Into the Teeth of the Tiger by Donald S. Lopez Sr

Author:Donald S. Lopez, Sr. [Lopez, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58834-374-1
Publisher: Smithsonian
Published: 2020-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

12

FIRE AND

FALL BACK

June continued just as May had ended—with missions and more missions. On June 2 I flew three dive-bombing and strafing missions of two and a half hours each against Japanese troops and equipment in the town of Tsungyang. There seemed to be more and better targets on each successive mission, and we were causing extensive damage.

The next afternoon there was a bizarre incident reminiscent of the Chinese Air Force visits. The 76th Fighter Squadron, equipped with P-51s, had a detachment operating in our area from Lingling, about thirty minutes south of us. They had been having trouble with the wing bomb racks on their Mustangs. Often they could not get one of the bombs to release in the air, only to have it drop off on landing when the wheels contacted the runway. Without our knowledge, their CO had told them that if they couldn’t shake off the bomb in flight, they should make a low approach to Hengyang and bounce their wheels on the runway in the hope of causing the bomb to fall off. We were baffled when a Mustang dropped out of a homebound flight over Hengyang and began letting down. He approached the runway from the north, opposite to our usual landing direction, let down to within a few feet of the runway, and then pushed the stick forward to bounce his wheels. His actions were letter perfect, except for one minor detail. He had forgotten to lower his wheels. The prop ripped off and went flying off to the side of the runway, and the engine sounded as though it were coming apart. The Mustang came skidding down the middle of the runway, following the bouncing 500-pound demolition bomb that had been dislodged by the impact. As we saw the bomb approaching, we all broke for the ditch in back of the alert shack. One of our smaller sergeants couldn’t get through the windows or doors of the alert shack because of the press of bodies with the same idea. He solved the problem by running through the wall. The interlaced bamboo walls were extremely tough, and I’m sure they would have stopped a jeep. Such is the propulsive power of panic that he didn’t even remember going through. The bomb did not explode because the arming propeller on the nose bent on impact with the ground and could not spin off and arm the fuse. It was some time before the 76th pilot lived down that colossal goof, performed in front of an entire rival squadron.

In another week of continued multiple missions, we lost several more pilots, one of whom, Lieutenant Noonan, spun in on final approach. He tried too tight a turn at low airspeed and snapped into a spin too low to recover. Also, our planes were in need of more maintenance than could be accomplished in the short intervals between missions. The ground crews worked at night to keep up but were handicapped by the poor lighting and by their own weariness, since they worked all day as well.

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