| Show tg A ft U IE I 1 E B 9 f 51 W WHITE awo ae ehlt 5 THE STORY THUS FAR col frank kurtz pilot of 0 a flying Fo fortress itress tells ot of that fatal day when the japs ck in the philippines eight ol of his tk z were killed while fleeing for or shelter a old 01 i d 39 99 with many other forts was demolished on the ground after escaping to australia ahat 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 happened to the marblehead and the houston and morale sags bud sprague who got his commission in the morning dies that afternoon the japs take bali field and all java Is caving in sergt Warren volunteers for or a very dangerous mission CHAPTER avin 1 I had only four bombs we had time to load more before the air raid alarm blew and wed had to clear off the field so I 1 sighted on ast ship and let go all four in a t tf if youre dropping instantaneous fuse bombs of course you see the splash of deck planking and debris the instant it hits but it do much damage all on the surface but these were delayed action fuses from that altitude there much to see when they first crack the deck theres a little pause and then theres the sweetest geyser of deck splinters and form and machinery and japanese infantry corporals ever hope to gaze down at As I 1 think I 1 said we blew her stern off I 1 kept peeking back until the debris subsided and I 1 could see solid blue water between the two halves of the ship we got back to maciun field just in time to take off in the face of three strafing zeros our side gunner a national guard boy wed picked up in java the rest of his outfit all stayed and got captured knocking one of them down almost before we got our wheels up when the other two went away we re landed and found a bomb somewhere had knocked our electricity out we had to refuel by hand using flashlights also we were us ing them trying to repair our brakes when all of a sudden came a terrific bang it shook the ship so badly it knocked one guy off the wing and he fell face down on the field of course we were sure that the japs seeing our flashlights had dropped a bomb but no oh no it was just the methodical dutch carefully scorching the earth by bacr up our ammunition dump v I 1 rby by some miracle we ne near a r at the time wed been using dutch bombs for the past week changing their hooks books to fit our shackles it seemed the order had just come through to evacuate because the japs were coming and what with the language difficulty this was their way of announcing it the funny thing was for weeks had a gang of men working to improve that field and repair the runways these guys kept right on sweating away up until the minute the order to evacuate came through then they went ahead sweating just as hard to blow up what just been fixing we were jittery been going through a lot of strafing but finally 91 go ar plane refueled and loaded 7 1 tp tr 1 four men aboard we still ha hah tr no brakes on the right wheel but we all hoped together in unison that wed clear the runway we did it was two in the morning As we climbed for altitude we could see refineries flaming all over the island fires and explosions and as we circled the field in the dark tor the last time the dutch down below us threw a switch and blew up that beautiful new concrete hangar it had huge arches like a bridge span control tower and everything it all came rolling up at us in a parting salute now we were headed for australia buzzing along at about feet pretty soon we came to scattered clouds which presently grew into a whole mess of thunderheads thunder heads our pilot nosed around for a while and then was trying to squeeze in between two 0 of f them when suddenly and violently the ship dropped feet one soldier been lying on the floor of the radio compartment went right up to the ceiling of the plane and stuck there the waist guns were jerked from their mounts the tail gunner of course was so cramped he have any place to go but he reported that the two belts of ammunition on either side of him lashed back and forth until they braided themselves I 1 was in my bombardiers bombardiere bombar diers seat and I 1 went straight to the top of the plane and stayed there with my neck bent against the ceiling of the navigators compartment for what seemed like a couple of weeks but probably very many seconds the pilot had quite a problem he buckled his safety belt so he hit the ceiling like the rest of us but his official duties permit him to stay there and be comfortable for table like the others and yet he get down so he managed to push the stick forward with his feet nosing the ship down so she go into a spin he pulled her out of it at about when he got her straightened out and crawled back in his seat he called all of us over the inter phones and asked us if wed noticed a swishing sound a while back when we said we he insisted he had and that it the air stream either he claimed it was the swishing of the grim re apers scythe getting into broome australia we began to worry about that busted brake and the momentum we would have when we hit the field with all these men aboard we could lighten ship by having the guys bail out but the trouble was we had only nine chutes but when the pilot called the airport they reported they had one runway which ran uphill and was soft at the far end perfect for us so we made a beautiful landing 1 I was still back in surabaya Su said the pilot frank kurtz because I 1 had a couple of jobs to do the day we got off in the corregidor relief ship the colonel had told me he was leaving malang for the town we called jockstrap and that id better join him there and hed send me out to australia all the other boys of the were going that day but I 1 asked him if I 1 stay over just a little longer I 1 was thinking of the fighter pilots no one was looking after them they had absolutely no liaison when a place is cracking up everybody tends to think of themselves why bother about the fighters they got in they well let them get out again the trouble was the fighters had got in with belly tanks hopping via timor and bali which were now held by the japs the colonel said I 1 was wag absolutely right maybe I 1 could help them youre under your own orders he said 1 I leave it to your discretion as to how and when you come out best of luck it until id hung up that I 1 realized that when the had left java there be bd any way for me to get out the hotel by now was emptying last fast ol oi foreign uni forms id bade the first echelon of our navy goodby poor old java was being left to sink by herself but since the newspapers were still about four days behind the actual news the people realize it yet things were moving fast that day we heard a big jap force was closing in off the north coast headed for the java beaches we got reports from scout planes even from submarines but we know just how big it was because hanging over it was a jap fighter screen so thick that our recco planes dare fly through to see I 1 theres a little pause and th then theres the sweetest geyser of de deck splinters we got a few reports from a tiny island which lies out in the java sea north of Su but ominously its radio went dead we realized the japs had put a landing force ashore there that night out went the tiny dutch navy it was all th they ey had left which pounded them under cover of darkness and then pulled away it did some good because in the morning we found the jap advance guard which had been headed right for javas beaches now pulled back a little under that bomber and fighter screen waiting for the main force to come on up colonel eubank was now in jockstrap and by telephone I 1 put a problem up to him the position of our fighter pilots in java was hopeless now any minute their field would be hit by jap bombers and put out of operation I 1 wanted them to turn their P over to the dutch fighter e r pilots who had nothing left now but three hurricanes which had been rescued from singapore and come on out to australia with us where we could continue the war further air defense in java was hopeless we had broken camp at malang jap bombers were swarming over the island but van beyen the dutch commander listen he was a stout old infantry officer and he had given orders to fight to the last we had to plead our viewpoint I 1 with van beyen yet it would be hard to explain to men who were defending their homes and families in in this beautiful island whose lives when it fell would be over that night fifty miles off sura baya bay athe the naval battle was resumed the main japanese invasion force ringed by submarines submarine s was headed for our beaches at midnight the united nations navy moved in to throw their little all into the balance this final night the dutch struck no glancing blow it was now or never they moved in and fought them toe to toe the australians at their side it was pitiful of course and hopeless as all of them knew but the gallant dutch preferred to die fighting out in the night rather than go skulking home to wait for the rising sun tanks to come rattling down their streets side by side the dutch and the australians plunged through that outer ring of jap submarines the american forces took up the last defensive position skirting the jap back edge firing on the run it was our duty not to dissipate ourselves in lost causes but to do what damage we could and conserve our strength to strike again java died that night in the gunfire which came rolling in over the water it took until dawn for the jap battle fleet to crunch to bits the dutch and australian navies but early the morning before I 1 had put in a telephone call to america it was to margo but it was government business and the dutch when they understood what it was about said they would pay the charges themselves they said the connection might not be made until midnight I 1 privately wondered if it would go through at all java was collapsing fast all around us but I 1 said id take it whenever it came knowing id get no sleep that night maybe little sleep for many nights so at midnight I 1 started for the telephone office just as 1 I was leaving the hotel I 1 ran into commander peterson of the navys patrol wing 10 by now he was almost the sole survivor lie he seemed surprised to see me told me he was just leaving for his plane the last of the navy was leaving java he asked how I 1 expected to get out 1 said I 1 know come with me now he said and ill take you out to australia I 1 there was that telephone call and also I 1 leave those american fighters to be swallowed up in the collapse tomorrow so I 1 thanked him we said goodby walking to the telephone building I 1 could hear a dull rumble in the hot midnight air coming from far over the water the few people in the blacked out streets assumed it was distant thunder I 1 knew it was the little dutch navy in its final agony out there in the dark then I 1 waited in that dim lit mosquito filled telephone building for that call sitting on a bench with the help of a flashlight I 1 made my notes for the call then I 1 paced the floor each time the window opened letting out a little light I 1 was sure the half caste girl was telling me the call had been completed I 1 had other pressing business but none more pressing than this I 1 thought of the eager face of the boy just before he went out into what looked like almost certain death unless I 1 could deliver his message he would have died for nothing from florida said margo 1 I could hear the telephone operators working setting up that line all around the world from here where it was noon to midnight in the tropics and finally franks own voice have you got fiot pater pacer and pencil oen cil he asked now take down this name mrs W H of hagers town maryland her son bud is going on a mission and he wants her to know there probably will be some rooney money deposited to her account in the hagerstown Hagers town bank from new york tell her bud sends his love to billy jane and all and of course to her he wants her to use half the money to buy her home and the rest is for her to live on and he wants her to be happy however it comes out then I 1 told margo the boy was going on a most dangerous mission we know how dangerous until after he left for his course took him right across the path of the main japanese fleet and now frank said bitterly this little story has a happy ending so far as the war departments auditors are concerned because the five thousand dollars which bud thought his mother was going to get when he went out to face the japanese fleet was never paid it never cleared through the new york banks before java fell I 1 suppose those new york bankers were more prudent than bud and took no chances on java paper so buds mother get any money and even bud himself never got through to manila lets hope hes a japanese prisoner after id written down the message to mrs it seemed that frank just wanted to visit said margo of course it was wonderful to talk to him because for some reason there seem to be any censors clicking in on the line the censors had all caught the boat explained frank in a few hours the japs would have java so it much matter what they knew but after we talked about fifteen minutes I 1 began to worry said margo living on an air corps salary you have to think of money As we talked I 1 help thinking it was six dollars and a half for every minute and I 1 said wed better hang up then he explained we could talk all we liked because it was a government call 1 I 1 tell her what government it was on said frank she know that the japanese were taking over tomorrow and they would get the bill after that it was wonderful said margo frank was coming through as clearly as if he were in a pay station downtown he told me there would be no more calls for a while and from that I 1 guessed that maybe in a week or so the air corps would be retiring to australia I 1 dream that the japanese were already just off the beach that frank know how he could get out he talked a lot about a letter hed written me months ago from the philippines a few days after the first japanese attack when he thought there was no chance of his getting out alive explaining that while hed meant every word of it yet hed been tired when he wrote it so I 1 was not to take it too seriously TO BE CONTINUED W |
