| Show E DIE PROUDLY WHITT WHITE 4 f ewa fy 4 THE STORY STORT THUS FAR kleut col frank kurtz pilotos pilot ot the flying fortress the swonie tells telli ot of that hut fatal atal day when ben the jop japs struck in the philippines killing eight of 0 his men and demolish let file old 99 with ith many other forts before it could set get off the ground after tic leaping apiag to t australia what Is left ot of the inh bombardment group croup flies to java where here they help defend the island until it II falls alls V U S flier filers evacuate to australla australia to carry on the war from f rom there the bombardment group Is back in business to slats again and it kurtz kurd once more flies files the gwoose buzz wagner hero af 0 the philippines who has a desk job in australia steps into a P 39 and shows show his bli boys ba how w to nip the nips NIP CHAPTER as because the real truth is he be said our present army fighters dont climb fast enough or high enough and they dont have the range every jap knows this if the people back home dont maybe it would hurt their morale to find it out but im only thinking of t the he morale of my pilots why he wanted to come home poor guy meanwhile florida played on in the sunshine said margo and I 1 was trying to write letters to some of the other girls we knew whose husbands would never come back some of the letters I 1 wanted to write I 1 for a while I 1 had been on exhibition because my husband was supposed to be dead in java and look at me and groan with patriotic sympathy and then get to work planning the next golf tournament id look at those strong healthy young golf professionals fessio nals coaching flabby men on the putting greens and wonder why they in uniform only that was the wrong attitude tell you we need recreation now more than ever to keep our morale up during the war I 1 suppose it was true but I 1 kept wishing the weary boys in uniform I 1 knew could be getting more of it instead of these stagnant contented men there were some more names to be added to that list of lette letters rs said frank but with us the feeling had changed it was wonderful to be able at last to smash them back as the fighters had done at darwin and from its base in north australia the old bombardment group which included the ath now was flying out over new guinea and new britain islands landing heavy punches on them at lae and sala maua and at now the jap lines of communication were as far extended as ours had been now we had something like the equipment they had put against us we knew of course they were busy digesting java and the philippines but we felt now they could never knock us back on our heels again because we were getting solidly dug in so we could soak up their punches and put out a few of our own it was a nice feeling also the japs were getting a healthy respect for the E model forts not long after the olympics 1 I heard kohl kobi ishi had entered the jap air force after that I 1 thought of them all as kobi ishi a pretty good diver with some fair tricks and a toothy smile but nothing you cant handle it if you train for it maybe all fanatics craving to die for the emperor but I 1 remember a story the irth told me in australia six of our forts were coming in over to give the japs a pasting when one lone zero showed up the six forts were all brand new E models and the japs had learned about them the forts continued in formation but keeping jair ir guns trained on the zero now knost fighter pilots whether american jap or german are nervous and quick like fox terriers theres no gap between thinking and acting so you can almost watch a fighter plane and read its pilots mind how it was with this little jap he starts in thinking heres a chance to pick oft off a fort and then suddenly he sees all those guns and thinks how sweet and cute his little almond eyed geisha is back home and how nice it would be to get back to her so about half a mile away he pulls out in a turn out of range and continues parallel with the six forts thinking it over well the little geisha finally wins out over the emperor because he go in but he thumbs his nose at them in his way flying alongside with all of our gang watching he starts doing emmelmann Imm elmann turns its a half loop which brings you out upside down only flying backward quickly followed by a half roll will which turns you right side up again and nd its one of the hardest tricks in the book if done properly beautiful flying the boys said and he kept doing it over and over just out of range ange as much as to say boys im not coming in but dont think I 1 1 cant fly kept it up for fifteen minutes in his latest model supercharged zero and just as he flipped off into a cloud our gang waved weir their applause for the flying circus and he gave them the high sign back to me he was kohl kobi ishi id like ke to meet him after the war in early april port M moresby on yew ew guinea was our problem child our air base there was a single jun gle hewn landing strip with no adequate antiaircraft guns we were building dispersal fields but they done yet so that ahe the aircraft had to be lined up along the side of that gravel runway and of cou course arse were slow in getting off which made it a setup for the japs also our equipment was flown by green youngsters from the states the big problem was supply moresby is as far from melbourne as los angeles is from pittsburgh then at every state line the australian railroad changes gauges so all the freight cars had to be unloaded we had about a dozen B to bring supplies in over the water from the end of the railroad at townsville but only about four of these were operational the rest were under repair and the japs were still a nuisance at moresby dropping down from the overcast to strafe our field at at 40 feet altitude we spent a lot of 0 our u r time there and had some close calls getting out to save the gwoose ill never forget our closest one said master sergeant red varner 54 W Z 4 A S V the cannibal head hunters who lived in the jungle used to stalk the tame village natives the Swo oses crew chief we got just a minute and a aalfs notice that the japs were coming now the general could have stepped down into a foxhole and been perfectly safe there watching the J japs aps pound the field but not our general he wanted to save that plane and we had to run like hell to jump in in the general leading everybody slam the doors and lam out of there we had to take off down wind which was bad missing a little hill by a lot less than loo feet we have missed it it if i it t been for those smart trees they have on new guinea growing on top of that hill the most intelligent ones ive ever seen because they saw us coming and ducked I 1 happened to be looking out and saw them then I 1 looked back and bombs were already breaking on the field right in the dust of our takeoff take off the colonel here who of course was doing the piloting pulled a smart one the japs were right on top of us so he hugged the ground figuring then the zeros dive on us without mashing their own propellers into the bush we went hell for breakfast wiggling in and out of gullies hardly 40 feet off the ground and then out over the sea where we could see a cloud cover to hide in we had all kinds of rank aboard that day australian air force generals and other visiting firemen and some of them used to S scuttling cutt ling through gullies in a four motor plane and by the time we got into that cloud they W were ere sprouting some gray hairs bairs by may though said frank we began to get the situation in in hand at moresby we got some dispersal fields back in the hills tor for our planes and an operational alar alarm in net so now we can intercept and also the zeros run into an intense cross fire fro from m the ground which sends them trail trailing ing off across the jun jungle igle on fire so presently strafing is out and we have only regular ral raids ds by high albit altitude ude jap bombers field our fighters are pou pounding anding the ge getting tt in I 1 better every day and pretty soon n t he re chasing them out over the coast jettisoning jettison ing their bombs which whis whistle tle down harmlessly to tear up empty jungles for a while we had a labor PI problem b the tame village natives wed hired to work on the field like the bombs and when the alarm sounded instead of jampi jumping ng I 1 nto into the foxholes beat it into the jungle and maybe not come back for of days day however this a 4 couple soon stopped because the can cannibal anibal head hunters who lived in the jungle used to stalk them and chase them back and as between the bombs and the head hunters the natives chose the bombs so we got plenty of work done by now we worried about Port Moresby we had that in fair shape and our bombers were going over almost every day to pound the japs but we were uneasy about the other shore of new guinea the japs had already dug in in at lae and Sala maua suppose they came on down the line and put in an airfield at buna right opposite moresby they could cause us plenty of trouble intercepting our bombers on the way out and back general brett was particularly anxious and wanted to move in and bake take buna in may there was nothing there then but a native village and an old catholic mission but melbourne said no because i it t would mean landing troops to defend our airdrome there but the air force knew if the japs ever got buna it would take a first class expedition to get them out finally general ralph royce who was general bretts operations chief flew out over northern new guinea on a personal inspection of the whole coast and sent to melbourne M el a detailed report endorsing a field at buna as vital to our future air operations presently his reply came in reference to his report on the establishment lish ment of a landing field at buna melbourne headquarters commended him for his initiative in making the reconnaissance but found that owing to lack of facilities it possible at this time but this friendly little ground air argument over buna was soon settled the third week in july our reconnaissance spotted a jap naval task force moving toward the north coast of new guinea and now just off we sure W where here they were headed maybe around the island to capture moresby itself we were taking no chances so on july 24 general brett hit them with everything he had little as it was medium and light bombardment forts and obsolescent dive bombers but for twenty four hours the fog closed in hiding them when it lifted they were sixty miles off buna now we knew the jap high command was thinking in the same terms as we were in the air force even though the weather gave us this very short time to pound them we made them pay for their buna landing but still they could sneak a transport through during the night to put troops ashore had we had only a little infantry and artillery at buna they could have held them off giving the air force a chance to pound their landing barges at dawn but we have and when morn morning ing came their transport was steaming away empty in only two days the enterprising little devils had chopped a landing strip out of the jungle A few days later their f fighters were rising off it to attack our bombers as they took off or returned to moresby after pounding the jap base at it took almost six months of hard fighting by both australian and american infantry down over the owen stanley range finally led by general macarthur himself to clean the japanese out what we have now is real operation cooperation co the ground forces know the vital importance of airfields and I 1 hope we in the air force have come to appreciate ampre the tremendous importance of the unity of air land and sea A man know what distance means until he flies that end of the world said red the crew chief remember the time we had to make a forced landing right in the middle of the place ill never forget said charlie the bombardier it was about the time of that buna business we had left darwin said red and were flying across the australian desert headed for cloncurry Clon curry we had ump rank aboard about sixteen in all general royce general perrin general marquat and some australians air marshals they probably were and also lyndon johnson a big lanky guy from texas a real congressman only now he was out inspecting this area lieutenant commander as a navy well were flying along over this wilderness which looks like the rumpled parts of ne new v mexico or arizona heading we think for this clon cuiry curry only our arriva arrival I 1 time goes by and no cloncurry Clon curry harry the navigator begins to check things and discovers that his octant has gone out on him its like a sextant on a ship only you use an air bubble instead of the horizon it harrys fallt the prism was turning all right but now he could see the recorder lie he came up out of the navigators compartment part ment into the cockpit shaking his head and told frank here what had happened that he had no idea where the gwoose was as you can have her now major he says ashes all yours 1 well first the major got our radioman to workings working trying to wake up some australian station which would give us a bearing but I 1 guess they were all asleep our gas was getting lower and lower and the sun was sinking too and that country below us was all rumpled up like someone had slept in it TO BE CONTINUED |
