The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-02-22

We kept low to the fiat coun-
try now, so that it wouldn't be sill
houetted against the sky. Moreover
the trees under US caused the olive
drab of the ship to blend In, making
us harder to see. I thought many
times that we couldn't get lower;
but we kept going down until know
II the wheels had been extended
we'd have been taxying.
/ guess we were both little bit
nervous as we peered ahead for any
little dot that would mean a Jap.
Fly specks on the windshield-and
you get lots of them when flying as
low as we were-scared us many
times. / could feel the palms of my
hands sweating as the tension in
creased
Finally, straight ahead, I saw a
lone column of smoke and thought it
was Shwebo. The Japs must al
ready have bombed that too. We
kept right on going, expecting any
minute to see about eighteen Zeros
on our TAIL Bombs had started these
fires, and where Jap bombers were,
fighters could not be far away. The
smoke plume grew larger and black
er as we came nearer, until we
could see the glow of the fires and
the licking flames. We both must
have automatically concluded that
the burning town was Shwebo, for
without more than glance to check
the map we headed for the South
east corner of the town, where the
field was supposed to be.
Then / saw them, high overhead
three planes. But I almost sighed
in relief, for they were only Jap
bombers-no fighters yet. We kept
on low. trying to find the field, while
more bombs blasted the town. After
searching for several minutes we
realized that we were looking into
the smoke of the wrong town, for
farther South we saw another smoke
column, and after checking our posi-
ton by canal to the West, we
agreed that this town was Kinu and
that Shwebo was ten miles South.
Shwebo was burning too, and, as
we learned later, had been bombed
only minutes before we arrived. Jap
lighters had accompanied the bomb
ers. So once again some hand of
Providence had interviewed - had
made us mistake Kinu for Shwebo
and waste little time circling.
Colonel Haynes saw the field at
Shwebo and pulled the big trans
port around like fighter, slipping
her In and sitting her down like
feather-bed. We TAXED over to the
shade to try to partially hide the
ship, and ! stayed to guard the
Douglas while he went to see Gen.
eral ,Stilwell. You could hear the
staff officers and the soldiers yell
ing, and see them throwing their tin
helmets In the air. Jack Belden of
Life magazine told me later that
they had never expected an Ameri-
can ship to get through, and that
when the white star of the u. S.
Army Air Force was identified, they
had even sung God Bless Ameri-
ca" But to us right then, America
seemed a very, very long way off.
While Colonel Haynes went for
General Stilwell, I stationed the
crew around the ship, and we
watched the sky with Tommy guns.
There was dead feeling in the air
the smell of smoke and of human
flesh from the burning town-and |
expected any moment to see jap
Zeros diving on the transport. There
we stood with our veritable pop
guns. waiting for Jap cannon.
Just a few minutes later a ieeu
drove up and c. v. Haynes jumped
out, saying that most of the staff
was on the way behind him but that
General Stilwell wasn't going. At
my look of surprise, he added that
the General was going to walk out
that he refused to be evacuated by
air. Well. for the life of me /
couldn't see what face would be
saved, for the British Army had
gone up the road to the North. and
most of the Chinese armies were
also on the way out. Perhaps the
General knew things that I didn't
know. But remember that Colonel
Haynes and I talked il over during
the minutes while we waited for the
Staff to get aboard We wanted to
take General Stilwell out If we had