The midland journal., 1945-02-02
wNv. RELEASE

MS talI literally SIlOt HAlLl w pAGSGos
Georges ship was seen to trail
smoke and dive straight down, from
about fifteen thousand feet. Doctor
Gentry said they watched the strick-
en- Forty and knew who 1t was by
the number. As 1t disappeared be-
hind the trees they mentally crossed
the boy Paxton off their list of liv-
ing men.
But George and the sturdy P-4O
were not through. There was the
surging scream of an Allison en-
gine's last boost, and the ship
SKINNED over the trees and made
a belly landing on the soft part Of
the field. Even then, considering
the number of Japs who had been
using George for target practice
and the way the ship looked, with
big holes in the tail, wings, and fuse
lage, as they drove out for him in
the jeep they expected to find just
body.
Instead, they found George Pax
ton standing by the side of his ship,
swearing and shaking his fist at the
sky.
Doctor Gentry said he looked into
the cockpit. The instrument panel
was just about shot away, the rud-
der pedals were partly shot to
pieces, the armor of the pilots seat
was badly bent-but Paxton was out
there yelling:
II still say those little bastards
can't shootl"
Even his Texas boots were practi-
cally shot off. Two doctors picked
rivets from Georges back all the
afternoon, and Jap explosive parti-
cles from his feet, legs and hands.
The worst injuries had been caused
by the Japanese explosive bullets
hitting the seat armor and driving
the rivets through into Georges
back. But for the armor, those ex-
plosives would have been in Pax
tons back, instead of just the rivets.
On May II, flew with the AVG on
a mission from Running into Indo-
China. Squadron Leader Bishop led
the attack. I flew the wing position
with r. T. Smith, one of the aces Of
the Flying Tigers and one of the
pilots I remembered checking dur
ing his training days at Santa Ma
ria, California.
We got off the Running field with
our fighters and headed South over
the lakes at twelve thousand feet.
In a few minutes we passed Meng-
tie and the clouds thinned out and
the weather got pretty clear. We
went just about over Laokay, on
the Chinese-Indo- China border. Then
we followed the River Rouge
through the very crooked gorge in
the mountains, on South towards Ha-
moi.
Just about halfway between the
border and Hanoi we saw a train
coming North on the railroad. Bish-
op led four of us down to strafe it
while the other four stayed at twelve
thousand for top-cover. We circled
over the train as we spiralled down
to attack, and while the speed of
the dive built up l got my gum
switch on and tried to trim the ship
for the increasing speed.
AS we levelled off and went in
for the kill, ! saw Bishops tracers
hitting the engine. By the time
got therein number two position,
on Bishops wing now-the white
steam was spraying from the pune
tured boiler. I saw the engineer and
fireman jump from the locomotive,
and as we went on down the cars,
shooting into them, saw Jap SOL
diers and probably Vichy French
civilians jumping off too. We came
back and set some of the cars on
fire. It was cinch now, for the
train had stopped and was no longer
weaving through the narrow curves
of the gorge.
While the boys talked to one an
other, we reformed and I heard
Bishop say, Lets bomb the rail-
road yards at Laokay with our
frags." (Fragmentation bombs.) I
thought then that was wrong, for we
had alerted Laokay as we flew over
and they were probably listening to
us and would be waiting for US.
That didn't matter, though; we'd get
the railroad yards and some of the
anti-aircraft crews too, if they didn't
look out.
We spiralled down to bomb the
target and I saw Bishops bombs hit
dead center on the round-house.
Then dropped mine. Just at that
instant Bishops fighter belched fire
and smoke, and ! saw him slide his
canopy open and jump. His chute
opened SO close in front of my ship
that pulled up for fear I'd run into
it. I hung there for what seemed
like hours, with my air speed indi-
eating three hundred miles an hour,
while black bursts of anti-aircraft
fire broke all around me. The ship
Just seemed to stand still, but I
saw Bishop floating down towards