Show Low Fly Low Flying With Ernie i ing Py e e Missions in Italy r s' s sT T Take e. e i Plenty of Skill by Pilots pilot T IN ITALY ITALY ITALY-It If you h hang ng around a fighter or dive bomber airdrome for tor a 3 while you will const constantly nUy hear about low flying missions That means Jobs on wh which ch you fly so low you are lare are practically practically practically on th the ground Often Otten you are arc so low you would hit 3 a man standing on the ground On such auch a mission a pilot goes out looking for things He lIe will shoot at practically anything he sees Hell He'll come whipping up over a 3 slight alight rise then zip down the other side a and d in n his there may be bea a la fa gun a truck a train a Whole line Jine of German soldiers a supply dump Whatever he ho finds he shoots up The squadron of f A 36 Invader dive bombers that Im I'm with has had some freakish happenings happenings' on these missions For example Lieutenant Miles Mites C C. Wood of Dade City Fla al almost almost almost al- al most shot himself down theother the theother theother other day He was strafing and he flew so low that his bullets kicked up rocks and he flew into the rocks rock They dented dented dented dent dent- ed his nis propeller and punched holes in his wings He was lucky t to get home at all Even en a hunk of of mud will win dent a wing at that speed Another pilot flew fIew right through an strand eight str ight-str nd steel cable the Germans had stretched on poles above above some treetops This is one of their many tricks and this one almost worked The pilot landed at his home homefield homefield field with the cable still Mill trailing trailing trail traIl- ing lr from his wing My frie friend d Major E. E Bland the squadron leader was so Interested interested interested in in- in his strafing one day that he didn't notice a ten high sion line Jine just ahead When he did see ee it it was too late to pull pullover pullover ov over r it So he flew under it it-at it at about miles an hour And since Ive I've been on this field one of ot the pilots was diving on a 3 truck and got so interested in what he was doing that he heran heran heran ran into a tree The plane plan somehow some some- how stayed how stayed in the air although the leading edge o of the wing was was' pushed up about eight inches and was crumpled like an ac ac- ac- ac He got th the plane back over our lines but finally it went into a spin a and d he had t to b bail ll out He broke his leg getting out of the cockpit hit his h head ad on the tail as he went past and then smashed his leg further wh when n nhe he hit the ground He is the luckiest man the squadron has had yet Everybody Everybody Everybody Every Every- body was concerned about him and grateful that he lived Yet when his squadron commander went to see him in the hospital the first I t thing the injured pilot did was to to start apologizing for tor lo losing ing the plane Dive bomber pilots fly so 80 JO low that th they y even have German 1 tracer racer bullets coming down at It t them from the hillsides instead in in- stead of ot coming oming- up as they i usually d do They fly so low that lo that Italians behind the German lines Unes J come come running to to their doors doom and wave while now and then their some dirty guy who who- has different differ differ- different ent sentiments will run out and take ke a shot 1 ot at them As I have hav 8 said id the Genn Germans Germans' nl J Jarc are arc full of tricks They send up up all kinds of ot w weird ird things from their ack-ack ack guns They have hav s sone one shell that looks when it explodes explodes explodes ex- ex as if ff you'd emptied a a aI I of turpentine They shoot all atI kinds of wire ti and link daisy chains into then the air to snag our propellers I But the weirdest one lve Ive 1 heard of was described by a a. pilot pilot who was on on the tail of a Messer x schmitt one day Just as he was pulling the trigger the fleeing German released out cut of the taU tall of ot his plane a parachute with a along n 1 long steel cable attached to it The Am American rican pilot by fast maneuvering got out of ot its way way- way but he did lose his his' G German On a a. low flying lo mission y youre you're ure justified d. d in shooting at anything One day one of or our pilots after a boring mission in which he saw nothing worth destroying decided to set a haystack haystack hay hay- stack stacIe afire alre He came diving down on it pouring 1 in when suddenly he saw hiss tracers ricocheting of off the haystack hay hay-f stack Now you know bullets dont don't ricochet off ordinary hay hay- sticks sUcks so our pilot gave it the thai works works and and thus thus- destroyed a abrand a e. abrand brand new pillbox After Atter the war look out forthe for forthe the politicians who are more mort concerned with twisting the lions lion's tail tan than preventing the rearmament of Germany many an and 1 Japan We Ve have a group which would rather see its own chestnuts chestnuts chest chest- nuts burned than find that it had even by accident helped to save the chest chestnuts of ot England and Russia President President Everett Case of Colgate te university |