The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-07-12

Gen. Chennault observes the re-
turn of the C.A.T.F. from a raid.
Lieut.. Gr0Ssclose at left.
wards Hongkong. But heavy at
tacks had come to India, and we
were needed to protect the terminus
of the ferry route to China.
We managed, however, to leave a
small force of P-40s under Holloway
and Alison, with mission TO dive
bomb shipping in Victoria harbor
within the next few days. They
took eight planes down and dove
through the overcast towards some
big enemy freighters that were on
the way South towards the Solo
mons. Their bombs damaged two
8,000-ton freighters and sank a H.
000-ton vessel. Captain O'Connell
made this last direct hit by almost
taking his bomb down the smoke
stack of the enemy vessel, and in
doing SO he was shot down. He
took the bomb very low, and in re-
covering from the dive he was at
tackled by single enemy, who got
one of the best pilots In the Squad
ron. Ginger and Alison saw the
enemy ship, but from their dis
tance they could do nothing in time
to save OConnell. While Alison was
getting the lone enemy ship, Ginger
dove in anger along the docks of
Kowloon, strafng three anti-aircraft
positions in the face of very heavy
ground-fire.
The most vivid memories of our
air war in China come from the lit
tie things. Like the memory of
General Chennault, sitting there at
the mouth of the cave in Kweilin
through the long hours while we
were away on the attack missions.
Sitting there smoking his pipe and,
like a football coach, planning the
next weeks work. Joe, the Gener-
ais little black dashshund, would be
burrowing into the rocks, looking for
the inevitable rats. When with the
passing minutes the P-40's or the
bombers were due to return, the
General, would begin to watch the
eastern sky. There he would sit
without a word until the last ship
was accounted for. Sometimes I
thought: The General lives through
every second OF the combat with us.
With his keen knowledge Of tactics
and of the Jap too, he sees exactly
what we are doing.
Another memory that always
brings smile is Lieutenant Couch's
face when he was explaining what
happened the first time he got Jap
Zero in his sights. The enemy ship
was a lone SITTER" probably some
inexperienced japanese pilot who
wasn't looking around and didn't
know the P-40 was behind him.
Couch said he kept moving up closer
and closer until he knew the jap
was going to be dead the instant he
pressed his trigger. Then he pressed
and nothing happened. He
squeezed the trigger until he thought
he'd press the top off the stick; he
found that he shut his eyes, f1inched,
and bit his lip, but still the guns
didn't fire.
The American pilot from the Caro-
linas swore and throttled back, drop
ping to the rear while the Jap kept
flying innocently on. After Couch
had recharged his guns he began to
stalk the Zero again, going closer
and closer until he could see the
enemy pilot at the controls. He set
his sights right on the cockpit and
pressed the trigger once more. And
again nothing happened.
Couch came home disgusted, and
| ! think he worked on his guns all
night.
One memory brings back joke
on myself I had been on long
flight toward Hankow, and from the
time of take-off, all the way to the
enemy base, all during combat, and
then back home, I had been forced
to pump my landing-gear up manu-
| ally every ten miles. AT eighteen
thousand feet, in the rarefied air
and with an oxygen mask on, this
| becomes monotonous work, but III
combat it's even a dangerous kind
of work had pumped and pumped,
and just as I'd get the wheels back
up the hydraulic valve would re-
lease the pressure and I'd feel that
the wheels were slowly dropping
again. Now. after nearly seven hun
dred miles of it, over some three
hours and half, I pumped them
up once more and they seemed to
hold. I asked my wing man to fly
up close and investigate.
Bruce Holloway told me later that
they had all been listening for re-
ports of the fight, via the Command
Radio back in Kunming-when over
the ether they heard very South
ern drawl disgustedly calling, "Du-
bois, fly up close to me and see if
that goddam wheel is down again.
We tried to hold the chatter over
/ the radios to a minimum, but there
| were times when the men released
their emotions into the microphone,
and we thought it better not to try to
cut it out altogether. We had codes
for every purE1se. but We found that