The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1945-09-01

i heard two shots
Already wounded when shot
down he was too numb to feel
bullet that entered his arm but felt
one that pierced his chest.
A Japanese made practice
swing at Turnbull's neck after he
had pulled the prisoners collar
down and an angered Formosan
giving him first aid hit him In the
back with a bayonet for not NOV.
ing fast enough.
AT hospital close to an airfield,
shrapnel and bullets we're removed
without an anesthetic," Turnbull
said.
"Bit Treatment"
Eight survivors OF a 12-man crew
on a Privateer plane we're given
the "bit treatment" after their ship
had been shot down south OF To-
kyo Aug. IL.
THE bits were used to keep us
from talking" said Naval 1t. John
B. Rainey, OF Huston. Tex.
Every half-hour, they came in
to test and. IL anyone complained,
they made the thing tighter" Raj
ney added.
Rainey still wears a bump on his
head where a guarf tapped me
with his rifle butt every time he
came to the place-just to amuse
himself and the villagers"
Evidence Of the Japanese brutal
ty shows in facial sores on the
men.
After Ave days OF beating by For.
mosans, 1t. Charles Buchalt, q %.
year-old Pennsylvania forced to
bail from a torpedo bomber, could
MT see.
Numb All Over
They beat me until | was nnmi
! all over" he said. Here at Ofuna
was in solitary confinement nv,
and a half months.
"They beat me up every day
sometimes at night"
Buchalt was released from con
finement last March II but pre-
vented from talking to anyone until
May Z.
1t. Laurel Boline, 26, Sioux City
Ia., a member of the crew of a
Superfortress disabled over Tokyo
May 20, related that after he had
landed in a field and surrendered
civilians "beat the living tar out OF
me with fists, umprellas and clubs.
Another BIG survivor, Capt. Ev'
erett Zewifel, Cedar, Tex. landed
right in the middle Of Tokyo" he
said.
Bailing out OF a Navy Hellcat
over southern Kyushu, 1t. Russell
Stephens, Evanston, ILL.,, said he be-
lieved he killed a man when the
latter opened fire at him.
Stripped
THE civilians put me in q build
ing and lined up outside to take
turns beating me-" he added. Later
they stripped me and told me they
were going to kill me-"
Later a schoolteacher stood Ste
phens in front OF children and said
he was going to cut my head of
the Evanston pilot declared.
Ems. John r. Bertrang, pilot OF a
B-2i downed over Formosa said
six survivors of the crew were
marched through a town while
people threw stones at them and
dubbed them.
They stripped US and beat US
with a big wet rope until the blood
oozed," Bertrang said, adding thai
they threatened to hang him.
They handcuffed my hands be
hind my back, stood me on a chair
tied a ceiling rope to the hand
cuffs and kicked me off.
Terrific Pain
There was terrific pain like my
arms had been torn out OF theil
sockets"
Bertrang couldn't move his arms
for months and still hasn't the use
Of one arm.
The wet rope treatment wal
administered daily and the fiiers
captors made them stand naked
in the cold weather, the Liberatol
pilot declared, adding 81 froze ny
feet walking on icy floors"
When Bertrang and his comrades
first entered the Ofuna camp thu
guards beat hell out Of me for no
knowing the rules"
February and March were tn
grimest months, a period in which
I'VE got our worst beatings, witt
baseball bats"
Movement OF prisoners towart
home was announced today at Oki
nawa where the first group ar
rived.