Mitchell Ditching of 2nd March 1945
This
recollection of a Mitchell pilot was published in the 38th BG
newsletter, ‘The Sun Setter’. Unfortunately we do not have the name of the
author. By all means contact us if you can rectify this shortcoming.
We got 3 points for flying time,
1 point for AA. Now find this on a map. My old rescue maps have long since
disappeared and have to use a National Geographic dated 1968. All names have
changed in Formosa (Taiwan) and it may be hard to ID this one. Can't find the
target by that name but there is a river that was north of the target area that
went due east that we used as a check point. Taichu was about 60 miles north of
the Pescadores, a couple miles inland and a couple miles south of this river.
On the map, there is a river called Tachia and a small town in 1968 called
Tachia. This fits the description of what I recalled as the target area.
We flew up the coast of
Formosa, all seventy‑two of us, then everybody turned east along the
river and then south a few miles inland. The 345th continued onto their target
due south, then the 38th turned due west to attack the Taichu airfield. We were
lined up, wingtip to wingtip, and strafing across the strip toward the planes
and hangars. Slightly west of the strip in about the number two aircraft
position was a tower at about our same altitude. It was the firing position of
the most accurate anti-aircraft gun that I had ever encountered. Our gunfire
was undershooting and hitting the ground at the base of this tower but he was
shooting right down the nose of the number two plane. I saw a B‑25 hit
the dirt and explode as we passed, and each flight after us suffered damage.
One of the planes that was hit by this AA tower limped out of the area and
headed for the shore. It crashed a short distance offshore and then the panic
began.
The co‑pilot of this
flight was Randal Samples from Blue Field, “West By God, Virginia”. Samples was
one of the funniest guys that I have ever met and he made a comedy out of this
adventures. Samples didn't stand over 5'2", and we all wondered how he
could have gotten into the Air Corps. His legs were so short that he couldn't
reach the brakes or rudder peddles to the full extent. His favorite expression
to his fellow pilot when he was landing a plane was, "You stomp the left
pedal and I'll stomp the right." His fellow pilot that day was an ex‑gunner
from a B‑17 that came out of the 19th Bomb Group early in the Philippines
war who was the exact same height. (Please forgive me but I cannot recall his
name.) He came back to the states in '42 and got involved in pilot training
after the 19th broke up in Australia.
Samples' plane made it down
to the water's edge out in the Formosa strait about two miles from shore. The
plane landed and the panic of escape ensued. As Samples described it, the escape
hatch was right over the co‑pilot's head and it was his responsibility
to release the catch and be the first out to help others. Wrong. He released
the catch okay but, as Samples tells it, three people stepped on his fingers before
he had a chance to move. Finally all personnel were out, the raft released and
everyone jumped in since the plane was going to sink in a matter of seconds.
They began to paddle desperately to clear the downdraft of the sinking
airplane. The raft would not move. It was hung up on something ! And the plane
continued to "float". They had landed on a sand bar a few inches
below the water. At this point, they noticed activity on shore and decided to
climb back into the B‑25 and man the turrets.
In the meantime, the air‑sea
rescue was flying overhead but hesitated to land since they could see the sand
bar. There was some radio conversation from the group leader to air‑sea
rescue which involved some rather nasty language and the plane finally located
a spot and made a landing. Samples, et al, had to paddle quite a distance to
reach the plane but they made it in record time. Damp clothes but high spirits
prevailed and shortly this crew was back at the Navy Rescue station near
Lingayen to the northwest. Samples commented on the luxurious living conditions
of the Naval Base, "The silverware was so heavy I couldn't lift it!"
In writing this 53 years
after it happened, I am having trouble influencing my mind that the incidents
that occurred, the strike I was on and the rescue, happened on the same day.
Reading of a plane down in the water off the target stirred this story in my
thoughts. Samples could have made up this fantastic story of his escape, but
we did lose a plane, the crew was rescued, and he was the co-pilot. Major Davis
was Group Leader flying the 822nd on the occasion, and I was lead navigator on
my 2nd March 1945 mission. I remember in Samples account that he
referred to "L.C. SubBuster Hawes" as the CO who had words with the
Navy about the landing of the seaplane to pick up his crew. In Samples' account,
Hawes had threatened disaster to the seaplane if it didn't respond rapidly. A
number of planes succumbed to that AA tower on Taichu and I apologize for
making light of the rescue.
But that's the way Samples
told it to me.
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