Seven Died

The bombing mission was long and risky: a 2,100-mile flight to hit the Jap-held nickel port of Pombelaa on Buton Island. Eleven men rode to battle in the big 6-24 Liberator bomber "Golden Gator," but only four lived to see their North Australian base again. Navigator Lieut. Robert Jones had tears in his eyes as he told Chicago Tribune Correspondent

Arthur Veysey the story of the "Golden Gator's" last fight.*

Four ships had bombed the target, then headed home in a tight diamond formation. Fourteen Jap fighters jumped them, shot down the win ship "Fyrtle Myrtle" (socalled because one of its crew was a new father, another expectant). Then the Zeros shot out one of "Golden Gator's" engines; the pilot, Captain Frederick S. Hinze Jr., dived the ship into a cloud.

"We got jumped by more Zeros--at least ten of them--and maybe twelve," Lieut. Jones said. "Our gunners really went to work and such shooting you never did see. In 40 minutes I saw three Zeros explode and five more crash into the sea."

Death Battle. The "Golden Gator" lost another engine, and a third was stalling. Captain Hinze dived sharply to windmill the engine back into action, skimming so low over a small island that the tail took a chunk out of a tree. The "Golden Gator" climbed hopefully again, but this time twin-engined Jap fighters attacked.

"All we had was our top gun and 25 rounds of ammunition. Johnny Wine used that in one burst. We were a dead duck.

"A bullet got Wine in the head while he was still at his gun. A 20-mm. shell laid open the skipper's cheek. The nose gunner came back to help but a bullet hit the generator and it exploded and he died in the arms of Sergeant Howard Collett. Collett got out his Bible and began to read out loud: 'God so loved the world, that He gave . . .' Then a bullet hit Collett in the stomach.

"I was between the skipper and copilot. The cockpit was a mass of gore--I never saw such a sight, blood everywhere. The copilot was hit in both legs and while I was applying tourniquets to him, a 20-mm. hit the skipper in the left ankle and carried away his foot. But the copilot's controls had been shot out so the skipper had to fly her with one foot.

"I don't see how he kept on. He never lost his smile either. I was putting a tourniquet on his stump when shrapnel cut up his hands. Some of it hit me, but the skipper took the brunt."

Death Blow. "The skipper said he was going to set her down on the sea, and for me to open an escape hatch. The Jap came in again. His guns blazed. A bullet hit the skipper in the chest but he still kept the plane under control. Somehow, with one foot shot away, part of his face blown in, his hands a mass of bloody flesh and a hole straight through his chest, he did set the 'Golden Gator' down on the water. ... I picked myself up and reached for the skipper. But he was dead. His job was done."

The four survivors managed to get two life rafts inflated, then collapsed, unable to move or help each other. On the second day searching bombers sighted them; that evening an Australian Catalina patrol flying boat rescued them.

*Material copyrighted 1944 by Chicago Tribune, Daily News Syndicate.

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