"HUMP ROUGHER THAN ETO" says BAILOUT
S/Sgt. Ben F. Hughes, Jr., one of the radio operators who arrived here
a couple of months back, has seen service with three different Air
Forces and spent more than 26 months in England, Africa and Italy, but
he'll tell anyone that this old rock-pile is the roughest deal of them
all. |
After
his tour of duty in the ETO, he packed off home for a rotation furlough
and stayed in the Promise Land four months. Upon reaching the
redistribution station, he was told that he was being placed in the ATC
and that there was every reason to believe he wouldn't be assigned to
permanent overseas duty again. One of the first things that happened to
him was a transfer to Assam.
PROPHECY IRONICALLY ACCURATE
 All of his waking hours he constantly cleaned and dismantled his gun, and spoke with eager anticipation of tangling with the little rats. Bernard Green and Bill Flynn stirred him even more, Green saying he was too old to be acceptable for combat and Flynn soberly asserting that he planned to surrender himself at the first opportunity and take it easy in a POW camp for the duration. That never failed to provoke scornful wrath from the kid. It burned him up. That was on a troop transport in 1943 and Flynn was, of course, oblivious to the ironic accuracy of his prophecy. He was a radio operator and on his second Hump trip he bailed out in enemy territory and was captured. On the return from China the Dumbo pilot began heading south to skirt a front he couldn't top. It was a night flight and along toward dawn Flynn's radio cut out, severing his ground station contact. With fuel reaching the exhaustion point, the pilot spotted an airstrip and thinking he was over India, set about negotiating a landing. Just before the wheels touched, lead slugs began to whiz past. The pilot goosed the Dumbo and got it up to 6,000 feet before lack of fuel made it necessary for the crew to bail out. They touched ground in an isolated spot in north Burma, Flynn having joined the crew chief, Cpl. Charles T. Montagna, of Brooklyn. Coming upon some natives, the two asked that they be taken to the British. The natives handed them over to the Japanese. Taken before Japanese intelligence for questioning, Flynn gave the customary name, rank and serial number only. Upon insistence that further questions be answered, he countered with the reminder that international law required no more than that. The Japanese officer proffered a sizeable document and said, "Here is a copy of international law. Show me where your claim is to be found."" The book was written in Japanese. He remained at the point of interrogation four days, during which he asserted frequent use of manual persuasion was employed. It soon was discovered that the intelligence officer was a trifle gullible, so information of almost fantastic nature was given. Flynn later learned that English enlisted men had convinced the officer that they were American pilots who had flown pursuit ships non-stop from New York to India, having been refueled while in flight. After four days of this, Flynn and Montagna were moved on to an enemy internee camp, where they stayed for two months among what were chiefly civilian internees. At first they had the benefit of additional food, prepared for them by a congenial Burmese couple, but the camp commander discovered it and had them moved to what was dubbed Starvation Manor. The camp also appeared to be some sort of basic training center for young Jap soldiers and some of them, Flynn said, were "pretty nice kids." One fellow in particular was a Christian who spoke almost flawless English and was well stocked with typical Japanese nationalist ideas. Being possessed of a higher intellect than the average slant-eyed dolt, Flynn and Montagna set to reasoning with him on the fallacy of Nipponese invincibility, plus the near bankrupt condition of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, and it wasn't long before he began to see the light. It wasn't long before the fellow was filching food from the officers' mess and bringing it to Flynn and Montagna. Then came the day of revelation. He confessed that Deanna Durbin was his idea of the epitome of feminine loveliness, and even produced an actual photo which had been signed personally. It wasn't one of those studio handouts either. After two months, Flynn and his partner were shipped to a point where they were quartered in a jail which had been condemned by the British before the outbreak of the war. The thing was completely filthy and thickly populated with predatory insects. They were placed in solitary confinement for the first few days, receiving periodic visits from the guard, who convinced them forcefully that they were to hit a brace and bow to him when he elected to appear before them. After a month or six weeks of confinement, the prisoners were put to work at the docks and at excavating to prepare a fortlike shelter. Flynn had developed severe jungle sores on his legs and feet and for that reason wasn't forced to do the thoroughly depleting hard labor. Sixteen long, hard months were endured there, although Flynn described the commander there as "a rather nice sort of fellow." He was a career army man and wore two British decorations he was awarded in the last war. As far as he was able to do so, Flynn said he seemed to make an attempt to observe Geneva convention rules of treatment., On April 25 of this year, the prisoners were told to prepare as much food a possible. They were given quantities of meat ---something they hadn't experienced before and which they'd almost forgotten --and it was then that they learned they were evacuating. More than 500 Allied prisoners, British for the most part, started the northward trek, and when it was seen there were only 50 guards, an escape plot began to take shape in the minds of many, particularly with an English Colonel. "It wasn't a well thought out plan because there hadn't been time enough before it was realized we'd have this opportunity", Flynn recalled, adding, "we knew some of us would be killed but it was certain to be successful in the end." Before anything was attempted, Allied planes discovered the column and from then on there was no rest. There were B-25's, P-51's, Spitfires and almost every other conceivable type of pursuit plane strafing to beat thunder. The column broke for the woods and one night Flynn and Montagna effected their escape, along with two British enlisted men. One knew the surrounding country and they were given refuge by various facilities in that area until they finally met with the advance elements of the British 14th, Army. From then on things were glorious. Nothing was too good for them, 14th. Army men lavishing food on them despite the dangerously low level of subsistence for themselves. They were flown out in the last plane to leave the monsoon-soaked temporary airstrip for Akyab. From there an English officer flew the pair to Calcutta, where they were turned over to home folk, so to speak. Flynn could have been returned to the Promised Land, and he'd like a furlough home, but more than anything he wants to get back to flying the big 'uns. ---By S/Sgt W.R. England |
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