The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-03-08

feet; If there had been anti-aircraft
fire, I know now they would have
shot me down. Again I turned and
shot at the truck and the gasoline
drums, and once more | saw the
tracers converge on the enemy ship.
Smoke was floating high in the sky
! could smell it over the odor of COR
dite that came from my own guns.
Keeping very low again, turned
East and found the Burma Road,
turned up it and started looking for
the columns which now knew were
japanese. I approached them from
the rear. fired from about a thou
sand yards, and the road seemed
to pulverize. The closely packed
troops appeared to rush back to-
wards me as my speed cut the dis
tance between us. / held the six
guns on while l went the length of
the troop column and caught the
trucks. There were only six now,
but fired into all of them and two
I saw burn Immediately. On my
second pass, as. I "S'ed'' across the
road, shot at each truck individu-
ally, then turned for the troops
again. The road was so dusty that
/ could barely see the bodies of
those I had hit on the first pass. I
suppose the others were hidden in
the brush to the. side. AS I pulled
up, could see the black plume of
smoke to the South-my first enemy
ship was burning fiercely.
! made as though to leave the
area, then came in again from the
South on the troops after the dust
had settled. They had reformed but
were not as closely packed as be-
fore. Again / strafed them, but this
time l saw that they were firing at
me. The trucks couldn't get off
the road, and I exhausted my am
munition on them in two more
passes. One truck that / caught
dead center with a full two-second
burst seemed to blow up. When I
left, | knew that four of the trucks
were burning, and farther to the
South ! could still see the smoke
of my first Jap plane rising high
above the trees of Burma.
Straight back to base I went, feel
ing very intoxicated with success.
At last I'd been able to see Japs and
draw blood. In thi> case thew had
been treated just as they had been
treating Allied ground troops, and /
was happy.
That afternoon | went back on
the second mission. / found the
wrecks of four trucks and baggage,
and objects that could have been
men, scattered all over the road.
The place where I had caught the
troop column showed about forty
dead men. The grounded plane had
burned, and with it had burned about
ten acres of the jungle. l fired
long burst into the truck and into
the four fuel drums in front of the
debris of the enemy bomber, but
they didn't burn; I guess the morn
ing fire had finished them. |
searched the country to the North
for more troops, but didn't intercept
any.
went back home highly elated-I
had drawn my first blood. felt that
the world was good again. With pride
radioed General Chennault that
his shark" had been in use, that I
had caught lots of rats walking along
the Burma Road, and that one Army
81 bomber would fly no more for the
Japs.
Well, at last I'd seen an enemy
ship. |. was a grounded bomber
but after all, I've learned since then
that these planes on the ground
are sometimes pretty rugged busi-
ness to get when you're flying down
on them with all the anti-aircraft
fire in the world seeming to con-
verge on you. You've got to worry
about small-arms fire from every
enemy soldier, too, and it takes only
one little slug in the prestone radia-
tor or the oil-cooler to stop you
mighty sudden.
The next day I went to Lashio
again and strafed the hangar that
had once been used by China Ma
tional Airways Corporation-CNAC
but couldn't burn it. There were
no ships on the field except an RAF
Blenheim that had been strafed by
the Japs on the ground on the North
end of the runway.
l turned back to the North to look
for the gasoline stores that / knew
had been at Myitkyina. I was de-
termined they were not going to fall
into Jap hands. Not finding them,
spent the rest of my time flying
low on the Irrawaddy, looking for
enemy barges. 1t was pretty un-
profitable day.
When Myitkyina fell, went over
there every day to burn the gasoline
that had been stored in tins in
the woods to the Northeast of the
end of the runway. had found out
its location from British Intelli-
gence, but the RAF Group Captain
had exacted from me a promise
that I would not fire into ii until he
gave me the word.
It seems that he was afraid that
g.. IS g.