The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1945-06-08


converged on his fighter, and when
he dove out he was on fire; the
flames streaming out Of his engine
covered the canopy. From some re-
fiex action he had done the wrong
thing again---he'd rolled the canopy
open and the flames had been sucked
into the cockpit, into his face. He
had already Unattached his safety belt
In order TO jump, and In lodging
the flames he was thrown about In
the pilots compartment, though he
must evidently have got the canopy
closed again, for the flames were
held out by the glass.
Couch went through long seconds
Of torture as he was thrown about
in the bottom Of the spinning plane
the rudder pedals struck his burned
face, and sharp projections hurt his
shoulders and back. He struggled
to his feet again, rolled the hatch
back and was thrown out and away
from the burning ship.
We tried the same defense to hold
the advantage over the Japs II they
should come again. During the first
hours Of the morning flew low over
the surrounding hills and saw the
forest-flres set by the burning Of the
enemy planes that we had shot down
the day before. From over one viii
lage West Of Yeching, I could see
the wreckage Of the two ships that
had flown together; the natives were
standing about looking at what had
come out Of the skies. AS took my
formation into the air and followed
out the instructions the General had
given me, realized that for all prac-
teal purposes he was in the fighter
with me; was merely privileged
to press the trigger and send the
enemy into the ground and destruc-
ton. Yes, the General rode with me
on those fights In more ways than
one. If we kept following out his
tactics we'd hold our ratio Of twelve
to-one over the Japs as we battled
them in China.
None of us in China was fooling
himself-we knew that what little
we had accomplished against the
enemy would have very small bear
ing on the outcome of the conflict.
But under General Chennault we
had made the most of what we had.
We had developed fighters with an
urge for combat and the aggressive
spirit of battle. We had bases in
China from which to attack other
bases in China, that were Japa-
nese. With more equipment we could
hold our bases and we could take
the bases farther East, from which
we could bomb the heart of Japan.
I expect I wouldn't have been
much good in combat that day if it
had come, for was doing too much
thinking, and fighter pilots can do
only one thing at time. Even
when I landed and walked about
among the Chinese dead from the
Christmas Day bombing, I just kept
on thinking.
That afternoon at two o'clock I
got all our ships in the sky again.
rode on HoTloway's wing over the
top Of them all, and we watched
and waited for our interceptors on
the Mekong to yell, "Here they
come" Nothing happened-I guess
General Chennault was right again.
"You destroyed their group yester-
day." he had said that morning.
"We've got them worried, and they'll
have to wait for their long supply
line around to Burma to send some
more planes"
When the sun got low on the blue
hills Of Yunnan, began my thinking
again. There was no use fooling
ourselves - the situation in China
was bad. All Of China that was de-
veloped at all was In the hands of
the Japanese. The Jap had worked
with extreme foresight in preparing