Show 3 I 1 C QUEENS U ae ae ft S we ae PROUDLY 0 WHITS iff TH STORY THUS FAR col fry fras I 1 kurtz pilot ot of a flying fortress cels ot of that fatal atal day when n the japs track it la t the he philippines philippine s eight of his yaen en were killed while fleeing for or sheler r a 1 nd l old 99 with many ay iy 0 other lher forts is demolished on the ground round after to australia what Is left of 0 the squadron flies files to java where they to 0 o on my many missions over the philippines and the he java tea sea the bos bo in java hear natt hat happened to the marbie bead and the de houston and morale sags the dutch kaow up their ammunition dumps and ahe he order comes through to evae evacuate lie abe be little dutch navy bights a losing fight in the he dark java cou collapses apses set ren feltz never gets his money CHAPTER when I 1 said I 1 got it he said if it ever did come through I 1 to open it until he got back or something like that hed meant every word of it and yet now it seemed he want me to see it I 1 understand but it seem to matter because what did any letter matter now that we could talk all we wanted to around the world it was long after midnight when we finished said frank but it was some satisfaction to know it would cost the japanese maybe five hundred dollars allars and I 1 only hoped id be out of java so they collect from me then althen I 1 got back to work on the dutch military who of course were up all that night they knew what was coming tomorrow even it if the civilians were only beginning to suspect it was two in the morning when I 1 got major fisher out of bed with the news that already the landing barges of one flank of this invasion force had been sighted right off the beach after a final desperate call to the dutch general van beyen he agreed our boys might leave turning their P over to the dutch fighter pilots provided that before they went they strafed the jap landing barges without verbal orders from the dutch commander they would not have gone so I 1 rustled two cars and a truck to transport them and by four we were headed for anoro wi we got there a few minutes before dawn to find our boys were up and out on that final mission although they did not know it was their last again we telephoned van beyen in Su to tell him the orders had been obeyed and he told us reluctantly luct antly to bid them godspeed and good luck they had fought the good fight and those who returned from this mission were now free to go to australia if there was a way 11 1 1 I 1 hoped there still would be the colonel had told me the day before that iti could get them across java to jockstrap by noon they would find three fortresses which he had ordered back from australia to pick them up however he guarantee that these forts would dare wait on that field beyond noon As we stood on the anoro field of course I 1 got tense would those kids come back alive and in time to get across java by noon if we were late would the bomber pilots get jittery and maybe pull out without us not that id blame them for today no plane would be safe on any field in java the dutch pilots are grave but they make us welcome then comes the roar of P and here is the first flight in out of the rising sun as though fleeing from it jack dale is its leader we grab them what happened it looks bad they tell us there were so many barges and when they started sp spraying laying them the barges threw up horrible cones of fire in great masses there was a cross fire too from jap shore batteries already landed at last they had set their ugly crooked teeth into the fair white coastline of java then jack said in a low voice voice when in hell will we get out of here frank 1 I said I 1 had news for him but just then the next flight comes roaring in in its three hurricanes flown by dutch pilots all that is left of the dutch air force this final day except of course they had plane less pilots who were to take up our abandoned P now heres the third flight buzzing in low P this time and the american boys still have their old spirit left because they buzz up the drome come roaring in right over the roof of the operations office for a fighter pilot it its s like knocking at the door e still the old 11 lath th pursuit group or left of them 1 I looked at the P they are so full of holes they should be condemned there is hardly one the dutch would dare take up again we were leaving them little enough now my boys are gulping coffee they grab an apple each and sandwiches to take along and cram things in their bags and I 1 suppose its time for goodbys goodbyes good bys captain ana idaet ae t leader eader of the dutch fighters t tall ah th thin n dark haired with a f finely chiseled ii e ed face nervous like many fighters is standing silent at one side his dutch boys are with him what can we say our american boys 0 Y s have fought with them like brothers for weeks were now maks ing a dash for safety he anemaet Ana ST maet is the courageous ageous one walks forward d puts up his hand and says simply without a quaver thanks for all you have done we have tried but we are finished finished gravely and with no bitterness i ask him why he and all his hi boys dont come out with us well wel find droom room for him in the planes then men we can continue the war from australia he shakes his head now our boys are loaded in the truck and presently were out or on the main highway headed across acres java but just then we hear a fa drone jap dive bombers smelling ling their way into java they ve finally found this field its only luck they found it before our boys crowd against the tail gate of the truck to watch them peel off one by one assume that 40 degree angle toward the ground let go the little egg pull out of th their air i dives and then r r r ampf the bomb takes hold it punctuates the lesson wed been trying for days to e ll 11 i it was two in tal ehg morning when I 1 got major fisher out of 0 bed drive home to the dutch infantry generals that the field was now untenable it was only the weather which kept the japs out of it yesterday but now we have worries of our own there are seventy six of us in this little caravan fifteen of them pilots we have only one road map so the drivers instructions are to drive carefully and stay together its a long drive at the speed we can make A close squeeze to make it by noon then in spite of the road map we get lost not badly but two or three times we must backtrack then I 1 see well never make it by noon the boys tired from many weeks of fight fighting ing try to doze standing up in that jolting truck I 1 dont sleep but I 1 have nightmares at every crossroads I 1 wonder it if lightning fast light jap tanks come sliding in in on us even if w we e had time to turn and run before they open fire with their turret guns they would have cut off our escape to jockstrap my wristwatch wrist watch hour hand seems to race these tired boys bouncing in that truck trust me the air corps got them in hl here ere now the air corps is getting what is left of them out they dont doubt that a big bomber will be waiting with its door open on the jockstrap runway to take them to australia suppose we 9 get et there to find the bomber pilots have waited past the rendezvous hours and then gone on back to australia empty and we look at a vacant field knowing the japs a are re closing in behind us my damy watch hand races toward noon and were still hours from jockstrap but I 1 h have ave an idea were not far from what shows on my map as a fair sized town which should have telephones from which while the boys have lunch I 1 can call the colonel and tell him were on our way that those bombers must wait the town is a sleepy little place built round w what hat at a quick glance one might mistake for a middle western c courthouse our square war has touched hed it and think could never corne come in the hotel they stare at our uniforms uniform s th eyre t the he first american ones they ve seen the boys order while I 1 hunt a telephone to call the colonel at jocks strap but minutes t tick ick by and they cant locate him nor anyone else who can deliver a message that we are coming and those bombers must wait do I 1 wa waste ste more time calling or do we hurry on hoping weh well get there before they are brighte frightened tied from the field T that hat seems more sensible so we forge on I 1 the heart to tell them I 1 reach the colonel all tired in the cal cars S theres no wrestling or kidding which is amazine for fi eliter bilota finally I 1 know from the in map we must be approaching jomp jockstrap but on what side of the town is the field we cant waste precious pr cious minutes uselessly fighting its narrow streets then to one side I 1 see leaping flames and nd a column of smoke all the marker you need to find an airdrome at this stage of a war I 1 tell the driver to steer for the smoke and hell find the field and at first it seems all to have been for nothing there are the hangars split wide open six or seven forts burning merrily also the water tower is hit professionally I 1 admire it as one of the be best st bomb runs ive ever seen the j japs a p seem to have made a perfect job of cutting off our retreat but nol no there remains a single fortress 1 it seems lieutenant managed in the nick of time to get her off the ground and flew out to sea until the raid was over luckily they sent only bombers and no zeros which could shoot him down here he is now perched on the edge of the field but at the utmost he can carry only a third of us I 1 dispatch about fifty in the trucks to maciun field hoping it blown up and that two forts the colonel tells me are due in from australia can get them out and now we have a bonfire of of f everything we take with us but which we dont want the japs to have all our photographs every official paper the entire records of the pursuit group for the java and philippine wars it all goes up in those flames on jockstrap field forever except what the few remaining boys standing around that fire can remember of what the others did we even chuck in a few bomb sights that were kicking around for luck and for kindling but just as the flames were leaping highest the air raid siren started to scream we dived for a drainage ditch and I 1 think I 1 got my worst scare of the war because up above were two zeros approaching and down here on the field was our solitary fortress our last chance to escape sitting in front of god and everybody including those japs mother naked and def defenseless nse how long I 1 held my breath staring up into the sky I 1 say now but for some reason they dived on us yet and then when one rolled up to let the other take a picture I 1 realized it was only a recco flight to take the dam damage a ge done a few hours before 1 I began loading the boys into that plane but I 1 did one final thing I 1 forget captain anemaet Ana Aria maet standing there on that anoro field watching us pull out and it if id wanted to the others have let me so with the dutch liaison officer there at jockstrap we made arrangements that if tomorrow night we could get any planes through from australia they would circle our old bomber field at malang the liaison officer was to notify ana maet so that if his dutch fighter pilots could get there and malang by then in jap hands they would light a bonfire on its field as a signal that it was safe for our forts to come in and pick them th em up and take them out to australia where wed have another chance to fight the war together we kept the date the next night captains bill bohnaker linaker Bo and edd eddie ie green slipped through to malan malang g for forty five minutes they ci circled r cled our old field but there was no bonfire maybe Anama ets boys had died during the day giving their all for java maybe got to the field just ahead of the japs and were now prisoners unable to light their bonfire but listening in the darkness as bill and eddie circled and circled above them what happened we never knew but im m glad we have foreseen S en that darkened field at malang as we all climbed into our own fortress turned oil ell the jockstrap field and headed ea east st for Australia flying into a rising moon nothing much was going to happen on that flight to australia continued frank although we t know it all had to cram forward for the takeoff of course tor for with that big load in the rear wed never hive have got her tail up we manned battle stations and only after we were halfway across the ocean did the gunners leave their turrets I 1 rode up in the pilots compartments compart compartment menti and there were at least sev seven of us there three sitting on the floor at two in the morning we sight the coast in the moonlight wh which ich gives it a ghostly hue its b just jus t flat desert but finally we find the little town of f broome we circle it and finally a flare path breaks out below tossing kerosene flares out of a moving auto to show us the runway so we circle and come in in 1 I sleep the in mosquitoes osqui toes were making me groggy and also I 1 was thinking of our planes circling malang areld for anemaet Ana maet after a while I 1 got up and looked out the hangar door the first pale dawn was breaking over broome brodoff ie which I 1 could now see consisted of a general store a gas station two houses and this hangar shack perc perched ed out here on the edge of nothing where the red sand desert of A australi stralie meets the blue salt desert of the he ap ii JW TO BE |