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Show Bombs Fall on Kobe I ' By Gene Casey (WNU Feature Through special arrangement arrange-ment with Collier's Weekly) -Right now we're riding in the nose of an army bomber, listening in on the interphone, with the navigator-bombardier, navigator-bombardier, Lieut. Howard Sessler of Arlington, Mass. It's the morning of April 18, and we've just taken off from Shangri-La. Shangri-La. The weather's clear, visibility unlimited. It's a little windy, though, and the seas, just 50 feet beneath us, are choppy. There's nothing in sight, and then Lieut. Donald Smith, the pilot, spots something ahead that looks like a submarine surfacing. He calls into the interphone: "We're entering the danger zone, now. Keep on the alert. Surface vessel on our right-hand right-hand side." Jap Fishermen Wave. "I see it, sir," comes from Sergt Edward Saylor in the rear gun turret. tur-ret. We draw closer and it turns out to be a fishing boat with a square white sail. Then we see a lot of the boats. The Jap fishermen wave up at us with both hands. We can't tell whether they are afraid, or think we're friendly planes. Lieut. Griff Williams, the co-pilot, sings out: "Oh-oh! There's the land." It's Fujiyama, and Doc White, the flight surgeon, chips in: "We ought to be seeing some action pretty soon." We're flying down along the coast now, towards Nagoya bay, and there looks to be a thousand Jap fishing boats out on the water. Howard Sessler, up in the nose of the ship, finds his trigger finger getting get-ting itchy. He pleads with pie pilot: "Here's a good chance to sink some of these ships. Fly over them and I'll give them a few bursts." "Better not." Smitty's voice comes cool and calm over the interphone. "They may think we're friendly aircraft air-craft if we don't fire. This is supposed sup-posed to be a surprise." Sergeant Saylor coughs. "Guess I'll unbutton my collar," -he announced. an-nounced. "Getting a little tight." Sessler sees the first landmark, the brick lighthouse on the point at Nagoya bay. He calls into the interphone. in-terphone. "There's the lighthouse, Smitty. Here's where we turn in." We Head for Kobe. Smitty climbs to 4,000 feet to get over the mountains and heads due west for Kobe. The weather's still clear and it's not bumpy over the mountains. Then everyone sees Kobe. It looks just like it does on the map. Sessler Sess-ler spots the flames from blast furnaces. fur-naces. "Those are the steel foundries foun-dries straight ahead, Smitty," he says. "That's where we start our bombing run from." Smitty's voice sounds grim over the interphone. "I see it. Give 'em hell!" He dives down to 1,500 feet and levels off. Sessler sings out: "Bomb bay doors open!" He lets his first bombs go at the Kiwasaki aircraft factory. They burst and a shower of smaller incendiary in-cendiary bombs rain down. The plane is doing better than 300 miles an hour as the second train of bombs goes straight at a big machine shop. .We can't see much of what's happening hap-pening below. We drop some more bombs on the dockyards and still more on another aircraft factory on the edge of Kobe bay. Doc White Is flat on his stomach, looking out the camera door and taking pictures. pic-tures. "Bombs away!" Sessler sings out. "Doors closed." The plane picks up little speed after the bomb bay doors are shut. Time to Be Going. The anti-aircraft opens up. We can see some bursts too close for comfort, and the tracers going by. "About time to get out of here!" observes Smitty. He dives out over the harbor and we skim along about ten feet above the surface, doing way over 300. Doc White says, "Boy! I got pictures pic-tures of everything! Sure hope I get 'em back okay." We're just beginning to breathe a little more easily when Smitty catches sight of two Jap pursuit planes practicing dives at a Jap submarine. He calls out to Saylor, "Two pursuit pur-suit ships on our left. Don't think they see us. Oh here they come!" But he eases the throttles forward and in three minutes the planes are out of sight. He eases back on the throttle again, and we're breezing along. Jap Destroyers Open Up. We spot three Jap destroyers and don't pay much attention until they face to fire at us. Then Smitty circles cir-cles around out of range and we head back to Shangri-La. "Next time," comments Howard Sessler, "we'll do ever more, I hope!" |
