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Show SiErfC THEY WERE fT"-' s OPEND3)AIBILlL'r- WHITE V 'W.20Ut, W.N.U.FEATURES THE STORY SO FAR: The Jtary of their part in the batUe for the Philippines Philip-pines Is being told by four of the five naval officers who are all that U left of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3. They are Lieut. John Bulkeley (now Lleuten. ant Commander), squadron commander; Lieut. R. B. Keliy, second-in-command; and Ensigns Anthony Akers and George E. Cox Jr. Manila has fallen, and we have lost our naval base at Cavlte. Lieut. Kelly has told how he spent New Tear's Eve In the hospital on Corregidor, while Lieut. Bulkeley was discussing with the Admiral a plan of escape to China. Lieut. Bulkeley Is telling about a night raid two of the FT boats made against the Japs. Lieut. Bulkeley rode In the 34 boat. CHAPTER VI "So we separated, expecting to meet at dawn. It was the last I ever saw of the 31 boat. But here's what happened to our 34 boat in Subic. First, remember it was darker dark-er than hell, and the shore line was loaded with Jap field guns. None of us had ventured In there since the Japs took over. We had got in just 1 little way when a Jap searchlight spotted us and blinked out a dot-dash dot-dash challenge, asking who we were. Since we didn't know the Jap code reply, naturally we didn't answer, but changed course, veering veer-ing away. But the Japs were getting get-ting suspicious by now, and from over by Ilinin Point a single field piece opened up. None of It fell Dear us maybe they were shooting t DeLong in the 31 boat. "When we were about abeam of Sueste light another light came on to challenge us this time from a ihip maybe that cruiser. We changed course to go over and have t look, but she was small fry not worth a torpedo the hell with her we were headed for Binanga and he cruiser. "By one o'clock we were off the north entrance to Port Binanga, where we were to meet DeLong in the 31 boat and go in together for the ittack, and when he didn't show up, began to be afraid something might have happened, yet I couldn't be sure. "But there was nothing to do but o on in alone. To make the sneak, ive cut the speed down to eight tnots, skirted Chiquita Island, rounded Binanga Point, and entered the little bay on two engines at Idling speed. Everything was quiet, no firing down here, and then we law her ahead in the dark not five iundred yards away. Creeping up on her, we had just readied two torpedoes when a searchlight came m and in dot-dash code she asked who we were. "We answered, all right with two torpedoes but they had hardly been Bred when I gave our boat hard .rudder and started away. It isn't lafe for an MTB to stay near a cruiser. One torpedo hit home with hell of a thud we heard it over our shoulders. Looking back, we taw the red fire rising, and presently present-ly two more explosions which might have been her magazines. "But we had no time for staring, for we were into plenty trouble. One of those torpedoes had failed to clear its tube and was stuck there, just at the entrance, and was making mak-ing what we call a 'hot run,' its propellers pro-pellers buzzing like hell, compressed air hissing so you couldn't hear yourself think. But worst of all, a torpedo is adjusted so that it won't fire until its propeller has made a certain number of revolutions I shouldn't give it exactly, but let's say it is three hundred. After that, the torpedo is cocked like a rifle, and an eight-pound blow on its nose would set it off blowing us all to glory. "So what to do? Somehow that torpedo propeller had to be stopped and stopped quick, or else a good hard wave slap on the torpedo's nose would blow us all to splinters. And at this point our torpedoman, Martino, used his head fast. He ran to the head and swiped a handful hand-ful of toilet paper. He jumped astride that wobbling, hissing torpedo tor-pedo like it was a horse, and, with the toilet paper, jammed the vanes pf the propeller, stopping it. "We'd stopped for all this, but we couldn't afford to wait long. The cruiser's fire was lighting up the bay behind us. Ahead, all over Subic, Su-bic, hell was breaking loose. So we started up, gave her everything we had to get through that fire. "With three motors roaring, and us skipping around in that rough water with everything wide-open, I guess we made considerable commotion. commo-tion. Anyway the Japanese radio in Tokyo, reporting the attack next day, said the Americans had a new secret weapon a monster that roared, flapped Its wings, and fired torpedoes in all directions. It was only us, of course, but we felt flattered. flat-tered. We got the hell out of there, and that was all there was to it" "Well," said Kelly, "MacArthur wouldn't quite agree. He gave you the D.S.C. for what you'd done." "But DeLong has the real story," Insisted Bulkeley. "I pulled up outside out-side the mine field off Corregidor to wait for him. Neither of us could go in until it got light, because otherwise oth-erwise the army on shore, hearing us in the dark out there, would think it was Japs and set off the mine field. But when the sky got light and I saw my boat was alone, I realized DeLong was in trouble. And since he's now a prisoner of the Japanese if he's alive we'd better tell his story for him. "After we parted company at the entrance to Subic Bay, he started around its northern rim as we'd planned. But just before midnight he developed engine trouble the saboteur's wax had clogged his strainers. He cleaned them and had Just got under way when more trouble trou-ble developed the cooling system went haywire. They stopped, and were drifting as they repaired it when there was an ominous grinding grind-ing sound under the boat they were aground on a reef in Subic Bay. "They rocked the boat, and finally final-ly started the engines to get themselves them-selves unstuck. But the noise now attracted the Japs, and a 3-inch gun on Ilinin Point opened up on them splashes coming nearer and nearer. They worked frantically, finally burned out all reverse gears so that the engines were useless. DeLong gave orders to abandon ship. They wrapped mattresses in a tarpaulin to make a raft, and all got aboard but DeLong, who stayed to chop holes in the gas tanks and blow a hole in the boat's bottom with a hand grenade before he jumped. That was the end of the 31. Then he couldn't find the raft in the darkness, and being afraid to call out, swam to the beach. "The raft had shoved off with all twelve aboard at three o'clock. "He waited on the sands until dawn. Then, in the gray half-light, he picked up the tracks of nine men. He followed these until they V 1 v. C(, '' k - ' y "We answered, all right with two torpedoes." led into a clump of bushes, where he found most of his crew. They explained they had stayed with the raft until dawn was about to break. Fearing sunrise would expose them to the Japanese, they had decided to risk a swim to the beach, where they could hide. But Ensipn Plant and two men, who couldi. . swim very well, decided to stay. What became of them the nine didn't know, and no one knows for sure to this day. "But the first thing DeLong did was to post lookouts, and all day they stayed in that clump, with an eye on the Jap observation planes which flew over them in relays, watching a hot little skirmish between be-tween the Americans and the Japanese Japa-nese on the far shore of the bay. At one point the Japs were falling back, and there seemed to be a chance that they could make a run for it in daylight, rejoining the American lines. But never was it quite possible, possi-ble, and in the meantime they had spotted a couple of bancas, native boats, farther down the beach. "Two men who were sent out to investigate, crawling on their bellies bel-lies through the grass, returned to report the bancas were in fair condition. con-dition. So when the sun had set they crawled to them and started getting them in shape. For rowing they had two paddles, a couple of spades, and a board. They had to work fast and quietly, for the. Japs were all around them just as they were launching the bancas they heard Japanese voices not two hundred hun-dred yards away. "But a heavy wind came up, and at nine o'clock at night, both boats capsized. They righted them, but the shovels and the board were lost, and they now had only one paddle for each banca. Yet with these they continued to fight the head wind until three in the morning, when they were so exhausted that they decided de-cided to try the shore. So DeLong landed on what he hoped was Napo Point. They picked their way through the barbed-wire entanglement entangle-ment on the beach, and then found themselves up against a steep cliff. "They kept very quiet until dawn, not knowing whether daylight would find them surrounded by Americans or Japanese. But when it became light, the first thing they saw wai a Fiilipino i en try. 'Hey Joe got a cigarette ana a match;' they called out And an hour later they were telling their story to Captain Cockburn, in the Ninety-second American Infantry s field headquarters tent The nine were back with us at Sisiman Cove the next evening." "That afternoon Bulkeley came over to tell me the story of the engagement. en-gagement. When he was through, 'Kelly,' he said, .'we need you. " 'Let's get ahold of that doctor, I said, 'and you tell him that.' This time it worked. The hole in rny finger was still almost three inches long and about an inch wide, with some of the tendon exposed (but in a month it was healed, except that I can't move my finger joints). I had to promise them faithfully I would show up every other day for treatment, but the point of it was I got out of that place. "Two days later I took the 34 boat out on my first patrol from Corregidor Corregi-dor up along Bataan toward Subic Bay Bulkeley, who as squadron commander rode all boats on patrol, of course was with me. It was a calm night and chilly. Sweaters were comfortable over our khakis, although in the daytime we wore only shorts or trunks. "Everything wa going well, in fact it was monotonous. But when we were about twenty-five miles up the coast, hell suddenly started popping. pop-ping. Our own batteries were shooting shoot-ing at us. Bulkeley explained to me that was the main excitement these days to keep from being sunk by your own side and calmly altered al-tered course to get out of their range, which we could tell by the light of their tracer bullets. " 'Half the time those dumb dastards das-tards don't know friend from foe,' he explained. "Five minutes later we saw a dim light, low in the water, and headed toward it. Was it a Jap landing barge, trying to get ashore behind General Wain Wright's lines. Then it occurred to us that it might be Ensign En-sign Plant and the two other men of DeLong's boat who had disappeared in Subic Bay. They might have stolen a boat and now be headed home we couldn't take chances. So without firing we drew nearer, watching the light. "Presently it began to blink dots and dashes, all right, but no message mes-sage that we could read. Bulkeley ordered general quarters as a precaution, pre-caution, and the men were crouching crouch-ing behind their machine guns. It was about twenty-five yards away now a queer-shaped boat, low in the water and suddenly its light went out. "Bulkeley stood up with the megaphone. mega-phone. 'Boat ahoy!' he called. He got a quick answer. Br-r-r-r-r-r-r! They opened on him with machine guns. It looked like a fire hose of tracer bullets headed for our cockpit, cock-pit, and now they speeded up, trying try-ing to head for shore. But we were pouring the fire back at them. "Now we could see it was a Jap landing barge, packed with men. It had armor on the bow and the stern, and kept twisting and turning, turn-ing, trying to keep those thick steel plates pointed toward us. Of course our maneuver was to come in from the side, and let them have it where they couldn't take it. "AH this had been going on for about thirty seconds when I heard a cry of pain from behind. It was Ensign En-sign Chandler. 'I've been hit,' he said. A Jap bullet had gone through both of his ankles. We pulled him out of the cockpit and laid him down on the canopy, meanwhile circling the Japs and pouring the steel down into their vulnerable sides. We could soon see we were getting them. The barge sank lower and lower in the water and presently gurgled under, while we pulled off to lick our own wounds, give first aid to Chandler, and locate any other boats in the vicinity. Surely the Japs wouldn't attempt a landing with a single barge. All we got, though, was more fire from our own shore guns a swarm of tracers and then 3-inch-ers began whistling over one, of them landing two hundred yards away. But we didn't mind. The army seemed to enjoy it, and it wasn't hurting us. "We fooled around until almost dawn and were headed for home we couldn't have got Chandler through the mine fields to the hospital hos-pital until sunrise anyway, when Bulkeley happened to glance back. "Through the half-light he could see, bobbing in the swell, another low-lying flat craft. Should we go back; You're damned right we should, the men safd to get even for Chandler by sinking some more. "As we got closer, sure enough, it was another landing boat, this time apparently leaving the coast of Bataan, and we opened up on her with everything we had from four hundred yards away. "But their return fire was curiously curi-ously light and spasmodic. So we closed to about ten yards. Their fire had stopped, but their boat wouldn't' Our bullets would hit its armor and engines you could see the tracers bounce off and ricochet one hundred feet into the air, but still it kept going. Suddenly a 'tracer 'trac-er hit its fuel tanks up they went in a blaze, the motor stopped, and now the boat was only drifting But even as we pulled alongside those Japs, nervy devils, gave her hard rudder and tried to ram iu (TO BE CONTINUED) |