Show r Sf r I Flying Boats and Battered Tender Carry Battle To Jap Warplanes and Fog-Blanketed Fog Base Editor Note This ThU I Is another In Ina a a. t t 10 torl by Jew J Chicago Times Time correspondent In tn the Islands Wheeler was wa the accredited k t tI to reach a Alaska a rad t the US U.S. S. S I fleet e tie Se lied art there shortly after the he Japanese on Dutch Harbor June 3 By Dy J KEITH WHEELER Copyright bt 19 1042 2 Times ABOARD RD JJ U S. S SEAPLANE J APLAN IN THE TJ ALEUTIANS N June 25 Delayed The Delayed The wind Is a wild knot 70 sale gale ale hurling whitecaps whitecaps whitecaps white- white caps across ss the bay and tonight Ito 10 io planes will be tie seen keen in tn t the e air air- neither ours PUTS nor or the Japanese se Th The b battle of ot the toe Aleutians ns is not yet over The Japs are still jn in ms But lt tonight Its It's all aU right to re relax re- re lax Jax ax a II- little and n 1 consider how bow things have been Q C with t this Js unglamorous unglamorous un- un glamorous little tub and her brood t of t lumbering BY Y CAtalina flying flying fly Ily- ing boats She's IH ies ie's s a little ship old J and cramped Once she was a four- four piper destroyer yer but they ripped out half her and used i the t former ii ir r t to tV it store r extra food aviation gas bombs and nd men r Then en the they sent her put OUt OUtto putto to nur nurse nure e the Cats Not iNot a g Warship Not even her most charitable friend could call CAn her ner a warship She's hes he's no more a fighting ship than are the t ton flying she serves The little tender lay in Dutch Harbor r on June JUM 3 3 when th the Mitsubishis Mit Mit- su first howled through gh the clouds mantling Mt Ballyhoos Ballyhoo's frosty ty crown i It was there she received her baptism m of fire One paragraph censored at this point When the Jap planes went away they left two Zeros and a Mitsubishi Mitsu shot full fun of the tenders tender's machine machine ma ma- chine gun fire and burning on Mt Ml Ballyhoos Ballyhoo's flanks In Yn t the days that followed t the e Catalinas flew c ceaselessly up and andl down the island chain in the eternal eternal eternal eter eter- 1 nal miasmic fogs And where the Cats went the the- tender followed Sank ank Jap p Sub Once in her uncharted waner ings inge I am told she c caught a a. Jap submarine on th the surface She fhe he J isn't nt a fighting ship but she he Stopped 1011 long enough to drop four depth charges and saw the crushed undersea boat rise to U the surface roll over r and sink One paragraph p censored at this I point I In time the P Y crews were hag haggard wre wrecks and their pl planes nes weren't much better etter Some men flew hours pours In jn two wee weeks jJ and I the planes were beached for Dr re repairs repairs re re- i pairs only w when en t they ey would fly no longer Wn Whenever n v r a plane cracked up in the surf eyed bleary repair crews stripped off it its usable UI parts to patch planes shot to tatters tatters tat tat- tars by y the Japs Wryly the pilots dubbed their I outfit the P B Y Interceptor C Command Cpm Com m- m mand and designated Dutch Harbor liar Jar bor por P B Y Elimination Base Got Little Rest ne t tOne One crew flew Jew three round nd trips to Kiska liska with only three hour rest yest periods between the long hops ops One P 13 Y found itself shadowed by Iy a faster Japanese motored four seaplane The P BY captain refused refused re re- re- re fused to tt go home and titus thus lead the enemy to his base When t their Strange game glime of hide and se seek k had gone on eight hours the P B BY Y skipper decided to bring the matter matter mat mat- ter to a a. close dose He turned to attack attack attack at at- tack the Jap plane It ran rap away Dive bombing a P B Y turned out to be something the designer had never Jever thought about Over Kiska tb the pilots would force the nose down and go rumbling through the soup like a l landslide The bombs bomb would fall fan clear and j both pilots would have to hear J hea back on th the yoke o to pun theIr J plummeting Juggernaut ernaut out t its dive f Cripple Reaches Base One plane sh shadowed II- II J J t carrier 16 hours ducking m mout In and out of ot tn the soup SO J Finally closed with him and shot oj off vr rudder He gave up tip then t s flew home nome unable uMble to turn ex t with aileron control Another Arn plane was WAil n along just under t the e cloUds w the pilot heard gunfire He thought thouM his own gunners were testing th weapons but put changed change 1 his m when he looked around and S tracers crisscrossing the two i f at 3 e of space between himself navigator An n aerial cannon shot ed away away a wing strut and Oth other bullets slashed open the gas ga tasks tanks One man was hit In the h leg TV Th pilot pilot- plunged etl for tor a g cloud iSS eluded the three Japs on j his tall tail |