Plane Damaged During Straffing Expedition But Manages To Get Away And Get It Down
How the Gremlins were out to get him is told in a letter recently received here from Lt. George T Lee, Rock Street who has been flying in the Mediterranean theatre since the beginning of the African campaign. He tells the story:
“The Gremlins were out to get me yesterday but by some miracle, my guardian angel won out. I went straffing over Italy and when we got over our target they proceeded to let us have it. I peeled off and hit the deck, flying down the road and shooting everything in sight. At the same [ time, they were throwing everything but their old shoes at me.
“At a bend in the road a chunk of my horseshoe broke off and a light cannon shell hit my tail and another exploded in a prop blade throwing shrapnel into the engine. My wingman saw me get | it and thought I was firn (P.S. So did I), but I fooled him.
“I dove down through a wodi and reached the sea. The plane was vibrating something terrific and I was squeezing it for all it was worth to get some altitude, I was about twenty feet when I got hit. By some freak, I managed to get the old crate down around southern Italy before It finally got to smoking so badly that I had to cut the gas and head down, Once again my luck was with me and I got my wheels down, on time to make a dead stick landing Into an Italian airdrome that bad been taken by the British.
“My wingman followed me down so I put his parachute in the baggage compartment and sat between his legs and flew his plane back to our field. We made it okay, but it took him about twenty minutes to unkink himself out of the cockpit; this plane was never designed for two people. After breakfast, I was back on the job, and p’d off enough to get out on the next mission and get even. H-hum, it’s a monotonous life (It says here, in small print) . . .
‘“PS. Ain’t it a helluva note that I have to get kaboffed in order to write you an interesting letter!”
(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)