October 2, 1944 (4 pages)

NEVADA CITY NUGGET My ah en Nd i a Col. Robert L. Scott Coast Guard Open To Enlistments are now open in the y. S. Coast Guard to seventeen year olds in the rating of apprentice ‘seaman (reserve) according to cG peadquarters announcement received at the loca] OG recruiting office toWNY. RELEASE NEWS FROM DOWNIEVILLE DOWNIEVILLE, Oct. Poget, packer on the Downieville Tanger district, is back from a 494 2—Joseph CHAPTER VI Doug was an ideal flying officer, and it was to him that I first turned for advice on how I should -make myself acquainied with this big airplane. Doug nad learned to fly at the period when I had been instructing. I had taught his class to fly; now the tables were turned and he would have to be the instructor for awhile. Don’t forget that as yet I hadn’t flown a B-17E. . _ Introducing myself to my co-pilot, I said, ‘‘How about showing me how to fly this ship—I want to see how to work these turbos and such.’’ He merely grinned at me in disbelief. “Aw, Colonel,” he said, ‘you can fly the thing—why, you taught me some cockpit instruction by explaining that though I had many thou. Sand hours in PT’s, BT’s, and other trainers, and knew lots about singleeaters and fast twin-engine medium bombers, I knew. nothing about to fly.’”’ I finally got him to give me. started: it would be too late. As we came back towards the last field we. were to land ‘on in the U.S. A., something strange met my sight, ‘something that. made the blood pound a little harder in my temples. There, along the entire beach of Fiorida, was a jagged black line—the ciean sand of Florida’s beaches had been made black and terrible-looking by the oil from many tankers sunk by the Axis submarine war. It gave me a queer feeling, for along the beaches there was also the beached wreckage of several ships. This war was meaning more and more to us as we prepared to shove off for the first stop out of America. Now we were poised for our flight to Puerto Rico. In our two-day wait for technital changes on the engines I worried more than ever, for the other twelve ships were gone and I was getting frantic lest something might change the orders. Fiee i i A ee i, — _M-seouters and junior camp leaders, ! muipped with nécesésary tools is be3 Officers.and members of Ousto. mah Lodge, No. 16, 1OOF, are reJ SERV found dead in bed Friday in bag Mrs. J. Ww. Henry, aliag Molly Me-. cottage of the E: C. Jacobs estate 5 lone is serving a 30 day sentence in. just outside Nevada City, will the county jail, following her arrtst. borne to rest following services toip j and convietion for drunkenness and. morrow morning in the chapel of erf @iurbing the peace. Holmes Funeral Home, at 10 o’clock. . , The biggest dollar you ever gave! re y : % ON /) ey TheV.S,0. \ IN % 2 m. s zi . ¥ a ihe D . ) ie mn. if day. “This marks the first major male recruiting activity in the Coast Guard for almost a year,” stated 'N. g. Johnson, BM, le. «jhe Coast Guard has men on every field of action in this war and needs more,’ Johneon said. “Those of age should enlist at once and join the fight. Boot training is given 11 Government Island, Alameda, Calietalon. for .enlistment are net many—good, health, good charepter, nd at least eight years of schonling are’ required. Before enistment is ‘completed, applicants must furnish birth certificates and “g consent. i AOC may be made at the (oss Guard Recruiting Station, 217 New Federal Building, Sacramento. " WORK DAY AT PAHATSI L. H. Reynolds, chairman of Boy feout camping and activities committee, states that. on October 8th a wiunteer group will undertake severe] projects in a work day at Camp Pahatsi, Tahoe area recreation center for Boy Scouts. A. work party of mile round trip to and from.the Mendocino national forest. Joe worked the Tahoe pack string for ten days on the Mendocino fires, and operated from what is known as. Cabbage ‘Patch. Packing involved transportation of equipment and supplies to varous fire camps that were set up in-such areas as Bloody Rock, and Rattlesnake Creek. Fourteen to 18 mile trips were made to fire camps centered along 36 miles of fire line. Joe reports that 24 head of' pack Stock was imported from Grants Pass, Oregon. One camp held 36 head of pack animals. We understand: that Joe lost poundage juzggling supplies and equipment in the Mendocino heat and smoke. He was dispatched September 14, and returned to Downieville the night of September 24th. ‘ _ Clarence T. Johnson, headquarters guard, was dispatched as assistant camp boss to a fire on the Bloomfield district the evening of September 25. The Bloomfield fire is the latest on the Tahoe, that Zave promise of becoming a major affair. However, control has been reported. A recent inspection of the Calida mill revealed a bustle of businesslike activity. The mill pond is filled to over flowing, stock piles of logs are growing along the logging roads leading to the mill. A tour of the drying yard showed swiftly growing Such planes as this big devil. He showed me the approved method of starting the four engines, when to use the booster switches, how to set the turbos, how to lock the tail wheel—and generally how to pick up that fifty-seven thousand pounds of flying dynamite and take it around the field. that. afternoon, and that night I climbed all over the Fortress, read the entire maintenance manual, and learned from scratch what made the big shigo. for over twentieth landing I felt as if I was ready to start for war. all guns at targets in the everglades, and the cordite from all those roaring fifty calibres gave even the swampy ‘“‘glades’’ a sweet aroma. My gunners were eager to be on the way, and I soon found that they knew exactly what they were doing. her. he stayed in the tail ninety per cent of the time, just to get used to the way to‘handle.the tail turret. I used . to say of*Motley that he just didn’t care where he was going—he wanted to see where he had been. : Sergeant Aaltonen, the engineer; was charged with keeping the engines functioning properly, and in general the entire enlisted personnel was under him. He was a diligent Finn and one of the bravest men I have ever seen. nen now, standing there behind my seat and the co-pilot’s seat, unperI flew it for two landings o. Next day I soloed it ur hours, and after the Then we tested everything—fired Private Motley was my tail gunDuring the entire trip I think I can see Aaltoquested to attend lodge Tuesday eve‘° 9 DOGM Gordon C. Bennett. A large attendance is desired. Refreshments. Visiting brothers welcome. H. R. Douglas, NG. Wm. H. Richards, R. 8rd. Official visit of] tinper is excellent. Obsequies Held For Late William Criss SERVES 30 DAYS stocks of fresh fir and pine lumber. The grade of lumber being sawed from the virgin stand of Brandy City The late William Criss who was YOUR COMMUNITY WAR FUND . posite of the tail gunner—he never _ervonng oe NATIONAL WAR FUND _. OCTOBER 9 NOVEMBER 11, 1944 NOTICE TO TAXPAYERS Tones of the City of Nevada for the year 1944 are now :and payable. If not paid before 5 p. m. Ghar 9th, 1944 a peranty of 10 per cent will be addOffice hours 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. on Monday, SAM HOOPER, Ex-officio Tax Collector. . e NEVADA COUNTY LUMBER COMPANY . “THE PIONEBR LUMBER YARD” turbed in the roughest of storms, from the violent currents of the equatorial front of the Hamadans to the Shimals of Africa and Arabia. Eternally watching the many instruments, wating to correct the slightest trouble even before it happened. When we were lost ever trackless seas he was never ruffled, but ready at all times with information as to fuel consumption and the best RPM’s for cruising. Once when. he was told that we would probably have to .land in the Atlantic there was no change in the expression on his face; he simply began to move the provisions to a point where they could be quickly placed in the rubber boats. His job in case of attack was to man the top turret with its Sergeant Baldbridge was the head radioman. His secondary duty. was to handle one of the waist guns back aft of midships. Corporal Cobb was second radioman; he would leave that to enter the lower turret. The other waist gun on this flight was to be handled by a radio officer. Lieutenant Hershey. — : The navigator was a Lieutenant whom I'll call. Jack. He was a nervy kid who liked his job. I know that after our mission he made many. raids as navigator to. bomb the Japs in Rangoon. We tested the bombardier and the ‘bombsight, too, before we started the flight. Lean, lanky, six-footthree Bombardier George—I never did see how he managed to wiggle into the nose of the Fortress. I can see hing there now, tense over his sight, waiting for the bombs to go—evér with the cross-hairs on the target. George had a couple of fifty ealibre guns up there in the nose with him, too. He was just the opdid know where he had been but always got there first.And so the eight of them made up my crew—eight good soldiers who had volunteered and who wanted to hurt the enemy. None of them worried about whether or not he’d get home—for he knew of bigger things that had to be ‘done. We had to test everything, for it was over sixteen thousand miles to Japan the way we were having to go; there couldn't be a slip-up on this mission, and so we didn’t take a chance. When finally all was set I was about nervous: enough to bite my nails off, for my ship was to be last to leave the States. I had worried every minute of the time we had been waiting for fear that some brass hat would get my orders changed before I could get on my way. The other twelve ships had gone, with Colonel Haynes leading in his B-24. They all made their way to the East separately, with instructions to meet in Karachi, India, for final orders. And Karachi was 12,000 miles away. As sooh as we could leave the West coast of Florida, we loaded up and crossed the State. Going on East over West Palm Beach, I rang the alarm bell, putting all men on the alert, and we dropped dewn, with the crew firing at the whitecaps out over the Gulf Stream. The guns were working fine but we couldn’t take a chance." I had to learn right now whether the crew could work as a team, for once we deft the ground I realized very quickgown nally, after having to wait during days of perfect weather, we took off in reavy rain for Borinquen Field, P:R: ine take-off and first two hours of the flight were ‘‘instrument,”’ as we were flying through a ~ moderate tropical front. We finally broke into clearing weather over Long Island Key, British West Indies. This was on March 31, 1942, Just after noon we sighted Hispaniola at.the point of Cape Frances Viejo. Sergeant Aaltonen passed out some hot coffee from the thermos jugs. Our spirits were high, for now that we had passed the bad weather this was like a picnic. The -big ship was handling like a. singleseater. mysterious Hispaniola, crossed Mona Passage, and landed at Borinquen Field at 15:07, just three minutes off our E.T.A; (Estimated Time of Arrival). Two of our flight's Fortresses were waiting in Puerto Rico for minor repairs, so we felt a little less lonesome. Just in case. the authorities . in Washington decided to stop the last ship or the last two ships in wees Foe Scott et seperier oMicers. Gen. Chennault. F our mission, I got my crew up long before daylight néxt morning, and Wwe soon were heading South for Trinidad, ahead of the other two. The weather was perfect, with scattered clouds and a light tail wind, and we flew low, looking for enemy submarines. Thirty miles West of Martinique we thought we saw one, ‘but could not verify. We passed. over the Grenadines near St. George, Grenada, and soon saw the ‘hills of Trinidad rising out of the ~ With our ship serviced and ready . for a very early morning take-off, we now took the most dangerous ride we experienced on the trip. This was a trip into Port of Spain in a combat car. It seemed to me that the natives just waited in side ‘roads to try and run into us in blind areas . where we could not see them. Besides, it has always seemed to me that drivers who take pilots from their ships into towns religiously try to show them how to turn corners on one wheel, and to. show that they can easily drive into said town at the same average speed that the pilot could fly, In the city we picked up a case of Scotch for medicinal purposes— . the purifying of water and snakebites. We joked about the recipes on. the way back. I recommended one cup of Scotch to a jigger of water—it works. A real night take-off from Trinidad—we were airborne in the darkness at 5:20 a. m. As the wheels 4 ly how great a load we were lifting. This was the first time we had ‘taken off with full load of fuel, and it seemed to me that I almost had to break iny arms to keep the . tail from going all the way back to the jungle—for all pra¢tical purposes the Fortress tried a logp. (It must have been that case of Scotch, added suddenly to the other sixty thousand pounds.) Finally we got the ship rigged properly and climbed on top of the clouds at eight thousand feet. Later we had to go higher to keep from going through the heavy tropical thunderheads; . with our overload, neither Doug nor I wanted to risk the turbulence that we knew was there. —. % As-the sun came up we could look bash holes at intervals and see the d Atlantic near the Guianas. There was a thick tropical haze from the base of the clouds down to the water, giving it all an eery appearance. Later on, the breaks I saw the mouth of a big river emptying Northedst into the sea. It was the Rio Marani. which . We turned from the dark,-ments to spring open—and out carke the heavy, five-man boat. At the . ] “nap that afternoon, I -thatch-roofed dining hall for good and tired from the extra tension I . divides French and Dutch ‘Guiana, and it reminded me that in 1937 I -had made a flight up this same jungle stream, looking in vain for the lost pilot, Paul Redfern. Over Devil’s Island at 9:20, I saw by our chart that we. were only five degrees North of the equatér: Coming down lower to look at the French the temperature was comfortable on top of the haze at six thousand feet, down in the soup neat the water we had difficulty breathing. Passing on over another river identified as the Rio Oyapok,’ we went out over the Guianas into Brazil at 9:55 a.m. Cruising low at eight. hundred feet, we got some _ unforgetable views of the steaming Brazilian jungle. fs Looking” out to sea, we noticed that the blue color already was changing to the murkiness of the Amazon, though we were about:a hundred miles from its mouth. Flying low, I noted that the hump of Brazil near the coast was flat and green and hot as hell—temperature ninety-six and humidity about ninety-nine per cent at 10:55 a. m. We reached the mouth of the greatest river in the world at 11:35 E.W.T. Here the width of the Amazon is about one hundred and fifty. miles. ~Boys will have their fun too, no matter if you are flying low over the greatest of rivers. As we crossed the equator—old Zero Degrees Lat. “at 11:56 a. m., at West Longitude 49 degrees 32 minutés—I saw those of my-crew who had. been in the cups of water and drop them on the heads of those. who were uninitiated, thus making them subjects of the sacred realm of Jupiter Rex as identified from the realm of Neptune Rex on the sea. We crossed the Amaover Bahia Santa Rosa to Mixiana Islast island in the mouth of the river is one hundred miles wide and single ranch than any other.ranch in the wor!d. Soon we came to Rio Para, crossed it in a thunderstorm, were over Belem, where we landed in the blackness of a tropical rain at 12:40 E.W.T. er Qn April 4, we left Belem for Natal at 6:55 a. m., and climbed to much of the cumulus as possible. We had to skirt one great anvil-head reaching up into the sub-stratosphere near Bahia San Luiz. This storm covered about fifty miles, but ‘we got around it without going into its turbulence. As we went on ‘South of the equator the haze diminished gradually and the country became dry,: making us think we were over western Texas. We landed at Natal, our jump-off point for gh se Atlantic crossing, at 12:25 For we were not to be able to spend the night at Natal. Our Tun from miles, then the crossing of ninetee: hundred miles to Liberia, plus the’ Pan-American base on the Gold Coast—this last almost nine hundred miles—had to be made with-. make in one day. Fe ready for the trip, then went to the teen heavy bombers. One penal colony, we found that although “<“BRUG STORE New “N. C. H. S.” Binders Zipper Leather Binders, New Pencil Boxes, Mechanical Drawing Sets TELEPHONE 100 R. E. Harris THE, REXALL DRUG STORE iF South latitudes before take paper ‘ zon, from just West of Point Grossa . : land, thence to Isla da Marajo. This . ‘ reputedly has more cattle on the . ten thousand feet in order to top as . This was to be a real day’s flight. . Belem to Natal of nine hundred . § run down the hump of Africa to a . out stops, except short ones for fuel. . {]/ . For all practical purposes, then, we jf]. had thirty-seven hundred miles to F. We got the big ship serviced and . ’: Ferry Command Hotel. There we . ? found two more crews of our thir: of these had turned back the at before with one engine out. other, piloted by Col. Gerry had nearly come to grief on the way in from Belem. The rubber life-rafts in the Forts are carried in two compartments where the wing of the B-17 joins the big fuselage. This is to facilitate their automatic . release upon contact. with. the -water should the ship have to land at sea. They are of course tied to the airplane with strong manila rope, and it — this hemp that the present tale hangs. In the t down the coast some atten had caused. one of these compartspeed of two hundred miles an hour with which it struck tail as it went back on its rope slipstream of two engines, = had Gerry Mason managed the Fort and his crew-of ten to Natal. : Just the same, in my attempted grinned at the thought that we in old “Hades Ab Altar’’ were passing ahead of two more ships of the flight. Boy, I dreamed, they'll have a hell of a . job -getting me back there into the training ; We climbed out of the Fortress and stepped upon Africa at 11:05 G.M.T. Our crossing from Natal . had been made in thirteen hours. Leaving the natives at work undér Royal Air Force bosses, we hurried on to Operations, where we arranged for clearance down the . coast. Then we were led into a hot food. If hadn’t been so hungry had been subjected to, I think I'd have ‘gawked”’ at those wild-looking tribesmen who were se In one night we'd left the South America, and here we having our plates brought » black bush Negroes with their ears and noses, jabbering away in a West Coast dialect. To them} we were “Bwana,” the food was .

NEVADA CITY NUGGET My ah en Nd i a Col. Robert L. Scott Coast Guard Open To Enlistments are now open in the y. S. Coast Guard to seventeen year olds in the rating of apprentice ‘seaman (reserve) according to cG peadquarters announcement received at the loca] OG recruiting office toWNY. RELEASE NEWS FROM DOWNIEVILLE DOWNIEVILLE, Oct. Poget, packer on the Downieville Tanger district, is back from a 494 2—Joseph CHAPTER VI Doug was an ideal flying officer, and it was to him that I first turned for advice on how I should -make myself acquainied with this big airplane. Doug nad learned to fly at the period when I had been instructing. I had taught his class to fly; now the tables were turned and he would have to be the instructor for awhile. Don’t forget that as yet I hadn’t flown a B-17E. . _ Introducing myself to my co-pilot, I said, ‘‘How about showing me how to fly this ship—I want to see how to work these turbos and such.’’ He merely grinned at me in disbelief. “Aw, Colonel,” he said, ‘you can fly the thing—why, you taught me some cockpit instruction by explaining that though I had many thou. Sand hours in PT’s, BT’s, and other trainers, and knew lots about singleeaters and fast twin-engine medium bombers, I knew. nothing about to fly.’”’ I finally got him to give me. started: it would be too late. As we came back towards the last field we. were to land ‘on in the U.S. A., something strange met my sight, ‘something that. made the blood pound a little harder in my temples. There, along the entire beach of Fiorida, was a jagged black line—the ciean sand of Florida’s beaches had been made black and terrible-looking by the oil from many tankers sunk by the Axis submarine war. It gave me a queer feeling, for along the beaches there was also the beached wreckage of several ships. This war was meaning more and more to us as we prepared to shove off for the first stop out of America. Now we were poised for our flight to Puerto Rico. In our two-day wait for technital changes on the engines I worried more than ever, for the other twelve ships were gone and I was getting frantic lest something might change the orders. Fiee i i A ee i, — _M-seouters and junior camp leaders, ! muipped with nécesésary tools is be3 Officers.and members of Ousto. mah Lodge, No. 16, 1OOF, are reJ SERV found dead in bed Friday in bag Mrs. J. Ww. Henry, aliag Molly Me-. cottage of the E: C. Jacobs estate 5 lone is serving a 30 day sentence in. just outside Nevada City, will the county jail, following her arrtst. borne to rest following services toip j and convietion for drunkenness and. morrow morning in the chapel of erf @iurbing the peace. Holmes Funeral Home, at 10 o’clock. . , The biggest dollar you ever gave! re y : % ON /) ey TheV.S,0. \ IN % 2 m. s zi . ¥ a ihe D . ) ie mn. if day. “This marks the first major male recruiting activity in the Coast Guard for almost a year,” stated 'N. g. Johnson, BM, le. «jhe Coast Guard has men on every field of action in this war and needs more,’ Johneon said. “Those of age should enlist at once and join the fight. Boot training is given 11 Government Island, Alameda, Calietalon. for .enlistment are net many—good, health, good charepter, nd at least eight years of schonling are’ required. Before enistment is ‘completed, applicants must furnish birth certificates and “g consent. i AOC may be made at the (oss Guard Recruiting Station, 217 New Federal Building, Sacramento. " WORK DAY AT PAHATSI L. H. Reynolds, chairman of Boy feout camping and activities committee, states that. on October 8th a wiunteer group will undertake severe] projects in a work day at Camp Pahatsi, Tahoe area recreation center for Boy Scouts. A. work party of mile round trip to and from.the Mendocino national forest. Joe worked the Tahoe pack string for ten days on the Mendocino fires, and operated from what is known as. Cabbage ‘Patch. Packing involved transportation of equipment and supplies to varous fire camps that were set up in-such areas as Bloody Rock, and Rattlesnake Creek. Fourteen to 18 mile trips were made to fire camps centered along 36 miles of fire line. Joe reports that 24 head of' pack Stock was imported from Grants Pass, Oregon. One camp held 36 head of pack animals. We understand: that Joe lost poundage juzggling supplies and equipment in the Mendocino heat and smoke. He was dispatched September 14, and returned to Downieville the night of September 24th. ‘ _ Clarence T. Johnson, headquarters guard, was dispatched as assistant camp boss to a fire on the Bloomfield district the evening of September 25. The Bloomfield fire is the latest on the Tahoe, that Zave promise of becoming a major affair. However, control has been reported. A recent inspection of the Calida mill revealed a bustle of businesslike activity. The mill pond is filled to over flowing, stock piles of logs are growing along the logging roads leading to the mill. A tour of the drying yard showed swiftly growing Such planes as this big devil. He showed me the approved method of starting the four engines, when to use the booster switches, how to set the turbos, how to lock the tail wheel—and generally how to pick up that fifty-seven thousand pounds of flying dynamite and take it around the field. that. afternoon, and that night I climbed all over the Fortress, read the entire maintenance manual, and learned from scratch what made the big shigo. for over twentieth landing I felt as if I was ready to start for war. all guns at targets in the everglades, and the cordite from all those roaring fifty calibres gave even the swampy ‘“‘glades’’ a sweet aroma. My gunners were eager to be on the way, and I soon found that they knew exactly what they were doing. her. he stayed in the tail ninety per cent of the time, just to get used to the way to‘handle.the tail turret. I used . to say of*Motley that he just didn’t care where he was going—he wanted to see where he had been. : Sergeant Aaltonen, the engineer; was charged with keeping the engines functioning properly, and in general the entire enlisted personnel was under him. He was a diligent Finn and one of the bravest men I have ever seen. nen now, standing there behind my seat and the co-pilot’s seat, unperI flew it for two landings o. Next day I soloed it ur hours, and after the Then we tested everything—fired Private Motley was my tail gunDuring the entire trip I think I can see Aaltoquested to attend lodge Tuesday eve‘° 9 DOGM Gordon C. Bennett. A large attendance is desired. Refreshments. Visiting brothers welcome. H. R. Douglas, NG. Wm. H. Richards, R. 8rd. Official visit of] tinper is excellent. Obsequies Held For Late William Criss SERVES 30 DAYS stocks of fresh fir and pine lumber. The grade of lumber being sawed from the virgin stand of Brandy City The late William Criss who was YOUR COMMUNITY WAR FUND . posite of the tail gunner—he never _ervonng oe NATIONAL WAR FUND _.. OCTOBER 9 NOVEMBER 11, 1944 NOTICE TO TAXPAYERS Tones of the City of Nevada for the year 1944 are now :and payable. If not paid before 5 p. m. Ghar 9th, 1944 a peranty of 10 per cent will be addOffice hours 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. on Monday, SAM HOOPER, Ex-officio Tax Collector. . e NEVADA COUNTY LUMBER COMPANY . “THE PIONEBR LUMBER YARD” turbed in the roughest of storms, from the violent currents of the equatorial front of the Hamadans to the Shimals of Africa and Arabia. Eternally watching the many instruments, wating to correct the slightest trouble even before it happened. When we were lost ever trackless seas he was never ruffled, but ready at all times with information as to fuel consumption and the best RPM’s for cruising. Once when. he was told that we would probably have to .land in the Atlantic there was no change in the expression on his face; he simply began to move the provisions to a point where they could be quickly placed in the rubber boats. His job in case of attack was to man the top turret with its Sergeant Baldbridge was the head radioman. His secondary duty. was to handle one of the waist guns back aft of midships. Corporal Cobb was second radioman; he would leave that to enter the lower turret. The other waist gun on this flight was to be handled by a radio officer. Lieutenant Hershey. — : The navigator was a Lieutenant whom I'll call. Jack. He was a nervy kid who liked his job. I know that after our mission he made many. raids as navigator to. bomb the Japs in Rangoon. We tested the bombardier and the ‘bombsight, too, before we started the flight. Lean, lanky, six-footthree Bombardier George—I never did see how he managed to wiggle into the nose of the Fortress. I can see hing there now, tense over his sight, waiting for the bombs to go—evér with the cross-hairs on the target. George had a couple of fifty ealibre guns up there in the nose with him, too. He was just the opdid know where he had been but always got there first.And so the eight of them made up my crew—eight good soldiers who had volunteered and who wanted to hurt the enemy. None of them worried about whether or not he’d get home—for he knew of bigger things that had to be ‘done. We had to test everything, for it was over sixteen thousand miles to Japan the way we were having to go; there couldn't be a slip-up on this mission, and so we didn’t take a chance. When finally all was set I was about nervous: enough to bite my nails off, for my ship was to be last to leave the States. I had worried every minute of the time we had been waiting for fear that some brass hat would get my orders changed before I could get on my way. The other twelve ships had gone, with Colonel Haynes leading in his B-24. They all made their way to the East separately, with

instructions to meet in Karachi, India, for final orders. And Karachi was 12,000 miles away. As sooh as we could leave the West coast of Florida, we loaded up and crossed the State. Going on East over West Palm Beach, I rang the alarm bell, putting all men on the alert, and we dropped dewn, with the crew firing at the whitecaps out over the Gulf Stream. The guns were working fine but we couldn’t take a chance." I had to learn right now whether the crew could work as a team, for once we deft the ground I realized very quickgown nally, after having to wait during days of perfect weather, we took off in reavy rain for Borinquen Field, P:R: ine take-off and first two hours of the flight were ‘‘instrument,”’ as we were flying through a ~ moderate tropical front. We finally broke into clearing weather over Long Island Key, British West Indies. This was on March 31, 1942, Just after noon we sighted Hispaniola at.the point of Cape Frances Viejo. Sergeant Aaltonen passed out some hot coffee from the thermos jugs. Our spirits were high, for now that we had passed the bad weather this was like a picnic. The -big ship was handling like a. singleseater. mysterious Hispaniola, crossed Mona Passage, and landed at Borinquen Field at 15:07, just three minutes off our E.T.A; (Estimated Time of Arrival). Two of our flight's Fortresses were waiting in Puerto Rico for minor repairs, so we felt a little less lonesome. Just in case. the authorities . in Washington decided to stop the last ship or the last two ships in wees Foe Scott et seperier oMicers. Gen. Chennault. F our mission, I got my crew up long before daylight néxt morning, and Wwe soon were heading South for Trinidad, ahead of the other two. The weather was perfect, with scattered clouds and a light tail wind, and we flew low, looking for enemy submarines. Thirty miles West of Martinique we thought we saw one, ‘but could not verify. We passed. over the Grenadines near St. George, Grenada, and soon saw the ‘hills of Trinidad rising out of the ~ With our ship serviced and ready . for a very early morning take-off, we now took the most dangerous ride we experienced on the trip. This was a trip into Port of Spain in a combat car. It seemed to me that the natives just waited in side ‘roads to try and run into us in blind areas . where we could not see them. Besides, it has always seemed to me that drivers who take pilots from their ships into towns religiously try to show them how to turn corners on one wheel, and to. show that they can easily drive into said town at the same average speed that the pilot could fly, In the city we picked up a case of Scotch for medicinal purposes— . the purifying of water and snakebites. We joked about the recipes on. the way back. I recommended one cup of Scotch to a jigger of water—it works. A real night take-off from Trinidad—we were airborne in the darkness at 5:20 a. m. As the wheels 4 ly how great a load we were lifting. This was the first time we had ‘taken off with full load of fuel, and it seemed to me that I almost had to break iny arms to keep the . tail from going all the way back to the jungle—for all pra¢tical purposes the Fortress tried a logp. (It must have been that case of Scotch, added suddenly to the other sixty thousand pounds.) Finally we got the ship rigged properly and climbed on top of the clouds at eight thousand feet. Later we had to go higher to keep from going through the heavy tropical thunderheads; . with our overload, neither Doug nor I wanted to risk the turbulence that we knew was there. —. % As-the sun came up we could look bash holes at intervals and see the d Atlantic near the Guianas. There was a thick tropical haze from the base of the clouds down to the water, giving it all an eery appearance. Later on, the breaks I saw the mouth of a big river emptying Northedst into the sea. It was the Rio Marani. which . We turned from the dark,-ments to spring open—and out carke the heavy, five-man boat. At the . ] “nap that afternoon, I -thatch-roofed dining hall for good and tired from the extra tension I . divides French and Dutch ‘Guiana, and it reminded me that in 1937 I -had made a flight up this same jungle stream, looking in vain for the lost pilot, Paul Redfern. Over Devil’s Island at 9:20, I saw by our chart that we. were only five degrees North of the equatér: Coming down lower to look at the French the temperature was comfortable on top of the haze at six thousand feet, down in the soup neat the water we had difficulty breathing. Passing on over another river identified as the Rio Oyapok,’ we went out over the Guianas into Brazil at 9:55 a.m. Cruising low at eight. hundred feet, we got some _ unforgetable views of the steaming Brazilian jungle. fs Looking” out to sea, we noticed that the blue color already was changing to the murkiness of the Amazon, though we were about:a hundred miles from its mouth. Flying low, I noted that the hump of Brazil near the coast was flat and green and hot as hell—temperature ninety-six and humidity about ninety-nine per cent at 10:55 a. m. We reached the mouth of the greatest river in the world at 11:35 E.W.T. Here the width of the Amazon is about one hundred and fifty. miles. ~Boys will have their fun too, no matter if you are flying low over the greatest of rivers. As we crossed the equator—old Zero Degrees Lat. “at 11:56 a. m., at West Longitude 49 degrees 32 minutés—I saw those of my-crew who had. been in the cups of water and drop them on the heads of those. who were uninitiated, thus making them subjects of the sacred realm of Jupiter Rex as identified from the realm of Neptune Rex on the sea. We crossed the Amaover Bahia Santa Rosa to Mixiana Islast island in the mouth of the river is one hundred miles wide and single ranch than any other.ranch in the wor!d. Soon we came to Rio Para, crossed it in a thunderstorm, were over Belem, where we landed in the blackness of a tropical rain at 12:40 E.W.T. er Qn April 4, we left Belem for Natal at 6:55 a. m., and climbed to much of the cumulus as possible. We had to skirt one great anvil-head reaching up into the sub-stratosphere near Bahia San Luiz. This storm covered about fifty miles, but ‘we got around it without going into its turbulence. As we went on ‘South of the equator the haze diminished gradually and the country became dry,: making us think we were over western Texas. We landed at Natal, our jump-off point for gh se Atlantic crossing, at 12:25 For we were not to be able to spend the night at Natal. Our Tun from miles, then the crossing of ninetee: hundred miles to Liberia, plus the’ Pan-American base on the Gold Coast—this last almost nine hundred miles—had to be made with-. make in one day. Fe ready for the trip, then went to the teen heavy bombers. One penal colony, we found that although “<“BRUG STORE New “N. C. H. S.” Binders Zipper Leather Binders, New Pencil Boxes, Mechanical Drawing Sets TELEPHONE 100 R. E. Harris THE, REXALL DRUG STORE iF South latitudes before take paper ‘ zon, from just West of Point Grossa . : land, thence to Isla da Marajo. This . ‘ reputedly has more cattle on the . ten thousand feet in order to top as . This was to be a real day’s flight. . Belem to Natal of nine hundred . § run down the hump of Africa to a . out stops, except short ones for fuel. . {]/ . For all practical purposes, then, we jf]. had thirty-seven hundred miles to F. We got the big ship serviced and . ’: Ferry Command Hotel. There we . ? found two more crews of our thir: of these had turned back the at before with one engine out. other, piloted by Col. Gerry had nearly come to grief on the way in from Belem. The rubber life-rafts in the Forts are carried in two compartments where the wing of the B-17 joins the big fuselage. This is to facilitate their automatic . release upon contact. with. the -water should the ship have to land at sea. They are of course tied to the airplane with strong manila rope, and it — this hemp that the present tale hangs. In the t down the coast some atten had caused. one of these compartspeed of two hundred miles an hour with which it struck tail as it went back on its rope slipstream of two engines, = had Gerry Mason managed the Fort and his crew-of ten to Natal. : Just the same, in my attempted grinned at the thought that we in old “Hades Ab Altar’’ were passing ahead of two more ships of the flight. Boy, I dreamed, they'll have a hell of a . job -getting me back there into the training ; We climbed out of the Fortress and stepped upon Africa at 11:05 G.M.T. Our crossing from Natal . had been made in thirteen hours. Leaving the natives at work undér Royal Air Force bosses, we hurried on to Operations, where we arranged for clearance down the . coast. Then we were led into a hot food. If hadn’t been so hungry had been subjected to, I think I'd have ‘gawked”’ at those wild-looking tribesmen who were se In one night we'd left the South America, and here we having our plates brought » black bush Negroes with their ears and noses, jabbering away in a West Coast dialect. To them} we were “Bwana,” the food was .