The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-02-08

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"Fijichan'' or airfield may shake
his head when you show him your
pass; he may not understand your
hard-won Chinese; but when YOU
smile and call, avg" his face
lights up in turn, and he calls.
"Ding-hao-you are number one.' !"
He holds his thumb up in the old
familiar signal. and you enter. Then,
to show his high regard for Ameri-
cans and his vivid memory of Gen.
eral Chennault's Flying Tigers, he
calls after you, avg mean Ameri-
can Very Good-ding-hao, ding
hao."
We caught up with three more of
our thirteen bombers at Kano, and
all our crew had begun to feel con-
fident that we could not be called
back from the mission against To-
kyo. To insure this to a greater de-
gree, we were trying hard, without
appearing to be too anxious, to be
the first to reach our initial point
Karachi, India. So long as we
were the first of the B-17's, we
could claim a moral victory. For
after all, Colonel Haynes was boss,
and in ship with longer range
than the Fortress, and we wanted
him ahead.
With full service aboard, and the
temperature hot and sitting, even
after nightfall, we threaded our way
through the dust for the take-off. I
remember that the heavy ship used
the entire runway and some of the
sagebrush prairie land too, for there
seemed to be no lift whatever to the
hot, dead air. Finally reaching q
comfortable cruising altitude at
twelve thousand, Doug and /
breathed the old familiar sigh of re-
lief at having once again gotten
loaded bomber in the air, and the
sign echoed around the ship.
Down in the dust haze not a light
showed as we crossed equatorial AT
rica where Sergeant Aaltonen and
Cobb wanted so much to land for
look at the big-lipped Ubangi wom-
en-. Then Lake Chad and Fort La
my went by. Just before dawn we
crossed North of the mountain of
ElFasher. At six o'clock the White
Nile appeared-we had crossed the
western part of the Sudan. Our
landing was made at Khartoum,
where the Blue Nile and the White
Nile meet.
On April 8, we left Khartoum for
an easy run to Alden, on course
which was almost due East over
the mountains of Eritrea. We went
on over Gura and Massaua to the
Red Sea. On our left we could see
Yemen, and farther South and to
our right, Somaliland. Reaching the
South end of the Red Sea and the
Gulf of Alden, the well-known land
marks, the Rocks of Alden, appeared
about noon. Next day we'd make
the run on to India.
The British garrison commander
took care of US that night. But
around the dinner table there sud-
denly dropped blanket of despair.
The London radio announced that
Bataan had fallen. After the first
comment we settled down to worry.
Part of our mission was to bomb
Jap concentrations around Bataan
and Corregidor. Would this develop
ment cause that part of the attack
to be called off? Again the fear of
being frustrated in our effort to take
the offensive clutched my heart. It
seemed that once again help had
been started too late.
We had caught the last of the
Bits at Alden, and next morning
we got up an extra hour early for
the take-off. Our Fortress was
straining to get to the initial point
just behind the B-24. Success was
In sight.
At $50 we were climbing over
! the beach of southern Arabia, and
as the light improved we all agreed
that Arabia was rugged-looking
land. After the terrible stories
about the mutilation of forced-down
flyers at the hands Of the tribes
men, we all were glad that we had
the little cards written in Arabic,
promising high payment to the Ar
abs if we were delivered unharmed
to the nearest British outpost.
We followed the Arabian coast
over the blue waters of the Arabian
sea to the Gulf of Oman, and then
crossed to Karachi.
Colonel Haynes, with the B-24, had
gone to Delhi. Our orders were to
wait at Karachi. And now for two
weeks we anxiously waited, while
the rumors few.
/ think / shall always associate
India with my first impression on
getting out of my ship. No one
seemed to know anything. Behind
us lay twelve thousand miles, which
we had made in eight days-for
what? No one stood there with or
ders to expedite our departure. In
stead they appeared to think we
had ferried this ship for them to use
in training. Training, mind you
here, halfway round the world and
in a country that faced attack any
moment! When we explained as
much as we could about our secret
orders, smiles came to the officers
faces. Bets were laid that we would
never leave Karachi with those
ships. But We were volunteers, and
our combat spirit was still there.
remember that all my crew took the
bets, as fast as they were offered.
] But we lost.
Once again We had been frustrat-
ed in our effort to 60 to war on the
offensive. Now, four months after
| Pearl Harbor, the stencilled word on