Ack Ack in the Pacific

Flak, Volume 1, Issue 5, 14 May 1943, Page 6

Ack Ack in the Pacific

(From ’FLAK’S” Special Correspondent.)

It was a dismal Monday morning, and a very early one. at that, when the boys of “N” force sighted their destination.

A little island half hidden in rain. The closer our boat came, the smaller the island appeared. An ideal place for a six-day bike race. . >

“Gee!” I thought, “one day’s leave and there will be nothing left to see.” Sure enough I was right. On,-my first day’s leave I saw all there was to see. Next leave I will have to travel backf ward and see where I have been.

Maybe we were not expected, but anyway the sun was not out to welcome us. A storm was brewing, and we were lucky to land as easily as we did. All the landing was carried out with lighters. We boys had to scramble down rope ladders hung over the side into tossing lighters, and in ful? web equipment it was no easy task. -

The last two feet were the worst. The best method was to close one’s eyes and let go, trusting to luck that there would be someone soft to land on, A sigh'of relief. . We made it.

“Life on the ocean wave” had nothing- on those blighters. One moment we were looking at the ship’s keel, and the next were leering down its funnel.. We finally made the shore 9 but in none too dry a condition. Next came our kitbags, and they were no drier than we.

I have been told that, like us, the gear came ashore in lighters, but I am willing to bet my first pay (when I get it) that they . were dragged through the breakers on ropes. • You have seen lucky dips, but believe me,

they had nothing on the contents of our kits when we opened them. Everything was a sodden dirty grey mass. The cigarette paper suffered most. Try to extract; one, and they all came out like a beautiful roll of toilet paper.

We were no sooner ashore than the rains camewith a vengeance. There was also a 50 m.p.h. gale tossed in for good measure. For three days and three nights we cowered in our‘tents. If we had had a dove of peace to send out, like Noah from his Ark, it would have needed waterwings;

We sat huddled six in a tent, waiting and looking for the silver lining. Once the sun did come, though,- the land soon dried. Kit-bags were emptied out and clothes and gear spread on trees, fences and even the ground, in no time at all our camp looked like a cross between ■ a second-hand shop and a Chinese ,laundry. - : This was our initiation to active service.

AIRCRAFT BREVITIES

The Ford Motor Company at Detroit is planning to build gliders of a type capable, for. carrying 15 fullyequipped soldiers for invasion purposes. * ❖ ♦ An employee in an aircraft factory in England, Frank Salt, has been sentenced to three years’ penal servitude for failing to tighten a vital nut on aero-motors. Of 81 aero-motors examined in the factory, 19 had a slack nut for which Salt was responsible. Z' ■ / . BOUNCED OVER MINE A Supermarine-Walrus of the AirSea service alighted on the sea in the middle of a German minefield last month to rescue the pilot of a Whirlwind of the Fighter Command who had to bale out a few miles from the French Coast. The pilot of the Walrus said he had to alight crosswind to avoid the mines, and when taking off had to bounce the Walrus over a mine. —“ - i Begin now with AEWS <