| Show L THEY WERE E E gr D b Y r P 7 0 WHITE their TUE STORY so FAR FAn Th The story or of Pines part In the battle fo for tor r the Phi PhilipPines Philip phlIP- ll p Z naval heln g told by fo four toor of the of Motor who are aU all that I Is left eft are Torpedo John i float Doat Squadron 3 The They y U now Lieutenant Common der squadron commander Clem R. R B. B and i Kelly Key second command second in command E E. E Cox r Co Enslen Anthony thony Akers and George Georee Jr Bel nel h hos f Kelly Kelly- sent to the toe tun hospital P W on Corrector Corregidor learned from the r 7 WOunded iun Je J there how bow badly the war was I bate base going roine f for r us C Cavite our big ble naval win wiped was wal gone cone an and 1 our air force torce near y out while he be was wa was there the bos hos Dual wa was bombed Ensign Enslen Akers Is telling tell tell- ing Ine some lome of f Wi his experiences S before Ma Ma- alia fell teu CHAPTER V Twelve hours before fore the Japs en en- feted red the town I was sent back into Manila anUa to pick u up the remnants I had bad fad just eighty gallons of gas to go co those thirty miles finally Y g got of back with ten A curious thing happened during those closing hours hours' nobody had bad given orders to blow u up th the e oil reserves Ma Maybe some of them belonged belonged be be- longed to private companies it would go against a business mans man's grain to blow up good oil all Finally a little Wile junior Junior grade grade naval lieutenant noticed it He had no authority but h ne he gave gave orders he had no right to give and presently the oil oU was blaz blaz- ing I hear he got a for doing itI itI it I I was In Jn Manila about that time time said Cox A big air all attack was gong goIng go go- go Ing Jg ng on although it had already been declared an open city For that reason I had gone in fn with the guns gunson on my boat with their canvas covers coverson on for on-for for wel welfare re reasons Yet open city or not the big air raid was on streets deserted except for a few people running nowhere in particular lar like crazy planes crisscrossing the sky above The big church about a mile from shore was Just beginning to burn In the harbor boats were burning and sinking Inking on all sides sides five five and thousand ten-thousand ton tan ners pers But not a single shot was fired at the planes which planes which came down as low as five hundred feet teet I went up on into the city and everywhere people were kind and helpful The Japs were right outside outside outside out out- side the town and yet the storekeepers storekeepers storekeepers store store- keepers would give me anything we Americans needed without either money or a voucher voucher just Just sign a paper that was all They trusted us I took my boat into the harbor just as the Japs were entering the city said Bulkeley It was night and we could see the town burning a a huge pall death of smoke hangIng hanging hanging hang- hang Ing above and oil oll six inches deep over the water It looked like doom hanging over a great city and it was Made you feel bad We stayed out there from nine o'clock at night until about three in the morning Didn't dare go ashore and anyway our Job was to destroy harbor shipping ship ship- ping ping so so what was left of it wouldn't fall into Jap hands I had to leave all my spare uniforms uniforms uniforms uni uni- forms In my locker there damn them said Akers I hope none of them fit Watching them take over made you feel pretty sick said Bulkeley We finished up and started home to get back before dawn now and then looking back at the fires over the water Every time it made us sore It was a tough New Years Year's Eve for me too said Kelly because we knew more or less what was Coing going go Co- ing on Then there was another rea rea- son Some of the army il officers were throwing a little New Years Year's party with the nurses that night and since this medical officer Peggy had been going with was Just back from tram Bataan of course I 1 knew where shed she'd be Along in the evening after sunset sunset sun sun- set I walked out to the mouth of at the tunnel and sat down to watch the twilight of the old year die away It bad h-ad been a 8 tough year but the theone theone theone one ahead looked worse And here was E eless for the war in an army KJ itaL HaL From away off oft I 1 could h he her r them playing the portable at t the officers officers' party and I 1 rem remembered remembered em- em ered how cute Peggy had looked in her civilian dress when she danced and that didn't help any Pretty soon one of the other nurses I knew Charlotte came out and sat d down near me She wasn't at the party because she had to go on duty soon but that didn't matter because her herbo herboy bo boy bov friend had just been wounded I three thee days before and she was WilS worrIed worried wor wor- ried led sick about him Just then I 1 noticed someone sitting sitting sit sIt- the other side of me-I me ting down on turned g d and by George it was Peg- Peg lv turne Not in uniform e either ith cr Sh She e gy cute looking cool wearing that wea to was print Totton-print cotton rint civilian dressI dress I I couldn't couldn t figure it you Wasn t I asked like tb toe the e p party arty it any I 1 dont don't ga good know w. w she he said I I didn't ddn 1 t go to the party party- Weren't you asked asked said said- I was she she Yes Year Years Year's s y you ou see and A New w But Dut It w wI was as be nice Dice h here ere I thought Not very t It ft might many nice things but h hap hapa this f during a war u upen P pen to you the nicest that ever hap- hap about WaS J or any other time then to me paned good that beI between be- be feel so I It made a me we managed to two o oi of us tween the cheered up She e had UH to get fW rt At t go Charlo Charlotte bac back t on n duty sneak 2 presently us SS out a cou cou- and to t she he ma managed bottles a of tf Pabst old ld fairly cold co coI pIe plc ot of I 1 beer to celebrate on But Peggy had been preparing The island was wason wason wason on two meals a day but shed she'd managed managed managed man man- aged to hold back a couple of apples apples apples ap ap- ples and a whole box of marsh- marsh mallows That was our New Years Year's Eve supper and Ill I'll bet that yours wherever you had it It couldn't have tasted any better Running any kind of romance no matter how mild was a 8 real problem problem problem lem on Corregidor About the best place lace to sit was right down where we were at the tunnels tunnel's mouth But the road ran right in front of it it and every five minutes an army truck would barge tactlessly around the curve shining its down dimmed-down headlights right on you Then for another three minutes you were choking with dust If you got tired of this and tried to go for tor a walk you'd hardly get started when you would realize that eleven thousand men were trying to sleep all over that little island and if you went far you OU would step on most of them in the dark and not many of them would thank you for it There wasn't an unoccupied square toot foot any any- where We proved that later on when the doctor prescribed walks for tor me meto meto meto to to build back my strength because because because be be- cause Id I'd lost thirty pounds pounds and and Peggy was assigned to go along I The troops swarmed on that island every pond was crowded with them bathing and I would always have to go ahead to take a look l t I t a e r s sf sr r f y W Yet open city or not the big air raid was on over hilltops and be sure Peggy wouldn't surprise them Meanwhile Bulkeley was reportIng reportIng report report- Ing tog to the Admiral daily and was formulating a plan which plan which he would talk over with me as I was his second officer officer for for what we would do when our gas ran out We had damned little left and the army couldn't spare us any Our first plan was when we got down to our minimum to get out to Australia The navy patrol bombers had planted caches of gasoline among the islands like steppingstones steppingstones steppingstones stepping- stepping stones and the Admiral gave us their location But the first steppingstone steppingstone steppingstone step- step was Singapore and the Japs were working their way down the peninsula closer and closer to it Could we get there first Of course we wouldn't leave the Philippines Philippines Philip Philip- I pines until all of our torpedoes were gone and we had just enough gas gns left to make the final run But then as you ou know Singapore fell felland felland felland I and also the southern islands- islands Celebes and The route with the cached gas was closed- closed that thai t plan was out So then we said who wanted to togo togo togo go to Australia anyway Our job was to defend Manila Bay Bay wasn't wasn't that our part in the war plan Yet even then It kept coming up suppose suppose suppose sup sup- pose the worst came to the worst and Luzon folded up the up-the the whole archipelago ar ar- ar- ar even even Java what Java what then Then Bulkeley here hit on a real plan When our gas was down to just what we could carry carryon on our decks Instead of waiting around to get captured by the Japs wed we'd take our boats to China to continue the war At first glance clance you'd say that was crazy the crazy the Japanese holding most of the Chinese coast coast but but not the way the skipper had It thought out He knew China from the years hed he'd spen spent ou out there on a gunboat while I was there on a destroyer The Japs were closing in on Hong Hone Kong that Kong that was fine for tor us Wed We'd make our dash shoot dash shoot our last few remaining fish at their gathered transports Just where they least expected expected expected ex ex- an attack and then head north toward the region of Of course the Japs held that coast too but Bulkeley had worked out an answer all in the utmost secrecy Hed He'd gotten in touch with I I Colonel Wong the Chinese military I observer Wong had bad cabled Chung Chung- king kin to investigate the vicinity cabled back that it could be doneThey doneThey doneThey done They said the Japs held tho the Swa Swa- tow region thinly thinly thinly-at at no point did they go more than ten miles mlles inland So at an agreed time and at an agreed rendezvous on the coast would send a raiding party down to tight fight its way to the beach and meet us There we would burn our boats boats- now useless with all torpedoes expended expended expended ex ex- against Jap targets The Chinese couldn't bold that point long but but long enough to hustle us through that ten-mile ten Jap-held Jap strip onto free Chinese soil There trucks would take us to the nearest airfield airfield air air- field we would fly to and from there a motored four-motored American ferry-command ferry plane would bring bringus us back to the States Where was the flaw We couldn't see one unless somehow It leaked out Besides myself only four livIng living liv liv- living ing people knew They were DeLong De De- Long of our squadron Captain Ray chief of staff stall Colonel Wong and of course the skipper here who had worked out every detail But before we left we knew there would be plenty of action ahead for forus forus forus us here and I 1 told Bulkeley I was crazy to get out of at this hospital and asked for his help If U they'd let me get back to duty Id I'd agree to anything promise anything promise to soak my hand for so many hours a day day any any anything thing they said just to get back even cven on a status So we staged it for the next morning when the ward doctor would be dressing my hand at about the same time the head surgeon made his bis rounds We tackled him I 1 made my talk and he seemed to waver Tell this bird you need me I said to the skipper We really do said Bulkeley but just then Peggy overheard and queered the whole thing Certainly not she said You cant can't let him go back to duty with his hand wide-open wide That swung him back Duty i. i he growled Who said anything about duty Two weeks of it and you'd lose your whole arm I tried to argue point argue point out that if U the went out on a mission I could hold on with one arm as aswell aswell aswell well as two but Peggy had done It and now he wouldn't listen One of these days youre you're goIng goIng going go- go Ing to find an empty bunk I said I was gloomy all that next week but Peggy said I was a fool That there were plenty of well fit men mento mento mento menI I to do my job And that if ii I hadn't been so damned stubborn in the first place and had got that hand I treated In hi time Id I'd never have come cometo to the hospital and never met her and she would never have been beeb able to break up my plan to get out so it was all my fault always had that cute way of seeming to storm at you and dress you down so that you ended up by grinning and couldn't stay mad at anything longSo longSo longSo long So it went along for another week she leading me out for walks every day to get some of those thirty thirty thirty thir thir- ty pounds back and then one day we returned to find that Bulkeley had been by looking for tor me said me-said said he was going out on a raid that night up to Bay looking for a Jap cruiser that hed he'd waited hoping to take me but finally had to leave It set me almost crazy If U I hadn't been out on that damned health tour with a pretty girl I 1 wouldn't have missed the raid So here I was while my gang was up there tangling with a cruiser maybe maybe maybe may may- be getting killed because the Japs had Bay so thick with guns that it was almost suicide to go in All AU that night there was no news I was up at Any Any dope from the torpedo boats still boats still nothing But at seven they said yes Bulkeley Bulkeley Bulke Bulke- ley Icy had come back managed to sink a 8 cruiser and get away but the other boat was missing proba musing proba probably bly lost It was a job we did for the Army AImy explained Lieutenant Bulkeley Bulke Bulke- ley Icy describing the historic attack of his P. P T. T Boat In Bay men men- A couple of Jap ships one of them an Imperial Navy auxiliary auxiliary auxiliary aux aux- cruiser with inch 6 guns had been shelling our millimeter emplacements on Bataan Bataan blasting blasting them with heavy stuff The major majorIn In charge had been wondering how bow to get rid of them and had bad phoned Admiral Rockwell who gave us permission to tackle the job We knew they were based In n Bay probably In Port Is on the west coast of Luzon just north of Bataan I decided to send two boats the boats the 31 boat which was Lieutenant DeLongs DeLong's and the 34 boat which was Kellys Kelly's now commanded commanded com com- by Ensign Chandler I went along alone in it for tor the hell of it We tested everything tuned everything tuned the motors greased torpedoes and got under way at nine o'clock chugging north along the west coast of Bataan Bataan Ba Ba- It was very rough We throttled tied down to thirty knots and even then we were shipping water but we got oil oft the entrance to Bay about half hall an hour after midnight Here according to plan the two boats separated DeLong in the 31 boat was to sweep one side of Bay and I the other We were to meet at Port at the end If U something happened and we didn't meet there then we were to rendezvous at dawn just outside the mine fields of Corregidor TO BE CONTINUED |
