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Show fl dDB Eg MY V Col. Robert L. Scott DC, ec bomber formation again, I felt proud of the crews of those perfectly spaced ships. This really was like a football game: the bombers were carrying the ball while we In the pea-shooters ran the Interference. I imagined General Haynes, down there in the lead bomber, grinning as he thought of dropping a few hundred more of his leaflet souvenirs souve-nirs to the -Japs, "Compliments of the old broken-down transport pilot" pi-lot" along with at least sixty 500-pound 500-pound bombs. Big "Butch" Morgan, Mor-gan, the best bombardier in the Air Force, had probably wormed his huge bulk through the tunnel Into the nose of Haynes" bomber and was .aven now intensely Interested In fighters that must be coming. I saw the yellow bombs begin to fall In long strings, Imposed on the dark green of the world below. They got smaller and smaller as the noses pointed slowly down. Remembering my movie camera. I tried to take pictures of the explosions. The bombs seemed to take years to fall, and I began to think they were all duds. The ack-ack burst closer as the Japs got the range while we went straight in. I know I was never more excited in all my life. I yelled, "Okay, Hirohito we have lots more where those came from!" I kept looking behind and under us for the bombs to burst. And then I saw the first white explosion ex-plosion right on the docks of Kow- his pet bomb-sight. Now I could even smell the freshness fresh-ness of the Pacific. The sky had never been so blue. The beauty of the day and the beauty of those weapons flying so smoothly under us made me forget the scratching of the oxygen mask on my sunburned sun-burned neck. It was a joy to look back and see the six shark-mouths on the other P-40's grinning at me. Some day, I thought, Jap mothers were going to frighten their children by referring to them and reminding the brats of Nippon that their fathers fa-thers had more than likely had that vew of an American P-40 for a last memory. As we got closer to the target, we split our formation of fighters automatically. Tex Hill, Hampshire, and Sher stayed with me; Marks took the other three on the opposite flank of the bombers. The country below had become lower in elevation eleva-tion but was green and still hilly. Over the radio, ns we reached a rtia itory thu ,ar: A,t" KrniJunUnS from West Point, Robert Scott wins his vines t Kelly Field and takes up combat Ljjij. He has been an Instructor tor y" wncn 0lB war Drcaks out" and u (old he Is now too old tor combat flylne. Be appeals to several Generals and Is dually lln ,n opportunity to jet Into the nfht. Be flies a bomber Into India, bat on arrival Is made a ferry pilot and ttu does not suit him. After paylns a rlslt to Gen. Chennault he sets a Kitty-bswk Kitty-bswk and soon becomes a "one man air lorce" In the skies over Burma. Later te is made CO. of the 23rd Fighter Gronp hot sUU keeps knocking down Jap planes. His "Old Exterminator" is badly nanled and he gets a new P-40E. CHAPTER XXIII It had been only recently, when he jad been taken from his thirteen tour-engine bombers on the way to blast Tokyo, that he had been as-ligned as-ligned to transports. The Japs must lave known just how to get under kis skin, but in the end I think the cnowledge worked against them. Now he was getting back at them having thousands of little leaflets printed in several languages, espe-tlally espe-tlally In Japanese. They read: COMPLIMENTS OF THE OLD BROKEN-DOWN TRANSPORT TRANS-PORT PILOT He used to drop some of these in every bombing mission he led. He'd go out and tie some to each bomb; put them in the bomb bay io that they fell out when the doors were opened; even throw them out over the Japanese-occupied cities that he blasted. I knew now that he was getting a new supply ready for Hongkong. Towards the end of October came (he word we had so long been waiting wait-ing for. Victoria harbor was filled nth Japanese shipping. In deepest ucret we got ready to go. Our ships would leave from Kunming, Kun-ming, but we would of course use the intermediate bases in the Kwei-Un-Hengyang section, 500 miles to the East Hongkong, you will recall, re-call, is about 325 miles Southeast of Kweilin. It is protected by surrounding sur-rounding enemy fighter fields at Canton Can-ton and Kowloon. Our objectives would be the shipping in the harbor, the shipping at the docks in Kowloon, Kow-loon, and the ships at the drydocks In Hongkong. Early on the morning of October 25 our twelve bombers took off from Yunnan for Kweilin, and shortly afterwards aft-erwards Hill, Alison, Holloway and I led the fighters off. We were all to infiltrate into Kweilin, a few ships at a time, so as not to alert the coast of eastern China. For two weeks I had worried loon. After that they came so fast you couldn't count them. I let my camera run as the explosions turned from white to blaek there were oil-fires oil-fires now. I could see the flash of the anti-aircraft guns from the North shore of Hongkong Island, as we continued con-tinued across Victoria harbor. I risked another look at the target; it was covered with smoke from one end to the other. Then I got my eyes back to searching for enemy interceptors. Why in hell didn't the bombers turn for home? They had dropped the damn bombs, but they were still going on endlessly towards that point of Shek Tong Tsui. All of us were keyed up. But then the long javelin of B-25's began to turn to the right. Mission accomplished now they had the down-hill run to base, and I began to get that old feeling of relief. re-lief. Then, somehow, I felt cheated. Where were the enemy fighters? I raised my camera, sighted again, and took the formation as it swung over the burning docks. Then, as I glanced about, I saw them, silhouette after silhouette, ( climbing terribly steeply towards the bombers. I know now that they had got there from Kal Tak below in four minutes; they had made the sixteen thousand feet in that short time. I felt my camera drop to my lap, hit my knee, then drop to the metal floor of the fighter. I was fumbling fum-bling now for the "mike" button on the throttle; then I was calling: "Bandits ahead Zerooooos! At eleven o'clock." Fumbling again for the throttle quadrant, shoving everything ev-erything as far forward as I could, I marvelled at the steepness of the climb the enemy ships were maintaining. main-taining. I called: "Zeros at twelve o'clock," to designate their direction clock-fashion from us. I heard Tex Hill reply: "Hell, I see 'em." I could hear the jabber of the Japs still trying try-ing to block our frequency. I was diving now, aiming for the lead Zero, turning my gunsight on and off, a little nervously check-ins check-ins again and aeain to see that the f W about this attack. I thought it would come any day, and because of the tension I couldn't sleep. When I learned that word hadn't come, I'd spend another sleepless night. I got the doctor to give me something to make me sleep and I had a headache the next day. I knew "my wind was up," as the British say but why in hell didn't we go on and get the attack over with! But now I was on the way. I could see the shark-mouths of the P-40's all around, and the whole thing was easy just what I had Wanted all the time. We sat down at Kweilin at one-minute intervals at eight o'clock. The bombers were soon in, and the Chinese were busy servicing the field full of ships. They were the happiest people I had ever seen. They'd point towards Japan and point down with their thumbs and say, "Bu-hao." All of us were proud to be going. But as I looked at those seven P-40's escorting ten bombers, I could not help feeling apologetic for that greatest great-est country in the world that we were representing. Oh, God, if the day could soon come when we could go against this enemy with a thousand thou-sand bombers, even a hundred bombers! Maybe the small fighter force that we had made us lucky ones who The men were all showing combat fatigue and needed a rest. They were tired out by almost constant alert without relief for twenty-one days. Many of their flying mates had been killed in action, and this helped to lower their morale. point North of Macao, came the jabbering jab-bering of Japanese voices on our frequency, and we knew from its ominous sound that they were warn-Irlg warn-Irlg of our attack. I tensed a little and looked about for enemy planes. Far to my left I could see the three rivers meeting meet-ing at Canton, could see two fields from which I knew Zeros were taking tak-ing off to intercept us. We had bypassed by-passed Canton purposely by thirty miles. I saw the bombers changing chang-ing course: we were around Canton now, and were going to steer straight for the North of Kowloon peninsula. The blue Pacific looked friendly, reminding me of the southern California Cali-fornia coast. The old, familiar fog banks that should have been covering cover-ing San Clemente and Catalina were shrouding instead the Ladrones Islands, Is-lands, with only their hilltops visible, visi-ble, sticking out from the fog on the China Sea. We were turning over Macao, where the Clippers used to land. To the South I could see another Jap field, Sanchau Island. Now to the rieht was Hongkong Island, shaped gun-switch was at "on." I jerked the belly-tank release and felt the underslung fifty-gallon bamboo tank drop off. We rolled to our backs to gain speed for the attack and went hell-bent for the Zeros. I kept the first Zero right in the lighted sight and began to fire from over a thousand yards, for he was too close to the bombers. Orange tracers were coming from the B-25's, too. Five hundred yards before I got to the Zero, I saw another P-40 bearing the number 151 speed in and take it. That was Tex Hill. He followed the Zero as it tried to turn sharply into the bombers and shot it down. Tex spun from his tight turn as the Jap burst into flames. I took the next Zero they seemed to be all over the sky now. I went so close that I could see the pilot's head through the glass canopy can-opy and the little tail-wheel that was not retracted, and I knew it was a Navy Zero the little wheel was built for the arresting-gear of a carrier. My tracers entered the cockpit and smoke poured back, hiding the canopy, can-opy, and I went by. As I turned to take another ship below me, I saw four airplanes falling fall-ing in flames towards the waters of Victoria harbor. I half rolled again and skidded in my dive to shake were privileged to go resolve all the more that we would make up in quality what we lacked in quantity. Personally I felt like a veteran football foot-ball player who has been on the bench and has now been called into the big game. Nearly a year before, be-fore, when Hongkong had fallen to the Japanese attacks from the Asiatic Asi-atic mainland of Kowloon, I had sworn that I would see the first bombs hit the Crown Colony. I had no idea then that I would lead the fighters, that I would shoot down Japanese fighters in the raid, that we would be Intercepted by a superior su-perior force of the enemy, but that in less than three minutes after the interception there would be only the hlps of the U. S. Army Air Force over Victoria harbor. Now I had the familiar "wind up" feeling that precedes combat. The palms of my hands perspired freely. As I wiped them on the legs of my trousers I saw that the sweat was like mud; it had mixed with the red dust of Kweilin Field through which we had taken off. Our altitude kept Increasing to 20,-000 20,-000 feet, while down below at seventeen seven-teen thousand were the medium bombers In javelin formation: two Vee's of three, and the last element a diamond of four. We passed one of the river junction check-points that enabled me to compute our v ground speed. In fifty minutes I could see the glint of the sun on tea Pacifia Ocean. As I saw the like a kidney and mountainous, just about nine miles long and three or four miles across. I could make out the indentations of the romantic-sounding romantic-sounding bays whose names I knew Sandy, Telegraph, Kellet, and Repulse. Re-pulse. There were points of land jutting towards the mainland Quarry Quar-ry Point, with its Naval Drydock, and Shek Tong Tsui, the point over which we would fight our aerial battle bat-tle Reaching towards the island like a finger was Kowloon peninsula penin-sula separated from it by the blue waters of Victoria harbor. Near the end of the spit of land closest to Hongkong, I saw the large modern Peninsular Hotel. All of us knew that Japanese Generals and staff officers slept there with their wom- crossed around and over General Gen-eral Haynes and his formation, watching vigilantly. Far below I saw dust on Kai Tak airdrome, and knew that enemy ships were taking off to attack us. My throat felt dry and I had trouble swallowing; I turned my gun switch off and on nervously. Now I saw the bomb-bay doors opening, and I couldn't keep the tears of excitement from burning mv eyes. Anti-aircraft was begin-L begin-L to dot the sky with black and white puffs. As I dove almost to the wel of the bombers, I could fee the ack-ack rock my fighter ship. I kept S-ing to watch for the enemy any Zero that migni oe on my wu. I saw another P-40 shooting at a Jap, but there was a Zero right on his tail. I dove for this one. He grew in my sights, and as my tracers trac-ers crossed in front of him he turned into me. I shot him down as bis ship seemed to stand still in the vertical bank. The ship was three or four hundred yards from me, and it fell towards the water for a time that seemed ages. An explosion came, and there was only black smoke; then I could see the ship again, falling, turning in a slow spin, down down down. I shot at everything I saw. Sometimes Some-times it was just a short burst as the Jap went in for our bombers. Sometimes Some-times I fu-ed at one that was turning turn-ing and as I'd keep reefing back on my' stick, my ship would spin, and I'd recover far below. I shot down another ship that didn't see me. I got it with one short burst from directly di-rectly astern, a no-deflection shot In this attack I could see the Japa-nese Japa-nese ship vibrate as my burst ol six fifty-calibre guns hit it First it just shook, then one wing went up. I saw the canopy shot completely off- then I went across It. Turning back in a dive to keep my speed, I watched the enemy ship, as it dove straight down, stream flames for a distance the length of the airplan. behind. (TO BE CONTINUED) |