| Show T JD la M it R a COPILOT CO PILOT L 0 7 1 col robert escoff RELF RELEASE asp the lory anu lan fart alter after graduating from west I 1 point 11 ai a 1 mccond cond lieutenant he hemond robert so scott 0 tt wins his at t kelly field and tak takes e up pursuit flying when breakout the war broa kout out he be I 1 li I 1 an instructor in I 1 california a and told he be Is too oil all for combat flying dying he appeals to several generals for ora s ch ih anceto fly a combat plane and finally the opportunity comes comei lie ile old ales a bomber to india where he becomes a terry pilot out but this does not a appeal to hi him m alter after a visit with gen chennault he be g fati a and soon becomes become a one man air f arcet orcet acel over cne burma lie ile Is made comm commanding a anding officer of the fighter fleater group taking over the AVO and Is ordered to proceed to area to take charge CHAPTER XVI well the lost leader looked at his map and still see how he was north of the course and really past his des destination on so he began to argue again the old navy operator stood the bickering as ion long a as s he could then he took over with the initiative he had developed he gave off some ot of th the a most classic advice that ive ever eve I 1 heard and he gave it straight from the shoulder houlder lt he called who the hells bells lost you or me now you fly the course im telling you ar and d well meet you and so another man ot of the occident failed to change the east and in failing learned a little and nd b became a little more like the east easl it saved twenty fave airplanes people have asked me what made me able to shoot down my first jap and probably they expected me to say that I 1 had bad practised practiced on tow targets until I 1 could put every shot in the black or that I 1 had been to all the schools from leavenworth to mount holyoke and had learned tactics or perhaps that I 1 was better at piloting than the jap I 1 must have disappointed them for if any one thing more than another enabled k me to meet the japanese fighter pi f lots in the air and shoot them down while I 1 escaped it was an american girl first of all I 1 dont know exactly what democracy Is or the real corn com mon sense meaning ot of a republic but as we used to talk things over in china we all used to agree that we were fighting for the american girl she to us was america americ democracy mo cracy coca colas hamburgers alean places to sleep or the american way of life I 1 early one morning july 31 1942 1 I 1 took off from dunming headquarters arto to return to the eastern theater at and hengkang Heng yang high mountains are on this five hundred mile route to the east and I 1 went on top of the overcast right away from my twenty thousand toot foot altitude I 1 kept looking down at the solid cloud layer just below me sad nd I 1 guess that subconsciously I 1 prayed there would be breaks at my destination there were mountains at my destination too and its still not the best feeling to have to dive through overcast into hilly country with a fighter ship or with any ship for that matter As ai the minutes rolled by and the miles spun behind the P 40 I 1 still see the welcome shadow of it a hole in the clouds in just a tittle little over two hours I 1 arrived over the point above the clouds where ling ling should have been you see this point was in flat country and between kjellin and hengkang Heng yang by intentionally making an error to the north I 1 knew at least what side 0 of kjellin I 1 was on and knew furthermore that I 1 could go down much more safely there than farther south in the mountains that surrounded kjellin Kw ellin I 1 called jingling Lin gling over the radio but before I 1 could get a reply sasser the operator at Kwe ilin broke in with an alert warning ile he sald said chinese net reports noise of enemy airplanes coming up the can ton hengkang railway at high altitude last report section A 5 looking at my map which was marked oft off in squares with letter and numeral ordinates coordinates co I 1 saw that I 1 was very close to that section but atthe same time I 1 was really not oriented as to position and was into the last twenty or so gallons of my fuel here was a chance at last to intercept enemy planes by the time the P from our fighter stations could get there the enemy I 1 would v dhave nave gone on with their mis ilon ion what was I 1 to do 9 As I 1 considered it tor for the second tha that was necessary to make up my mind I 1 remember thinking that my loss orthis of this ship would be justified if I 1 shot a japanese ship down and if I 1 was out of fuel above the clouds I 1 could dive down and land in a rice paddy that would be an even trade but I 1 guess my ego thought I 1 could shoot the whole formation down and the exchange of the Japa japanese i flight for my one ship would certainly be favorable to our side calling to sasser I 1 told him I 1 0 thought I 1 was just east of and very close to the jap formation and was going to try to intercept I 1 dove down until I 1 was just over the tops of the clouds at feet beet I 1 dodged in among the tops of the fluffy cumulus looking ahead tor for the first sign of the black silhouette of an airplane As the enemy ships had been reported heading north I 1 estimated where they should now be andfrew and flew to intercept them ill nayer never forget I 1 had bad just looked at t the luel fuel gauge for or the hundredth time and as admy my eyes left the instrument 8 t ment board to go back to my diligent search I 1 saw the clock and the hour was at that instant I 1 saw an enemy airplane one silhouette ho uette from that second on I 1 know I 1 moved automatically I 1 saw gaw 1 that on our courses we were going to meet headon head on the other ship was now much nearer and closing fast it was a twin engine bomber and was right down low over the clouds just as I 1 was down below now were holes in the overcast and I 1 imagine the bomber was trying to locate its position to go down through he see my ship and I 1 kept hidden by the clouds as much as possible I 1 felt my left hand go to the anstr ment panel to turn on the gun switch then as I 1 looked at the red switch I 1 saw that I 1 had evidently turned it on without being conscious of the act I 1 moved it oil off then back on again as a kind of test I 1 turned the gun sight rheostat on and got the lighted sight reflected on my glass armor in front of my eyes the enemy ship came on mushrooming to in my vision our relative speed of approach was perhaps five hundred miles an hour by now I 1 had shoved everything forward on the throttle quadrant the engine was pulling full power and the prop pitch was set to high speed low pitch then just before I 1 pressed the trigger I 1 saw the other planes two enemy fighters above and bs be hind the bomber I 1 had evidently I 1 t aa A I 1 some fifty caliber ammunition for or the thep 10 not been seen by any of the three ships tor for after all I 1 was coming on very close to the clouds but I 1 nearly stopped my aiming from the surprise of seeing them they were about three thousand feet beet above the bomber and were weaving back and forth in loose formation I 1 saw the square wingtip wing tip that told they were navy zeros there flashed in my mind the warning that I 1 had heard from general Che chennault rinault about attacking bombers when there was fighter escort everyone in china had always neglected to consider odds on the side of the enemy they were used to that personally I 1 just know enough about aerial combat to worry much or I 1 might have gone on anyway my six guns would neutralize their four I 1 could shoot the bomber down and dive into the clouds before the zeros could get me I 1 really dont know whether I 1 thought it all out or not for by now I 1 was shooting the tracers seemed to go towards the enem enemy y all right but now the jap learne came into my sight so fast that I 1 dont know whether they hit bit him then or not I 1 dove right under the nose 0 of f the twin engine ship abdill an dIll bet he was one surprised pilot I 1 rioted noted that he had started to turn and maybe that made me miss As the ship crossed over my head I 1 pulled around in the tightest turn I 1 have ever made down in the clouds a good distance and that must have hid me momentarily illy from the fighter escort As I 1 came out the bomber was completing its turn opposite to the way I 1 had turned and I 1 moved in tor for a full deflection shot a shot possible when the other ship Is crossing your path at 80 90 de degrees grees I 1 had slowed down however and had to reef in and shoot at it from beneath and behind I 1 got a good burst in here but now I 1 saw tracers all around me and felt a couple of hits the zeros were shooting at me one of the enemy fighters dove in front of me and I 1 got a snap shot at it from a hundred yards I 1 dove under the bomber again and with the speed that I 1 gained tried to make a belly attack I 1 got in another shot burtt burst and felt some more hits on my ship As I 1 pulled up the zero that had been shooting at me made the mistake of rolling roiling at the top of his climb i and I 1 dove at him and gave him about two hundred rounds with a no deflection shot I 1 know the burst hit him badly I 1 shot at the other fighter from long range as he tried a headon head on ran run but the clouds were worrying the japs they seemed to have trouble seeing me As my dive at the zero built my speed up I 1 turned towards the bomber again it saw caw me and started a turn to the right I 1 snapped a short headon head on shot and before I 1 got to the enemy ship I 1 tossed caution to the winds and made a hundred and eighty degree turn the jap was right in front of my guns and I 1 was already shooting I 1 held the trigger down and saw the tracers hit the big wing the fuselage and sav the glass stream from the canopy I 1 just squeezed the trigger and froze as the bomber seemed to come back towards me As I 1 drew up to less than a hundred yards the big red spots on the wing grew wider and wider apart and I 1 saw pieces come from the left engine I 1 nearly rammed the enemy I 1 still dont see how I 1 missed the radio antenna pole behind the glass canopy I 1 could see the guns waving to and fro and they shot at me but the bomber was going down I 1 pull up as I 1 went past past him him this time but dove steeply when I 1 came out of the dive I 1 looked back for the zeros but bt they were not to be seen above and behind me the bomber was spinning slowly in flames the black smoke making a spiral above the clouds I 1 saw it go 90 into the clouds as I 1 d through tn in my pullout pul lout I 1 came out oui below the clouds which were broken in a few places now but I 1 see the jap ships I 1 made one half circle and know where I 1 was finally remembering my fuel supply I 1 breathlessly glanced at the gauges and they hey were all bouncing around on I 1 turned and headed west with my throttle retarded and the prop set back tor for cruising now I 1 called sasser having forgotten to call him at the moment of contact with the enemy I 1 told him about the interception that I 1 knew I 1 had shot down the bomber and had gotten some bursts on the fighters sasser told me that there thera was a flight on the wa way from hengkang Heng yang led by gil GH bright my altitude was ten thousand now and I 1 held it while I 1 just about glided with power to the west where I 1 should see the hengkang railroad As I 1 finished my report over the radio sasser in told me S 3 and richardson at hengkang Heng yang said S 3 also but miller at Lin lengling gling told me I 1 sounded very close to his station and gave me the report S 5 these mean in radio technical language that my volume was louder in Lin lengling gling than at either ot of the other two stations just then miller must have received a report from a town that heard my engine for or he said youre northeast of the field I 1 turned a little south and saw the welcome red clay of Lin lengling glIng I 1 started feeling happy then id been tn in the air on a cross country for nearly four hours and knew that id shot down at least one plane I 1 buzz the field though for any minute I 1 expected the engine to cough and the prop to start 1 out of gas I 1 put the wheels down and landed without even looking to see which way the wind was on the runway I 1 got the ship parked without the engines dying but the mechanics said they see any fuel in the tanks rather excitedly I 1 told my story we counted the holes in my ship and then went over to count those in one of the fighters that had been in another battle that morning just then miller came dashing up in a jeep to say that my air engagement had been reported ported xe over lel lei yang sixty miles to the east and that confirmation had already come in on my bomber it had crashed and burned eight miles from the town that noon I 1 was so excited that I 1 eat my lunch I 1 just sat there and relived relieved the battle the sergeant came in to tell me there were seventeen holes in my ship and two of them were from the can cannon non of the zeros they were all back near the tall tail so maybe george paydon had been right and maybe the little rats shoot well we were to find out during the next ten days very vividly I 1 flew on to hengkang Heng yang that afternoon and with lieutenant cluck in a jeep we drove to leiyung Le Lei lyang yang we had information that some of the crew or passengers had jumped from the bomber that morning and had been captured and we needed the prisoners for information with chinese guides we climbed on toot foot over the rice paddles paddies built on the hills towards the scene of the crashed plane even before wed covered the ten or more miles that we w had to walk I 1 saw evidence of the airplane it seemed as it if every coolie that the it came towards us was carrying a piece of the jap plane near the wreck I 1 saw pieces of aluminum on the houses covering holes to the roots roofs and saw some of the clothes from the jap airmen these we eia examined mined and found a notebook a map and a pistol later the soldiers at the wreck gave us a chute and some other things thing when we came to the burned b bomber ber we found it pretty well scattered the labile fabric was gone from the parts that burned but the larger part par was just a mass of burned metal I 1 noticed that the bodies of tour four japs were lying where they had fallen and several days daya later other visitors reported them still in the same positions I 1 looked looke in vain through the wreckage tor for samurai sword which is the nir we value most from the jag TO BE CONTINUED |
