American Valor Quarterly Issue 4 - Autumn 2008 | Page 6

squadrons in the Philippines. We joined them and, more or less, killed in the attack. The ship of course kept moving, so we were
operated as a unit, flying from two converted old World War I far enough away from the bombs that were exploding all over
destroyers all over the place around the Dutch East Indies.
the place. The ship went down bow first, after the first bomb
blew the bow completely off. It was a big ship, six hundred feet
Around this time we began to get information that the Japanese long or so.
that had attacked Pearl Harbor had detailed two carriers to head
to Wake and the other four to come down and attack Darwin. The stern was left above water, so a couple of us climbed back
My mission was to find those carriers, which I did. I ran right up and cut the lifeboats loose, and they splashed down into the
into a big flight of planes – a couple hundred – from the same water. I put my copilot in one while I got in the other, and we
carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor on their way to Darwin. I was went around trying to pick up the remnants of the ship’s crew.
by myself with the crew of my PBY, and nine of the Japanese We got about forty of them out of a crew of what must have
fighters attacked, setting my plane on fire. They were using been about eighty. Some of them were terribly burned and died
incendiary bullets, and they were splashing all over the place – I fairly quickly. Just as soon as we got them picked up, however,
could actually see the bullets.
we got strafed. Everybody jumped out of the boats again, so we
had to pick them all up a second time.
We had no leak proof tanks, and the plane had a fabric tail and
ailerons, so it immediately caugh fire and went down. Fortunately I examined the boat, and it had no water and no compass, but it
for me, the fighters realized that they had better get back to the did have a case of milk and sails. I knew how to sail so we set
bombers to escort them to Darwin. So they didn’t stick around them up and using the Southern Cross, which was sitting up there
to strafe us in the water. When they saw that we were on fire and just like the North Star, I estimated the direction to Darwin. But
going down, they rejoined the rest of the planes and the last time I drifted north and a few nights later, at about midnight, I heard
the surf and we beached the boats.
I saw them they were heading off towards Darwin.
The United States had chartered six merchant ships to take
ammunition to Corregidor along different routes, hoping that at
least one of them would get there. One of these ships – a
Philippine ship – saw me hit the water. Following the dictates of
etiquette at sea, he came over and picked me up – we had a bit
of trouble getting over to the ship because the rubber boats we
had were all full of holes. I was not seriously hurt in the crash,
and could still walk; fortunately, only our radioman ended up
with a real injury, a broken ankle.
We went aboard ship and I immediately went up to talk to the
captain. As soon as I found out that the ship was loaded from
stem to stern with ammo, I told my crew to get to the stern –
that if we were attacked again to watch me and the minute I saw
a dive bomber coming down, I would let them know to jump
over the side.

Australian War Memorial

About 2:30 that afternoon I saw a stream of dive bombers coming
down, so I said, “Jump!” and we all went over except for one
man. He had gotten bored
and gone over to talk
to someone, and we
Japanese attack on Darwin February 19, 1942.
never saw him
again – he was

We had landed on Bathurst Island just off Australia. As soon as
we beached the boats, all of the Filipino kids with us – all of
them about 19, 20, 21 years old – jumped out and ran into the
jungle just as hard as they could go. They had had enough of this
man’s war. I often thought that if I ever have the time, I am going
to go down there and tell them the war is over, because I think
they’re still in that jungle.
The shore we landed on was a gorgeous beach – a white sand
beach, just like sugar. No cigarette butts or Coca-Cola bottles –
just beautiful. I got the idea of building letters in the sand, about
four feet wide and three feet high that said “Water” and
“Medicine.” Fortunately, about four days later an Australian
reconnaissance plane from Darwin flew by. He saw this and
dipped his wings, and dropped a note saying that he would be
back.
He flew back again and dropped several glass bottles of water
which shattered when they hit the sand. I was mad as hell about
it, but then it occurred to me that Australians don’t know anything
about water – they drink beer!
He also had dropped a note saying that they would pick us up at
daylight. So at daylight I looked out in the water and sure enough,
there was an Australian destroyer. It sent in a boat and picked us
up and brought us to the ship headed for Darwin. Well, as soon
as we headed out, a Japanese seaplane flew over and started
dropping bombs on us. The captain of the ship had just
come from Crete in the Mediterranean, which was a hell
of a battle, and he thought that compared to the
Germans, facing the Japanese would be nothing. He was
an old timer, and knew what he was doing. The Japanese

AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY - Autumn 2008 - 6