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Show (SADIES) IS MY .m$ If , CdD-PHlLOT Cf ., sKx Col. Robert L. Scoff w release Maybe they've even made some mistake back over there in the States and have sent some new planes out here, and we're going to get the best in the world, planes that go a hundred miles an hour faster and climb 4,500 feet a minute to fifty thousand feet. But there's your crew-chief now, waving you in and he's looking at the patches you've shot from the blast tubes of your guns and knows you've fired at the enemy. Or maybe your "victory "vic-tory roll" warned him anyway . . . Who knows? Day after day, through the early part of November, we actually prayed that the weather East would clear, so that we could stop Qur small, piddling attacks on Burma and go back to Hongkong. I knew that General Chennault and Colonel Cooper were planning a big one for the next time, for now we had the largest force of fighters we had ever seen in China. New P-40's had been arriving in small numbers, but steadily. The Group was actually being built up to strength at last. With the first breaks in the heavy winter clouds, Bert Carleton was sent with his transport and our ground personnel to Kweilin. Aviation Avia-tion fuel and bombs were placed ready for instant use. and I could feel the tension in the air again. From the daily reports on the air-warning air-warning net it could be seen that the Japanese had maintained a constant con-stant aerial patrol over Hongkong and vicinity since our last attack. With the first break in the clouds we sent observation planes over with rsZ ' ut "1fl - , H A group of fighter pilots on the alert at Kunming. T:4 story thus far: After graduating frtrn West Point, Robert Scott wins his wings at Kelly Field and takes np combat flying. He has been an instructor for four yean when the war breaks out, and Is told he Is now too old for combat flying. He appeals to several Generals and Is BnaUy offered an opportunity to get Into the Bgbt. He flies a bomber to India, but Is made a ferry pilot and this does not suit him. He visits Gen. Chennault, Chen-nault, gets a Klttyhawk, and soon Is flying the skies over Burma, known as the "one man air force." Later he Is made CO. of the 23rd Fighter Group, but be still keeps on knocking down Jap planes. He goes out on his greatest mission, mis-sion, over Hongkong, CHAPTER XXV Pilots waiting for the order to go Into the air. Sitting at the crude table, waiting for the chow wagon or for an alert. Listening with keen ears for the jingle of the telephone. Playing gin rummy or poker, but hearing everything that was going on. A player would be dealing the deck, and in the middle of the routine rou-tine of dropping a card here, and one there, the phone would ring. The card would stop in the air, poised over the table while we all heard the Chinese interpreters pick up the magneto phone and utter the familiar famil-iar "Wey wey," as they say "hello." "hel-lo." The card would remain there over the table, undealt throughout the telephone conversation until the player realized what he was doing. do-ing. Then he'd go hesitatingly on. Perhaps the call was one of the hundreds that meant nothing; only the Chinese really knew, and we could only wait and find out. Then again, the receiver of the telephone might drop back into place and the Interpreter would say something to another Chinese. This second one would go to the plotting-board, look at the marked co-ordinates, and quietly qui-etly put a little red flag down over a certain city towards Japanese territory. ter-ritory. Even then, with one warning warn-ing only, the game could go on for a long time in confidence. Perhaps the Squadron commander command-er or the officer who was on the alert that day would move out of the game and start looking the map and the flags over, sizing up the situation. As the picture formed and it became apparent that this was a real attack he'd just go over and tell the card-game about it. Or maybe two or three men would begin be-gin to get helmets out. The game would silently break up, with cards and CN left where they were. Helmets Hel-mets and gloves would be put on. Men who were pretending to be Bleeping in the bags on the floor would be awakened. And the tension dropped off like a cloak. It wasn't the actual combat these fighter pilots feared, for we all wanted combat more than anything else; It was the damnable uncertainty uncer-tainty the ringing of a telephone, an ominous sound that most of the time meant nothing. When men went out of the door to get into their ships and take off there was no handing to friends on the ground of last letters to take care of, no entrusting of rings and watches to room-mates. For fighter pilots don't think of not coming back. They are invincible, or think they are, and they have to be that way. j Down In our hearts we may figure ! that some accident will get us some I day, when we are old and gray, when our beards get In the way ol i the controls, or we get to where we don't see well or react fast but we know that no enemy fighter is good enough to shoot us down. If that happens it's just an accident. These thoughts are the "chips" that we carry on our shoulders, and they have to be there arrogant, egotistical ego-tistical chips mellowed by flying technique and experience and fortified forti-fied by the motto. "Attack!" Never be on the defensive. Shoot the enemy ene-my down before he can shoot you down. You are better than he is, but don't give him a chance. He mav get in a lucky shot but you're lr Move towards any dot ir ' 'bat remotely resembles ar Move to attack, with s J on and the sight ready. U it's '' ot a ship or if it's' a friendlj one you'U be ready anyway, anc your arrogant luck will last a loi longer. The worry comes before you ge: to take off for combat wondering whether or not you'll do the righ thing out of habit. After you're lr the air it's all the fun of flying anc doing the greatest job in the world You are up there, pitying all earth bound creatures who are not privl leged to breathe this purer air ot high. Your training makes you d the combat work that Is ahead with out thinking about the movements. Months and years of training hours of waiting on the ground . . high-powered engines pulling you u and up to the attack and then In few fleeting seconds the comba Is over, your ship is all that's it the sky. and you're on the way homi again to base, whistling and think lng how easy it was and what i great and glorious life It really Is You're wondering If you can picl those cards up and finish the gam and take your CN back from Aja: or Johnny or Mack. You might b thinking how good that sleeping ha; is going to feel, or wondering wheth er the transports that can land oi the field, now that the air rail alert is over, have brought you an. mail . . . "Dog-gone, wonder i that woman is writing me?" seventy to fifty and finally to nothing. noth-ing. I sweated out my return to Kweilin and just made it by mentally men-tally lifting the ship onto the strip between the jagged stalagmites that seemed to guard our field. . That afternoon I led. sixteen fighters fight-ers to escort our twelve bombers to Canton. Capt. Brick Holstrom. who had participated in the raid on Tokyo the preceding April, led the bombers. As the fighters kept the new tactical "squirrel cage" about his formation he deliberately circled cir-cled to the South of Tien Ho airdrome air-drome and covered the target area perfectly with his long string of bombs. The anti-aircraft was heavy and increased as we went on North over White Cloud field. I looked back at the results at Tien Ho and felt a surge of pride at that perfect per-fect bombing from fourteen thousand thou-sand feet. This was teamwork, I knew now, with bombers and fighters fight-ers properly proportioned. AH of us were mad because the Japs wouldn't come up. The bomber crews had reported them taking off from both fields and keeping low. but heading in all directions. The accurate bombing must have destroyed de-stroyed many Of them on the ground, for we had made a feint of continuing continu-ing on South to Hongkong. I sent one ship home with each bomber. The rest of us hung back and tried to tempt the enemy Zeros to come up; but they had evidently received their orders. Next morning Lieut. Pat Daniels got up begging the General to let him lead a dive-bombing attack on an aircraft assembly plant in Canton. Can-ton. His plan was good, and the mission was made ready. All of us went down to the alert shack and watched the ground crew loading load-ing the little yellow fragmentation bombs under the wings of six P-40E's. A short time later they were off, with Daniels waiting to blow up the factor', and all set with his movie camera to take pictures automatically as he dove the bombs into the target. Three hours later only five oi the six returned. Pat Daniels was missing in action. His wing mar had seen his leader lose part of his wing in an explosion on the way ir with the bombs. Anti-aircraft could have done it, but most of us agreec from .the description that Daniels' bombs might have hit his own pro peller. At the tremendous speed that a fast fighter-ship builds up in e long and nearly vertical dive, pres-sures pres-sures are also built up from the in creased speed. This torque ne cessitates so much compensating pressure on the rudder that on( must actually stand on the ruddei control. While doing this, Pat migh have relaxed pressure just as hi reached down to pull the bomb re lease; this would have allowed thi speeding plane to "yaw" or skid and the bombs could have struck thi arc of the prop. The only note of encouragemen was that a chute had been seei when the fighters left the target Lieut. Patrick Daniels was one o our best and most aggressive pilots and we missed him immediatel; and hoped for the best. That same night, Johnny Allsoi led eight ships in a fighter sweej and dive-bombing attack on thi docks at Hankow, over four hundrei miles to the North. In the rive harbor, with the sky criss-crossed b; tracers from the ground, Johnn; dropped his bombs on the hangar and on a large freighter. Then fo ten minutes he strafed the enem; vessel and badly disabled it. Cap tain Hampshire dove and shot tb searchlights out until he was out o ammunition. The night attack s 1 deep into enemy territory was 1 daring one and did much to confus the Japs further. Johnny's ship were rather badly shot up from th ground-fire, and he was lucky t get them all back to base safelj ; But it was such missions as thes ' which built up the circumstance ' that would assure the success c the big attack the General was plar 1 ning. Next day, with eighteen fighters we escorted the bombers to rai ' Sienning, an occupied town nea 1 Hankow. We kept the circling mov ' ment all around our B-25's and trie ! to give them n added feeling c " security by our presence. Throug ' heavy anti-aircraft fire, Morgan le the attack in and didn't waste " bomb. We left the warehouses I Barnes, and there was much les 1 ack-ack coming up towards us tha ' when we first approached. Arriving back at our advance 5 base, we refueled and bombed u ' again. Then we made the secon 1 raid of the day towards Hankov over the town of Yoyang. One again Morgan blasted the targe with black bursts of anti-alrcra r fire bouncing around the formatloi But there was no interception, an 5 now we were feeling blue. W 5 couldn't destroy the Jap Air Fore r If they were going to try to sav their airplanes. We spent the next day. Thank giving, working on the airplanes an resting. We had flown seven missior I in four days, and both men and m; ' chines were tired and in need of r a pair.. We had a special dinner tin s night, but remained extra vigilai ' against a surprise by the Jap. e On that Thanksgiving evening, t e we were grouped around the Gel eral. he brought out a bottle i Scotch some one had given hin II j (TO BE CONTINUED) a top-cover of several fighters, but - the Jap would not come up to fight the shark-mouthed planes. His instructions in-structions appear to have been: Wait for the American bombers. On November 21, the ground crews got to Kweilin. Instead of keeping them in the hostel that first night to insure that information would not leak out to the enemy, we sent them to town, first casually remarking that we were here now for the second attack on Hongkong. Early next morning our twelve bombers slipped into Kweilin, with Colonel (promoted since the last attack) at-tack) Butch Morgan in the lead ship. The strengthened fighter force of between thirty and forty planes infiltrated for reservice some went ! to Kweilin, others scattered to the i surrounding emergency fields for i better protection of the bombers. As 1 soon as I landed I ran up to the ; cave and the General took me in and showed me the plotting-board. The little red flags indicated increased 1 vigilance at Hongkong. Then I got my orders: "Strike Hongay.' In an ! hour the bombers were off to bomb the coal mines and docks of that ' Indo-Chinse port North of Haiphong. Morgan sank a 12,000-ton ship thai i was reported to have been an aircraft air-craft carrier. The fighter escorl i strafed ferry boats, small surface ! craft, and looked for Jap fighters i trying to intercept. But none came. That night the enemy sent up a flight of three bombers to each ol f our fields, looking for our forces. T But we were so scattered that theii i luck was bad. Night fighters frorr t all stations took off, 'but those undei Maj. Harry Pike at Kweilin made t perfect contact. The entire Japa I ncse formation of three bombers waj t shot down over the field. Pike, Lorn i bard, and Griffin each added an en 1 emy ship to their scores, but Lorn bard was shot down in flames wher the Jap gunners blew up his belij - tank. Lombard had made the tac i tical error of pulling up over th 3 bombers after delivering fire tha - shot one down. We had given hinr up for lost when he walked in car rying his chute and begging for an other ship. ? At dawn the next day, Novembei a 23, I led the group to escort Mor t gan to Sanchau Island with twelvt r bombers. We had noted that th B Japs were strengthening the ail - patrol over Hongkong even more a The General had smiled and said !- "We're making them waste a ter k rible amount of gasoline." e We saw Morgan's bombs .ak? on x two of the three hangars on the is e land field, and we went down ti g strafe and watch for interceptor i- taking off. Some of the flight go n three, but my plane was hit by th d ack-ack. and when the oil pressun y began immediately to fail. I starte if for the mainland and home. Witl the oil pressure slowly going fron |