going through his arms again
and the engine splitting and sputter-
ing-and at the end of the runway
he still hadn't enough speed to get
in the air. He would swerve the
ship about and try the other direc-
ton. Finally after three runs he
got the fighter plane in the air,
pumped the wheels up by hand and
continued doing it for five hundred
miles-and so flew back to Running.
He told me later it didn't matter
what he did now; when he got in
jail they'd never be able to electro
cute him in the chair if the old P-40
Number 104 had failed to do it that
August morning.
But it wasn't all hard work and
no play in China. Some evenings we
used to sit in our cave down at Kwei-
lin and listen to the Tokyo radio.
They would give US reports on the
missions that we flew to Hankow,
Canton, and the cities near Lake
Puyang Hu-Nanchang and Kukiang.
They'd declare that we were using
barbarous tactics and that we were
going to be treated as guerrillas II
we were captured.
One night while we sat there calm
ly listening to the news and playing
gin rummy, Tokyo news-analysts
announced they did not think the
American fighter force in China was
large. True enough, said the radio,
they had struck weakly at several
cities, in their barbaric way bomb
ing innocent Chinese women and
children, and for this the American
pirates would pay when they were
prisoners of the Imperial Japanese
Government, now fighting to hber-
ate Asia for the Asiatics.
We listened to the usual "blah"
without raising an eyebrow, until
Radio Tokyo continued: 1--WE don't
think the American fighter force in
China is more than three hundred
ships"
You could have knocked us over
with a feather. We dropped our
cards and looked at General Chem
nault-he'd been acting as if he was
taking a nap, but I knew he had
been listening. We all laughed. We
had thirty-two ships in China at the
time, and only sixteen of these were
in first-class combat condition.
I remember that the General said,
well, boys, If we're making them
think we have three hundred-we're
doing all right"
The General got up and called to
his little black dachshund. Come
on, Joe," he said, and they walked
out.
There was a squadron that came
over from Assam to work with us,
part of another group from India.
In this squadron there were some
fine fighter pilots, one of whom was
Lieut.. Dallas Ginger from old Wyo-
ming. Ginger was another man who
in wears gone hv in the West would