The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-03-15

Corps had to know anything. As
George Paxton put it: Didn't the
Army know everything? Seems
like to me-" he said, every army
officer we've seen out here knows
all the answers.
When he found out that I was Sc
rious, and that my ambition was to
get over there and fly with them,
and learn combat from them, SO
that in the end I might teach it to
our younger pilots who would be
coming out, he told me things that I
would never have learned otherwise.
: First" he said, leading me off
under the wing of one of the P-40's.
first, the Old Man says, never turn
with one of the Zeros. He says
that's bad"
I learned that the Jap ship would
outmaneuver anything and would
outclirnb the P40 four to one. 'But
that doesn't matter" Paxton said.
"The P-40 is the strongest ship in
the world. It's heavy as hell, but
that makes it out-dive just about
anything, and it'll out-dive the Jap
two to one. With those two Fifties
and the four thirty-caliber guns in
the BIS we have done pretty good.
Now with the six Fifties in the new
Kittyhawks we out-gun anything"
He told me that Hill, Rector, Bond,
Neal, Lawler, and other aces had
seen Zeros disintegrate in front of
their six Fifties, and went on to ad-
wise that I use the good qualities of
the P-40's against the bad qualities
of the Jap, but never try to beat him
at his own game-climblng and ma
neuverability.
Paxton did me a lot or good-he
got me my first flight with the AVG
on the Emperor's birthday. But the
Jap didn't come in. We were the
most griped bunch you've ever seen.
Everyone up and waiting at three
a. m.-and then the dirty so-and-
SOS didn't have the CUTS to come inl
heard a story on George Paxton
that will show you the kind of tough
, Texan he was. 1t was down over
Rangoon, near Mingaladon air.
drome, in the early days of the Bur-
ma war. Doctor Gentry, who told
me the story, said that the squadron
George was in was aloft and engag-
ing the japanese over the field. Look
ing upstairs, you could see the con-
denSation streamers criss-crossing
the sky, and every now and then
trail of smoke as Jap Zero burned
and plunged towards the earth.
Finally eight or nine Zeros ganged
up on George Paxton. They got
on his tail and they got all over him.
He fought his way partially out of
the trap, but two of them right on
his tail literally shot him to pieces.
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 it was by
the number. AS it disappeared be-
hind the trees they mentally crossed
the boy Paxton off their list of liv-
ing men.
But George and the sturdy P-40
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. / 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 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