MEDIOCRE FLYERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 12, 15 January 1943, Page 2

MEDIOCRE FLYERS

JAPS.' "SECOND TEAM" AMERICAN SUPERIORITY (0.C.) SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 28. The Japanese, apparently forced to use their "second team" of fighter pilots in the Solomons, have been losing 10 of their flyers to every one of the United States airmen, according to two Marine Corps aces just returned from the South Pacific battle zone. The estimate was made by Major John L. Smith, 27, of Lexington, Oklahoma, commander of a marine pursuit squadron flying Grumman Wildcats, and Captain Marion E. Carl, 26, of Hubbard, Oregon, his second in command. Together they accounted for 35 Japanese planes, Major Smith being the ranking United States ace with 19 when they left Guadalcanar on October 14. Together with Lieutenant-Colonel Richard C. Mangrum, 35, of Seattle, whose dive-bombing squadron sank a light cruiser and a destroyer and damaged six other ships, they were interviewed before going on to marine headquarters at San Diego. All three have been awarded the Navy Cross for their exploits. Captain Carl, a veteran of Midway, as well as Guadalcanar, said he believes the Japanese threw their "first team" into the first of these actions and suffered such tremendous losses that they had to reply on pilots with little or no combat experience in the Solomons. Had Advantage "When "it came to losses, of- | course," Major Smith added, "we had the advantage, because most of the fighting was over our own (Henderson) field. If one of our pilots had to bail out, there was a pretty good chance he'd land within reach of our positions. If one of our planes was hit —say an oil line broken—the pilot generally could set it down on the field." Though he specified that he was speaking only from hearsay, Smith, who went into the Marine Corps six years ago from the University of Oklahoma, told of two incidents of Japanese atrocities. Japs. Pursue Nun In one case Japanese soldiers pursued a Catholic sister ("she must have been almost 80") half-way across Guadalcanar before a British officer stationed back in the hills was able to rescue her and bring her to his camp. In the other instance, a Japanese soldier, who had worked as a carpenter for the British Government on Tulagi, bayoneted a native policeman in the stomach and then drove the bayonet up through the man's jaw. "Miraculously, that native was still alive and doing well when we left," Smith added. "He also was vowing he'd get that Jap. if it was the last thing he did." Mangrum, in the marines for 14 years, said he can venture no accurate estimate of the present position of United States forces on Guadalcanar, "because things change so rapidly." Asked if he believes the Solomons battle may prove a turning point in the Pacific war, he replied: > "That I can't say. But certainly it is the first offensive by our forces and that should mean something." *