Show e A X ja E N AM ILY r ati ita W NUT THE STORY THUS FAR col frank kurtz pilot of 0 a flying fortress tells of that fatal day when the japs struck in the philippines eight of his lerl cn n were killed while fleeing tor for shel r nf I 1 and old 99 with many other forts r I 1 Ms as demolished on the ground after escaping to australia what is left of the squadron flies to java where they go 90 on many missions over the philippines and the java sea the boys in java hear what happened to the marblehead and the houston and morale sags the dutch blow up their ammunition dumps dump and the order comes through to evacuate the little dutch navy fights a losing fight in the dark java collapses mgt 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 be want me to see it understand but it 1 im m 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 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 chev went they traced strafed the jan land the week buster and lloyd are home on furloughs furroughs from the arad forces glad to have you folks call on us again lloyd is a sergeant stationed at venice fla and buster is a pc aci at tucson arizona daniel hayes of bluff was attending to business matters in town friday frank wright was trucking in in dry valley the first of the week cross fire too from jap shore batteries s already landed at last they had set their ugly crooked teeth into the fair white coastline of java jack said however that he could see his bullets taking effect as the japs spread out either diving or being blown off their barges but he said he found he was flying so low that his own propeller was picking up the water splashes of his bullets ahead so he had to pull up just as he did this he noticed his wing man was also pulling up and out to the right and letting his wheels down now he could see his wing man was on fire jack called out to him to bail out quick not to try to come in on the beach but then things were happening to jack so fast he watch what happened elsewhere for he had to pull out for his next pass 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 they bounce out of their planes hurricanes still excited from the strafing party but when we question them they say yes they had done some little damage but it had not been worth it now heres the third flight buzzing in low P this time and the american boys still have their air 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 because the wing man on this flight had been caught in what the other two said was a furious cross fire of beach and barge guns its a word fighter pilots dont use often and had dropped into the sea among the barges 1 I looked atthe P they are so full of holes they should be condemned there is hardly one the dutch would dare take up again we were mere 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 it its s 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 ide his dutch boys are with him what can we say our american boys have fought with them like brothers for weeks were now mak mg ing a dash for safety we cant say what we dont mean but how can we say well hope to see them again when all know we never will or wish them good luck which all know they cant have I 1 stand there tongue tied Anam act is the courageous one the fhe walks forward puts up his hand and says simply without a quaver thanks for all you have done we have tried but we are finished 3 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 Q australia he shakes his head his olace is here now our boys are loaded in the ruck and presently were out on iche main highway headed across lava ava but just then we hear a filiar drone jap dive bombers melling their way into java leyve finally found this field its aly luck they found it bere our boys crowd against the tall tail gate of 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 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 it was two in the morning mot ning when I 1 got major fisher out of bed of the road map we get lost not badly but two or three times we must backtrack then I 1 see well 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 it 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 wristwatch wrist watch hour hand seems to race these tired boys bouncing in that truck trust me the air corps got them in here now the air corps is getting what is left of them out they dont doubt that a big bomber will be baitin waiting g with its door open on the jockstrap runway to take them to australia suppose we get there to find the bomber pilots have waited past the rendezvous hours and then gone on back to australia empty and we look at a vacant field knowing the japs are closing in behind us my watch hand races toward noon and were still hours from jockstrap but I 1 have an idea were not lar 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 can call the colonel and tell him were on our way that those bombers must wait and by all means 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 do I 1 waste more time calling or do we hurry on hoping well get there before they are frightened from the field that seems more sensible so we forge on I 1 the heart to tell them I 1 reach the colonel 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 all the marker you need to find an airdrome at this stage of a war I 1 tell the driver to steer for the smoke and hell find the field and at first it seems all to have been for nothing there are the hangars split wide open six 0 or r 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 I 1 but which we dont want the japs to have all our photographs every f official paper the entire records of the pursuit group for the java and philippine wars it all goes up in those flames on jockstrap field forever except what the few remaining boys standing around that fire can remember of what the others did we even chuck in a few bomb sights that were kicking around for luck and for kindling mostly 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 it 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 con linued frank although we know it all had to cram forward for the takeoff 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 were halfway across the ocean did the gunners leave their turrets I 1 rode up in the pilots compartment and there were at least seven ot 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 find the tittle 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 in peacetime a little airline makes monthly trips up to this field there are no railroads and a sea voyage from melbourne takes weeks so part of us slept in its hangar shack and the rest in the plane that hangar and field reminded me of the middle west in the old barnstorming days of the twenties 1 I sleep the mosquitoes were making 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 ot of australia meets the blue salt desert of thi the sea TO BE CONTINUED aiSS SEII |