Show S 1 K r li- li r if i W QU ENS DIE i. i WJ PROUDLY WHITE WHIT Ie S 1 I f TITS roB STORY T THUS TAUS US FAR Col I Kurtz Flin C Fortress pilot tells teUs the struck In XV of that fatal day when Japs Ithe the philippines Ei Eight bt of f ills his men are killed for lor shelter and Old 99 9 his Flying Fortress is b demolished Before before it can set get et a ff Q the ground They escape pe to Australia spend send encl Christmas day and shortly after afUr General Brereton there orders orden them to take uke the bombers U to Javan Java n nm n there they start on n flight for lor I ja la the he Philippines They see a great reat cen cen- dOD of 01 ships below them them them-a a Pearl Pear 1 garbor Barbor setup set but bot O fighters toms come up and lJ fack ck ack jets gets hot bot They make the ton the bombs are flicked out one ane by byone the bombardier shouts bombs one sae hiway away 1111 and th and speed peed forborne C CHAPTER DC LY I q 1 poured on every ounce of power we re had and was about to turn for forthe forthe the he getaway when I saw just in hi time that old Jim who had dropped his bombs bombs before I did had alf already al- al f ready eady started his turn to get off oft the target a few seconds before me The next thing I did was to call caU f down to the bombardier and the navigator navigator nav- nav to come on up and tell me what hat wed we'd done to the Japs I They hey said It Jt had been a sight to watch watch swatch A few of the Jap cruisers land faDd and destroyers had managed to get under tinder way and their wakes laced the water In great spirals and nd ii es they tried to dodge the bom bombs s. s f AsIde from rom these few they said wed Iwed caught the Japs absolutely flat- flat footed looted If there had been enough cf us we could ha have ve blown a chunk i out ut of their fleet they would never have bave recovered from I As It was they had watched four direct hits bits on en a Jap battleship seen pieces of debris flying in hi every din di- di I yr rr Son rr on n and smoke starting to bil- bil up In addition to tl this s our sq squadron adron had sunk three smaller 1 craft two raft two cruisers and a transport They said our bomb pattern had churned the whole area white with spouts pouts of foam and what few ships had bad their power up were vere running around round around like crazy They said thousands thou thou- sands lands of skilled personnel had been killed or drowned and also that we ive had torn tom hell out of the dock dockworkers dockworkers workers corkers and docks at Harbor j 4 Only I dont don't have time to gloat long for something approaching us from ahead catches my eye through she the windshield Its It's practically flyIng fly fly- lag Ing our course and our altitude except except except ex ex- ex- ex that Its It's off of to the left But am amI l 1 I 1 seeing a ghost It cant can't be what I think It Is a the kind that Ernst told me all about bout In Berlin when I visited there thereIn In 1934 There cant can't be a Messer- Messer In hi this hemisphere but what else could it be with that 1 split pUt tail taU l He doesn't alter his course and dont don't alter mine and after hes he's passed the point where I could set setup setup setup up a collision course with him I 1 begin to come to my senses to realIze real- real Ize he that Im I'm the pilot of at a Flying Fortress and my job is to get home with these boys and this r 1 lane which was never designed to toU U r age In dogfights with Mess r- r PWe wt W got back to Malan Malang feeling 1 pretty pleased with ourselves said frank and I personally felt I tad ad made headway settling my old Philippine score But In hi Java we weid found id there were troubles ahead and id the least of these was that our avy aV avy was accusing us of bombing leir it ir ships They didn't say any o. o of em cm had been hit just that they'd bad id to beat hea t off an atta attack ck and it to me that this might ex ce lain all those fireworks which came looping Doping up under our chins through e overcast that night over the ebes Sea But we were never eSo e. e r Q t So So we said Then why dont don't you youell youell youen ell en us where your ships are going be but it seemed that had never een een done done done-a a ruling from the Navy Apartment eat In Washington Washington- I guess hose use ose guys must take some kind of sight bomb-sight oath never to tell any- any g g to anybody who doesn't wear slack lack shoes ii But plenty more was going on It t I developed that our smash at the theP Sap P ap fleet feet in hi had been alist al al- lost ost too successful Because as no longer a safe base for them ey had bad apparently boosted up sir schedule by two or three ks Our reconnaissance went lear lean ear up to the area and red rested re- re sted d nothing there then we found t I the whole gang had moved out Aether gether and they were off of the coast f Borneo moving down into Macas- Macas e r Strait and It was clear cleared they fended tend tended ed to cl clean an out Borneo not Borneo not y because of dur ur advance ce bases fete er but because they wanted the d h on oil fields ds at and Balak Balak- span an on the eastern coast of BorI Bor Bor- r I where here the oil Is so rich nth they say LX I ou au can pump ump It U r right into the bunk bunk- s I of ships Of course they'd built pip J big X oil U reserves which they had ug h t from us before belore Pearl Hart Harbut Har- Har t 1 r but now they Were out to grab If some fields of their own And fd Who was goIng to stop them Was u up p to us to try because use we wc to be the only force the thc Jl ed d Nations had In that area orea big h to tackle the Jap fleet 0 of We were briefed before dawn dawn- C id everything that was known out this big J Jap ap gang Of ships of on feast st Borneo and Borneo Bome and and at ins In InI ine s e e I nine of us took off oll from s e Malang mg Field We planned to toa I OVer ever a Wo the Java Sea and then Int In ln 1 ri t d OVer ver Borneo omeo carrying to start tart r t. t with an altitude of about feet But about eight o'clock we hit a tropical front which was a nightmare night mare mare tog fog so dense you could hardly see to light the tip of your cigarette When we saw It coming ahead each V spread out a little 10 so we wouldn't collide Only we didn't dream how dense and how long It was going goin to beIt be It was like trying to fly Inside a giant bale of cotton cotton so so dense that when you looked out at the side you could barely see your own wing tips And looking straight ahead that bale of cotton seemed tightly packed against your our windshield only it was a dull flat fiat white gray-white like the cotton I Imagine they'd spin winding sheets out of ot And you'd stare Into the windshield trying to see how close you were to your our wing whig wingman wingman man but there would only be that flat white squeezed ti tight ht against your windshield muffling every every- thing Then all of a sudden the wing of the plane ahead would come surging into view out of that winding winding wind wind- ing sheet so BO terribly bi big and close that you would frantically jerk back backall backall backall all four throttles to cut your power and begin fishtailing your rudder to slow the big brute down a little praying that by this you'd miss crashing Into the plane ahead at least by a few yards Wed been fighting through it on Instruments because inside that cotI cot- cot 1 l r I 1 l The gallant Dutch are arc burning op up their heir Borneo oil oU fields ton bale you couldn't see stars or ocean and it took so much hard flyIng flying fly fly- Ing that I was having my pilot co-pilot handle the power for me If I thought I was dropping behind the rest maybe I would get et lost and have nave to go over the target alone which by now we knew was a dangerous dangerous dangerous dan dan- business Id I'd say to him All Allright Allright right give me a little more mercury now now about about four Inches Then when Id I'd catch a glimpse of the plane ahead Id I'd say Okay now you can bring it back to tl thirty Inches Were We're sitting okay okay okay-I I can see him fine And I could for a minute or so Without warning I break Into the clear I haven't bavent climbed over that cloud but Instead have bave flown out of one of the walls of an enormous cloud canyon and am now flying around in the clear air between the precipices Ahead of looms the other me canyon canyon canyon can can- yon walL Maybe Its It's thirty miles mUes away maybe fifty you you cant can't ever judge the distance of a cloud because because because be be- cause they dont don't come In standard sizes But cloud canyons like this one are one magnificent sight that you never see any place except in inthe inthe inthe the high skies Because you see the morning sun was slanting down from behind me the over r the top of the canyon wall out of which I had just come to hit Wt the top half hall of the cloud-canyon cloud wall ahead That top half hall might have been built out of burnished silver feather beds piled one on top the other and yet you looked again and it seemed to be so firm it could be carved of glistening Ice or mar mar- ble I am wondering J If old aId Jim Is also looking at all this when suddenly suddenly sud Bud denly dewy his Ws voice comes out of nowhere nowhere nowhere no no- where Into my earphones Connally to Kurtz he is call call- ing Kurtz answering Connally I say Have you broken Into the clear yet he asks Into the clear Jim at 1500 Now Im I'm turning onto degrees That means Im I'm turning west to fly down that canyon to see J if I I cant can't catch sight of at Jim whose voice is so loud in my ears Suddenly I 1 see a single Fortress ahead there therein in the canyon I pick him up when the reflecting sun hits his bis wing He Is circling I think I see you Jim m 31 I call i I Continue to circle I head toward lard the plane and fall fan in on its win wing continuing the long slow circle inside inside in in- side aide the canyon In the hope well we'll pick pickup pickup pickup up some of the others and wont won't have to go ro in on the target alone Meanwhile the radio operators of the two planes have started talking to each other by winking their Aldis lamps back and forth Were We're so near the target I dont don't want to use the radio any more than necessary And just then I spot a third plane- plane about feet below us and farther farther far far- farther ther west down the canyon Just as asIm asIm I Im I'm wondering which one it Is my I radio operator reports that the plane I were we're circling on Isn't Jim at all its it's Bill Bohnaker So we drop on down the canyon and sure enough that third plane turns out to be old Jim I can read his number plain now on his taU tall Now there are three I i of us in the circle wondering what In I hell has become of the other six We haven't got the gas to stay in inthis inthis I this golden dream castle much long long- er But just then my radio operator comes in with a message from I Combs the leader God knows where he Is but hes he's telling us Continuing to target and hes he's sending It out I by key where he can use code because because because be be- cause he use voice so close to the target as he must by now be because most of these damn Zero pilots seemed to have graduated graduated graduated from Los Angeles High School and understand English as well as you do AIr AIT ri right ht continue it Jt Is so now we plunged back into that damned front the front the opposite canyon wall wall and and I the gray mist packed down around my windshield again azaIn We continued to climb In that deathly whiteness whiteness- II first one wing and then the other surging Into my view I flew fiew it i ifor I Ifor for forty five minutes and decided it was just too much to risk crashing into each other when we were so I close to the target So without any I message to Jim or Bill I decided Id I'd I spread out I flew 45 degrees for i l thirty seconds then back thirty more I seconds and then continued on the theold theold old course flying course flying on Instruments of course But now that we were staggered both in ha altitude and in interval It wasn't so 10 bad I Finally we broke out into the I clear dear at feet at a quarter after alter ten and discovered we had lost Interval Interval Interval In In- only by a very little But I Is Iwas was s groggy wed groggy wed we'd been on oxygen for four and a half hours hour already But the weather was still playing tricks Now the mist was coming in great tufts thicker than cotton wadding while below us was a thin layer of overcast i We were getting close to t tHe e target target target tar tar- tarI I get now Should we climb higher There wasn't much point because J if we did that overcast layer might thicken so that we couldn't see the target and wed we'd have to come down below it to unload I i But wheres where's Bill Bohnaker I J look back and see that hes he's very I slowly peeling off oft I wonder why I Probably supercharger trouble Then I think to myself There he goes goel and Id I'd hoped maybe at least three of us could go in together Because in hi my mind is that rain check idea the the score Isn't settled yet and 11 If that target is la open at all Ive I've made up my mind Im I'm going in And I think to myself Here we go again Jim just you and me About this time I hear a gunner on Combs' Combs ship ship they're they're broken radio ra re- redie raI I die dio silence which means they're on the target saying target saying Lots of enemy fighters sighted But they're still far ahead out of li sight ht Here we are again agam ina in ina a staggered attack the attack the stragglers to bear the brunt of what the first Arst I flights fights stir sUr up We ought to know know I better but still Im I'm going on inThe inThe in The weather gets crazier and crazier these crazier these enormous tufts not I stratified at all but floating around at almost any altitude And my copilot co I co-I pilot seems to be fascinated by a abig abig big black one that Isn't shaped quite quit like a thunder thunderhead he ad It might be one of those Dakota tornado funnels only it doesn't revolve I Then suddenly he says staring at It Hell Frank that isn't a cloud I at all all look look I follow his WI finger and I down at the base of that cloud on the ground Is a crackling flaming oil all field The gallant Dutch are scorching the earth for fair fair burn burn burning in lag ing up their Borneo oil aU fields right In the face of the advancing Japs millions of dollars' dollars worth of it Jt ImagIne Imagine Imag Imag- ine Inc all of East Texas crackling and pouring black smoke Into the Ik- Ik sky I We cant can't stop to watch a bilHon billion bil bU lion Hon dollars go up In black smoke The Dutch are doin doing their job and we have ours which just now Is ii I scanning for fighters I realize that thatis In is this weather and so 10 close to tc the I target they might be anywhere only for some reason I never think of them when my No 1 starboard engine en en- J en-J gine giro starts jumping around In its ita j mount rattling the whole plane I 1 only curse my luck and ask If we were going to have engine trouble trouble trou trou- trou-I trou ble bIe why In hell couldn't it Jt have been on the way home Instead of now when were we're about to begin our j run over the target I I watch the oil pressure drop sickeningly and still it doesn't dawn on me what hit that motor rm Tm just sore core at it for letting me down And also what will I do do nurse nurse it along b by feathering it it or sea see if Jl I I cant can't give it maybe 1000 RPM's revolutions p peT per r minute while I push the other throe up to I I ITO TO BE SE CONTINUED I |