Evening star., 1946-09-16

skillful general, $;$$*
who led hand SsS$ S
full Of P-40 pilots @
against the jap s'' sss&
anese tide that Gen Wurtsmith.
threatened to
overwhelm Australia, was found with
those of four fellow airmen amid the
burned wreckage of their medium
bomber.
A rescue team out of Brevard,
N. c., located the BIS, which had
crashed Friday while en- route from
Selfridge Field, Mich, to McDill
Field, Tampa, Fla, after toiling at
the rate of a mile an hour over
rugged terrain toward the crest of
Cold Mountain.
Crashed Near Summit.
The swift bomber had sliced off
tree tops for 100 yards before
crashing in a densely wooded cove
only 200 feet below the summit, the
Associated Press reported.
With Gen. Wurtsmith were 1t.
Coils. F. L. Trickey and P. r. Oker-
bloom, both of Tampa, and Master
Sergt. Hosey w. Merritt, Geneva,
Ala, and Staff Sergt. Hoyt w.
Crump, Tampa.
Gen. Wurtsmith, Who was tenn
porary commander of the 9th Air
Force at the time of his death, led
tighter groups in combinations of
expanding strength all the way from
Darwin and the coast of Northern
Australia through New Guinea, the
Philippines, Okinawa and eventually
to Japan.
His work in the development of
skip-bombing helped evolve a tech
nique which Japanese seamen
learned to fear almost as much as
their airmen feared the pilots of the
famed 18th or jungle Air Force"
in the closing months of the war.
Organized Fighter Resistance.
The general, who had been COM
missioned second lieutenant in the
regular Air Corps in 1929, was a
lieutenant colonel when he was sent
to Australia a month after Pearl
Harbor to organize fighter resist
ance to the Japanese
The old Curtis P-40s and a few
Bell Aircobras were considered in
ferior at that time to highly ma
neuverable Zeros which the Japs
were putting in the air in over
whelming numbers as they seized
new bases in their move south
through the Philippines, New Guinea
and the Dutch East Indies.
The Japs had pretty much their
way in the air until the young colo
mel organized the 49th Fighter
Group, taught the green pilots new
tactics and new respect for their
airplanes, and led them against ar
rogant Jap fighter bomber squad
dons with increasing success. BY
July of 1912 Gen. Wurtsmith's fight
ers were taking on the Japs in su-
perior numbers over Australian tar
gets and making they pay heavily
for the raids.
Helped Break Jap Air Power.
At the age of 36, Gen. Wurtsmith
was promoted to brigadier general
in 1912 and placed in command of
the Fifth Fighter Command. Later
as major general in command of
the Thirteenth Air Force he played
a leading role in breaking the back
of japanese air power in the Philip
pines.
This showdown fight, as vital to
pQH1np Of
Britain was to the campaigns in
Europe, was wound up in the early
spring of 1945 and allowed the
Americans to set the stage for the
assault on Okinawa.
During this period, when the pride
Of the Jap Air Force lay strewn
about the Philippines, the writer
had several long talks with Gen.
Wurtsmith while his fighters were
winding up one campaign and get
ting ready for the next one.
Victory Was in Sight.
Victory was in sight then, despite
desperate kamikaze defenses being
organized on Okinawa and the
japanese homeland, and the gen.
erals Jungle Air Force ranged the
islands at will.
The long fight up to the Philip
pines was much in his mind, espe-
cially the jungle brawl in the early
days Down Under,' when supplies
and reinforcements from the States
came only in trickle, and the Jap
anese could throw far more stuff
against our outposts than the Amer
leans, Australians, British and
Dutch could muster.
The general, who had flown many
lone foray of his own, was espe-
cially grateful for the aid which
the Australian aborigines had given
in rescuing inexperienced pilots who
had set out against odds only to
be forced down in jungle or desolate
stretches on the northern coast of
Australia.
Wanted to Write Book.
Some day, perhaps when he re-
tired, the general was going to write
book about his "No. l Boy" Old
Turtle, or Smiley, Turtles assistant
AS we talked in the generals quar-
ters on Leyte, while his fighter craft
patrolled against the stars, and the
little Lizards croaked and grunted
in the coconut palms overhead, the
general made this life in the bush
seem very real.
Gen. Wurtsmith, who attended the
College of Engineers at the Univer-
sity of Detroit, entered the Air Corps
in 1927.
He served three years in the Phil
ippines prior to the war, and held
| the Distipci,isbed Corvico NFoIo1 Sor