Show it X 0 vipa M IV 7 7 4 I 1 L gal T A 4 col robert t W NU a k the tha story thus an alter after graduating H from roro west point as a second lieutenant y inobe robert t scott wins wine his wings at kelly fie field texas and takes up pursuit flying when he war breaks out he be Is an instructor tor in california and told he Is too old id f tor r combat flying dying ile he appeals to 0 lev several a r at generals for a chance to fly ey a comb combat plane and finally dually gets a break he flies files a bomber to india where he becomes aberry a ferry pilot but this does not appeal to him after vl visiting ge gen chen nd he be g gets 11 a an and soon a one man air force over durma tie e Is made comman commanding dh g officer of the fighter group taking over ever the AVO and leaves tor for the kjellin area to take charge of 11 fighter g ahter operations CHAPTER the surprise was that another plane had now been found several miles from the bomber it was supposed ed to be a fighter being smaller r bind it had burned upon crashing I 1 therefore received credit tor for two enemy planes destroyed on july 31 it had been my first aerial combat and I 1 felt very proud indeed we found the reported prisoner but he was dead while being ques cloned he had tried to escape had killed several chinese had w wounded doun others and in turn had been mortally wounded lieutenant cluck got to him before he died but was unable to get any valuable information my first aerial engagement started a story in delhi I 1 found out about it tour four months later the story told there was to the effect that I 1 had engaged an enemy bomber over china and regardless of its escort of two zeros had shot it down it had crashed into the ground and when they located it it they also found the two zeros which had dived into the rice paddles at the tail fail of the bomber one on each side thus had the embarrassed m bar pilots committed ha hara r a kirl kiri for they had lost face by having the ship that they were escorting de toyed we aeu it was a laugh but im ply irly r certain the one zero commit suicide im prone to believe that some good honest lead poisoning from six fifty calibre american machine guns had a lot to do with it major tex hill was the squadron commander of the outfit that I 1 had come to live with at hengkang Heng yang he was a blue eyed texan lean and lanky six feet two of fighting blood I 1 imagine it if he had lived in the days of the american west he would have been a gunman over there around th the pecos river but bid a gunman on the side of the law I 1 used to shut my ayes eyes out there sitting on the alert in hunan and think about him I 1 could picture that drawling texan walking slowly through a border town with two farl rl handled swinging low at C hips walking with his arms stiff at his sides and watching with Us his cold blue eyes some villain that was approaching the other way I 1 could almost hear the hot lead spitting from those guns as as the two shot it out and I 1 could always see the villain fall with tex standing there looking at his smoking 9 guns tex would always have won tor for he was the greatest fighter that I 1 ever saw the most loyal officer and the best friend id seen tex shoot down japs in the sky and I 1 had followed on his wing to learn the tootles of the I 1 know that if f there Is any man I 1 owe my life iffe to during the months I 1 fought in china it is maj tex hill seeing what he did in combat and how he handled his ship seeing his coolness on the alert and his keen desire tor for action I 1 can hear tex now after he had studied the plotting board that the interpreters were covering with little red flags showing the positions of the approaching approaching jap fighter ships I 1 can hear ear him saying well gentlemen I 1 think well take off and he would smile as he pulled on his net hel met and goggles tex was the son of the chaplain of the texas rangers before the days he had bad been a navy pilot flying oil off carrier decks and in the plying flying tigers he had been second only to bob neal as the leading ace was the most ost truthful man I 1 y y met even his subconscious ug ats were truthful he used to tell me that one day after madame chiang kal kai shek had pinned a medal ori on him for shooting down some japanese planes over Toun goo she had asked him the next time he shot down ine rine of those japanese planes to plase please think of her and dedicate it to the people of china tex of course couise said yes maam 11 I 1 imagine that most any man among us would have said yes to the madame and the next time we shot down a jap we would have told the great lady au all about it we would have remembered after the fight what we had promised her and we would have gone in with a romantic story of how we had met the barbaric japanese and had seen the fl avnes es face in the skies as we mbewe 1 a enemy down and had thought blugh t of her and the people of china bu not tex hill he was too honest for that he told me colonel J promised her that arid and I 1 really meant it and ive shot down about twelve japs since that promise tour four months ago but you know I 1 never can remember to think about her hei when im in a battle im too busy well now you hold that picture ot of tex ten hill for or a minute while I 1 show him to you in another light one day over hengkang Heng yang after we had broken the japanese wave with our assault and support and there were some fifteen zeros burning around among the pagodas of this hunan capital I 1 saw an odd sight down below there was one lone jap doubtless of the suicide samurai school for though his buddies had either been shot down in their attempted strafing attack or h had ad turned for or home this arrogant follower of the shinto shrine was the field alone two of us rolled to go get him but from the end of the field towards the river I 1 saw a P 40 pull out of a dive and head tor for the jap it was tex hill As the two fighters drew together in this breathtaking breath taking headon head on attack I 1 saw their tracers meeting and tor for a second I 1 know whether the ships ran together or both exploded in the air As the smoke thinned I 1 saw the P 40 flash on through and out into the clear but the jap crashed and burned on the field of hengkang Heng yang hill and the jap had shot it out nose to nose and once again I 1 thought of the days of western er gunplay things kept right on happening at hengkang Heng yang for after all there are japanese bases tanning fanning out in many direct directions lons E east a st north northeast south and southeast some of them were within an hours flight ot of our field bankow was the one to the north on the yingtse the japs RZ i ag M 1 maj tex hill and squad ron ran CO and col liler dierlam farn C cooper sent their bombers to worry us from up there and before we caught on how to do it they made life miserable tor for us they had gotten tired of sending their day bombers down tor for they lost too many so now they had resorted to a period of constant night attack just when the full moon in the clear sky would begin to light the ground like daylight the telephone would start ringing the chinese interpreters terp reters would begin to stick the little flags into the map and wed know that the jap was on the way wed be just about to sit down to supper after a hard days work on the alert wed leave the rice and fish and squash amid the houseboys house boys calls of jin bao 11 air raid and wed rush tor for our planes that had been assigned to night duty sometimes the attack was a harassing one only and wed return without seeing them and go wearily back in the moonlight to the hostel get some tea and a cookle cookie and crawl in the bed just about the time the head bead hit the pillow and the body felt elt a little comfortable the alert would go again id hear the tinkle of a small dinner bell and the plaintive voice of one of the houseboys house boys jin bao jin aln bee bao please get up master jin jan bao off wed go again and into the sky sometimes the jap would feint two or three times to make us use valuable gasoline sometimes held hed circle hengkang Heng yang by fifty miles and then go back to bankow wed spend the night between the hostel and the alert shack but after afier all as we used to say you supposed to be comfortable in a war and we were no exception sometimes though the jap feint general chennault got us to pick the best and most experienced pilots tor for the night interception missions wed use two to four ships and place them at different altitudes over the field and wait for the jap in the light of the moon with our lights out on this particular night johnny alison was at feet and a thousand feet lower we had ajax baumler ill tell you about johnny now but well take up more on ajax later tor for this was mostly johnnys John nya fight alison was i superior airman fighter pilot and officer and was the ideal combat leader A florida boy he knew the allison engine well enough to have designed it he knew the P better than anyone I 1 have ever seen tor for he had instructed the british in their use in the united kingdom and then had gone over to show the russians how to fly and repair them near moscow tonight he was about to carve his name with his six fifty calibre guns in such a manner that few of us would ever forget it and certainly no chinese in the city of hengkang Heng yang would ever forget the night we got our four ships into the all aft at staggered altitudes we heard the radio reports from richardson giving the latest positions of the japs reported over Chang sha then north of the field then all was silent while we waited in our positions over the field we placed ourselves down Is where the bombers would have to fly between us and the moon and thus silhouette themselves against the tha full orange light then I 1 saw the five bombers against the moon they were at feet I 1 know I 1 swore because they were below me and I 1 could imagine the cursing of every one of the others who were at the wrong altitude for or we could not change altitude until the first attack but they were at johnnys height and I 1 listened tor for him to say that he saw them down the field they told us later that you could hear the moan of one allison engine as a P 40 moved in for the attack could hear it above the sound of the ten radial engines on the enemy bombers the seconds dragged and then we heard beard johnny say okay I 1 see em and now we saw their exhausts looking like ten bushel bas bets of blue fire for a full second as the enemy bombers moved towards the target that was our field all was quiet and I 1 wondered if johnny had lost them in the darkness then I 1 saw him so close to the enemy ships that he seemed to be in formation with them and clearly over my radio I 1 heard johnny J allson say watch the fireworks wa six lines of tracers went into one of the bombers and glowed brighter than the t two w 0 bushel baskets of exhaust the first jap bomber trailed fire slowly turned on its back and spun crazily towards hengkang Heng yang right over the town below I 1 could see a few flashes fr from om the exploding enemy bombs but most of them seemed short of the target area and very scattered johnnys tracers were still going into the enemy ships and I 1 could see their return fire now but it seemed to go in no certain direction I 1 had moved in closer trying to get to the altitude of the fight on the ground the mechanics and the chinese interpreters had a grandstand asta nd seat for one of the best moving pictures that has ever been except that this was real they too had heard johnny say watch the fireworks and had seen and heard the heavy guns of the P 40 they could see pieces of the bomber coming oft off and going back into the slipstream reflecting the glow of the fire that came with the explosion then the whole sky lighted as the first one plunged to the earth with the fire making a queer sound as the wreckage tell fell the lone fighter now was sliding over behind the other bombers and the second one was exploding and turning over the third one tried to turn seemed to hang for seconds against the full moon then dove in flames in a pitch that got steeper and steeper several thousand feet below our level it exploded and burning gasoline tell fell with it the light ot of the three burning bombers combined with the brilliant moonlight to make tife the night like day the number four enemy ship had turned back now with an engine shot out but ajax baumler got it ten miles north of the field the last enemy dove out and turned for home when he saw his three leaders burn bum but baumler followed him thirty miles north and shot him down in flames from the ground the watchers told us later they could hear bear the fifty caubre calibre guns above the noise of the smaller calibre jap guns gum within seconds after th the is a attack there were three ships burning around the city walls and none of the forma tion got home but something was the matter with rith allson alison we could see sea his ship ind and it was not flying normally evry ery now and then it would stream fire ire that was more than just a back fire ire on the ground they could hear his ils engine missing badly anson allson called in that he was hit but lut would try to land hl his ship on the he field to land a crippled fighter in daylight Is quite a feat but to attempt to 0 land one at night one that has been icen shot to pieces and may burst into flames any second Is more than that it we knew why johnny was taking ting the chance we needed that ship ip if he could get it on the field even en if it was shot to bits we needed the parts that could be salvaged it would have been perfectly all right if the pilot had gone over the side as i soon as that engine began to fade out it that night whether or not he had id shot down three bombers he could have hit the silk and floated to safety in his chute but johnny must have said the hell bell with that we e need this ship we always need ships lips to keep old P that we flew W in flying condition we had to rob ib parts from every airplane that we e could coula salvage after a crackup crac kup this ils 8 s called cannibalizing ip in the e lingo of field depots in the air corps imps and covers a multitude of sins ns TO BE CONTINUED |