The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-07-12


Wien soa re141s s.e->.e- Sl.ie..aa.l5.
il was Just as good to ask for il in
the clear or in yelled American
slang. Sometimes the retorts that
came as a natural response to ac-
tions were better than any that could
have been planned and written by
the masters.
Up between Hengyang and Ling
ling we had broken the main Jap
force with several attacks and there
were only stragglers around the sky.
We had been searching them out for
fifteen minutes when ! saw and
heard a remark that was nothing
short of classic. From 2l.000 feet
I observed a lone Zero. But there
was a P-40 trailing him, and so
held my altitude and watched. The
P-40 closed the gap more and more,
following the acrobatics of the Jap,
and then drew up for the kill. As
the tracers from the six guns went
into the Zero | heard the voice of
Captain Goss say, There. Hirohito,
you bastard-God rest your SOUL"
Over the radio you could also hear
the staccato roll of the six Fifties.
The Zero slowly rolled over to de-
struction.
Sometimes the hated Japs had the
last word. In regions where the air.
warning net was working poorly or
not at all, our first knowledge of
the approach of the enemy would
be the sight of japanese bombers
overhead. AS the bombs blasted the
runways and the Jap radial engines
were taking their ships at high alti-
tude back towards their bases, we
would hear over the radio on our
exact frequency, in perfect English:
$50 sorry, please. so sorry"
We would just shake our fists and
wait for better days.
When / first brought "Old Exter-
minator" to China, had painted the
number 10 on the fuselage Later on
we used the last three numerals of
the Air Corps numbers for call let
ters, or were assigned some name
like "ash," "oak." or pine" But
the first time I came back from
Chungking, late one afternoon, ap-
preached Running down the usual
corridor, expecting that to identity
me automatically. and from far out
I called by radio: "One-Zero, coming
in from the North" OF course I
was using the numerals of the num-
Der ''ten" to identify me to the ra-
dio-man. Instead, as I came over
the field I saw anti-aircaft men OF
the Chinese Army running for their
guns. and ! saw six P-40s taking
off to shoot the invader down. Mean
ing me. You've probably guessed it
by now-the radioman gathered that
some one had just warned him that
one enemy Zero was about to strafe
the field. Needless to say, | took
myself to safer places for few min
utes until I could properly identify
my ship. Then | landed and changed
the fuselage number to lucky "sev-
en"-but definitely not seventy.
There just wasn't much relaxa-
ton in China with Scotch at one
hundred dollars gold bottle-when
you could find it. In fact, we didn't
get to drink anything except boiled
water and that really terrible rice
wine. This we had to learn to down
with the Chinese and in their man.
ner, which was with the inevitable
salute, "Gambey," or bottoms up"
Then they'd come and proudly show
you the bottoms of their glasses,
and you'd have to follow suit with a
weak little gambey.
Then there was the incessant ring
ing of the telephones in the warning
net plotting-room that got on all
our nerves. After months ! found
out that without exception every pilot
tried not to let others know of his
nervousness. But it became un-
mistakable, for the tension that built
up around the card-tables in the
alert shacks was not the most ef-
fectively disguised in the world.