The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1945-02-23

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Of high Chinese officials he had built
this air-warning net, had caused to
be constructed many strategic air
dromes in China, and had preached
the doctrine of pursuit aviation.
The warning net is of course Sc
cret and cannot be discussed In de-
tail. But If you imagine two con-
centric circles, one with a radius of
one hundred kilometers and the 9TH
er of two hundred kilometers, around
each of most of the fields and large
cities in Free China, you have
general picture. In these circles
are thousands of reporting stations
some within the enemy lines, some
right on the enemy fields them
selves. There may be coolie sit
ting on city wall watching for air.
planes or listening for engine noise
and reporting it with a visual signal.
There may be mandarin In watch
tower; a soldier in a field with
walkie-talkie radio. All reports final
ly get in to the outer circle, where
some of the information is refill
tered, and finally it goes to the plot
ting-board in our cave or opera
tons shack. There Chinese inter-
prefers get the reports and move
little pin flags along the map of
China-and we know where every
enemy ship is in our territory and
can see where ours are. The net
works so efficiently in certain areas
that we don't take off until the
Japs are within the one-hundred-
kilometer circle; this gives us more
fuel with which to fight.
When the Japs come we know at
what altitude they are approaching
and from exactly what direction. We
know their speed and their num-
bers. It's kind Of joke, too, that
in several places we know when the
japanese roll their ships from their
hangers or revetments, when they
start their engines, and when they
take off. Also it not only works for
the obvious purpose of defense but
has permitted us in many cases to
locate lost pilots, for the navigation
facilities in China are not the
worlds best.
OF course the locating of lost,
friendly ships took another element
besides the warning net. It required
the existence of intelligent radio op-
orators who knew the country and
had common sense. These men,
like Richardson, Mihalko, Miller,
and Sasser, with others, stayed out
there with us, and if you count the
AVG aces as the first factor that
permitted us to carry on in man.
ner that didn't discredit the Flying
Tigers, then these men who helped
us by radio were the close second
factor. i
Suppose that one of our pilots, re-
turning from a flight, loses his posi-
ton on his map because of cross
wind, because of unfamiliarity with
the country, because of his own stu
pidity-which we call "short cir
cult between the head-phones'-or
just because the maps of China are
very inaccurate. In many such in
stances we would have lost an air.
plane worth virtually millions in
our combat zone, and perhaps the
pilot too.
The pilot who is lost calls the ra-
dio station that he thinks is closest
to him, and in code tells the trou-
BILE. The radioman tells him to cir
Gle the next town he passes for a
few minutes. Down in that town,
marked on his map with an unknown
Chinese character, some member Of
this warning net sees him and re-
ports one P-40 circling. In a few
minutes the radio operator gets the
report and tells the pilot: you're
reported over Lufeng-fy fifty-eight
degrees at two hundred miles an
hour and we'll have supper ready
we've got grits tonight-yeah."
One amusing but near-tragic in
stance of this orientation by means
of the air-warning net happened
about the time the AVG induction
board came to China. Another fight
er group commander had waited for
several days over in India to come
into China with a large flight of
PAGE is. He finally came over on
a transport and eventually got tired
of waiting for the fighters. He didn't
know that the weather was very
bad in Burma, and that the mon
soon winds from the South could
take them so far off course in a
few minutes that the entire flight
might easily get lost.
After long wait he came back
to Assam in the transport and led
his pilots towards Running. First
of all, he corrected too much for
the southerly wind, and in a very
short time he was fifty miles South
of his course and near two Japanese
fields. His unbashful deputy lead
ers herded him to the North. And
then the monsoon wind from out the
Indian Ocean began to work on his
navigation, and in another hour he
was lost far to the North of the
course. Night was falling, and the
hills of North China were rising
INCREASINGLY.
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