The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-03-01

Back at the field ! found that
Payne had loaded the transport with
forty sick or wounded Ghurkas. In
fact, we had to keep more from get
ting aboard by threatening them
with our guns, for after all, we had
the same small field for taking off
we'd had for landing. Johnny swung
the ship into the wind and we were
off in some six hundred feet. We
went in many times again, after
the Ghurkas had heightened the run
way slightly, and we finally moved
out most of the soldiers before the
monsoon rains ran us out. But I'll
never forget Captain Payne's feat in
that first landing of transport at
Fort Hertz.
Following the defeat of the Allied
armies down in southern and GEN.
! trail Burma, the REFUGEES poured to
/ the North and to the Northwest.
Those to the Northwest tried to walk
out by the Lido Road, which was
nothing more than a game trail.
Many of them died, and of those
who came out many died after enter
ing India. I heard stories of bod
les by the hundreds, almost buried
in the mud, all along the trail from
Burma to India. Those who kept
coming North from Shwebo up the
railroad to Myitkyina finally wesnd
up on Myitkyina's small field anx-
iously waiting for aerial transporta-
ton over the remaining one hundred
and ninety miles to Dinjan.
Some of the loads that ferry pilots
packed into those DC-3's would have
curdled the blood of the aeronauti-
cal engineers who designed the ship.
The CAT, or DC-3, as the airlines
called the Douglas transport, was
constructed to carry a full load of
twenty-four passengers or six thou
sand pounds. The maximum alti-
tude was expected to be about $4,000
feet-but we later went minimum
of $4,000 across the hump, and some
times we had to go to 2l,500 to miss
the storms and ice. Carrying the
refugees, we broke all the rules and
regulations because we had to. There
were women and children, pregnant
women, and women SO old that they
presumably couldn't have gone to
the altitude that was necessary to
cross into India. There were hum
dreds of wounded British soldiers
with the most terrible gangrenous
infections. At the beginning we used
to load the wounded first, those who
were worst off; but later, when We
realized that with our few trans
ports we'd never get them all out,
we took only the able-bodied. That
was a hard decision to make, but
we looked at it finally from the the
ory that those must be saved who
could some day fight again.
But as I say, at first we carried
the terribly wounded, piling them
in until the ship groaned and the
door would hardly close. ! always
carried out fifty or more in this
ship that had been designed for
twenty-four, and one day counted
seventy-three getting out of one ship.
A young pilot by the name of Lieu
tenant Sartz broke all records, as
far as / know. One morning he
took off with seventy-three, and on
landing the British Customs counted
seventy-four En- route over the Ma
ga Hills a baby had been born, and
now Sartz holds the worlds record.
It was hot as hell flying the loaded
transport off the fields in Burma.
We'd try to fly with the windows
open in the cockpit, but that created
q suction that drew the air from
the cabin up to where we pilots were.
With those filthy bodies and the ter
rible stencil of gangrenous wounds
we couldn't bear it. and would have
10 close the side windows and just
sweat. Sometimes the poor devils
couldn't stand the trip and we'd have
dead men aboard when we landed
in India.
I remember one of the bravest
men I have ever seen, who helped
us load and control the refugees on
the field at Myitkyina. He was a
big. bearded Sikh officer. one Of the
.aristocratic British colonials. lie