The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1945-02-09

sand feet when / reached the count
Of "two," I'd drop the bomb.
let the four barges get almost to
the makeshift wharf; then I dove
from my cloud cover. As I got the
middle two barges on my gun-sight,
made mental resolution not to be
short-for even if went over I'd hit
the Japs in the town. As I passed
three thousand feet the nearest
barge went under me, and began to
pull out and count: "One-two--
three-pull'-putting In the extra
count to insure me against being
short. / felt the bomb let 60 as I
jerked the belly-tank release, and ]
turned to get the wing out of the
way so that could see the bomb hit.
The five hundred pounds Of INT
exploded either right beside the
leading barge or between the barge
closest to shore and the docks. AS
the black smoke cleared, ! saw
pieces Of the barge splashing into
the river hundred yards from the
explosion. went down and strafed,
but the black smoke was so thick
that I could see very little to con-
centrate on; so I climbed to three
thousand feet and waited for the
smoke to clear. Then dove for the
two barges that were drifting down
the river. I must have put two
hundred rounds into each of them.
got one to burning, and from the
black smoke it must have been load
ed with gasoline.
On my second raid I dropped a
Acknowledgment bomb on the
largest building in Homalin, which
the British Intelligence reported the
next day had been the police sta
ton. They said that two hundred
Japanese were killed in that bomb
ing, and that between six hundred
and a thousand were killed in the
series of bombings. Many bodies
were picked up about thirty miles
down the Chindwin at Tamu and Sit
tang. All four of my bombs had
done some damage, and I was quite
satisfied.
In British Intelligence reports I
read that Radio Tokyo had men,
toned Homalin. One bombing had
taken place, it seems, with very
slight damage, and that only to the
locent Burmese villagers, but the
imperial Japanese Army had evac-
uated Homalin because of the serious
malaria that was prevalent there.
Anyway, always like to think that
my four trips to Homalin with four
500-pound packages of good old
American Picatinny TINT had some
thing to do with the monkey-men's
deciding that the malaria was too
bad along the Chindwin.
My raids with "Old Extermina-
tor" continued through May and into
June. Some days I'd climb out of
India through the rain clouds of the
monsoon and fly on into Burma. The
trip back would then be one to wor-
ry me, for I never knew exactly
when to let down. Almost every
day, however, if I worked my take
off time properly I'd get back from
the mission as the storm clouds
were breaking, and I'd have a nice,
welcome hole to dive through. On
other days when / wasn't so lucky,
I'd just have to roll over and dive
for the valley of the Brahmaputra-
and that's where always came out,
or / wouldn't be here to tell about it.
Some of the flights into Burma
were just a waste of gasoline; I
would see nothing. It follows that I
have written of the more exciting
ones. There's nothing so monoto-
nous as to fly for four hundred miles
with plenty of ammunition, or some
times for two hundred to three hum
dred miles with a heavy bomb at
tached, and find no place to drop it.
I'd have to come back then, and
gingerly letting down through the
dark monsoon clouds, land the 500
pounds Of TINT as if I had a crate
of eggs aboard. After all, we didn't
have bombs to waste.
Early in June did have one ex-
citing trip. From reports of the fer
ry pilots I heard that the Japs were
building a bridge over the river
Numzup, some forty miles North of
Myitkyina. The very afternoon the
report reached me, I went over and
strafed the engineers at work on the
bridge. And nearly got shot down,
for the efficient Japanese had moved
in their anti-aircraft with the bridge
crew. When ! landed at the base
helped the ground crew count the
thirty small-calibre holes in my
ship. My cap had one hole in it,
though luckily it had not been on
my head but back in the small bag
gage compartment of the Kittyhawk.
That was pretty bad, though, for it
was the only cap ! had, and for
months I had to wear it with all the
felt torn from the crown by the
Jap ground-fre. ! remember that
later one Of the young bomber crew
men asked Maj. Butch Morgan-it
was when we stepped from our ships
after bombing Hongkong-whether
or not I'd had that cap on when
the bullet went through.