Show I i W QUEENS DIE T J PROUDLY r WHITE f aL ti RES THE mE STORY TItUS THUS FAR FAtt Col Prink Frnk Kurtz Guru pilot of a Flying Fortress tells of that fatal faW day when the Japs In 10 the Philippines EI Eight ht of hit his were killed while fleeing for shelter I I i i ua and old 99 39 with many m other Fort wast was t 1 Demolished on the ground Af After r 0 IU to Australia Australla what Ls Is left of the squadron idron flies ales to Java where re they go J en CD n many missions over the Philippines kr I f and the lava Java sea The Japs learn the JIu ea of the E model Fortress but I the boys boy stick a caliber SO gun In the compartment Kurtz Karts senses te to 1 ii I. being watched In 10 Java and one 1 fight cht wakens at the glare bre of a flashlight I The fhe hand bd that held It also held a dagger dager Of The fh would would-be assassin gets away t t Ii r kt CHAPTER 1 1 x t s We TTe dreamed and prayed for this An And d as a matter of fact the Navy l t did make an attempt An aircraft tender was loaded with P 40 sand and r j started out from Australia But what I S t happened was just what was feared JJ S Those P were in crates stacked high on her decks so she ha had toy to J. J y come clear in through in-through through skies the Jap Sap bombers ruled She went down with 1 ber tier entire crew and those crated p forty miles off the southwest Y coast of Java Java but but Im I'm sure the Navy ras was doing the best it could for us with what they had Of 0 course it gave our morale a kick In the belly Late the next r afternoon young Jack Dale hed he'd won his bIs spurs In the Philippines with the Pursuit came in from fromi i on a personal mission from s Major Bud Sprague When hed he'd finished finished fin fin- it he stayed a few minutes F The next night a Navy man who bad tad Just got In from our little fleet I r told me what had happened to the i S and the Houston Housto those SI tf 55 two beautiful cruisers which had been teen the nucleus of our Asiatic Fleet helping the Dutch and Australians defend Java With the rest of ot the t they'd been out in hi the Java a. a When the they sighted a Jap Sap recco I f one ne overhead about noon they knew they were in for trouble They tad had no carrier of course which could send a fighter up to shoot itI It I J down He said the Jap bombers press pres- pres s came over them from their bases in Borneo and the Celebes 1 our bases they had captured In three waves spaced about half halt an hour apart By skillful maneuverIng maneuver- maneuver lag Ing they dodged the bombs of the theS S rr first two waves But the third I wt which crippled them caught them just at sundown sundo and chewed their superstructures into steel spaghetti In the darkness they were able t to crawl away out of range and the eventually got back to the Sta States tes r But troubles of ot our own were looming ahead The boys In Navy Patrol Wing 10 came in with the report that their planes on reconnaissance recon recon- had sighted a force torce of six Jap transports and five warships headed beaded toward Bali Ball Strait which dIVides dl dl- vides Java from BalL They were after the Den Passar airdrome on our Bali Bali our last stone stepping stone stepping hav having 5 ing jag already occupied the airfield at Timor This was as maybe you nowr now r begin to see a war of airdromes airdromes- r Clark Del Monte Sarnada Sarna- Sarna f ti da all of them lost pearls the he United Nations' Nations defenses and f sow DOW Den Passar Next it could only I be Malang and Mar Ma- Ma r I diun diun all all we had left on the strand Ii i I Seldom in this war r did d the Japs Saps I make a brutal assault always It was as the skillful surgeons surgeon's technique isolate and occupy the airdromes and then you have the country It was a game we knew well too but youve you've got to buy chips before they will deal you a hand and we didn't have the equipment s All AU I can say Bay Is the Dutch and Americans were ready to defend f Ball Bali with what we had bad Our little surface navies moved In that night right to 10 clip them a glancing blow on the therun run un as they'd done at I 5 Straight and our submarines did a 5 grand job In the moonlight The Colonel sent his Fortresses out and down to to paste them from the he air We left two transports burning in the moonlight and a crippled crip crip- pled Bled cruiser Next morning it was up to the Air Mr Force alone because the Navy i was too tiny to venture out by day The For Forts went over of course course in in tact fact everything we had to smash at those Jap Sap transports as they theyS S Poured thirty thousand troops onto the beach at Ball Bali The P were led Jed by Bud Sprague himself That morning he be got his commission asa as asa t a lieutenant coloneL He paused just before the take-off take to scrawl his signature on his papers but he didn't take time lime to pretty himself up In Wa his new silver leaves I guess be he was satisfied to die in his old gold I ones Because what they desperately desperate desperate- 1 ly needed was dive bombers and about all they had was P P a a plane which was never built IS as s a stable platform to launch an t. t egg gg from But all right there the I. I J job ob b was to do and so se Bud climbed into toto the cockpit i How many passes at the target t. t ire are We ve going Coine to make someone asked 5 Ih Depends on how many wild wilds hairs 1 s 1 Im I'm m sprouting when we get i f. er r her says Bud with a grin j j they 7 were off Ji J it rp i He e le led d them cold pigeon into that ap barrage over the Bali Ball beach- beach back Christi back l-back here t the people dont don't J ow that boy ever did a thing out c and an 1 the other boys saw him himI t 1 I go down In on his run run and and never come up again Yet his boys what boys what are left of them them still still like to hope maybe he succeeded In landing on ore that Ball BaU beach which looks so nice in the travel folders and will turn up grinning some day telling them what a social success he was with the natives But it was pitiful We lost almost almost almost al al- most all aU our dive bombers there and about half halt our P 40 fighters Of course Bud and his gang made the Japs Saps pay ten to one for tor taking that airfield but airfield but the Japs Saps had It to pay With the Japs Saps holding that Bali field they could send bombers and fighters into every corner of ot Java and we knew It was almost over But anyway the Forts could now bomb our own field the Japs had taken taken tak tak- en from us very us-very very convenient because because because be be- cause we knew exactly where every every- everything thing was When I got back late to the hotel hotel hotel ho ho- tel there was was that beautiful Dutch girl the one with the black hair and the pale face tace which was so wistfully sad In repose Only there were no sudden little smiles lighting lighting light light- ing it up now She was at the table where she and John Robertson i I i r s c P M ll f i 4 d Caught them Just at sundown and chewed their superstructures into steel spaghetti usually sat alone When she saw Baw me she jumped up and came running running run run- ning across the room Had I seen John she wanted to know In her pretty broken English Out in the lobby they had told me John was missing Hed He'd been out on reconnaissance patrol In that lumbering slow old Navy flying boat and there had been two messages from him Many Zeros sighted and then about a minute later a final one Zeros closing In That left only three of ot the ones I knew In gallant Patrol Wing 10 10 Commander Peterson Bill Hardy and Duke Campbell None of them had been able to tell her and when I looked at her face I found I couldn't either Because it was the face of someone frozen with fear tear In a nightmare so so frozen you knew she move to accept the truth if you told her so I too was afraid In all the evenings that were left there were not to be many I avoided avoid avoId- ed that lobby because it was haunted haunt haunt- ed by a ghost ghost ghost-a a pretty pale fear- fear frozen face that came running up to you and asked with hope forced Into a frightened smile If you had seen John To me the most frightening frighten frighten- ing ghost of all the all the ghost of a dead love which will not die But theres there's something else that should be told only I must go back In the story a little The Army had sent a high ground officer to Surabaya Surabaya Surabaya Sura Sura- baya on a special mission of great Importance and with about a mil million mir mfr lion dollars deposited to his credit In the Bank With this he was to buy and equip with supplies three blockade runners which would carry to Corregidor ammunition medical l supplies and food for those poor devils on Bataan who were still fighting on Two of the ships had already left A third was almost ready to go This officer left lct Java the twenty- twenty sixth of ot February The day after he left his assistant a young second second second sec sec- ond lieutenant c called me up In considerable considerable considerable con con- anxiety His Ills chief he explained explained explained ex ex- h had d paid him the compliment ment meat of ot leaving him In Surabaya in entire charge of completing the ar ar- Nothing remained to be done except except ex ex- except the most Important thing of all the officer before lea leaving ving had been unable to find a radio operator for this last ship Without one they could not start because unless they gave a prearranged radio signal when they approached Corregidor the Rocks Rock's guns would blow them to pieces Could the Air Force possibly let them have a radio opera operator lor Since the mission was a dangerous one the assistant said he would pa pa paja a man who volunteered a bonus out of the money his chief had left in inthe inthe the bank Now asking our Colonel for a radio ra dlo dio operator was like asking him foi fot his right arm But Java was cavin caving in the situation was tense Our Colo Cola Colonel Colonel nel reel hesitated and then said that while he couldn't order anyone on sc st dangerous a mission he thought even after atter we explained clearly what whal It was we could get a volunteer And we did We told the men meD menthe menthe the mission was most dangerous but butof butof butof of the greatest possible service tc It our country And out of af the line stepped a cut clean-cut looking alert kid called Sergeant Only after this did I tell him of the five five- thousand thousand dollar dollar bonus We let War War- go down and look over th the ship loaded with surgical equipment equipment equipment equip equip- ment food tood drugs and three hundred hun dred tired thousand rounds of caliber 30 ammunition so that she was practically practically cally a floating bomb He talked to the captain a Swede and looked over the Negro and Chinese crew There were two two one one for topside dressed like Javanese natives so the Japs Saps might mistake her for a fishing fishing fish fish- ing lag trawler Then came cameto cameto to me with written orders from the bomber command and I told him the ports of call They were to slip sUp out at night down the north coast of Java through Lombok Strait then along the Netherlands East Indies then cut up east of ot the Celebes running the Jap Sap blockade blockade block block- ade nde Into the Philippines till they came to Manila Bay entrance where they would be challenged by byth th the Rock And he was to answer on the radio with the proper signal Then he asked what were theother theother the theother other ports of call So I told him It makes me creep to repeat it they w were re then to run the blockade block block- blockade ade through the mandated Sap Is Islands islands Js is- lands past Guam now held by the Japs to Honolulu What else asked grinning He was game for any any- thing And I told him his third and last port of ot call would be New York I And then what he be wanted to know I told him If he got that far he was to have himself some fun tun and I Iwas Iwas Iwas was sitting down now to write him out an order for thirty days' days leave He knew what he was getting Into Wed We'd been flying over those I waters for tor months he knew just how bow thick the Jap Sap surface ships were and also that they had hardly a fifty ty per cent chance of esc escaping ping being blown up by a Jap Sap mine just outside the breakwater Why did he do It To help those poor devils in the infantry dying on Bataan Hed He'd seen the cargo And then the money money money-he be told me exactly what to todo todo todo do with tha that t and the message I must send but well we'll come to It lat lat- er ere Of course It was all pretty Ir Irregular irregular irregular ir- ir regular paying a man for heroism Maybe when peace comes somebody somebody somebody some some- body in a swivel chair in Washington Washing Washing- ton will start writing us letters asking asking asking ask ask- ing us why we did it and I dont don't know what well we'll say And then It all ended happily for us because the money was supposed to to receive for trying to do what he ha hadid did was never paid But that comes later Meanwhile we had other ther things to worry about The Japs Saps had put put a little landing force ashore on a tiny island sixty miles north of Surabaya and taken over its iu radio station They hadn't told us w yet said the Bombardier but we smelled it Rumors were running all aU over the place that we might evacuate anytime anytime any anytime time now where I wa was based was being bombed every day now wed now wed we'd go out on an a mission and always come back to find nd craters craten In our runways When wed we'd land immediately Im im- Immediately mediately there'd be another alarm and wed we'd have to hop off oft the field without servicing the planes or loading loading loading load load- ing more bombs Also instead of going out to targets targets targets tar tar- I gets hi Ire formations we now were I going singly As soon as wed we'd get I one ship on the ground long enough to get It gassed and bombed up I wed we'd take off oft by our little lonesome dodging Zeros to pick just any target from the countless transports that were swarming off oft Java In the thelast thelast thelast last week I got a light cruiser and anda a transport transport blew blew the end o off f the transport Mostly we were flying In ire a mental mental mental men men- tal fog Rumors I Every day they'd say no we weren't going goin to evacuate evacuate evacuate evac evac- because more reinforcements were going to land on the field any day now now even even our own maintenance crews were about to land by boat Then wed we'd hear their boat had been sunk it really went on past us to India and that we were pulling out Nothing was sure except the fact tact that all those Jap Sap ships moving toward to to- toward ward Java weren't pleasure yachts and that we didn't have any reception reception recep recep- tion committee to meet them On what turned out to be my last day dayI I got my plane loaded with bombs and took off oft headed for a huge convoy convoy convoy con con- voy wed we'd heard was coming camIng down toward us from Borneo We met it the halfway halfway the plane ahead of ofus us was w as already pasting pastin It when we ar nr- ar- ar rived We came In at watching watching watching watch watch- ing this first ship plunking direct hitson hitson hits hitson on two parallel strings of transports transport seventeen In each string thirtyfour thirtyfour thirty- thirty four tour in all with fifteen or twenty naval craft circling them TO BE DE CONTINUED |