The Wilmington morning star., 1945-08-26

Nielsen was the navigator OF
a plane which attacked Tokyo.
He said they expected a large
force of Zeros, but saw only six
Japanese pursuit planes.
A steel mill in northern Tokyo
was their target. The crew of
his plane hit the mill and "blew
it to hell. We then circled and
dropped out last bomb and left
Japan"
"We encountered no Japanese
planes other than the six we first
saw" he said. Everything was
fine until we approached the China
coast.
The shortage of gasoline fore
ed us to GRASSLAND in the sea
80 miles south of Shanghai. Our
liferafts, it seemed, were made
in Japan because they didn't work.
But our life-vests did.
after swimming for four hours
l made the coast and with what
strength had left walked a few
steps and collapsed"
The next morning Nielsen came
to. He saw two large vultures on
a rock looking down at him. He
chuckled at the recollection of
how he cheated the vultures, and
continued:
Il staggered into a small fish
ing village and tried to get into
contact with Chinese troops. Chi
nese guerrillas tried to get us to
safety but the Japs had good
spy system. They sent half
regiment against our Is guerrillas
and took us over. They moved
us up the coast to Shanghai. We
reached Shanghai the night of June
"a and were flown to Tokyo the
next day"
Nielsen was kept Sc days in
Tokyo, was shipped to Shanghai
and installed in a bridge house
for 70 days and then was trans
ferred to a prison in civic cen
ter in northern Shanghai. On Aug.
% he appeared before a court
martial and again on Oct. Is. He
learned he had been sentenced to
execution but the sentence mad
been committed by Hirohito.
"Our charge and sentence, y
Nielsen said, was for bombing
non-military detectives and schools
and strafing innocent school CHI
dren," he laughed scornfully. Our
targets were bulls eyes; we hit oil
tanks and factories and I saw
them in flames" he said.
Nielsen first was allowed to wash
his teeth. have a bath and a hair
cut after he had been a prisoner
100 days. He was transferred to
Marking April Is, 1943-a year al
ter the raid on Japan.
Imprisonment was the same
daily routine. Nielsen described
it as: "Get up at 6 a. m. Breakfast
at 8. Exercise with guard be
tween 1920 and II. Lunch at Il
Supper at 5 p m. Bed at $50. The
rest of the time we had nothlns
to do-nothing is the hardest thins
in the world to do. There was
nothing to read.''
In Peiping he saw the first
Americans since he was taken
prisoner Some Wake Island
boys"
"The night of Aug. 20 the Japs
came in, gave us a shave and a
bucket of hot water-that was
treat-and told us the war was
over" Nielsen Lest 40 of his IT'S
pounds during Imprisonment.
Hite nervously fingered his
throat, his eyes stared straight
ahead and his voice was so low
he could hardly be heard as he
tcld how he and Deshazer bombed
Nagoya in that first raid on Japan.
After the bombing" he said
I'VE set our course for the China
coast we were unable to pick
up a radio beam or otherwise
identify our course orr g.c
"oo A"AAAiiS olloIt. we decided to
bail out, hoping we would find
ourselves in free China and he
picked up by Chinese guerrillas "
Hlte sprained his right ankle
when ne landed by parachute bnt
he made his way westward ~
next morning at 10 o'clock he was
picked up by Japanese posing as
Chinese soldiers. The 7.Jananass
also had Sgt. Deshazer and other
members OF the crew of the plane
in their hands. ~ p'"ne
IN April TO-" he continued /
tng Japanese flew us all the wav |
10 aokyo Tor Questioning. We ar.
W. mere at dusk on April q
ate gave details of that Question