The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1945-04-20
CHAPTER XIII

1t had been only recently when
Haynes had been taken from his
thirteen four-engine bombers on the
way to blast Tokyo, that he had been
assigned to transports. The Japs
must have known just how to get
under his skin, but in the end ! think
the knowledge worked against them.
Now he was getting back at them
by having thousands of little leaflets
printed in several languages, espe-
cially in Japanese. They read:
COMPLIMENTS OF THE OLD
BROKEN-DOWN TRANS
PORT PILOT
He used to drop some of these
on every bombing mission he led.
He'd 60 out and tie some to each
bomb; put them in the bomb bay
so that they fell out when the doors
were opened; even throw them out
over the Japanese-occupied cities
that he blasted. / knew now that he
was getting a new supply ready for
Hongkong.
Towards the end of October came
the word we had so long been wait
ing for. Victoria harbor was filed
with Japanese shipping. In deepest
secret we got ready to go.
Our ships would leave from Kun
ming, but we would of course use
she intermediate bases in the Kwei-
lin-Hengyang section, 500 miles to
the East. Hongkong, you will re-
call, is about 1926 miles Southeast of
Kweilin. 1t is protected by sur
rounding enemy fighter fields at Can
ton and Kowloon. Our detectives
would be the shipping in the harbor,
the shipping at the docks in Kow-
loon, and the ships at the drydocks
in Hongkong.
Early on the morning Of October
Is our twelve bombers took off from
Yunnan for Kweilin, and shortly aft
erwards Hill, Alison, Holloway and
I led the fighters off. We were all
to infiltrate into Kweilin, few ships
at time, so as not to alert the
coast of eastern China.
For two weeks I had worried
about this attack. thought it would
come any day, and because of the
tension I couldn't sleep.
When I learned that word hadn't
come, I'd spend another sleepless
night. I got the doctor to give me
something to make me sleep and
had a headache the next day. ]
knew "my wind was up" as the
British say-but why in hell didn't
we 60 on and get the attack over
with
But now I was on the way. I
could see the shark-mouths of the
P-40's all around, and the whole
thing was easy-just what I had
wanted all the time. We sat down
at Kweilin at one-minute intervals
at eight o'clock. The bombers were
soon in, and the Chinese were busy
servicing the field full of ships. They
were the happiest people ! had ever
seen. They'd point towards Japan
and point down with their thumbs
and say, "Bu-hao."
All of us were proud to be going.
But as looked at those seven P-40's
escorting ten bombers, could not
help feeling apologize for that great
est country in the world that we
were representing. Oh, God, If the
day could soon come when we could
20 against this enemy with a thou
sand bombers, even a hundred
bombers!
Maybe the small fighter force that
we had made us lucky ones who
were privileged to go resolve all
the more that we would make up in
quality what we lacked in quantity.
Personally felt like veteran foot
ball player who has been on the
bench and has now been called into
the big game. Nearly a year be-
fore, when Hongkong had fallen to
the Japanese attacks from the Ash
attic mainland of Kowloon, ! had
sworn that I would see the first
bombs hit the Crown Colony. ] had
no idea then that would lead the
! fighters. that would shoot down
Japanese uSuLS1S Al bIAc IdAus tldC
we would be intercepted by a SUI
perior force Of the enemy, but that
in less than three minutes after the
interception there would be only the
ships of the u. S. Army Air Force
bver Victoria harbor.
Now I had the familiar s'wind up''
feeling that precedes combat. The
palms of my hands perspired freely.
AS / wiped them on the legs Of my
trousers saw that the sweat was
ike mud; it had mixed with the red
dust of Kweilin Field through which
we had taken off.
Our altitude kept increasing to TO-
900 feet, while. down below at seven
teen thousand were the medium
bombers in javelin formation: two
Wees Of three, and the last element
4 ,diamond Of four. We passed one
Of the river junction check points
that enabled me to compute our
ground speed. In fifty minutes ]
could see The CLINT Of the sun on