| Show I QUEENS DIE DIE- Eo ENS DIE PROUDLY P RO U D LY WHITE WHIT f e. e tit FEATURES f THE STORY STOUT T THUS US FAR Co Col f Frank Kurtz Karts Flying Fortress pilot tells teU of 01 that fatal Opy when the Japs ap struck In the Philippines The ground Is covi cov coy i l uee eyed ered with the skeletons of 01 U. U S. S planes c L f No longer loncer safe ule to sleep In barracks bel be be- t l cause laps Japs are photographing Clark ClarkField ClarkField Field cots are moved mond Into a cornfield c f which Is later bombed by Japs Jails They i evacuate to the Island of Mindanao Harf Elam Har- f r ry Schreiber the navigator now takes up the story telling bow two Fortresses out on a mission to get et a row of 01 Jap transports are attacked by a swarm of 01 Zeros Zeros- They crash land In a rice paddy lout on Island buy an aD outrigger canoe ca ca- canoe noe Doe sail to Isle of Panay and later get getto getto et etto to Australia CHAPTER VUWell VU Well it was nice for a few days to be out of danger danger to to start getting getting get get- ting our dozen dozeD planes overhauled As quick as we could we began flying missions Each Fortress had brought out about fifteen men from Del Monte and they got to work putting the planes back into shape But the missions were terribly long It was seventeen hundred miles from Darwin back to Del Monte Monte almost almost as far as from New York to Denver Wed We'd leave Darwin In the morning fly all day land at Del Monte after dark to be safe sate from the Japs service service ice the plane eat catch a little nap and then gas up In time to be off for an early morning bombing of the Jap Invasion fleet off oft Luzon Then back to Del Monte Monte Monte-it It was daylight now and risky as hell so get in quick gas up load bombs and get the hell out fast and away to toan toan toan an afternoon target coming back toward Del Monte In the darkness thank God when no Jap pursuits are hanging around arriving about midnight a cat nap again gas up and youre you're off oft for Australia Think of the and pilots crews going through that grind day after alter day You might fly eighteen hours and be out of the cockpit or of only one of them And yet the thing we dreaded most was Christmas It was right ahead of us now now Christmas Christmas in defeat defeat de do- feat and on this barren hot dusty desert field w with th no word or mail from home and no way to get word back to them Wed We'd send cables we knew would never be answered because because because be be- cause we could give no address Ill put my Christmas up against the one you had said Frank going on with his story We were all feeling feeling leeling feel leel- ing low We knew there would be beno beno beno no letters or packages or even cables cable cables ca ca- bles ble for us us so it was natural that on this hot dry dusty sun scorched Christmas Day some of us should wander over to the Australians' Australians radie radio radio ra ra- dio die shack just to see what little word from home we could pick up upon upon upon on the airI airI airI air I should say that part of us were were gone on a mission Into the Philippines two Forts Including George and they now should be on that dreary nine-hour nine drag back to Batchelor Field We hoped none of them would be shot down on Christmas Day The Australians were damned tike nice to us They let us watch them open their packages and handed us their Christmas cards to read and t ff then hen they'd say What part of the thet t States are you from Yank so we could tell them about our own faint faint- lies ics and wives or best girls If we wanted t to and to-and and most of us did But Ik II we kept wondering about that mis- mis r lion ion although we didn't talk about it t. t And of course we didn't know I they hey had run Into serious trouble t hit lit by Zeros at high altitude and that hat plane during this Christmas Day fight had been given givena a burst of machine-gun machine fire right through trough his radio compartment Sergeant Sergeant Ser Ser- geant Kilian his radio operator was shot shut through the top of the head as is he be was helping the gunners re- re pIcking load oad picking up new ammunition cans ans full of caliber 50 belts and handing landing them up and taking back the he empty cans cans while the gunners pounded away at the Zeros Two others had been badly Bounded wounded by the same burst and Ince this was at high altitude It was very serious Because maybe e boy topples over so that his mask falls off There Isn't much you can do for a wounded man during combat at high altitude when you have wounded men aboard you try to get down to at least feet as soon a as you gran an so they wont won't be under the strain of breathing through oxygen masks f But there were Zeros still below be be- sow low them One of the Forts Fort's prime i de defense fence weapons Is altitude and ond George knew If he broke away from formation and dived down alone he stood wod tood a very good chance o of f being Picked off luSo So o he did the right thing thing stayed stayed with Ith the formation only It was a 0 ell of ofa a hard AIo decision to make on it ii h hit D Day ay with those poor ITO Wounded men in back fighting for rP r th In the high air i tWe We We knew nothing of ot this yet but toady heady we were feeling pretty low mt d the Australian radio o operator vas as s twiddling his dials trying to get geta a Program from the States Stales so EO wouldn't be homesick We hoped an e wed we'd get Just a homely homey Y deIon deion de de- jy ion of what who t kind of a n Christ Christ- a Day it was in a typical Amen Amerl- n n town that J might te be of ot any ours d ho now how w the snow v crunched under unde T C feet wet of the people walking up on oni it i porches to deliver Christmas packages packages packages pack pack- ages and maybe hear the real American voices of some real American Amer ican lean girls in a Christmas choir singIng sing sing- Ing Holy Night or 0 O Little Town of Bethlehem or some of the other time old songs What we got Instead was was' a n lot lotof lotof lotof of politicians doing their stuff on war alms aims They were from all aU over the world sounding off all over the dial and we argued with those Australian Australian Australian Aus Aus- kids as to which ones were the corniest theirs or ours They Insisted theirs were but we couldn't agree because ours were all stuffed full of roast goose optimism plum pudding hard sauce and production production production tion figures But something was coming In over the CW CAP radio Continuous Race ate or Dot Dash and the Australian with the earphones on after writing it down Instead of sending it in to his commanding officer gave me a queer embarrassed look and handed It to me And my heart thumped because I thought It just might possibly possibly possibly pos pos- sibly be from Margo although I didn't see how it could beIt be It was from Hed He'd waited until he flew out of the danger danger dan dan- ger zone before breaking radio si at- si lence He said hed he'd be In to after dark with th one body aboard and to have havethe havethe havethe the ambulance on the stand stand-by at atthe atthe atthe the field That meant there were more wounded It finished Christmas Christmas Christmas Christ Christ- mas for lor us We didn't say much I I- I 1 And my heart thumped because I thought possibly It ft might be from Margo l and neither did the Australians But pretty soon one by one we got up and wandered out of the hut When got In in his plane was so badly shot up that tho t we decided decided de de- de to call caU it a wreck It was a up toss-up between his plane and Lee Coats' Coats which v was also full of bullet holes but looking them both over we decided was somewhat somewhat somewhat some some- what the worse We just had to have a wreck on the field to serve as a spare-parts spare reservoir to keep the other planes In the air nir The Theold Theold Theold old here and he jerked his tiis thumb backward still has those tail surfaces we took off oft that plane We needed everything but most of all we needed bomb-bay bomb gas tanks I I Of 01 course we were In terrible I shape The old Bombardment Group had lost two thirds of its original original inal strength In three weeks and we were now reduced to about a 8 dozen planes planes about about enough for lor a decent decent decent de de- de- de cent squadron But there was one I hopeful fact of the two dozen odd we had lost only two two Cottas Colin's Colins and Jack Adams Adams' had Adams had been shot down downIn In combat by the Japanese The I rest had been blown blo up on the ground or like Wheless' Wheless plane had been wrecked on the beach to save the crew when it didn't have the range to get hope And just about the time we were adding up this score and wondering wondering wondering wonder wonder- ing what would happen to us next we found out for without warning General Gen Gen- General eral Brereton landed on the field and we Vie were Immediately summoned summoned sum sum- to a meeting In Operations Hes a tough quick cocky fighting fight ficht- ing tag little Air Force officer who doesn't like to sit down when hes he's laying out plans or giving orders and standing there before us us his shoulders reared back he lined us out He told us the United States Army Air Force of the thc Far East of which he was commander was moving moving ing tog all its bombers to Java and at once Its main base would be on ona ona ona a field near the city of Malang From there we would operate out of advanced advanced ad ad- bases already prepared by bythe bythe bythe the Dutch on the outlying islands of Borneo and the Celebes From these our first missions would aUbe all aU allbe allbe be concentrated on breaking up an immense concentration of Jap transports transports trans trans- ports which was gathering at Bay on the southern tip of the Phil Phil- But as he talked we got curious Just how big was this American Air Force of the Far East which the General commanded and whose task it was to smash the Japanese In the Philippine Islands so they couldn't reach out to the thc Dutch East Indies The had started out as asa asa I a Group commanded by a coloneL Its strength was now practically one squadron an adequate command for lor fora lora a major In peacetime Just how many Groups Group would this two-star two General have at his command for lor this star four-star task ahead But there was wa big news for tor me Ever since the loss of Old 99 I had been a pilot pilot pilot-a a kind of ghost walking with the living a ahead ahead head without a body But now Lee Coats was to go with th the General to Brisbane as engineering engineering engineering en en- officer and I was to take takeover takeover takeover over his plane and crew for tor the thc Java war Now at last was my chance to settle the score for Old 99 From Australia to Java Is a full days day's work even for tor a Fortress Frank went on on but the weather was fine and all of us were feeling great The ocean was a deep blue and we were constantly passing over Islands green with jungle growth which are practically steppingstones connecting Asia with Australia The last one of all was maybe maybethe the most beautiful the beautiful the famous Is Island island is is- land of Bali Ball just before belore you get to Java Java and and as I saw it coming ahead over the horizon I couldn't help thinking about those pictures of It you used to see on the the round world cruise folders Always on the cover was a color photograph of ot a B beautiful golden-brown golden year sixteen old girl with a wicker basket on her head and ond a printed cotton sarong gathered low around her hips and nothing much In between except a completely conscious unsell-conscious smile I was feeling pretty good and I Iguess Iguess Iguess guess the crew was too You see lee wed we'd been on the alert for six weeks and not so much as an hours hour's leave for them to go Into any town for lor even a glass of beer Java In the late afternoon was as beautiful as anyone had ever promised promised prom prom- It would be rich be-rich rich green velvet except where the sloping sun lun gleamed on the rice paddies or burned the standing water gold against the thc soot-black soot mud We flew over the big seaport city of Surabaya and straight on toward toward toward to to- ward the smaller city of Malang sixty-six sixty miles mUes away which was tobe to tobe tobe be our base To get there you have to climb a little and then enter enter en en- ter through a narrow mountain pass which usually Is filled with clouds In Inthe Inthe inthe the afternoon like a thick cotton stopper In a bottle At least later It served to keep the Zeros out told me the field was well camouflaged but because they'd laid It out for me carefully on the map I had no trouble in hi finding It It was a better job of camouflaging than anything wed we'd ever dreamed of ofIn ofin ofin In the Philippines Looking down on It from altitude you took it to be just an ordinary tilled field There was what looked like a cornfield almost across the runway and In addition a fake railway line crossIng crossing cross cross- Ing it I even had difficulty in hi pickIng picking picking pick- pick Ing out the hangar roofs so carefully carefully carefully care care- fully were they painted into the tho tropical vegetation We crossed It turned circled and landed larded The Dutch weren't even using their radio to bring us In for fear of giving away the location of that beautifully hidden field They brought us In with a flash gun and luckily I could show my new crew the thc type precision-type landing required on that grass field which was later to prove tough as helL We came in inin inin inin in the usual soft Javanese afternoon afternoon afternoon after after- noon rainstorm and of ot course I didn't dare apply brakes as you would on macadam I was to find it was a tricky job getting off and andon andon andon on that slippery turf with a full lull load of bombs The boys were of course In a lather to get into town but first there had to be the tho usual pilots' pilots and its it's always the meeting sameI same same- I dont don't care who the officer is is Captain Cap Cap- Captain tain taint Major or Lieutenant Colonel hes he's got to stand up there and dish out the thc old college pep talk about how were we're here to do this and that while the thc boys are snorting to get Into town Only this one wasn't so bad Because Because Because Be Be- cause at last we were going to do what we had for years been trained to do with our Fortresses When those reinforcements came streaming streamIng stream stream- Ing in we could go out In big formations formations formations forma forma- and drop a pattern that meant something Later ter they were to find that Dutch dating wasn't as os simple asIt ni OJ It looked because the first three or four times you had to take Mama and Papa along At the end of dinner before they left wed we'd all stood up and drunk just one New Years Year's toast toast toast-to to the memory of all those guys wed we'd known knO so well back In the islands who couldn't be with us now and anda a score the Air Force had to settle settle set set- tle tie in their behalf Java seemed fat tat and lush and peaceful but I knew just ahead of us was terribly hard work long missions hitting again and a af aC a 1 if we were to hold the Japs back until those thousand American planes arrived TO DE BE CONTINUED J |
