GAVE IT “THE WORKS”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 29 September 1943, Page 5

GAVE IT “THE WORKS”

PILOT SNATCHED FROM JAPS “An unarmed American training pic nc swept down in movie-thriller fashion to snatch from death a stranded P-40 fighter pilot who was holding out alone against Japanese ground fire in Japanese-occupied Burma, where he had landed, lost and out of gasoline,” states a recent report to the “New York Times.” “While United States fighter planes patrolled overhead Lieutenant Ira Sussky, 23, of Little Rock, Ark., set down his trainer plane in a rutted rice field and took off the stranded man. Lieutenant Melvin Kimball. 26, of Providence, R. I. L eutenant Kimball had been aground for three hours within a few hundred yards of a Japanese field headquarters. “In the headquarters control room the loudspeaker had suddenly sputtered: ‘Do you see what I see? It’s one of our P-40’s on tin ground.’ “It was Captain Charles Colwell, 28, of Park River, N.D., radioing to his partner on a routine reconnaissance ovc" enemy territory. “The men in the control room grew tense. Colonel Hamer L. Sander, 38, of Houston, Texas, ordered out a trainer plane to attempt a rescue and a transport plane to parachute gasoline tins to the stranded P-40 on the chance that it was merely out of fuel. “Checking with Captain Colwell, who gave the F-40’s position, Colonel Sander learned it was one of a formation of former American Volunteer Group flying from China and apparently had landed rbout 100 miles east of the Indian frontier. ‘As the trainer and the transport were made ready Colonel Sander ordered a formation of P-40’s to escort them, to patrol over the stranded plane and to machine-gun any Japanese who attempted to reach it. “As the planes took off Major Howard Wright, 27, of Houston, Texas, operations officer, radioed them: ‘Drop this message to the pilot: Gasoline on way to be dropped from DC-3. Wave your arms if fuel only is needed. If unable to take off, destroy plane when PT arrives.’ “The DC was the transport, the PT the trainer. “The commanding officer of the fighter escort radioed: ‘PT landed O.K.’ “A few minutes later another pilot flashed: ‘Lc«ks like PT stuck. Right wheel deep. Just rolling around.’ “But a minute later the rescue had been effected. “ ‘There she goes—she’s off,’ came the message. “The room had filled with officers and men, and a cheer went up. Operations Officer Wright ordered: ‘All ships now give the P-40 the works.' “T think we’ve given it the works,’ came the reply. ‘She’s burning like hell.’”