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.It was actually a desperate attempt to stop a major Japanese effort to throwthe Marines off Guadalcanal and reclaim the airbase.That effort was about to get underway.Charley Galloway had private personaldoubts that nineteen F4Fs and a dozen SBD-3s were going to be able to do muchto stop it.Not to mention anything else they scraped off the bottom of thebarrel.Just before they'd left the Long Island, he heard that the Army Air Corps wassending a squadron of Bell P-400s to Guadalcanal.The reaction of the groupwas that the goddamned Army Air Corps was butting in on the Marine Corps'business.Galloway's reaction was that the Marines, and maybe especially MAG-21 inparticular, could use all the help they could get; but they weren't going toget very much from a squadron of P-400s.He knew the story of the P-400.Technical Sergeant Charley Galloway first heard about the aircraft in 1939.Curious about it, he managed to have a little engine trouble over Buffalo, NewYork, which gave him a chance to sit down at the Bell plant and have a look atthe plane that began life as the Bell P-39 Aircobra.He had not been impressed.It was a weird bird, sitting on what looked toCharley like a very fragile tricycle landing gear.It had a liquid cooledAllison engine, mounted amidships, behind the pilot.The prop was driven by ashaft.The shaft was hollow, and carried a 37mm cannon barrel.There was noturbocharger, giving it, consequently, low to lousy performance at highaltitudes.All of which, in the final analysis, meant that nobody wanted the damnedthings.The English wouldn't have anything to do with them.So the Aircobras thatwere supposed to go to them were sent to the Russians.Though Charley couldn'tsay for sure, it was entirely possible that the Russians, as desperate as theywere for anything that would fly, didn't want them either.And so somebody hadturned them over to the Army Air Corps.Their reputation was so bad they'd even changed the name from P-39 to P-400.The only thing that surprised Charley was that the Marines hadn't wound upwith them.The Marines normally got what the Army and the Navy didn't want.Page 352ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlIt was not the sort of thing you talked to your men about, to bolster theirmorale, so Charley kept his mouth shut.A familiar bald head and naked barrel chest appeared on the side of therunway, directing Charley to taxi to a sandbag revetment.Tech Sergeant Big Steve Oblensky climbed up on the wing root before Charleystopped the engine.' "Well, I see you all got here," he said."There was some doubt in your mind?""Only about you," Big Steve said."What shape are we in?""Great.We have to pump fuel-the fuel there is-by hand through chamois.Thatrunway's going to be a fucking muddy."" 'The fuel there is'?" Charley quoted, interrupting him.Big Steve waited until Charley hauled himself out of the cockpit beforereplying."Those converted tin cans that brung us here," he said, "carried 400 barrelsof Avgas.That's not much.Some of it they already used to refuel theCatalinas that have been coming in.""You're telling me we have less than 22,000 gallons of gas?""Maybe a little more.They're bringing in a little all the time, but when westart using it." Oblensky gestured at the aircraft that had just flownin."And I just heard that the Army is sending in a half dozen P-400stomorrow.""Jesus Christ," Charley said.There was the sound of aircraft engines, a different pitch than a Dauntlessor Wildcat made.Charley looked up at the sky and saw a Catalina making itsapproach.We make fun of them, he thought.Aerial bus drivers.But it has to take moreballs to fly that slow and ungainly sonofabitch in and out of here than itdoes to fly a Wildcat."And there's no fucking chow," Oblensky said, almost triumphantly."We'reeating captured Japanese shit.""Well then, I guess we better hurry up and win the war," Charley said."Iwouldn't want you writing Flo that we officers are starving your fat ass."(Two)U.S.NAVY HOSPITALSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA0905 HOURS 24 AUGUST 1942Page 353ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThe nurse bending over the chest of Captain Fleming Pickering, USNR, was afull lieutenant who had been in the Navy for six years.She was competent,aware of this, and had a well-deserved reputation among her peers as beingboth hard nosed and unable to suffer fools.She looked over her shoulder when she sensed movement behind her, and barked,"You'll have to leave.Who let you in here, anyhow? Visiting hours start at ohnine thirty."Pickering laughed, and it hurt."Lieutenant," he said, "may I present the Secretary of the Navy?""Bullshit," the lieutenant said and chuckled, then looked, and said, "Oh, myGod!""Please carry on," Frank Knox said."How are you, Fleming?""I'm all right," Pickering said, and then, "Jesus Christ, take it easy, willyou?""You want an infection? I'll stop.""I thought they had some new kind of miracle drug- Sulfa?-you could justsprinkle on it," Pickering said, looking down at his chest."It's bullshit," she said.-"What I'm doing works.""It should, it hurts like hell.""Be a big boy, Captain, I'm just about finished.""So, I suspect, am I.Finished, I mean," Pickering said, looking at Knox."No," Frank Knox said."I checked with the hospital commander.Despite yourgrievous and extremely painful wounds, you'll live.You should be out of thehospital in two weeks.""That's not what I meant," Pickering said."I know what you meant," Knox said."I'm not finished?""I bring the personal greetings of the President of the United States," Knoxsaid."That sound like you're finished?""It sounds suspicious.""Take a look at this," Knox said, and walked to the bed and handed Pickeringa sheet of paper.URGENTCINCPAC 0915 22AUG1942SECRETPage 354ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlPERSONAL FOR SEC NAVYINFORMATION: CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS1.CAPTAIN FLEMING PICKERING, USNR, DEPARTED PEARL HARBOR VIA MARINERAIRCRAFT FORSANDIEGO NAVAL HOSPITAL 0815 22AUG1942.THE PROGNOSIS FOR HIS RECOVERY FROMWOUNDS TO THE CHEST AND FRACTURED ARM IS QUOTE GOOD TO EXCELLENT END QUOTE.2.IN VIEW OF CAPTAIN PICKERINGS UNIQUE ASSIGNMENT THERE IS SOME QUESTIONOF THE AUTHORITYOF THE UNDERSIGNED TO DECORATE THIS OFFICER, AND THE MATTER IS THEREFOREREFERRED FOR DETERMINATION.3 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]