Show ff T nn mk M k 04 ur M N ID tn jL ty ja jajac rf falta q hajy ssi 0 WHITE yat awo ce W FEATURES THE STORY THUS FAR col frank kurtz p pilot lot of 0 a flying fortress dortre s tells of that fatal day when the japs struck in the be philippines eight 0 of his bis men were killed hilled while fleeing tor for shelter and old 99 with many other forts was demolished on the ground after escaping to australia what is left of the squadron flies to java where they go on many missions over the philippines and the java sea the boys in java hear bear what ahat happened to the marblehead and the houston and morale sags the dutch blow up their ammunition dumps and the order comes through to evacuate evac nate the little dutch navy fights a losing light fight in the dark java collapses mgt war 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 and I 1 only hoped id be out of java so they collect from me then 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 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 affer 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 so I 1 rustled two cars and a truck to transport them and by four we were headed for anoro 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 1 I hoped there still would be the colonel had told me the day before that if I 1 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 I 1 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 spraying them the barges threw up horrible cones of fire in great masses there was a cross fire too from jap shore bat teries 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 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 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 its like knocking at the door still the old pursuit group or left of them 1 I 1 looked ked 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 maet leader of the dutch fighters tall thin dark haired with a finely chiseled face nervous like many fighters is standing silent at one side his dutch boys are with him what can we say our american boys have fought with them like brothers for weeks were now making a dash for safety anemaet Ana maet is the courageous one he walks forward puts up his wand hand and says simply without a quaver thanks for all you have done we have tried but we are finished gravely and with no bitterness 1 I ask him why he and all his boys dont come out with us well find room for him in the planes then we can continue the war from australia he shakes his head now our boys are loaded in the truck and presently were out on the main highway headed across java but just then we hear a familiar drone jap dive bombers smelling their way into java finally found this field its only luck they found it before our boys crowd against the tail gate of odthe 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 their dives and then r r r ampf the bomb takes hold it punctuates the lesson wed been trying for days to 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 t t it was two in the marni morning ng when I 1 got major fisher out of bed 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 weh never make it by noon the boys tired from many weeks of fighting try to doze standing up in that jolting truck I 1 dont sleep but I 1 have nightmares at every crossroads I 1 wonder if lightning fast light jap tanks come sliding in on us even if we had time to turn and run before they open fire with their turret guns they would have cut off our escape to jockstrap my watch hand races toward noon and were still hours from jockstrap but I 1 have 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 ca 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 what at a quick glance one might mistake for a middle western courthouse square war touched it and think could never come in the hotel they stare at our uniforms the first american ones seen the boys order while I 1 hunt a telephone to call the colonel at jockstrap but minutes tick by and they cant locate him nor anyone else who can deliver a message that we are coming and those bombers must wait all tired in the cars theres no wrestling or kidding which is amazing for fighter pilots finally I 1 know from the map we must be approaching jockstrap but on what side of the town is the field we cant waste precious minutes uselessly fighting its narrow streets then to one side I 1 see leaping flames and a column of smoke 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 best bomb runs ive ever seen the japs seem to have made a perfect job of cutting off our retreat but no there remains a single fortress 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 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 Jock jockstrap stra P field forever except what the few remaining boys standing around that fire can remember of what the others did 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 defenseless 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 damage 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 maet standing there on that anoro field watching us pull out and 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 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 and eddie green slipped through to malang for forty five minutes they circled 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 glad we have foreseen that darkened field at malang as we all climbed into our own fortress turned off the jockstrap field and headed east for australia flying into a rising moon nothing much was going to happen on that flight to australia continued frank although we know it all had to cram forward for the takeoff takeo fl of course for with that big load in the rear wed never have got her tail up we manned battle stations and only after we ve were halfway across the ocean did the gunners leave their turrets I 1 rode up in the pilots compartment I 1 and there were at least seven of us there three sitting on the floor at two in the morning we sight the coast in the moonlight which gives it a ghostly hue its just flat desert but finally we fin find d the little town of 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 1 I sleep the mosquitoes were making makina me groggy and also I 1 was thinking of our planes circling malang field 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 which I 1 could now see consisted of a general store a gas station two houses and this hangar shack perched out here on the edge of nothing where the red sand desert of australia meets the blue salt desert of the sea TO BE CONTINUED |