大象传媒

This story appears courtesy of and woth thanks to Robert H Allison.

On May 5th one of our TBM Grumman Avengers, piloted by Lieutenant Joe Oliver, was struck in the right wing by a burst from a japanese artillery shell. This burst damaged the right wing making it unsafe to bring aboard the carrier for a landing. The option was to land at Yontan airfield that had been taken from the enemy and was now being used by the Americans. Joe landed safely and was to spend the night at the field with his crew before being picked up by one of the other TBMs from our carrier and returned to the Petrof Bay. The plane remained at Yontan.
Just by coincidence it happened to be the day that the Japanese attacked the airfield with six bombers, each loaded with twenty soldiers. Four of the bombers were shot down before they could land and a fifth crashed on the field. All hundred troops and pilots were killed. The sixth crash landed on the runway where the twenty troops spewed out throwing hand grenades and firing rifles. They succeeded in destroying several American planes before being exterminated by the base Marines. In spite of the fire works, there were no American personnel killed or wounded.

While all this was going on Lieutenant Oliver and his crew, not being equipped to do combat took off for the woods to watch the fire works. The next day Joe and his crew returned to the carrier and were once again back on the flying schedule.

During one of our DSG missions we were given a number from our grid maps and requested to strafe and fire rockets into this area as there was reported to be camouflaged vehicles and other enemy equipment there. We made several runs on the area but were unable to see much of anything because of the camouflaging and the dense jungle. I could see fire and smoke from the area but could not see what was burning. The During one of our DSG missions we were given a number from our grid maps and requested to strafe and fire rockets into this area as there was reported to be camouflaged vehicles and other enemy equipment there. We made several runs on the area but were unable to see much of anything because of the camouflaging and the dense jungle. I could see fire and smoke from the area but could not see what was burning. The The thing that makes the trip interesting were the burial tombs. These tombs were constructed of rock in the side of a hill which we could see from the air. They at first appeared to be some kind of fortification and I have no doubt had received considerable explosive attention. These tombs were quite old and contained the ashes of the local former residents. Wouldn't you know that Wells would have to have one of the urns from one of the tombs for a souvenir. He crawled through a small opening, selected the one he wanted, dumped the ashes and hauled the urn back to the ship. Unfortunately for Wells, Doc Starr tossed the thing over the side of the ship for health and safety reasons.

For a period of eight days during May our carrier and another were assigned to protect a fleet of oil tankers while they cruised north to about 200 miles off the Japanese coast where they were to refuel the "Fast Fleet". On this cruise just at dusk, a Japanese mine came floating through the formation of tankers and just a short distance off our port side. We stood on the flight deck and watched it pass by as a destroyer escort shadowed it. Once astern of the formation of ships, the escort opened fire and exploded it while still in our view.

It was on this cruise with the tankers that we were invaded by a pod of whales too. There were several of them and they were more or less laying on the surface of the water and kind of laced through the formation of ships. Even though they were among a lot of ships, none were hit. The ships didn't change their course nor did the whales.

The object of this escort duty was for the TBM pilots to fly antisubmarine patrols. They were to fly 200 miles out on one course do a 50 mile cross leg and fly back to the ship. On one of these legs there was a very small island held by a small detachment of Japanese soldiers. The island was too small for an airstrip so there were no plans to capture it. Our pilots were told to stay clear as these guys were armed and would shoot. The pilot who got the segment nearest the island was Jim Wells. He had his own ideas. He took the squadron photographer with him and sure enough, he flew over the island. Nothing happened the first pass so he tried for two. Yes indeed! They opened up on him and punched several holes in his plane.

Continued.....
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