The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-08-29
BY JACK ROWLES United Press Staff Correspondent


 Charlestown, R. T., Aug. 29-(UP) The hottest" pilot in naval avia- tion put on a show last night that would have made Washing Machine Charley, Japanese pilot, candidate for Hara-Kiri-if he weren't SO dead.
 Guided by the magic of radar, night combat flyers roared through the skies in mock battles while re- porters-the first civilians ever ad- mitted to secret control room at the station-rwatched the fight de- velop on glass-topped dials called radar scopes.
 It was a deadly game they played in the dark-in make-believe. On the radar scope, the attacking He'll cats were "blips" of washy, white light. The target plane, unaware of the attackers presence, was another blip only inches away from the att tackers' blips on the scope, but miles away in the air above the control rooms.
 Control Battle
 Control officers scanned the scope. They were constantly in touch with the attacking planes by radio. steer ing the pilots unfailingly onto the trail of the unsuspecting victim" who played the role of an enemy for the show.
 Slowly the attackers blips drifted toward the victims little white speck on the radar scope. Then, slowly the blips merged as one. The control officer picked up his radio transmitter. He identified hmself to his pilots and said:
 You're closing in for a splash" h."
 A second later, the pilots saw the wings of their target silhouetted against the starlit clouds. Their radio cracked to the control room:
 "Tallyho!" That's radar code slang meaning the hunter" had sighted the fox. The attacking pilots no longer needed radar aid from the ground, or ship. Their own radar took over, among their guns dead. center on the victims plane They shouted back to control:
 "Splash!" That's code-slang for we've shot him down"
 Tn actual combat, Jap plane whose pilot never would have known he was being chased would have plunged, flaming. into the sea.
 Night Protection
 Washing Machine Charley brought this on his own Japanese comrades. He flew one too many nuisance raids at night on weary Marines hugging foxholes on Guadalcanal in l94S. Charley was robbing them of sleep and they needed their strength for a crucial campaign.
 The Navy washed out Washing Machine Charley and went on to build defensive night combat pro- gram that became an offensive weapon in smashing victories that followed.
 It was an uphill job. Navy fiiers knew that pilots downed at night had little chance to come back. Night combat flying meant roaming over dark oceans far from carriers, and coming back, if at all. to a flight deck hard enough to hit in daylight.
 Last night. Navy veterans of Pacific night battles-nnen who had traileo and blasted Jap planes in darkness showed reporters how it's done. They flew "bouncing drills"
 A red lighted runway the size of an Essex class flight deck was their "deck." At the "stern" stood Q iard-signal tofiicer, dressed in . suit of satin treated with phospher- escert chemicals. He stood before an ultra violet footllght which gave him a weird Halloween accent. The pilots in their Helleat circleo tho deck, dropping altitude flying solely by instruments. Then, one by one, they curved into the groove of tho deck and approached for . 0pen-zzanns
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