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125 CHAPTER SIX “I’m All Shot to Hell!” although it had been noisily raining all night, the 20th Pursuit pilots at Koepang woke up refreshed at 0430 on February 5 after their Timor Sea ordeal of the day before. Following breakfast at 0530 and a short briefing from Lieutenant Lane, they went down to the field and preflighted their ships, then were off for their next stop, Denpasar, Bali, at 0600. Again they were following Captain Davis’ B-24A that had guided them from Darwin. Taking off ahead of the bomber was a C-53 transport that had overnighted at Koepang too and was now headed for Soerabaja with a second contingent of the 20th Pursuit’s enlisted men.1 But the pursuiters were down to thirteen ships for this leg of their trip. Bob McWherter couldn’t get his P-40E started. As Butch Hague and the others bade goodbye to McWherter, Hague figured that McWherter’s ship probably would be strafed by Zeros that morning or the next. If not, McWherter would follow with the remaining pilots due in from Darwin.2 For once the air was calm, allowing smooth formation flying, as the pilots began passing over the string of islands beneath their path leading them to Bali, six hundred miles to the west. As it was for the others, it was a relief for Jim Morehead not to be flying over open ocean as they had done during the traumatic trip the day before. He was enjoying the view below: the “lush green islands with their coconut palms, banana plantations, terraced rice fields, and white beaches.”3 But their reverie was broken early in the flight when the B-24A reported that it had spotted four planes, which had ducked into a cloud. Lieutenant Muckley radioed that the unidentified aircraft had been following their ships. There was no question of chasing; they had just enough gas to make it to Bali.4 126 Chapter Six At 0830 Bali came into view, and at 0845 the pursuiters passed over the adjacent island of Lombok. They now broke away from their B-24A mother ship, which descended to five hundred feet for the remainder of its flight to Soerabaja. Unlike the P-40s, it did not need to refuel at Bali.5 At about 09:00 the pursuiters touched down at Denpasar, a sod field lined with coconut palms. Everywhere they looked, they saw people. Some of the native women in their topless dress and regal bearing struck Morehead, for one, as beautiful .6 But they needed to concentrate on refueling their ships for the hop to Soerabaja, two hundred miles further west. Fifty-five-gallon drums of aviation gas had been stacked up nearby for their use, but there was only a single hand pump. One by one the pilots—starting with Lieutenant Lane—taxied their P-40Es up to the drums from their dispersed positions on the field. As a native cranked the pump, each pilot would hold the nozzle in the gas tank of his ship.7 This was going to be a time-consuming operation, Hague and Larry Landry felt, so why not look around a bit in the meantime? After they had refueled their ships, they strolled down to the beach and picked up pieces of coral. Then they had some of the very sweet coffee that the Dutch served.8 As Hague and Landry headed back to the field, Jim Morehead—waiting in last position to refuel his ship—looked up and noticed a plane in the sky, turning away from the airfield. It was just before 1000. He yelled to Lieutenant Lane about it, then joined by his two squadron mates continued drinking juice out of a coconut that natives had cut for them. But now Lane called out that enemy planes were approaching and ordered off all those pilots whose planes had been refueled.9 Lane hurriedly climbed into his ship, fastened up, and led off, with Gene Bound behind him as his wingman. Bill Gallienne and Hague followed, although Hague had not gotten oil for his plane yet. Just below them were Dwight Muckley and his wingman, Bill Turner. Landry and his buddy and wingman Connie Reagan trailed them. On the ground, Paul Gambonini was in the middle of refueling his ship, with Tommy Hayes, Marion Fuchs, George Hynes, and Morehead waiting their turns.10 When Lane and Bound reached five thousand feet, still climbing...

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