The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1945-03-23
w.Nu RELEASE

had got another probable
Down Lingling way on another
morning, Ginger went into an attack
with his engine acting UP. After the
first contact with the enemy, he was
forced to land, followed by two en-
envy strafers. AS Ginger maneu-
vered the failing fighter into a safe
landing, the two Zeros came down
shooting at his rolling P-4O.
Dallas from Wyoming got out on
the wing to jump onto the ground,
with his ship still rolling. Just then
one OF the Jap bullets went right
through his seat-pack chute, passing
exactly between Clinger's pants and
where he sat on the parachute. He
got so mad he jumped back in the
cockpit and shot at two Zeros as
they passed over his nose. After all,
air-cooled guns are made to shoot
while the ship is going two or three
hundred miles an hour-but Lieuten-
ant Ginger said he got in a pretty
good burst from his grounded fight
er before the six Fifties froze..
Johnny Alison had helped to train
Ginger in the tactics of fighter pi-
lots. In fact, Johnny used to fly with
every man in his flight on his wing,
at one time or another. In one
training flight such as this he took
Ginger up and they practiced at
lacking one another og-fighting,"
the "pea-shooter" pilots say. Up
there at nearly 20, 900 feet they came
at one another head-on, time after
time, until the moment when, as
Johnny told me later, he was sure
Ginger was going to run into him.
Alison, who usually forced others to
give way, had to dive under Clin-
gers P-40. They circled and tried
again, and again Ginger kept right
on coming, until, as the ships drew
together at well over six hundred
miles an hour relative speed, once
more Johnny had to dodge, and the
Wild Man from Wyoming went ON
over his head.
They landed then, and by the time
Johnny had climbed out of his ship
he had Gained down. Ginger came
nonchalantly over. Just in passing
Alison said, ''That was pretty good
flying, Ginger; you fly formation
well and you lookearound okay. But
you want to watch those head-on
runs-you nearly hit me up there.
Did you know that?"
Ginger shifted the weight of his
body back to both feet. With his
chin out, he answered: eyes, Sir,
MAORI tried to. You see, you've
been flying longer than have and
! know I'm not as good pilot as
you are. But, Sir, I knew I'd come
closer to you than you would to me-"
You can find the remains of
good many Japs in China, or some
where down in the China Sea, who
know that Ginger meant just what
he said. He'd keep coming at them
head-on and shoot them out of the
sky before they got to him.
The battle for the defense of Heng-
yang lasted through August, but we
didn't just sit there on the defensive.
We rapidly took the offensive as
our best defense, and kept it up I'M
til higher headquarters sent us a
very classic radio:
"You either did not understand or
did not receive my last radiogram
to remain on the defensive. Repeat
quote on the defensive unquote.
Signed, Chennault."
At Nanchang, on August IL, 1912,
I shot down my fourth enemy plane
that was confirmed. Though hate
the Japs with passion, felt sorry
for that pilot, for he never saw me
at all. But as I left his burning ship
North Of the runway that he had
been taking off from, I thought of
the boys in the Philippines and Java,
and ! wasn't so sorry.
I had dropped my five-hundred-
pound bomb on the hangers, when
in pulling out of the dive saw Lieu
tenant Barnum, from Old Lyme,
Connecticut, continue his dive on a
Jap ship, and begin to fire on it.
looked below. There was dust at
the far end of the Jap field where
one enemy plane was taking off. I
rolled over and dove, pulling out
about a half mile behind the enemy
at the moment he got off the ground.
His wheels had just begun to move
to the ''up" position as I got him
dead in my sights and pressed the
triggers. AS the pilot died, his new
1872 pulled straight up, then spun
into the ground the few feet it had
climbed. I passed over it as the
flames belched from the wreckage.
climbed for an enemy observation
plane higher over Lake Puyang HUI,
but the Jap outclimbed me, and
though I fred at him several times
from long range he finally got away.
On this trip, Barnum had shot
down one enemy ship, and Lieuten-
ant Daniels, though unable to release
his wing-rack augmentation bombs,
had strafed the field with his bombs
hanging on. After the attack, this
pilot had force-landed his plane in
a rice paddy near Hengyang rather
than bail out-and this decision to
eave the shin for spare parts had