The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-08-16

right INTO the DOtlOS4S aAa0 We went
after the three Wees OF Mitsubishi
bombers. BY being on the same
level with them I'm sure we caused
part of the enemy formation to blan-
ket out some of their own ships from
firing at US. opened fre from six
hundred Yards and led the enemy
leader by at least q hundred yards;
1t must have been just right, for the
tracers seemed to go into the top of
the wing. I Just held the trigger
down and kept going into the sides of
the Japs-they blossomed out of
the sky at me, growing larger and
larger. "mushrooming" in my wind
shield. AS the bombers passed by,
my bullets were raking them with
full-deflection shots, and as fast as
my formation turned the other FIVE
men were doing the same. saw the
lead bomber climb little. then set
lie back towards the formation with
one wing down.
AS saw the second Jap in front
of me-the left wing man of the
leader-I realized I'd have to dive
under the enemy very soon or
I'd run into them. Things hit my
ship now, and with noise Ike wing
coming off, the side glass of my
windshield was shot out. I was
three hundred to two hundred yards
from the second bomber when I
got my long burst into it. There
was a flash ahead, and I dove as
fast as could shove the nose down.
As I went under the smoke and or
ange flame, I thought that the Jap I
was shooting at had caught fire, but
as pulled around, back to the direc-
ton the formation had been going,
and climbed, ! saw what had hap
pened.
There was only smoke above, and
the formation had broken, for knew
the bomber had exploded -- the
bombs had been detonated by the
fifty-calibre fire. Behind, over the
trail the Japs had come were four
plunes of smoke where their bomb
ers were going down. Below there
were bomb bursts all over the pad
dy fields where bombs had been Jet
tisoned in the unanticipated inter-
ception. ! pulled UP behind one Of
the lone bombers that I could see
and began to shoot at 1t methodical-
ly from long range. Over on the left
were three more, and I saw P-40's
making passes at them. Over the
radio could hear happy American
English, with unauthorized swear
words aimed at the Jap that the
individual pilot was shooting at, and
by the tone of the pilots knew that
we were winning this battle and
that the General was also going to
be very happy.
From 800 yards I'd squeeze out a
short burst at one engine, then skid
over and aim carefully at the other
engine and throw out another short
burst. The Jap ship was diving with
all the speed he could get, but the
P-40 kept moving up. | think all
their ammunition was gone, for
saw no tracers. In my second burst
on the right engine ! saw some gray
smoke-thin, like gasoline overflow
ing a tank and blowing back into the
slipstream. The next time I came
over behind that engine from clos
er range I saw two red dots near
the engine, two dots that became
fire. The flame ran to the engine
and to the fuselage, but by that
time / was over shooting at the
other engine again. / last saw the
bomber diving, with flames that were
orange against the green of the
mountains below.
There were no more bombers tc
be seen, but I saw seven P-40's.
Ginger came over and got on my
wing; as I recognized his ship
slid my hatch-cover back and waved
at him. Even before we landed
thought that we had gotten all the
bombers. AS we circled the field,
with me trying to dodge the cold air
that was knitting through the hole
in my windshield and bringing a
particle of glass against my face ev.
cry now and then, realized why
we still had to wear goggles in fight
er ships in combat. Below on
the Yunnan hills. / saw eight forest
fires that could have been started
only by burning airplane wrecks,
for they had not been there when
took off.
I kept some of the planes up for
top-cover while we landed those that
were shot up or low on fuel Later,
when had the combat reports made
out before the pilots could talk the
battle over between them, the "cer-
tains" out of the nineteen that had
come in-nine fighters and nine
bombers and one observation plane
were fifteen.