‘’I always thought that MacArthur was a loud mouth, but I believe that his requests for reinforcements are justified, especially after such successes around the Philippines.’
‘’Well, Mister President, I am afraid that any sea shipping would be both too late and too risky, considering the Japanese blockade around the Philippines. That leaves us with air deliveries only, but we have only a limited number of transport planes with enough range to fly from Hawaii to Manila, and those planes would have a strictly limited transport capacity.’
‘’Then let’s do a prioritized list of the items deemed most urgent by MacArthur and Hart and let’s establish an air bridge to the Philippines. MacArthur mentions in particular an urgent need for antitank weapons, anti-aircraft guns and shells with proximity fuses, while Admiral Hart wants more torpedoes. As for sending more fighter pilots, that should be easy to do, no?’’
‘’Uh, not really, Mister President. We have lost a lot of fighter pilots during the attack on Pearl Harbor and we have to replace those men as quickly as possible in order to be able to defend Hawaii. Also, the next fighter pilot promotion has not yet completed its training, which will take another few weeks. If I may, despite their recent successes, our units in the Philippines are stuck in a trap and the men we may send there as reinforcements are practically condemned in advance to either death or capture.’’
Roosevelt lowered his head, discouraged by these words and saddened at the idea of losing all those men of valor.
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‘’Admiral, losing simple materiel is of no importance to me: only the men count. I want a massive air bridge towards the Philippines to be installed as soon as possible, in order to at least send there the items most urgently required by MacArthur and Hart.’
‘’It wil be done, Mister President.’
15:46 (Tokyo Time)
Residence of the Prime Minister
Tokyo, Japan
‘’Please sit down, gentlemen. We have some grave business to discuss.’ said dryly Hideki Tojo to the admirals and generals assembled in the conference room of his official Prime Minister’s residence, which he had occupied for less than three weeks now. Once all seated, Tojo looked around the table and spoke in a sober tone.
‘’Gentlemen, I wil not tell you anything new by telling you that His Majesty is extremely concerned, not to say angry, at the events of the last three days. Not content to cause us heavy losses in ships and planes, the Americans in the Philippines dared strike the sacred soil of Japan itself. These Americans seem in fact to know in advance our every move, probably thanks to that damned Canadian from the future and her information. We thus must change drastically our plans if we want to avoid more nasty surprises.’
“But,’ objected his military advisor, ‘’if they had such good information to start with, then why did the Americans let themselves be caught the way they did in Hawaii?”
“Maybe the ones in Hawaii were idiots who ignored the warnings given to them, while the ones in the Philippines were able to use that information properly.” replied Rear Admiral Ugaki, the chief of staff of the Navy. ‘’This tells us as well not to underestimate the Americans in the Philippines. Their submarines and heavy bombers in particular must be considered as important factors in any new plan.’
‘’At the rate things are going, are the forces presently designated for the taking of the Philippines sufficient?’’ asked Tojo. Admiral Ugaki, as well as Lieutenant General Homma, who commanded the invasion force for the Philippines, shook their heads, with Homma speaking first.
‘’I lost already over one full regiment of infantry, as well as the majority of the heavy equipment of the 16th Division, which was being loaded on ships in Okinawa when the American bombers hit there. With sixteen transport ships now gone, I don’t even
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have enough place left on the remaining ships to transport in one trip my 48th Division to the Philippines. I also lost a lot of planes. My aviators are unanimous in saying that the American anti-aircraft guns around Manila are extremely accurate and deadly.’
‘’My own aviators report the same thing about the American anti-aircraft guns.’’
said Ugaki. ‘’As for my losses in ships, they are nothing less than catastrophic.’
‘’What about the American fighters? How dangerous are they?’’
‘’Their pilots are brave but lack experience, while their planes are outclassed by our own fighters. They managed to destroy some of our bombers but invariably lose when facing our fighters. At the rhythm of their present losses, the American fighter planes will not be a decisive factor anymore in two weeks or less.’
‘’Very well. It now seems evident to me that our forces around the Philippines must be seriously reinforced if we want to respect our operational calendar and be able to seize the Dutch East Indies and its precious oilfields and refineries.’
‘’But with what, General Tojo?’ objected Marshal Sugiyama. ‘’Al our troops are already either engaged in combat or committed to various operations.’
‘’My opinion would be, in view of the importance of taking the Philippines and thus deny to the Americans a base for their heavy bombers and submarines, that we should delay our invasion of Burma and assign General Lida’s 15th Army to the Philippines invasion force.’’
‘’And the ships needed to move those troops, where wil we find them?’’ asked Homma. All the other participants then looked at Admiral Ugaki, who spoke after a short hesitation.
‘’I can reassign some transport ships from our strategic reserve. Admiral Nagumo’s fleet, which is on its way back from its raid on Pearl Harbor, can also be rerouted towards the Philippines. With six aircraft carriers, that force should be able to crush Manila and its airfields under bombs in a few days. Admiral Nagumo will however have to be very careful not to expose his carriers to the American submarines. We cannot afford to lose those ships.’’
‘’That goes without saying.’ said Tojo. ‘’Now that we have found extra forces to conquer the Philippines, we wil now discuss the changes we need to bring to our plans.’
16:05 (Manila Time)
Thursday, October 23, 1941 ‘C’
USAFFE HQ, Manila, Philippines
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Ingrid, her shift completed for the day and having briefed her replacement, was grabbing her backpack to leave the operations center when an American lieutenant came to her.
‘’Misses Dows, a Filipino Army major is waiting for you at the main entrance.’’
‘’Oh? Has he been waiting for long?’’
‘’I don’t know, madam. General MacArthur asked me to lead you to him and to make sure that you meet that major. The general also said that he wishes you good luck in your new job.’
Ingrid’ heart jumped in her chest at those words. Eagerly following the lieutenant, she went to the main entrance of the headquarters building, where a Filipino officer got up from his chair and went to her, presenting his right hand for a shake. Ingrid shook the hand of the man, who was much shorter than her and who then spoke to her in English.
‘’Misses Dows? I am Major Francisco Bandong, one of the military aides of President Quezon. Could we speak in private?’’
‘’Certainly, Major! Let’s go outside for some fresh air.’
Leaving the building, Ingrid led Bandong far enough from the sentries so that they could not listen to her, stopping under a palm tree before speaking in Tagalog.
‘’I believe that we can now speak in privacy, Major.’
‘’You can speak Tagalog, madam?’’ said Bandong, pleased. ‘’Few Americans can say the same.’’
‘’I also speak Cebuano, Major, and know quite well the Filipino culture, especially that of the region of Mindanao.’
‘’Even better. I am told that you have won recently your pilot’s license. How many hours of flying do you have, and on what plane type?’’
‘’I have accumulated a total of 95 hours: 52 hours on Fairchild 24; twenty hours on Lockheed 10 ELECTRA and 23 hours on Stearman biplane.’’
‘’Hum, not bad at all. You learned to fly at the Far Eastern School of Aviation, I believe?’
‘’Correct, Major. My instructor was Jack Gavin.’’
‘’Gavin?’ said Bandong, smiling. ‘’He was also my instructor. Do you have other flying qualifications, like experience in air navigation?’’
‘’I have seven hours of flying on gliders in Germany, plus six weeks of ground classes on map reading, air navigation and basic theory of flight. I realize that I have no
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formal training as a fighter pilot, but I must tell you that I once was an auxiliary in the German Luftwaffe. As such, I met and spoke often with some of the greatest German air aces, who were most willing to discuss in detail air combat tactics with me…with a bed nearby, of course.’’
Bandong smiled at that.
‘’A story worthy of the adopted daughter of the famous Nancy Laplante. Misses Dows, your offer to fight to defend the Philippines has sincerely touched President Quezon. The sad truth is that we suffer a cruel shortage of pilots, a shortage that is getting worse every day. We also lost many planes but the losses in pilots are more critical now. I must warn you before going on that your odds for survival as a fighter pilot will be like those of our other pilots, meaning next to nil. Do you still want to become a fighter pilot in the Filipino Air Corps, madam?’’
‘’More than ever.’ replied Ingrid without hesitation. Impressed, Bandong stared at her for a moment, then took out of one pocket of his uniform a document, unfolding it and presenting it to Ingrid, along with a pen.
‘’This is your enrolment contract with the Filipino Air Corps as a fighter pilot, Misses Dows. Read it and sign it if you agree with its terms. I can already tell you that, if you ever want to fly with the American forces in the future, you will have President Quezon’s benediction to do so.’’
‘’And under what legal status will I fly? Am I going to be considered a mercenary, like the American volunteer pilots in China?’’
Bandong smiled at that and took out a small box from one pocket. He then gave Ingrid an order on a martial tone.
‘’Atten…hut!’’
Opening the box in his hands, he took out of it a pair of second lieutenant’s rank insignias and fixed them on the collar of Ingrid’s old combat uniform.
‘’Lieutenant Ingrid Dows, by the authority conferred on me by President Quezon, I now commission you as an officer of the Filipino Air Corps, with the rank of second lieutenant. Now, you may sign your contract on the last page.’
Ingrid did so at once, not believing her luck: her old dream was now becoming reality.
Bandong then made her sign a second copy, which he then gave to her, looking at her with a mix of gravity and admiration.
‘’Thank you for enlisting as a fighter pilot, Lieutenant Dows. I wil now drive you to your residence, where you will have the chance to pack your essentials before I bring
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you to Batangas, home of the 6th Pursuit Squadron, your new unit. The way things are going, you will probably be flying your first combat mission tomorrow, on a P-26.’
‘’I wil do my best not to disappoint President Quezon, Major.’
‘’I am certain you will do well, Lieutenant. Let’s go to my car now.’
Bandong’s vehicle, a big Ford sedan of the Filipino Army driven by a soldier, got to Ingrid’s house ten minutes later. To Ingrid’s relief, her residence proved undamaged by the Japanese bombs which had been raining on Manila for two days. She however found her two servants, Julia and Juanita, in the house, along with their husbands and a total of five children. After bowing to Bandong, Julia presented herself to Ingrid with an embarrassed look.
‘’I am sorry for bringing my family and that of Juanita here without your prior permission, Ingrid. Our district was bombed today and our houses burned down. We barely had the time to save some clothes and other essentials before fleeing to here.
Will you forgive us for this, Ingrid?’
Touched, Ingrid hugged her servant and spoke to her softly.
‘’My poor Julia. You have nothing to be excused for. Me and Ken would have offered you refuge any time. Use all the space you need: me and Ken only need our own bedroom. Once Ken is back, he will sign for you an authorization to live here, so that the military police doesn’t expel you.’
‘’Thank you! Thank you so much, Ingrid.’’ said Julia, bordering on tears.
Bandong looked on at that scene with silent appreciation. Too many Americans would have simply told the servants to fend for themselves before throwing them out. Ingrid then presented the major to the Filipinos assembled in the lounge.
‘’Julia, Juanita, I present you Major Francisco Bandong, one of the aides of President Quezon. He just enrolled me in the Filipino Air Corps as a fighter pilot. I will now pack a few things before departing for my new unit in Batangas.’’
The servants and their families were left open-mouthed for a moment before Julia resumed their general thought.
‘’Ingrid, you would have made a marvelous Filipina woman.’
‘’I now consider myself as much a Filipina as an American woman, Julia.’’ replied Ingrid, who then emptied her pockets of most of the cash money she had on her, giving it to Julia.
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‘’Go buy as much food as you can for your two families. We don’t know how long the markets will stay supplied. Buy in priority nonperishable items, like rice and canned meat and fish. Take your husband and that of Juanita with you, so they can carry the maximum of food possible.’’
‘’Thank you again, Ingrid. You are too generous.’ said Julia before leaving the house with the two Filipino men. Ingrid then turned to face Bandong.
‘’You can wait in this lounge while I go take a shower and pack up, Major. If you need anything, just ask Juanita.’’
‘’Thank you, Lieutenant. Take all your time.’
As Ingrid disappeared in the direction of her bedroom, Bandong looked around the lounge, noting the picture of Nancy Laplante on the wall and the futuristic portable radio on a small table. Intrigued by the radio, he approached it to examine it. Juanita smiled to him timidly.
‘’That radio belonged to Nancy Laplante and came from the future. Ingrid also has a collection of disks of music from the future.’’
‘’Oh? Would it be possible to listen to some of that music?’’
‘’I don’t think that Ingrid would object, Major: she lets me and Julia play discs from time to time. I wil play one disk that Ingrid finds most relaxing.’
A minute later, the Filipino officer was sitting in a sofa and happily listening to songs by Sarah Brightman. Juanita also served him a glass of fresh fruit juice, which he accepted with a thank you. He was listening to the fourth song of the disc when someone opened the entrance door and a man’s voice shouted in English.
‘’INGRID, I’M HOME!’
Getting up from the sofa, Bandong faced the tall, powerful American officer in combat uniform who had just entered. He stepped forward at once to shake hands with him.
‘’Major Francisco Bandong, of the office of President Quezon. I met your wife at General MacArthur’s headquarters and then drove her here in my staff car.’
Ken cautiously eyed Bandong, having a fair idea of why Bandong would have met Ingrid.
‘’Major Kenneth Dows, Assistant Operations Officer at the Asiatic Fleet headquarters. I suppose that you saw Ingrid concerning her request to become a fighter pilot?’’
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‘’Correct, Major Dows. Your wife is now a second lieutenant in the Filipino Air Corps and will be going tonight to join her new unit, the 6th Pursuit Squadron in Batangas.’
‘’On what type of fighter wil she fly?’’
‘’On a Boeing P-26A PEASHOOTER, Major. It is however possible that her squadron will soon be reequipped with Curtiss P-40 fighters.’
‘’A P-26…’’ said slowly Ken, visibly not impressed. Bandong tried to reassure him at once.
‘’Major, the P-26 may be slow and obsolescent according to present standards, but it is extremely maneuverable and is easy to fly, contrary to the P-40.’
Ingrid showed up at that moment in the lounge, wearing a clean combat uniform. She hugged and kissed Ken before looking at Bandong.
‘’Could you give me a minute with my husband, Major?’’
‘’Certainly, Lieutenant.’
Ingrid then went with Ken to their bedroom, returning a few minutes later with a rather sad Ken in tow. To Bandong’s surprise, apart from her pistol and a large backpack, she was carrying a Springfield 1903 bolt-action rifle, a common weapon in the Filipino Army.
‘’I am ready, Major. I will first give my goodbyes to Juanita and I will then follow you.’
The goodbyes to the maid were quick but emotional. With tears in her eyes, she planted a last kiss on Ken’s lips.
‘’Be careful and take care of yourself, my beautiful husband.’
‘’The same to you, Ingrid.’ replied Ken in a strangled voice. Watching her leave, he cried silently as Bandong’s car rolled away with Ingrid inside. Once the staff car was out of sight, he faced Juanita.
‘’Juanita, Ingrid asked me to write for you and Julia signed authorizations for your families to live in this house. I will write and sign these tonight and will advise personally the commander of the American military police unit of Manila about it. Also, the air raid shelter in our backyard is as much for the use of your families as it is for mine and Ingrid’s. If the Japanese bomb again Manila, do not hesitate to use it. There are reserves of canned food and bottled water in it, in case of emergency. Use them only if necessary but you are welcomed to them if things really sour up in Manila.
‘’Ken, you and Ingrid are too good.’ said Juanita, near tears. Ken shook his head slowly.
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‘’No, Juanita. We simply are thankful for your loyalty and friendship. There is another last thing that Ingrid asked me to do but I will wait for the return of Julia and of your husbands for that.’
Julia and the two Filipino men returned to the house half an hour later, loaded down with bags of rice and boxes full of tins of meat and fish, plus some cooking oil and salt. Ken gave them the time to put the foodstuff away in the kitchen’s pantry, then repeated to them what he had said to Juanita. He then presented to Julia’s husband, a short but solid man of nearly forty years of age, a heavy chrome-plated revolver in its leather belt holster, plus four boxes of bullets.
‘’Mateo, you were a policeman for many years before you had to leave the police force because of a wound. Ingrid is giving you this Colt PYTHON .357 Magnum caliber revolver, so that you can defend your family and that of Juanita. This gun came from the future and belonged to the famous Nancy Laplante. It can use as well standard .38
Special caliber bul ets, which should be easy to find here in Manila.’’
Mateo took with a smile the big revolver, admiring it before looking at Ken, glee in his eyes.
‘’This is a most precious gift, Major. I wil take good care of it. Thank you for everything that you and Ingrid did for us.’
‘’You can thank us by surviving this war, so that we could see you again.’’ replied Ken, who then took out a 12-gauge pump-action Remington shotgun from a gun cabinet in the lounge, along with one hundred rounds, presenting them to Juanita’s husband.
‘’Felipe, this shotgun is now yours. Mateo can show you later how to use and maintain it. Defend your family with it.’
The Filipino started thanking him profusely but was cut short by Ken, who spoke gravely.
‘’No need to thank me, Felipe. If you and Mateo real y want to do something for me, then pray that Ingrid lives through the coming days.’
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CHAPTER 5 – FEMALE FIGHTER PILOT
18:46 (Manila Time)
Thursday, October 23, 1941 ‘C’
Batangas military airfield
Ninety kilometers south of Manila
It was dark when Major Bandong’s staff car arrived at the Batangas Airfield, near the coast. Two Filipino soldiers on guard duty at the main gate of the airfield examined briefly their papers before saluting and
letting them pass. The Ford sedan finally stopped in front of a long, rather decrepit wooden building. Close by, along the tree line, were two P-26A fighters covered with camouflage nets. Bandong stepped out with
Ingrid, who insisted on carrying herself her kit and rifle, and led her inside the hut, which
turned out to be the barrack for the pilots of the 6th Pursuit Squadron. A small young man with brown skin greeted them inside, saluting Bandong, who returned his salute before presenting him to Ingrid in Tagalog.
‘’Lieutenant Dows, this is Captain Jesus Antonio Villamor, Commanding Officer of the 6th Pursuit Squadron.
Captain Villamor, this is Second Lieutenant Ingrid Dows, your new pilot.’
‘’Pleased to meet you, Lieutenant Dows.’ said with a smile Villamor. Ingrid found him at once to be a pleasant man. She also noted with surprise the ribbon of the Distinguished Service Cross, or DSC, the second highest American medal for bravery, on Vil amor’s combat shirt. The Filipino pilot noticed where she was looking and smiled.
‘’I got it from General MacArthur this morning, after shooting down a NELL
bomber and a ZERO fighter.’
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‘’Wow! That’s effectively quite an exploit, especially when flying a P-26. In fact, I am quite anxious to discuss air tactics with you and your other pilots.’
The pained look that Villamor suddenly showed alarmed Ingrid. Villamor then spoke in a sad voice.
‘’You didn’t know, Lieutenant? You and me are the only pilots left in the squadron. Of the last three I had, two were killed and the last was wounded this afternoon.’
Bandong then judged that the time had come for him to go.
‘’Uh, I see that you wil have a lot to discuss together. I will thus let you in the good hands of Captain Vil amor, Lieutenant. Good night and good luck in the air.’
He didn’t add that she would need it, something that would have been in bad taste, frankly, then left after an exchange of salutes.
Now alone face to face, Ingrid and Villamor looked at each other in silence for a moment before the Filipino pointed a camp cot in a corner which was surrounded by a mosquito net.
‘’If you will put down your things under that cot: it is now yours.’
‘’Right away, Captain.’’
A few minutes later, as she was finishing to place her things under her cot, Villamor brought her a flotation vest, a leather pilot’s helmet with oxygen mask and flight goggles and a parachute.
‘’These are yours, Lieutenant. Could you describe to me your flying experience and your qualifications as a pilot?’’
‘’Certainly, Captain. Please sit down on that cot next to mine.’
Once both were seated, Ingrid described herself, her flying experience with gliders in Germany, her service in the Luftwaffe, her capture and adoption by Nancy Laplante, how she had married Ken and followed him to the Philippines and, finally her piloting course and her hours flown from Nielson Field. The Filipino was particularly impressed when she described to him the air combat tactics she had learned from German aces. He finally shook his head with regret and sighed.
‘’Too bad that you didn’t come sooner, so that my other pilots would have been able to benefit from your tactics, Lieutenant: those tactics could have saved some of them. I have to say in all frankness that the fighter tactics I learned in the United States have proved totally deficient in this war.’
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‘’First, Captain,’’ said softly Ingrid, meaning no malice, ‘’I am not a member of the Luftwaffe anymore. I swore off my German nationality after what the Gestapo did to Nancy. Second, I have something even better than German tactics for you. Nancy taught me the lessons that were to be won the hard way in this war concerning air combat against the Japanese. I don’t know if the American fighter pilots present in the Philippines shared those lessons with your squadron, but I am ready to tell you about the tricks you can use to fight against ZERO fighters, starting with the ‘Thatch Weave’
defensive tactic.’
‘’The Thatch Weave? I never heard of that tactic, Lieutenant.’
‘’Well, I can teach it to you tonight, Captain.’’ said Ingrid, smiling. ‘’In exchange, you can describe in detail to me the P-26 tomorrow morning.’
06:11 (Manila Time)
Friday, October 24, 1941 ‘C’
Batangas Airfield
The first thing that Ingrid did in the morning on waking up was to go look outside of the hut, to inspect visually the airfield. Many things that had not been obvious in the dark last night then became evident. For starters, Batangas was in reality a secondary field meant as an emergency landing strip and its installations were thus minimal but were adequate to support a small group of fighters or medium bombers. There were also the wrecks of many P-26 fighters along the periphery of the airfield, having been either destroyed on the ground or cannibalized for parts. About a hundred technicians and soldiers were visible around the airfield, including many men around three groups of big wooden crates hidden by camouflage nets beside the tree line. Intrigued, Ingrid walked to the nearest group of crates, which was guarded by four Filipino soldiers.
Once close, she saw as well three tents erected inside the jungle nearby, from which came audible snoring. The sentries let
her approach the crates, which wore
inscriptions in English. Those made
Ingrid’s eyes open wide.
‘’Damn, Curtiss P-40E fighters!
This is a lot better than P-26s.’
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Unfortunately, the sentries couldn’t tell her what those dismounted fighter planes were doing in Batangas. She thus returned to the pilots’ hut, where a soldier brought to her and Villamor a frugal breakfast of porridge and coffee. Jesus then told her that the P40s had been brought to Batangas to safeguard them from the constant Japanese air attacks hitting Clark Field.
‘’And who will pilot those P-40s, Jesus?’’ asked Ingrid. ‘’Even the American fighter squadrons are short of pilots.’
‘’I don’t know, Ingrid. Major Bandong told me two days ago that President Quezon wanted to buy some of those P-40s for the Filipino Air Corps but, with the present state of our pilot roster, that is now rather moot.’
‘’Not for us, Jesus! Look at what you did with a P-26. Imagine what you could do with a P-40.’
‘’Ingrid, I will probably be dead in a week or two, like you.’ said Villamor with brutal frankness. ‘’Also, those P-40s are still not assembled, something that will take at least a few more days still. At least for the next few days we will have to fight with our old P-26s. Come, finish your porridge so that I can describe to you in detail a P-26.’
Villamor needed less than one hour to give a detailed tour to Ingrid of one of the two P-26A fighters still operational in Batangas. The Boeing P-26A PEASHOOTER, while obsolescent, was at least a simple and robust plane which was also easy both to pilot and to maintain. It was armed with one medium .30 caliber machinegun and one heavy .50 caliber machinegun, apart from possessing wing pylons for light bombs. That actually was quite comparable to the older models of Japanese fighters in service, like the CLAUDE and the NATE. Its main deficiency was however its maximum speed, which was inferior by about 150 kilometers per hour to that of the Japanese ZERO and was barely equal to that of most Japanese bombers. That made Ingrid think seriously about that.
‘’Hum, with such a disadvantage in speed, we will not be able to truly chase after the enemy, which will be able to break away from the fight at will. We thus must position ourselves ahead of them and then aim with frontal shots at them if we want to be able to touch them.’
‘’Correct, Ingrid.’’ said Jesus. ‘’The only other time when we wil be able to catch the enemy is when a Japanese dive bomber will start a vertical attack dive. Even if we
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don’t manage to shoot down that dive bomber, we could at least disturb its aim and make it miss its target.’
‘’Which is already a success for us, especially if its target is one of our B-17
bombers parked on the ground. Shooting down Japanese planes is good, but protecting our soldiers and installations on the ground is better.’
Jesus smiled to her at those words.
‘’Ingrid, I wish that the other American fighter pilots in the Philippines be as practical and modest as you. Most of them only think about gaining personal glory by becoming air aces.’
Ingrid laughed at that.
‘’And you think that the Luftwaffe fighter pilots were modest, Jesus? I heard all kinds of stories from them, some amusing, others terrifying.’
‘’And you, Ingrid, what kind of stories wil you be telling?’’
Ingrid’s smile faded, replaced by a sad look.
‘’I wil only describe reality, no more, no less.’’
One hour later, as Ingrid was reading the pilot’s manual of her P-26 while sitting fully equipped in her cockpit, the alert siren of the airfield started blaring. Her heart accelerating, Ingrid stowed away the manual and started her engine with the help of a Filipino mechanic. A sergeant soon ran towards Vil amor’s plane, where he spoke briefly with Jesus before running to Ingrid’s plane, screaming over the noise of her engine.
‘’A LARGE GROUP OF JAPANESE PLANES WAS SPOTTED COMING FROM
THE NORTHEAST AND FLYING LOW BELOW THE CLOUDS. THEY ARE HEADING
FOR CLARK FIELD. THE ORDERS ARE TO INTERCEPT THEM, IF POSSIBLE
BEFORE THEY GET TO CLARK FIELD. USE FREQUENCY NUMBER THREE.’
‘’UNDERSTOOD!’
Switching her radio to the designated frequency, Ingrid then looked at Jesus, who signaled her to follow her before starting to roll his plane towards the dirt strip. Ingrid pushed the throttle of her engine and released the brakes, making her plane roll forward and following her squadron commander. The Filipino soldiers and ground technicians around the airfield waved their arms with enthusiasm to salute the two pilots as they took off. Ingrid thought then that today was one of the most important days of her life: she was taking off on her first combat mission as a fighter pilot. She then realized that this could also as well be the last day of her life.
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The flight to Clark Field took more than thirty minutes, even at the maximum speed of the P-26: 377 kilometers per hour. Ingrid did not speak on the radio, listening instead to the air controller in Nielson Field as he reported the approach of the Japanese planes and was giving interception vectors to other fighter planes. About five minutes before she and Jesus arrived over Clark Field, the excited voices of American pilots which had just attacked the Japanese planes filled the radio frequency. It was however soon apparent that the American fighter pilots had gotten into big trouble, with ZERO
fighters swarming over them. A radio message from Nielson Field then got to Jesus and Ingrid as they arrived over Clark Field.
‘’Papa One, this is Junction Box. Call sign Red made contact but is now submerged. Some Japanese bombers have broken through and are heading to Clark Field. Do your best to block their path, over.’
‘’Understood, Junction Box. Papa One out.’’ answered Jesus before speaking on the radio to Ingrid. ‘’Papa Two, from Papa One, we will try solo frontal passes first, as discussed yesterday. Take the bomber to my left, then follow me.’’
‘’Papa Two understood!’
Ingrid then reviewed in her head the things she had to do. Thankfully, the P-26 was the epitome of simplicity in terms of fighter planes. In essence, she only had to take off the safety of her two machineguns. Her sight had no electronic parts, being a simple steel rod supporting a ring with a crosshair. She didn’t even have to worry about being able to open her canopy if she ever had to parachute out, as her plane had no canopy, her cockpit being completely opened to the wind except for a small windshield. Her gun safeties off, Ingrid started to look at the sky all around her, trying to spot the Japanese planes. Her extremely sharp vision, which a Luftwaffe doctor had described as phenomenal, then made her see tiny trails of black smoke far ahead.
‘’Papa One, from Papa Two, I can see smoke trails far ahead at two o’clock. The enemy must be there.’’
‘’I see them! Fol ow me and then line up to my port side, out!’
Ingrid was again the first to see the enemy bombers, which were flying just under the low clouds covering the sky.
‘’Papa One, from Papa Two. I see the enemy straight ahead at a distance of about four miles. I count at least twelve bombers in two waves.’’
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Ingrid watched with growing excitement the Japanese bombers approach; her index ready on the trigger of her machineguns. She however remembered the cardinal rule told many times to her by Major Adolph Galland: always look around you while in air combat, to avoid surprises. The majority of the fighter pilots killed had been shot down by enemy planes which they never saw coming. Her piercing eyes then spotted three flying dots above and behind the enemy bombers.
‘’Papa One, from Papa Two. I see three enemy fighters flying above and behind the bombers. I make them as three ZERO fighters escorting eight BETTY bombers.’
‘’I see them now. You really have a good pair of eyes, Papa Two. Line up on one of the bombers for a frontal pass and fire when in range, then follow me in a dive.’
‘’Papa Two understood!’
While keeping a wary eye on the ZERO fighters, Ingrid lined up carefully her sight on one of the Mitsubishi G4M BETTY twin-engine bombers which were approaching rapidly.
She had no training in aerial gunnery, but she had lots of practice at rifle shooting, a sharp vision, excellent hand-eye coordination and had also listened to the best air aces of the Luftwaffe as they told her how to calculate a shooting deflection. With her enemy coming straight at her, part of her firing equation was already simplified. She decided to fire a long burst and to correct her aim as needed with the help of her tracer bullets.
Opening fire from a distance of 800 meters and keeping her trigger squeezed, Ingrid adjusted her aim as her first tracers passed just under the bomber she was targeting.
Her bullets started hitting the target after one second of firing, devastating the front of the bomber. The BETTY, which would earn in the months to come the nickname of ‘flying lighter’ because of the facility with which it caught fire due to its enormous, unprotected fuel tanks, suddenly turned into an enormous flying torch. Ingrid, concentrated on her firing, nearly forgot to raise the nose of her plane, avoiding only at the last second the doomed bomber.
‘’I GOT ONE!’ she screamed on the radio, elated. She then remembered the Japanese ZERO fighters and look up and around the sky. As she could have predicted, the three enemy fighters were now diving on her and Jesus. Looking to her right, she saw Villamor’s plane, which had just shot down a bomber by cutting off one of its wings.
‘’PAPA ONE, THREE ZERO FIGHTERS ARE DIVING ON US FROM TWELVE
O’CLOCK HIGH.’
‘’FOLLOW ME IN A DIVE, PAPA TWO.’
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Ingrid obeyed immediately, imitating Jesus as he dove between the two successive waves of bombers. Jesus then proved that he was a fine air tactician, climbing back nearly at once to be able to shoot at the vulnerable belly of the bombers of the second wave. The three Mitsubishi A6M ZERO fighters rushing in then found their own bombers between them and the two Filipino fighters and were unable to shoot at them. Following Jesus slightly to his left and 150 meters behind him, Ingrid saw him turn his second target into a fireball. As the two P-26 were climbing behind the surviving bombers, the Japanese escort fighters, enraged at having been tricked like this, climbed after them after a tight half looping. Jesus then gave an urgent order on the radio.
‘’PAPA TWO, TURN PORT TOWARDS CLARK FIELD! THATCH WEAVE
NOW!’
Having discussed in detail that tactic with Jesus last night, Ingrid made a tight turn to follow her leader, then, following the same general direction as him, started to zigzag, crossing repeatedly paths with Jesus but always passing just above him, while he always passed below her. The three Japanese fighter pilots, having never seen that tactic before, assumed that Ingrid and Jesus were just attempting to avoid their fire by zigzagging. One ZERO fighter quickly appeared in the rear-view mirror of Ingrid as she was reversing her turn to come back towards Jesus. Knowing that her salvation would be in the mutual protection given by the Thatch Weave maneuver, she did her best to ignore her fear and continued towards Jesus, who was also approaching her. She saw with a pang of the heart that two ZERO fighters were pursuing Jesus, with the leading Japanese pilot already firing short burst at the Filipino. Tightening her turn, Ingrid aimed at the leading Japanese behind Jesus and started firing a long burst, again aiming with the help of her tracers. The Japanese, surprised to see bullets coming from his front, missed his own target and hesitated between continuing to pursue Jesus or face Ingrid.
Ingrid didn’t hesitate, though, keeping the ZERO in her sight and riddling it with many bullets. The Japanese fighter then exploded into a fireball, making Ingrid scream in triumph and forcing the Japanese’ wingman to veer away to avoid the debris from his leader’s plane. At the same time, the Japanese pursuing Ingrid found himself under the fire of Jesus and veered off to avoid his bullets. Both Ingrid and Jesus then reversed their turns in order to continue using the Thatch Weave.
On the ground, along the outer perimeter of Clark Field, the American anti-aircraft gunners of the 200th Regiment defending the airfield had anxiously followed the
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deadly ballet in the sky and had screamed with joy at seeing the two intrepid P-26 pilots shoot down three bombers and one fighter. Their battery commander then returned them to reality with a firm order.
‘’BE READY TO FIRE AT THE JAPANESE STILL APPROACHING. THIS
FIGHT IS NOT FINISHED YET!’’
The servants of the four 75 mm guns, six 37 mm cannons and six .50 caliber heavy machineguns defending this sector of the airfield quickly reacted at that order. Having the longest range, plus proximity fuses equipping their shells, the four 75 mm guns opened fire first, bracketing quickly the BETTY bombers approaching at low altitude.
One BETTY, its big, unprotected main fuel tank pierced by red-hot shrapnel, turned into a flying torch, soon imitated by another bomber. With a third bomber suffering an engine fire, the Japanese raid commander decided to abandon his attack, thoroughly disgusted by the Americans’ resistance, and ordered his surviving pilots to drop their bombs without aiming them. Their bombs exploded in the jungle, causing no damages or casualties. The American guns however kept pursuing the three surviving bombers as they turned around. The BETTY with an engine on fire was then hit a second time and dived into the jungle, crashing in a spectacular fireball. The two surviving ZERO pilots, seeing this, decided to abandon their pursuit of the two P-26s and turned around as well to return to Okinawa.
Ingrid, covered with sweat despite the howling wind blowing around her open cockpit, sighed with relief on seeing the ZEROs giving up. A radio call from Jesus then made her look at her fuel gauge.
‘’Papa Two, this is Papa One. We wil have to land in Clark Field to fuel up: we don’t have enough fuel left to return to our own airfield. I wil contact the control tower of Clark Field. Follow me and keep your eyes open.’
‘’Understood, Papa One.’
Ingrid then started again to constantly turn and twist her head around, inspecting visually the sky in all directions in a manner that was going to become for her a reflex during her career as a fighter pilot. Although exhausted by her first air combat, she felt happy, having survived it and having destroying two enemy planes as well. She couldn’t have hoped for more today. Ingrid then analyzed mentally her encounter, trying to single out of it lessons which could help her in her next fight. Frontal passes seemed to work well against Japanese bombers, while the Thatch Weave certainly had proven its value as a
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defensive tactic. She however needed to seriously improve the accuracy of her air gunnery. While good by accepted standards, she had spent way too many bullets in only two long bursts. Correcting her aim with the help of her tracers may have worked but, in a long fight, she would have quickly found herself out of ammunition, thus becoming a defenseless target for the Japanese.
Fol owing Jesus’ plane, Ingrid soon landed with him on one of the long runways of Clark Field and then rolled towards a parking apron still littered with debris from a P-35 fighter destroyed on the ground the day before. A jeep with an orange signal panel guided them to one corner of the apron where a fuel truck and a truck full of ammunition crates were waiting for the two P-26, with also about ten men in uniform near the trucks.
Ingrid braked her plane some distance from that of Jesus, to avoid giving a group of targets on the ground, then shut down her engine. She was starting to undo her seat harness when an American mechanic jumped on her right-side wing to help her. The young man looked at her with utter surprise before twisting his head around and shouting at the other men approaching Ingrid’s plane.
‘’IT’S A WOMAN!’
‘’So what?’’ replied Ingrid, now tense. Nancy had told her many stories about the countless times she had faced prejudice in England in 1940 just because of her sex.
Taking off her leather helmet and getting up from her seat, she looked at the two men standing in the back of the ammunition truck.
‘’I NEED TO REARM AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. THE JAPANESE COULD
STILL COME BACK.’
‘’ER, YES MAAM!’
Stepping out of her cockpit and setting foot on her right wing, she left her pilot helmet on her seat but kept on her parachute and floating vest. She next opened the panel covering the refueling cap of her fuel tank, opening the cap as well as a half-dozen incredulous men surrounded her plane to stare at her. She then jumped on the ground to open the ammunition bins of her machineguns. A young American lieutenant approached her as two mechanics started filling the bins with long bandoleers of bullets.
‘’Miss, who let you fly a mission on a fighter?’’
Ingrid eyed him coldly, not liking his tone.
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‘’First, you can call me Lieutenant instead of miss. Second, President Quezon enrolled me as an officer and fighter pilot in the Filipino Air Corps. You got problems with that, Lieutenant?’’
The man clenched his teeth but, having no reply to that, walked away. An old sergeant then approached Ingrid and saluted her.
‘’I just inspected visual y your plane, Lieutenant: you were not hit once. We wil finish fueling it in a few minutes.’
‘’Thank you, Sergeant. Your men are qualified to maintain a P-26?’’
‘’Certainly, Lieutenant! Unfortunately, all our P-26s have been shot down or destroyed on the ground in the first three days of the war.’
‘’And how are our pilots flying on P-35 doing, Sergeant?’’
The old mechanic frowned in response.
‘’Badly, I must say, Lieutenant. The P-35 is a piece of junk in my opinion. It is faster than your P-26 but is also less agile, less dependable and offers a bigger target while being unstable in flight. We already lost about sixty percent of our pilots and over three quarters of our P-35s in the 21st and 34th Squadrons. Of the few P-40s we managed to reassemble, three have already been lost in ground accidents: the P-40 is a difficult plane to control, especially when taking off or landing. By the way, you and your leader did a hell of a nice job up there. Which type of plane did you shoot down, Lieutenant?’’
‘’One BETTY bomber and one ZERO fighter, Sergeant. My leader got two BETTY bombers.’
The old NCO looked at her with genuine admiration.
‘’One BETTY and one ZERO? Wow! And you have been flying for how long as a fighter pilot, Lieutenant?’’
Ingrid gave her an angelic smile then.
‘’Since this morning, Sergeant. If you don’t believe me, just ask Captain Vil amor.’
The jaw of the sergeant nearly dropped on the pavement on hearing that.
‘’Uh, I see! I wil go take care of the other P-26 with your permission, Lieutenant.’
‘’Then I’l go with you.’
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Jesus jumped on the ground as the duo approached his plane and shared a happy accolade with Ingrid.
‘’Ingrid, you were fantastic up there. You are a born fighter pilot. We wil do great things together in the air.’
‘’I don’t doubt that for a minute, Jesus. Your maneuver to catch your second bomber was bril iant.’
‘’And the Thatch Weave worked like a charm, Ingrid.’
‘’It sure did. Is your plane intact?’’
‘’Yes! And yours?’’
‘’Intact as well. Once rearmed and refueled, we wil be ready to go back up.’
Their two P-26s were nearly finished being refueled when a jeep stopped near Ingrid and Jesus, with an American Army major jumping out while shouting a question.
‘’YOU TWO ARE THE PILOTS OF THESE…’’
The major was left open-mouthed when Jesus and Ingrid turned around to salute him.
After a short hesitation, the major returned their salute and approached them, stopping in front of Ingrid.
‘’You are the pilot of one of those P-26s, miss?’’
‘’Yes, Major! Second Lieutenant Ingrid Dows, 6th Pursuit Squadron, Philippines Army Air Corps.’
‘’Captain Jesus Vil amor, Commander of the 6th Pursuit Squadron, sir.’ said Jesus firmly. ‘’I am claiming the shooting down of two BETTY bombers on my part, while Lieutenant Dows shot down one BETTY bomber and one ZERO fighter.’
‘’You are joking, right?’’ replied the major, refusing squarely to believe him.
Jesus threw him a mean look.
‘’Major, the air defense gunners and technicians around the airfield saw our fight in the air and we have also the films of our gun cameras. I can vouch that Lieutenant Dows did shoot down two Japanese planes. In fact, she saved my life up there.’’
‘’The captain is right, Major: I saw everything.’ then said the old mechanic NCO.
‘’First Sergeant Jim Bradfield, Major.’
The major was about to reply when a damaged P-35 fighter crash-landed in the grass besides the main runway. A second, then a third P-35 landed next in a more conventional way on the runway. Bradfield left at a run while shouting at his mechanics.
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‘’OUR PILOTS ARE BACK, AT LEAST THE SURVIVORS. REARM AND
REFUEL THESE TWO INTACT P-35 WHILE I GO SEE HOW OUR THIRD PILOT IS
DOING.’
The major took that opportunity to disappear with his jeep, not daring to look an angry Jesus Villamor in the eyes. Jesus watched the jeep go away, then spat on the ground.
‘’A damn ground pounder wil not call me a liar. Don’t worry, Ingrid: I will make sure that your air victories are officially registered.’
‘’That is the least of my concerns now, Jesus.’ replied Ingrid. ‘’I am more concerned about the pilot of that crash-landed P-35.’
She and Jesus watched on as an ambulance and a fire truck stopped near the crashed P-35. A number of men then jumped out and ran to the cockpit of the plane, extracting a limp form from it and carrying it to the ambulance, which then rolled away at full speed.
By that time, the two other P-35s which had landed parked side by side on the apron and cut their engines. Ingrid saw one of the two pilots lower his head inside his cockpit and cry, still buckled to his seat. His plane was full of holes, especially the wings and the tail, and she could see what appeared to be hydraulic fluid leaking under the plane.
The other P-35 didn’t seem to be in much better shape. Ingrid then understood with a pang of the heart that the American fighter squadrons in the Philippines were about to cease to exist, despite the bravery of their young pilots.
06:50 (Manila Time)
Saturday, October 25, 1941 ‘C’
Bay View Hotel, Manila
‘’ANNALEE, GET DRESSED QUICKLY! GENERAL MACARTHUR WILL
DISTRIBUTE MEDALS IN CLARK FIELD AT EIGHT O’CLOCK.’
Annalee Whitmore, reporter for the LIBERTY magazine, walked out of the bathroom, attracted by the shout from her husband, Melville Jacoby, reporter for the TIME-LIFE
magazine. The small, young woman was still in a bathrobe and her hair was a mess.
‘’How did you learn about this so early, Mel?’’
‘’Easy: one of MacArthur’s staff officers pinned a notice on the board at the entrance of the dining room of the hotel.’ answered Melville, a thin young man with brown skin. ‘’A number of fighter pilots wil be decorated for bravery. A bus will bring the
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reporters from this hotel to Clark Field, with the departure from the hotel being at seven thirty. We better hurry up!’’
Annalee didn’t need more precisions to start dressing as quickly as she could. Like Melville, she grabbed her 35 mm camera before leaving their hotel room at a run.
07:56 (Manila Time)
Clark Field, to the Northwest of Manila
The group of reporters and correspondents stepped out of the bus once it stopped behind one of the hangars of Clark Field. They were then guided by an American Army public affairs officer to the apron in front of the hangar, where about twenty soldiers and officers were waiting, some being obviously photographers or cameramen for the United States Army. Mel and Annalee, accustomed to the obsession with personal publicity shown by General MacArthur, were not surprised to see those cameramen. What surprised them however, like the other correspondents, was the presence of a very beautiful young woman wearing a combat uniform. The couple immediately started to take pictures as the young woman and two men, including a Filipino, formed up in line in the middle of the apron, while the other soldiers and officers withdrew to a side. Annalee’s heart accelerated when she understood what was going to happen.
‘’Mel, that girl is going to be decorated with these two men.’
‘’That’s impossible, Annalee.’’ replied at once Melvil e. ‘’This ceremony is supposed to honor fighter pilots. There are no female fighter pilots in the Army.’
Pointing her camera and using her zoom lens, Annalee then saw something that shocked her.
‘’Mel, this girl is wearing a pilot’s insignia on her shirt, along with lieutenant’s ranks.’
Melville, now having doubts, pointed his own camera and did a double take.
‘’Good God, you’re right! But, how…’’
The arrival of MacArthur’s staff car, accompanied by its usual escort jeeps and the blaring of its siren, cut him off. Photographed and filmed by the reporters and the Army correspondents, the tall general got out of his car and walked to a spot three paces in front of the girl and two men, then spoke to the reporters in a strong voice.
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‘’Ladies and gentlemen from the press. We are here this morning to honor three brave fighter pilots who risked their lives to defend the Philippines from the Japanese.
Other brave pilots unfortunately paid the ultimate price for their devotion to duty. My public affairs officer will give you after this ceremony a list of the posthumous awards authorized by me yesterday. The three fighter pilots to be honored this morning are First Lieutenant Jack Dale, of the 21st Pursuit Squadron of the United States Army Air Corps, Captain Jesus Antonio Villamor, of the 6th Pursuit Squadron of the Filipino Army Air Corps, and Second Lieutenant Ingrid Dows, also from the 6th Pursuit Squadron.’
MacArthur then faced the three waiting pilots and gave a curt order.
‘’Lieutenant Jack Dale, step forward!’
As the young pilot stepped to a position one pace from MacArthur and saluted him, a staff officer read aloud a citation.
‘’First Lieutenant Jack Dale, of the 21st Pursuit Squadron, will now receive the Silver Star for his extraordinary heroism shown yesterday as he was intercepting with his comrades a large group of enemy bombers escorted by Japanese fighters. Despite the fact that the enemy had an overwhelming numeric advantage and that he was pursued by Japanese fighters, Lieutenant Jack Dale pushed his P-35 fighter among the enemy bombers and destroyed a Mitsubishi G4M BETTY bomber. Lieutenant Dale will now receive the Silver Star from Lieutenant General Douglas MacArthur, Commander of the United States Army Forces in the Far East.’
The soldiers and officers present applauded as MacArthur pinned the small medal on the shirt of the young pilot, while the reporters and correspondents took picture after picture. After shaking hands with Dale, MacArthur then called forward Jesus Villamor as his staff officer read a second citation.
‘’Captain Jesus Antonio Vil amor, from the 6th Pursuit Squadron of the Filipino Army Air Corps, was recently decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross for destroying one enemy bomber and damaging a Japanese fighter. Captain Villamor will receive this morning the Silver Start for the exemplary courage and flying skills he demonstrated yesterday at the controls of his P-26 fighter. With only one wingman in support, he attacked a group of twelve enemy bombers escorted by three ZERO
fighters. Demonstrating superior qualities as a fighter pilot, he destroyed in quick succession two Mitsubishi G4M BETTY medium bombers which were going to strike Clark Field, forcing the rest to withdraw in disorder. Lieutenant General MacArthur will now give the Silver Star to Captain Vil amor.’
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While the spectators applauded again as Jesus received his medal, Ingrid realized too well that the reporters were in reality impatient to learn what she had done to be here. Her turn in front of MacArthur finally came, with all the reporters taking photo after photo of her as the staff officer read her citation.
‘’Second Lieutenant Ingrid Dows, born Weiss, of the 6th Pursuit Squadron of the Filipino Army Air Corps, will receive this morning the Silver Star for the exemplary courage and flying skills she showed yesterday during her first combat mission as a newly accepted fighter pilot. As the wingman of Captain Jesus Antonio Villamor and flying a P-26 fighter, Lieutenant Dows, not content in destroying one Mitsubishi G4M
BETTY medium bomber, also destroyed one Japanese ZERO fighter which was attacking her leader. Lieutenant General MacArthur will now give the Silver Star to Second Lieutenant Dows, who will also be promoted at the same time to the rank of First Lieutenant.’
As he pinned the medal on Ingrid’s shirt, then changed her rank insignias on her collar, MacArthur spoke to her in a low voice while smiling to her.
‘’I see that I took the right decision concerning you, Lieutenant. You can be proud of yourself. In view of the exceptional services of your squadron, I ordered that it be reequipped with Curtiss P-40E fighters. With such planes, you and Captain Villamor wil have more decent chances to survive air combat against the Japanese.’’
‘’General, I will never be able to thank you enough for the chance you gave me to accomplish my dream.’
‘’You can thank me by shooting down more Japanese planes, Lieutenant. I am sure that your two victories of yesterday will not be your only ones. Again, congratulations, Lieutenant Dows.’
‘’Thank you, General!’ said Ingrid, proud as a peacock, before saluting MacArthur and returning besides Dale and Villamor. MacArthur then gave a final speech and left in his staff car, leaving the three medal recipients in the hands of the reporters.
As she had expected, Ingrid found herself the center of attention of all the reporters and was bombarded with questions from all sides. She then raised both hands to demand silence.
‘’Ladies and gentlemen, know that I wil not answer your questions if you don’t show equal courtesy to my comrade pilots. They are as deserving as me, or even more.
I don’t want to be singled out just because I am a woman.’
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‘’But you are the first known female fighter pilot, Lieutenant.’ shouted a reporter.
‘’We want to know how you were able to become a fighter pilot.’
Having already spoken with Jesus and Jack Dale about the undue attention she was expecting from reporters at their detriments, Ingrid again asked for silence.
‘’In that case, I am ready to make a statement on that subject. Then, you will have to switch your attention to my two comrades: I don’t believe in personal glory seeking: I became a fighter pilot simply to help defend the Philippines. First, I was born Ingrid Weiss in Berlin, Germany, on September 7 of 1923. I met an American officer in London and married him there in July of this year. My husband is Major Kenneth Dows, of the United States Marine Corps, who is presently posted in Manila. I obtained my civilian pilot’s license here in Manila. When war was declared in the Pacific, and knowing that the United States Army did not accept women as fighter pilots, I asked to join the Filipino Army Air Corps. President Quezon personally accepted my request and commissioned me as a Filipino Army officer two days ago. My mission yesterday was in fact my first combat mission as a fighter pilot.’
‘’And how do you explain your performance in the air, miss, despite the fact that you didn’t get any training as a fighter pilot?’’ shouted a reporter, attracting a severe look from Ingrid.
‘’First, mister, call me ‘Lieutenant’ and not ‘miss’. Second, I would say that I apparently have a natural affinity for flying. Third, I had the chance to be able to discuss at length air combat tactics in Europe with confirmed air aces there and learned much from them. Now, I believe that it’s the turn of Lieutenant Dale and of Captain Vil amor to field your questions.’
The reporters, frustrated, then had to talk with the two male pilots. Mel Jacoby, who had a very powerful visual memory and had seen nearly all the pictures taken by TIME-LIFE
correspondents in this war, suddenly remembered where he had seen the face of that beautiful teenager. Approaching Ingrid, he spoke to her in a near whisper, so that the other reporters wouldn’t hear him.
‘’Lieutenant Dows, weren’t you present at the funeral of Brigadier Nancy Laplante, the famous Canadian from the future? Weren’t you in fact one of her pallbearers and were seen afterwards with her now dead husband, Major Crawford?’
Ingrid stiffened then, having hoped to keep hidden her connection to Nancy, connection that would have only attracted more undue media attention on her. Taking Jacoby by
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one arm, she led him away from the other reporters, with Annalee the only one to follow the two of them.
‘’Please don’t repeat this in front of the other reporters, mister. I don’t want to end up been hounded down constantly and thus appear to be a simple glory seeker.’
‘’Lieutenant, rest assured that I don’t intend to blow an exclusive in such a stupid way. However, the truth will come out eventually. You might as well tell your story to a serious magazine like TIME-LIFE, rather than to some of those rags.’
‘’And what about that woman?’’ said Ingrid, pointing Annalee. That made Mel Jacoby grin.
‘’That woman is my wife, Annalee Whitmore, of the LIBERTY magazine. I believe that I can trust her, Lieutenant.’
‘’Oh! In that case… Yes, I was at the funeral of Nancy Laplante. I am in fact her adopted daughter. I am also a German Jew and was an orphan before being adopted by Nancy and by Mike Crawford. That is how I got my American citizenship. That is all that I am prepared to say at this time.’
‘’That is already plenty, Lieutenant.’ replied Mel, smiling at the thought of the exclusive he had just secured. ‘’Thank you for answering my questions and good luck in the air.’
‘’Thank you, mister.’
After a few more minutes of questions from the reporters, MacArthur’s public affairs officer put an end to the interview session and led the three pilots away from the crowd of reporters. Ingrid was sighing with relief when a young American Army Air Corps captain joined them and spoke to her and Jesus.
‘’Captain, Lieutenant, could you come with me, please? General MacArthur told me to qualify you on the P-40E.’
‘’And Lieutenant Dale?’ Asked in return Ingrid. The captain nodded his head while looking at Dale.
‘’Lieutenant Dale wil also get courses on the P-40E this morning, along with the other pilots of his squadron. There are now enough assembled P-40s to allow our remaining P-35 and P-26 to be put in reserve. Unfortunately, the word from Washington is that we cannot hope to get more fighter pilots here in the Philippines: our losses in Hawaii were too heavy and the absolute priority was given to replace our losses there.
Thankfully, the weather over the Japanese airfields in Formosa and Okinawa is quite
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bad and we should enjoy a respite in the air today. Once you will be qualified, you will be able to take possession of the three P-40Es now assembled in Batangas.’
Jesus smiled, happy, and looked at Ingrid with gleaming eyes.
‘’I liked my old P-26, but I must say that flying the P-40E will give us a much better chance in air combat against the Japanese.’’
‘’You bet!’ replied Ingrid, equal y pleased. ‘’With a maximum speed of 362 miles per hour instead of 234 miles per hour for our P-26s, and with six .50 caliber heavy machineguns, we will now be able to catch up to Japanese bombers and destroy them faster. Well, let’s not waste time and let’s follow the good captain.’’
As she and Jesus were taking place in the jeep of the American captain, a big four-engine C-87 LIBERATOR EXPRESS, a cargo variant of the B-24 heavy bomber, came in and landed on the main runway of Clark Field. Looking up at the sky, Ingrid saw a formation of fifteen other C-87s which were waiting to land, flying under the low clouds.
Joy and hope filled her as a second C-87 landed.
‘’HURRAY! WE WERE NOT ABANDONED AFTER ALL!’
19:54 (Manila Time)
USAFFE HQ, Manila
Douglas MacArthur felt truly optimistic for the first time in this war tonight. With Admiral Hart and some of his staff officers sitting with him and senior officers of the USAFFE in the conference room of his headquarters, MacArthur signaled to his chief of staff, sitting near him at the big table, to start.
‘’You can give the good news, Dick.’
‘’Yes, General!’ said politely Sutherland before looking at a document in his hands. ‘’The news are effectively good today, gentlemen. Washington put in place and inaugurated today an air bridge between Australia and us to satisfy our most urgent needs. A total of 27 C-87 heavy transport aircraft, each carrying four tons of cargo, landed today on our airfields. They then left immediately after unloading and being refueled. We used their return trip to evacuate to Australia over 300 of our wounded.
We intend to continue using the return trips in the following days to evacuate our wounded and our non-essential personnel.’
MacArthur interrupted Sutherland then to speak briefly to Admiral Hart.
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‘’In view of this unexpected evacuation capacity, I have given orders this afternoon to start evacuating, by force, if necessary, the American civilians still present in the Philippines. From what we know thanks to Nancy Laplante, I do not want to see American civilians eventually fall in the hands of the Japanese. British and Australian citizens wil also be evacuated forcibly towards Australia.’’
‘’That wil definitely be one weight less on our shoulders, General.’ agreed Hart.
‘’Also, being able to evacuate our wounded will help a lot the morale of our men.’
‘’Very true! Dick, you may continue.’’
‘’Yes, General! Those 27 C-87 brought part of the 206th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, including twelve of the new dual purpose 90 mm guns, dismounted for transport, plus 5,000 90 mm shells equipped with proximity fuses. They also brought thousands of antitank rifle grenades, which will finally allow our troops to face eventually Japanese tanks. More 90 mm and 75 mm shells will follow, along with six more 90 mm guns and essential spare parts for our planes. To avoid being caught on the ground by Japanese air raids, the transit schedules will be modified so that the planes will arrive just before Sunset and will depart the next day at Sunrise. That should allow them time to unload under the protection of the night. The air logistics senior officer who came with the first group of C-87s assured me that we could expect a minimum of 24 flights per day, depending of course on the weather.’
MacArthur then interrupted a second time his chief of staff.
‘’Admiral Hart, we decided nearly three months ago to jointly defend the Philippines and to coordinate our defenses. I have thus decided to allocate the 206th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment to the defense of the Cavite Navy Base. Its 90 mm guns have a maximum horizontal range of eleven miles and can engage ships as well as planes. The commander of the regiment told me that a load of armor piercing rounds wil be part of the coming air shipments.’
‘’Excellent!’ replied Hart, truly happy. ‘’Then I can give you in exchange another good news, General. We are expecting tonight a small convoy escorted by the Dutch destroyer TROMP. The convoy includes a tanker ship full of aviation gasoline, another tanker ship full of diesel fuel for my submarines and a cargo ship loaded with torpedoes and aviation bombs. Two of my destroyers are already off Manila Bay, ready to guide the convoy through our minefields.’’
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‘’Our B-17 bomber crews will be happy to hear that, Admiral. They hit a Japanese airfield on Hainan Island, on the Chinese coast, this morning and are going through their stocks of bombs quickly.’
‘’And in what state is your bomber force, General?’’
MacArthur’s smile faded as he answered Hart.
‘’I have fourteen B-17s left operational, but my biggest worry is about the crews.
Our pilots are exhausted and are too few, especially where fighter pilots are concerned.
I pleaded with Washington to get more fighter pilots but top priority is presently going to Hawaii. Washington is ready to send us all the ground equipment and munitions that we want, but no planes or pilots, at least not for the weeks to come.’’
‘’And how are your ground defenses doing, General?’’
‘’Our training program for our infantry is stil going full steam, and I clearly indicated that no time be wasted on simple parade drill practices. Our engineers are proceeding with the fortification of the Bataan Peninsula, which has been designated with Corregidor as our place of last stand, while our logisticians are centralizing there all the food, ammunition, fuel, spare parts and medical supplies that can be collected. If the Japanese land on Luzon, we will have enough supplies to hold Bataan and Corregidor for many months and thus deny the use of Manila Bay and Subic Bay to the Japanese.’
‘’Let’s hope that we will not need to retreat to those bastions, General. However, in line with those preparations, I will make sure that, if Cavite has to be evacuated, that the 90 mm guns placed there will be moved to the Bataan Peninsula, to be used there as coastal defense batteries.’’
‘’Then, I will direct my artil ery commander to select and prepare in advance suitable fortified coastal positions for those 90 mm guns.’
MacArthur was silent for a short moment before speaking in a subdued tone.
‘’Without more fighter planes and pilots, the Japanese will eventual y gain the control of the air over the Philippines. Then, the best we can hope for will be to inflict as much casualties to them as we can and to deny to them the Philippines for as long as possible.’
07:49 (Manila Time)
Monday, October 27, 1941 ‘C’
Batangas Airfield
Philippines
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Ingrid, having gone out on the porch of the pilots’ hut after breakfast, looked up critically at the sky. The cloud ceiling was much higher this morning than it had been for the last two days and there may even be a chance that no rain would fall today. At least, the poor weather of the last two days had allowed her and Jesus to familiarize themselves with their new P-40Es and to fly a few hours on them. Ingrid had needed all of her innate pilot’s abilities to keep control of her P-40 at low speeds, especially during takeoffs and landings. The strong engine torque of the P-40, allied to its tendency to stall without warning and drop a wing, had caused the death of many young American pilots. The P-40E, while not an exceptional fighter in any way, was however well armed and was surprisingly agile at high speeds and low altitudes, making it an excellent fighter-bomber. It however climbed slowly and its high-altitude performances degraded quickly as it went up. Despite that, Ingrid now felt reasonably comfortable with her new plane and was ready for her next combat mission. With the acceptable temperature announced for today, she suspected that the Japanese were probably going to use it to attack the Philippines again. Jesus Villamor soon joined her on the porch and also looked up at the sky.
‘’We should see the Japanese today, and in less than a few hours if I go by their habits. Let’s go put on our flight gear, Ingrid.’
Going back in the hut, which was also used as the squadron’s operations center and alert lounge, they started to put on their gear. They had just put on last their parachutes when the telephone on the desk of the operations room rang. A Filipino sergeant jumped on it and answered in English.
‘’Sixth Pursuit Squadron, Sergeant Arecibo.... Understood, Captain!’’
The sergeant then looked at Jesus and Ingrid.
‘’One of our B-10B bombers used as an early warning plane west of the Manila Bay just spotted a large formation of Japanese planes approaching from the Northwest.
The Japanese are now 200 miles from Manila. Our bomber is however being pursued by three Japanese fighters and is trying to attract them towards Batangas.’’
‘’Tell Nielson Field that we are taking off now.’’ ordered Jesus, grabbing his leather helmet. ‘’Let’s go, Ingrid!’’
Ingrid did not need to be told twice and ran outside with Jesus. The latter then shouted at the soldiers and mechanics close to their aircraft, which were camouflaged in individual clearings made in the tree line of the jungle.
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‘’RAISE THE CAMOUFLAGE NETS! WE ARE TAKING OFF!’
A dozen soldiers immediately grabbed long bamboo poles attached to the corners of the camouflage nets and raised them to the vertical, unmasking the front of the two P-40Es, while mechanics pushed the planes in the open and out of their hiding places. Ingrid and Jesus jumped quickly in their cockpits and started their engines after a quick check of their instruments. Only four minutes after receiving the alert call from Nielson Field, the two P-40s had taken off and were climbing in the direction of the Northwest.
Five minutes later, guided by radio calls from the pursued Filipino B-10B bomber, Jesus and Ingrid made visual contact with the antiquated bomber, which had found a second life as an early warning aircraft thanks to its long air endurance. Ingrid’s sharp eyesight then spotted as well three dots just behind the bomber.
‘’Papa One, I see three fighters with fixed landing gears behind our B-10 bomber, probably Nakajima Ki-27 NATE fighters. Should we go for frontal passes first?’’
‘’It sounds like a good idea, Papa Two. Take the Japanese on the left of us: I will take the one on the right. You wil then cover my tail.’
‘’Understood, Papa One.’
Her heart accelerating, Ingrid slid to the left, away from Jesus, and took the safety off her six heavy machineguns. Ingrid knew that the Ki-27 NATE was quite similar to the P-26, but even more agile. It however sacrificed everything to agility, having no armor whatsoever and being armed with only two 7.7 mm medium machineguns. One well-placed salvo should be enough to destroy her first adversary. Calculating in advance her gun deflection, Ingrid flew to a straight frontal approach against the NATE on the left of the Japanese formation and opened fire at a distance of 600 meters, with Jesus firing at about the same time. To Ingrid’s surprise, the Ki-27 coming at her was literally shred to small pieces by her bullets, bursting into flames and disintegrating in many parts in midair. Surprised by her easy victory, she glanced at Jesus’ target, in time to see it become a flying torch. The surviving NATE, flying a bit behind its now destroyed wingmen, performed a tight right turn to flee, presenting its belly and wings to Ingrid.
She fired a short burst at it but missed. Her P-40E was however much faster than the NATE and she closed in on the Japanese, firing once at 300 meters behind it. The diminutive Japanese fighter then caught fire, with one wing cut off by a second short burst from Ingrid. It then entered a terminal dive while spinning wildly. Ingrid watched
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the NATE fall for a moment, then formed back with Jesus, who spoke to her on the radio.
‘’Good shooting, Papa Two. You are becoming quite good at this. We wil now head towards Manila to intercept that bomber formation signaled by our bomber.’
As Ingrid followed Jesus in a turn towards Manila, the latter called the air controller at Nielson Field.
‘’Junction Box, this is Papa One. Three Ki-27 NATE enemy fighters shot down off Batangas. Owl Two now safe. We are on our way to Manila to intercept the enemy bombers sighted previously, over.’’
‘’Papa One, from Junction Box: good job! A Navy PBY just updated the position of the incoming enemy bomber force. It is now 115 miles west of Cavite and is flying at an altitude of 25,000 feet. Our PBY counted about sixty bombers, escorted by forty fighters. Our other fighters are already on their way to intercept. You are to hit those bombers before they get over Cavite, over.’’
‘’Understood, Junction Box. Papa Two, start climbing towards 27,000 feet.’
Ingrid did not answer as she put her fighter in a slow climb, the P-40E being rather lazy at high altitude. Sixty Japanese bombers could do a lot of damage to the naval base in Cavite and she was not certain if Ken was still at the Asiatic Fleet headquarters or in Cavite. She had to give her very best to turn around that enemy raid, but would have to make her every bullet count. That meant shooting short bursts only from short range, to ensure hits on each pass.
Jesus and Ingrid arrived over Cavite as the Japanese planes started to be visible in the distance. Tails of black smoke told them that the other American fighter pilots in the air had already started engaging the enemy.
‘’Papa One, from Papa Two. If the escorting enemy fighters are all NATEs, then we will have a serious speed advantage on them. The NATE also loses much of its agility at speeds above 250 miles per hour. I believe that we should keep our speed to the maximum and limit ourselves to high-speed passes on the bombers while ignoring the enemy fighters, over.’’
‘’I buy your plan, Papa Two. We wil start with individual frontal passes on the lead bombers while on a shallow dive, then engage the second wave while leveling up.
Protect my tail once we turn around to fall behind the bombers, over.’’
‘’Understood, Papa One.’’
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Lining up in a near collision course with one of the lead bombers and pushing her P-40E
in a shallow dive, Ingrid could soon identify the enemy planes.
‘’Papa One, I identify the enemy as about sixty Mitsubishi G3M NELL, escorted by twelve Ki-27 fighters. I don’t see the other NATE fighters signaled by Owl Two.’’
‘’The are probably busy with our other fighters, Papa Two. We will probably be alone to deal with those bombers.’
Ingrid felt both anger and frustration on hearing that. All the American fighter pilots in the Philippines had received instructions to avoid dogfighting with Japanese fighters and to concentrate instead on shooting down the Japanese bombers. The few American fighter pilots stil alive seemed to have ignored that directive…again! Concentrating back on her target, she lined up her gun sight on the nose of the bomber. The Japanese pilot saw her coming but couldn’t do a thing about it, having no forward-firing guns and not being permitted to break formation without order. The unfortunate Japanese pilot, along with his copilot and his navigator/bombardier, died in the first burst from Ingrid, shredded to pieces by the .50 caliber bullets. The NELL then caught fire and fell out in a death dive as Ingrid flew through the first wave, already lining up on the bomber which had followed her first victim. A quick look around showed her Jesus, flying parallel to her a hundred meters to her right, while eleven NATE fighters were diving on her and her leader to attempt high frontal passes. Keeping her engine power to maximum, she fired a devastating burst into the nose section of her second target, exploding the NELL. She then slid on one wing to take position to the rear and left of Jesus as the Filipino pilot started a wide high-speed turn to come back behind the bombers. Ingrid followed him, enduring a good five Gs of centrifugal force in the process and having to breathe forcefully through short intakes. Seeing through a pink haze a NATE attempting to get on the tail of Jesus, Ingrid immediately lined up the enemy fighter in her sight and fired a short burst but missed. Correcting her aim, she fired a second burst as the enemy pilot made the mistake of concentrating solely on Jesus. The Japanese pilot suddenly found himself in a cockpit full of flames, his engine and main fuel tank hit by heavy .50 caliber slugs. Ingrid did not have the time to observe the poor Japanese pilot as he fell out of his plane, transformed into a human torch. She watched Jesus’ tail as the Filipino fired burst after burst against a bomber, with the gunners of the bomber and of its wingmen replying frantically with their defensive machineguns. Jesus finally cut off the right wing of his target, sending it in a terminal spin and overcoming the rear wave of bombers with a speed advantage of 280 kilometers per hour. The enemy fighters, about one hundred
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kilometers per hour slower than the P-40Es, were now being left behind despite their best efforts at catching the two marauders. The Filipino then engaged a bomber of the next wave, firing a short burst but missing, while tracers from the bombers defensive machineguns came at him and Ingrid from all directions. Jesus then swore violently on the radio.
‘’DAMNATION! MY GUNS ARE JAMMED! TAKE OVER THE ATTACK, PAPA TWO!’
Ingrid did not hesitate and lined up the NELL in her gun sight, while Jesus performed a barrel roll to take position behind her. Ingrid heard a couple of bullet impacts on her plane but ignored them, firing a machine gun burst which pulverized the canopy of the bomber, killing its pilot and copilot and sending the bomber spiraling out of control. She immediately switched target, aiming at the lead bomber of the formation as more bullets impacted against her plane. Her long burst swept the bomber from tail to nose along its fuselage. The enemy plane then exploded in a huge fireball, forcing Ingrid into veering away violently to avoid the debris. She immediately looked anxiously for Jesus.
‘’PAPA ONE, ARE YOU OKAY?’’
‘’Affirmative, Papa Two! I am right on your tail. Keep taking care of those bombers and don’t worry about me. You are doing magnificently.’
‘’Thank you, Papa One! I wil now take some distance ahead and then turn around for another frontal pass.’
Followed closely by Jesus and still flying at maximum speed, burning fuel quickly, Ingrid passed the now shot up and shaken bomber formation and took a lead of over two kilometers, turning around once nearly over the base of Cavite and returning with Jesus towards the Japanese bombers. She then noticed that one of the bombers had left the formation, one of its two engines on fire: the NELL must have been damaged by debris from its leader. Many fighter pilots would have jumped on that easy target to obtain a quick victory. Ingrid however had only one goal in mind: to stop as many bombers as possible from hitting the naval base in Cavite. The damaged bomber, which was dropping its bombs into the sea, was not a threat to Cavite anymore and would cost her precious bullets. She thus kept on her collision course towards the lead bomber and waited until nearly the last moment to fire her next burst from her six heavy machineguns, shredding the cockpit and right-side engine of the NELL. She jumped over the doomed bomber and immediately targeted the following bomber, which was
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barely 200 meters behind its now dead leader. She missed with her next burst, having had only a fraction of a second to aim, but scared to death the Japanese pilot as she flew past the bomber from barely three meters away. Suddenly seeing Vil amor’s P-40
barreling down at him and following Ingrid, the pilot of the NELL lost his nerves and threw his bomber into an evasive turn to the left, convinced that Jesus was going to collide head on with him. Unfortunately for the Japanese, his uncoordinated maneuver within the tight formation of bombers made him collide with his left wingman. The two NELLs exploded under the impact of the collision, sending debris all around and damaging other bombers around them. One radial engine which had flown off one of the two bombers then hit one of the NATE fighters still trying without success to catch the two P-40s. With one wing ripped off by the impact, the fighter fell down and crashed in the sea below. Trying to shoot at a bomber of the third wave, Ingrid managed to fire only a few bullets before the firing pins of her machineguns hit empty chambers.
‘’DAMN! I’M OUT OF AMMO!’
‘’THEN LET’S GO, PAPA TWO! WE CAN’T DO MORE HERE.’’
What Ingrid and Jesus didn’t see immediately then was that panic had swept through the surviving Japanese bomber crews. One of the enemy squadron leaders took on him to order a retreat and make his pilots drop their bombs into the sea, soon imitated by the other two bomber squadrons of the attack formation. On seeing that, Jesus burst out in a nervous laughter.
‘’Papa Two, I believe that we made quite an impression on those Japanese: they are dropping their bombs into the sea and turning away.’
‘’It can’t be true!’ replied Ingrid, unable to believe her eyes. ‘’Well, I wil have seen it all.’
The surviving NATE fighters, many now extremely short on fuel, turned around as well, following their bombers. Seeing that, Jesus spoke again on the radio, elated.
‘’I guess that we can throttle down now, Papa Two. How about a little victory flyby over Cavite?’
‘’A great idea, Papa One.’’ replied Ingrid, nearly jumping with joy in her seat.
In the base of Cavite, the commander of the anti-aircraft guns defending the naval base had watched the air battle with his powerful binoculars and shouted with joy, like his gunners and the Marines and sailors nearby, when the bombers turned around while dropping their bombs into the sea less than five kilometers away from the base.
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‘’OUR TWO FIGHTERS SCARED AWAY THOSE JAPS! THEY ARE ALL
TURNING AWAY!’
He then saw the two P-40s which had attacked repeatedly the Japanese bomber formation slow down and form up in a tight pair before coming towards Cavite.
‘’OUR TWO FIGHTERS ARE GOING TO PASS OVERHEAD. WEAPONS
TIGHT! WEAPONS TIGHT! NOBODY SHOOTS AT ANYTHING UNLESS I SAY
OTHERWISE. SECURE THE GUNS!’
His gunners obeyed him at once, while his signalers passed the order by field telephone and radio. The Army gunners, Marines and Navy men all cheered and waved when the two P-40s passed slowly over the base, wiggling their wings triumphantly as a victory sign. The artillery commander took good note of the Filipino markings and plane identification numbers on the two P-40s, grinning as he did so: he had fully expected to be blasted to bits by the bombs from the mass of bombers coming at Cavite. Now, he and his men were going to live for at least another day, thanks to those two Filipino P-40
fighters.
19:39 (Manila Time)
Far East Air Force headquarters
Nielson Field, southern suburbs of Manila
Major General Lewis Brereton, Commander of the United States Far East Air Force, was puzzled as he reviewed with Brigadier General Clagett, the commander of his fighter force, the results of the day, which were decidedly mixed. On one hand, two American squadrons totaling at the start of the battle 22 P-40 fighters had tried to intercept the big group of enemy bombers heading for Cavite this morning but had clashed instead with over thirty escorting Ki-27 NATE fighters. The pilots of the 24th Pursuit Group had suffered heavily in the ensuing melee, losing nine of their planes and with eight more P-40s returning to their base with varying degrees of damage. In exchange, the pilots of the 24th Pursuit Group had claimed a total of fourteen Ki-27s shot down, a claim that had proved since then to be quite exaggerated, if Brereton could believe the review of the films from the gun cameras of the group. The true number of Japanese fighters shot down seemed to actually be more like six Ki-27s. The worst part was that, contrary to their orders, the pilots of the 24th Pursuit Group had not gone after the bombers, instead entering into a series of dogfights with the escort Japanese
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fighters, with the nimble Ki-27s then easily gaining the upper edge over the less agile P40s despite their light armament and lack of armor. The only fighters which had actually attacked the Japanese bomber force were two Filipino P-40s out of Batangas. However, their results were nothing like those of the pilots of the 24th Pursuit Group. Clagett had an embarrassed look on his face when he had approached Brereton with the results of the day, which included claims by the two pilots from the 6th Pursuit Squadron for a total of eleven Japanese planes shot down. The problem was that, according to Clagett, the gun camera films from those two pilots corroborated their claims. Brereton gave another skeptical look at his fighter commander.
‘’So, the claims of those two 6th Pursuit Squadron pilots really do pan out?’’
‘’Yes sir! On top of the films from their gun cameras, their combat was observed by the gunners defending Cavite. The commander of the anti-aircraft artillery regiment there noted down the serial number of those two P-40s, which managed by themselves to make the Japanese bomber force turn around in panic and drop its bombs into the sea. The numbers correspond to the plane registry numbers of the P-40s flown by Captain Villamor and Lieutenant Dows. Out of those eleven victories claimed, eight are for Lieutenant Dows.’
Brereton then exploded with frustration.
‘’And how the hel do you explain that a rookie female pilot with no actual training as a fighter pilot could achieve such successes when our own pilots, formed at our fighter school in Arizona, barely manage to survive their own encounters with Japanese fighters? That teenage girl is making our pilots look like a bunch of flying monkeys.’’
Brereton regretted his words as soon as he said it. Looking apologetically at Clagett, who had stiffened on hearing the term ‘flying monkeys’, he spoke in a softer tone.
‘’Sorry, Henry: I shouldn’t have used those words. It is just that the fact that a teenage girl can outfight our pilots is damn hard to digest. You know what kind of reactions there would be in the United States if this became known.’’
Clagett nodded slowly his head, able to imagine the political storm that some could raise by claiming this as proof that official fighter pilot training was next to worthless.
‘’Should we then deny the victory claims from Lieutenant Dows, sir?’’
Brereton snapped his head around to stare at him with indignation.
‘’I wasn’t suggesting that, dammit! That girl risked her life today to defend the Philippines and she is entitled to get her proper dues. It is just that I want to know what she and Captain Villamor are doing so differently from our pilots of the 24th Group.’’
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After a moment of thinking, Brereton looked up at Clagett.
‘’Call Batangas and tell Captain Villamor and Lieutenant Dows to come here right away to talk with us. While you do that, I will go watch their gun camera films to see if there is a pattern to their successes.’
‘’Yes, General!’
Twenty minutes later, Brereton came out of the small viewing room adjacent to the photo section, shaking his head in disbelief. Clagett, who was waiting for him back in the operations center, looked at him questioningly.
‘’So, what do you think, General?’’
‘’That this girl is one deadly shot in the air, apart from being brave as hell. The number of tracers flying around or coming at her was frightening, yet she shot up those bombers like she was a flying Calamity Jane6. I also noticed how fast she and Villamor flew while in combat. They kept zipping around the Japanese bomber formation, never slowing down. Maybe that’s the secret of their successes. Are they on the way to here?’
‘’They should arrive here in less than one hour, General.’
‘’Good! One more thing before they arrive here, Henry: have the victory claims of both Captain Vil amor and Lieutenant Dows officially accepted.’
His commander of fighters eyed him cautiously.
‘’Sir, you do realize that this would make Dows a double ace…our top air ace of this war. Villamor would also be an ace now.’
That made Brereton freeze on the spot for a second.
‘’Damn! I didn’t think about that. The press will have a field day on that. Well, an ace she is, Henry. We can only hope that she will continue to shoot down Japanese planes at her present rate. While we are on this subject, write down for my review tomorrow suitable award recommendations for both Vil amor and Dows.’
‘’Sir, if one of my regular pilots would have performed like Dows, only one award would be appropriate, in my honest opinion.’
Brereton looked at Clagett calmly.
‘’Then, go for it, Henry.’
6 Calamity Jane: Famous female adventurer in the history of the American Far West. Calamity Jane was reputed to be an elite shot.
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Just before nine in the evening, Villamor and Dows arrived at his headquarters and were then introduced in Brereton’s office, escorted by Clagett. Brereton was struck at once by the youthful beauty of Ingrid but didn’t remark on it. He returned their salutes, then pointed at the chairs set in front of his desk.
‘’Please, have a seat: I asked you to come so that we could discuss the tactics you used today over Manila Bay. By the way, your victory claims were accepted officially…in full. Your personal scores thus now stand respectively at six and a half victories for you, Captain Vil amor, and at ten victories for Lieutenant Dows.’
Both Villamor and Dows smiled, with the girl grinning the widest.
‘’Thank you, General.’
‘’I’m the one that needs to thank you both, for shooting down all those Japanese planes and for having turned away that bomber formation. I just want to know how you did it.’
Villamor and Dows then exchanged a glance, with Villamor speaking to Ingrid.
‘’Go ahead, Ingrid: you introduced us to those tactics, so it is only just that you get to describe them to General Brereton.’
‘’Thank you, Jesus.’ replied Ingrid, who then looked calmly at Brereton.
‘’General, I don’t know how much you do know about my personal background, so I wil start from the beginning. Before marrying Major Kenneth Dows and coming to the Philippines with him, I was a German Luftwaffe auxiliary serving at a fighter division headquarters in France. I was able to observe first hand there the various tactics and strategies used by both the Luftwaffe and the R.A.F. Since I was fascinated by flying and often met some of the top German air aces in France, I was able to discuss at length with those aces things like air tactics, deflection aiming calculations and the rules of air combat.’
Brereton, who actually knew nothing about that apart from the fact that she was the wife of an American officer, stared at her in stunned disbelief, like Clagett.
‘’You…you were in the Luftwaffe before? And why would such top air aces take the time to teach you all those things, if you were not a pilot?’’
Ingrid smiled at his somewhat naïve question and looked at him with the sexiest, most sensual expression she could muster while answering in a mellow voice.
‘’Why, General, if you were a young and energetic fighter pilot, wouldn’t you want to speak in private to a young and beautiful girl who is ready to listen to you as you talk and brag about your exploits in the air, with a bottle of wine at hand and a bed nearby?’’
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While Jesus Villamor strangled his laughter with difficulty and while Henry Clagett hid his face with one hand, Brereton was left open-mouthed. Ingrid then went on, putting back on a serious expression.
‘’While I learned basic air tactics and deflection shooting from those German aces, what helps me most to shoot down Japanese planes came from my adoptive mother. Please understand that I was in 1940 a war orphan, after my whole extended family was killed in Berlin by a British air bombardment. I enlisted in the Luftwaffe in order to avenge them, not because I was some kind of Nazi fanatic. Then, in January of this year, I was captured along with other German staff in a commando raid led by Nancy Laplante, the famous Canadian from the future. I was then interned with other German female auxiliaries in the Tower of London. However, Nancy Laplante and I quickly became good friends and she helped support my morale and that of my comrades with frequent visits, arranging film or music nights and dances. She and her husband, Major Mike Crawford of the U.S. Corps of Engineers, eventually decided to secretly adopt me and she started to secretly educate me, while also helping openly with my physical training. She then told me what she knew about this war and the future as it happened in her variant of history. With me being especially interested in planes, she discussed in detail with me the tactics and lessons about the air war in this conflict. I also had access to her historical files which described in detail this war and which also taught me the various strengths and weaknesses of Japanese planes. To cut this to the essential, the cardinal rules pertaining to air combat against Japanese planes, especially fighters are, first, to never engage in a low speed, turning dogfight with a Japanese fighter. Instead, you keep your speed as high as you can through the whole engagement. Second, since our planes dive better than theirs, we are to try as much as possible for diving passes, followed by a quick withdrawal, a climb back to altitude and another diving pass, using vertical combat rather than turning combat. Third, since most Japanese aircraft have little or no armor and have mostly unprotected fuel tanks, they are in general quite fragile and catch fire easily, even though they benefit from superior agility due to their light weight. A single well-placed burst will thus often be enough to down them. That same light construction also limits their diving speed. The ZERO
fighter in particular loses much of its agility at speeds above 250 miles per hour and is limited to a maximum of 350 miles per hour in a dive, at which speed its thin wing aluminum skin will start ripping away and its ailerons will become impossible to move. In contrast, the Curtiss P-40 is at its best at low altitudes and high speed, where it rolls
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faster than the ZERO. In terms of armament, the Japanese fighters generally have lighter armament than our fighters, while most Japanese bombers have no forward-firing defensive machineguns. During our fight this morning, me and Captain Villamor thus used as much as we could frontal passes against the Japanese bombers, while we kept our speed up and thus basically ignored the escorting NATE fighters, which were too slow to catch us or even follow us. Some may call our tactics cowardly, but I became a fighter pilot to defend the Philippines and destroy as many Japanese planes as I can, not to gain personal glory. I also will concentrate first on Japanese bombers, since they can hurt the most our troops and civilians on the ground. Well, that’s it in a nutshel , General.’
Brereton, who had been frantically scribbling down notes while listening to her, stared at her in silence for long seconds. This stunningly beautiful teenager was nothing like the wild child he had expected. He then looked at Jesus Villamor.
‘’Captain Vil amor, do you have something to add on this subject?’’
‘’One thing, General: Lieutenant Dows also taught me four days ago about a defensive tactic called the ‘Thatch Weave’. We used it to good effect last Friday.’
The diminutive young Filipino pilot then spent a minute describing the Thatch Weave to Brereton and Clagett, along with the results it gave in combat. At the end of it, Brereton exchanged looks with Clagett.
‘’General Clagett, I want you to ensure that all our pilots know about these new tactics and put them into practice. From now on, getting suckered into a low-speed dogfight with a Japanese fighter will be considered by me to be an act of incompetence and will be treated accordingly. Also, Japanese bombers are to be considered at all times to be the top priority targets.’
‘’The word will be passed, sir.’
Brereton then turned back his attention on Villamor.
‘’In what state are your two planes, Captain?’
‘’They suffered multiple hits from 7.7 mm bullets but nothing vital was touched, except for my machineguns trigger wire, which was cut, resulting in my weapons jamming. Everything will be repaired by tomorrow morning, sir. We will then have two fully operational P-40s in Batangas.’
‘’Excellent! I wil thus let you go back now to Batangas, so that you could have a good night of rest and be ready for combat tomorrow morning. Dismissed!’
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Getting up from their chairs, Jesus and Ingrid saluted in unison Brereton, then walked out of his office. The graying general was thoughtful for a moment, then looked at his watch and decided to call General MacArthur. Thankfully, Major General Sutherland, MacArthur’s chief of staff, was not at the USAFFE headquarters anymore at this hour and thus did not block access to his commander, like he did way too often to protect his influence on MacArthur. Instead, the duty officer at the Manila headquarters patched him with MacArthur’s suite, situated in the same requisitioned hotel than the USAFFE
HQ. Brereton soon had the old general on the line.
‘’MacArthur!’
‘’General, this is Lewis Brereton, calling from Nielson Field. I am happy to announce to you that we now have our two first air aces of the war.’
MacArthur’s tone then changed immediately, indicating instant interest: anything that could be splashed on newspapers’ front pages and which could make him or his command look good was always of prime interest to him, a trait Brereton knew too well.
MacArthur actually took the time to get a notepad and a pencil before speaking again.
‘’What are their names and their victory scores, Lewis?’’
‘’Captain Jesus Vil amor, with six confirmed kil s and one damaged, and First Lieutenant Ingrid Dows, with ten confirmed kills, as of this morning. Lieutenant Dows is thus a confirmed double ace. Captain Villamor and Lieutenant Dows were responsible for turning away by themselves the Japanese bomber force which tried to attack Cavite this morning, sir. I personally reviewed their gun camera films and I have to say that both their bravery and skills in air combat were extremely impressive. I intend in particular to put up Lieutenant Dows for the Congressional Medal of Honor, while Captain Vil amor deserves at least the DSC in my opinion.’
MacArthur was left speechless for a moment at the other end of the line, speaking hesitantly after a good five seconds.
‘’Ten confirmed victories? Damn, this girl is positively Hell’s on wheels.’
‘’She definitely is, General. I just spoke in person with her and Vil amor, to discuss the tactics they used. She proved to be surprisingly mature and responsible for her age, I must say. I however called you mostly because of the potential impact on the American public her exploits may cause if and when they become known. In essence, she is making most of my other fighter pilots look like incompetents, even though she never got any formal training as a fighter pilot.’
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‘’Hum, you are right about the possible reactions in the United States. However, that girl, like Captain Villamor, earned her success the hard way and saved many lives in Cavite this morning. In fact, Admiral Hart called me earlier in the afternoon to pass a big thank you from the Navy about that aborted Japanese bomber raid. I will thus inform the press representatives about this tomorrow morning; Washington’s opinion be damned. I will be awaiting your written recommendations for awards and I can assure you that I will back them up to the utmost. Maybe this will convince Washington to finally send us some more planes and pilots.’
‘’I sure hope so as well, General. Uh, what are the chances that this could convince the Army to officially accept her as an officer and a fighter pilot?’’
‘’That is unfortunately something that would need an act of Congress and the President’s approval, Lewis. You know also as well as me the kind of reactions this would get from other generals in the Army. I wouldn’t hold my breath about this. Let’s just count ourselves lucky to have her as a Filipina fighter pilot.’
‘’I understand, General. Wel , I wil now wish you a good night, sir.’
‘’Thank you for the good news, Lewis: I wil certainly sleep better because of them. Good night to you as well.’
MacArthur then put down his receiver, imitated by Brereton. The latter reflected for a moment about the conversation he just had, then left his office, intent on going soon to sleep. Tomorrow was another day with good weather announced, which meant more incoming Japanese air attacks.
10:38 (Manila Time)
Tuesday, October 28, 1941 ‘C’
Batangas Airfield, Island of Luzon
Philippines
Tired and drenched in sweat but happy, Ingrid jumped down from her plane after it had been pushed back in its hiding place in the jungle tree line. She then made a visual inspection tour of her plane, sighing with relief at finding no damage or bullet holes in it. Her head mechanic also smiled on seeing that.
‘’Excellent, Lieutenant! With no damage to repair, we will now have the time today to paint over your plane the way you wanted. How did your mission go?’
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‘’It was a piece of cake, Felix. Our repeated high-speed passes prevented the enemy dive bombers from dropping their bombs with any precision and I was able to confirm as well that ZERO fighters lose much of their agility at speeds above 320 miles per hour. One ZERO tried to follow me in a high-speed dive at over 400 miles per hour.
I then performed a barrel roll and cut my speed to get on his tail. The pilot of that ZERO
was then unable to use his ailerons, which were frozen stiff by the speed, and I was able to shoot him to pieces at will. I then shot down two VAL dive bombers, while Jesus also shot down two VALs.’’
The head mechanic’s smile widened into a grin on hearing that.
‘’Then, this is decidedly a good day for the squadron.’
‘’You can say that, Felix.’’ said Jesus Vil amor, who had just approached Ingrid’s plane. ‘’Ingrid, you should paint a name or a logo on your plane. A pilot as dangerous as you must have a name on his plane.’
‘’Me, dangerous? What about you, Jesus?’’
The Filipino pilot stared at her, suddenly very serious.
‘’Ingrid, believe me when I say this: I never saw before you someone with such a natural talent for flying that you have. You just completed your third combat mission and I can already detect major improvements in your air gunnery, which was deadly enough on your first mission. You also control your P-40 like a pro and I doubt very much that I could win a dogfight against you. To sum up my humble opinion, you have the potential to become the greatest air ace in the whole Pacific. Hell, you ARE already our top ace!’
‘’I will probably never have the chance to keep that title very long, Jesus.’’ replied Ingrid in a bitter tone. ‘’The Filipino Army Air Corps accepted me as a fighter pilot, but the United States Army will probably never accept me as such. By American law, women are barred from combat, or even from joining the Army, except as nurses.’
‘’Your example may well change a few opinions in the United States, Ingrid. You may actually play an even more important role here than you think, after all.’
‘’I hope with all my heart that you are right about that, Jesus.’
‘’Then, let’s go back to the subject of your plane’s name. Have you thought of a name or logo yet, or of a nickname for you on the radio?’
‘’Uh, not real y, Jesus.’
‘’Well, we wil take care of that quickly enough.’’ said Jesus, smiling widely before shouting in Tagalog at the mechanics close by.
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‘’HEY, GUYS! INGRID NEEDS A NAME FOR HER PLANE. ANY
SUGGESTIONS?’’
Ingrid reddened with embarrassment as the mechanics enthusiastically proposed various names, many of them rather spicy ones with sexual overtones. One armorer who had started to clean Ingrid’s machineguns then shouted a name that struck her imagination.
‘’Why not ‘Lady Hawk’? She has the piercing eyes and sharp claws of a falcon.’
‘’YES! I LOVE IT!’ exclaimed Ingrid with enthusiasm. Jesus nodded his head, smiling.
‘’That’s you alright, Ingrid. You wil thus be known from now on as ‘Lady Hawk’.
Raphael wil paint it on your nose once our new paint scheme is done. Now, let’s go fil our mission reports.’
Much later, at the end of the afternoon, Ingrid and Jesus went to their planes, which had been pushed out of their camouflaged spots so that they could be painted, to admire the new paint scheme which Ingrid had proposed, based on some of the pictures of modern jet fighters which she had been given as a gift by Nancy Laplante. Their P40Es were now painted all over in a sort of dirty light gray, while their national Filipino insignias and plane numbers were painted in subdued black. A false cockpit had also been painted in black on the belly of the planes, under the real cockpit, in order to fool from a distance an enemy pilot about which way they were turning. Each plane also sported a personalized logo by now. While Ingrid’s fighter bore on each side of its engine the words ‘LADY HAWK’ in big pink letters outlined in black, Jesus’ plane sported the words ‘GRAY GHOST’ in large white letters. The two pilots stood stil for a long moment while admiring their planes.
‘’I love this!’ said Jesus, grinning, while stil looking at his plane. ‘’HEY, RAPHAEL! IS THE PAINT DRY YET? CAN WE STEP ON OUR PLANES NOW?’
‘’YOU CAN IF YOU WANT, CAPTAIN!’ replied from twenty meters away the mechanic and designated artist painter of the squadron. ‘’JUST DON’T LET THE JAPS
SCRATCH YOUR NEW PAINT.’’
Jesus and Ingrid laughed heartily at that. They were about to approach their planes to do a summary check of them when what looked like a convoy of civilian cars escorted by three armed jeeps and led by a big army staff car flying a red pennant with three stars on it rolled on the airfield. Jesus had one look at the staff car and tensed up.
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‘’Uh oh! Here is General MacArthur and his traveling public relations circus.
‘’EVERYBODY, STRAIGHTEN UP YOUR UNIFORMS! GENERAL MACARTHUR IS
HERE!’
Ingrid, like Jesus, then quickly put on her forage cap and tucked her shirt properly in her pants, then came to attention.
MacArthur’s staff car soon stopped in front of them and their planes, with an aide opening the rear door for his commander while the convoy of civilian cars disgorged an army of press photographers and cameramen who ran to form a half circle in front of Jesus and Ingrid. The two pilots saluted as MacArthur stepped out of his car, with photographers starting already to take pictures of them and their planes. MacArthur saluted back, then walked ceremoniously to them, shaking the hand of Jesus.
‘’Captain Vil amor, I am happy to finally be able to visit you at your airfield. Your squadron has truly accomplished miracles in the air.’
‘’Thank you, General. Your visit honors greatly my unit.’ replied Jesus, not knowing what else to say on such an unannounced visit. MacArthur nodded, then shook hands with Ingrid, smiling to her and making sure that he spoke loud enough to be heard by all around him.
‘’And here is our new top air ace in the Pacific, Lieutenant Ingrid Dows. You now have a total of ten air victories up to now, I believe?’
‘’Ten confirmed ones, General. I have claimed as well a further three Japanese planes shot down this morning, but they have not yet been officially confirmed.’
MacArthur turned sideways then to smile at the reporters and photographers.
‘’I am sure that these new victories will be promptly acknowledged in the official records. In the meantime, I came here to bring something for you and Captain Villamor.
Major Stark!’
MacArthur’s aide stepped forward and took out of a briefcase carried by a sergeant two certificates and four small boxes, handing first one of the boxes to MacArthur, who faced the reporters and spoke up. His speech was relatively short but grandiose, describing yesterday’s air battle in heroic terms which were hard on Ingrid’s modesty. He however gave as much credit to Jesus as he did to her, something she appreciated. MacArthur finally had two citations read aloud and gave to both Jesus and Ingrid their second and first DSC, respectively, then promoted Jesus to major, while Ingrid was boosted to captain, all done in the name of President Quezon. The catch was however when
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MacArthur pinned on Ingrid her new DSC and then turned towards the reporters to speak to them.
‘’This DSC to Captain Dows is however only provisional, as I will be forwarding to President Roosevelt a request that it be upgraded to a Congressional Medal of Honor, in view of the extraordinary heroism show in air combat by Captain Dows.’
As many around gasped, a reporter then shouted a remark at MacArthur.
‘’But, no woman has ever won the Medal of Honor, or even the DSC, General.’
‘’Valor is valor, irrespective of who shows it, and it will always be rewarded by me.’’ replied the old general. ‘’As collective valor goes, I am also pleased to announce that President Quezon has decided to reward today the exceptional services in combat of the 6th Pursuit Squadron with the Philippines Presidential Unit Citation. I, as commander of both American and Filipino army forces in the Philippines, can only say to the personnel of the 6th Pursuit Squadron: well done and thank you!’
MacArthur then ceremoniously saluted the personnel of the squadron and shook hands one last time with Jesus and Ingrid before getting back in his staff car and leaving. That however left the two pilots at the mercy of the reporters. Ingrid tensed up and whispered to Jesus as the correspondents and photographers rushed at them to be first to ask them questions.
‘ Incoming!’
15:28 (Washington Time) / 02:28 (Manila Time)
Wednesday, October 29, 1941 ‘C’ (Washington) / October 30 (Manila) Oval Office, The White House
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stared with shock at the large picture on the front page of the newspaper brought by his military chief of staff, Admiral Leahy.
‘’A woman fighter pilot, and our top air ace to boot? How could this be?’’
Lieutenant General Henry ‘Hap’ Arnold, Commander of the Army Air Corps, who had come along with Leahy, Admiral Stark, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and Secretary of War Stimson, answered him with some hesitation.
‘’She actually enlisted with the Filipino Army Air Corps, which allowed her to circumscribe all American regulations about the non-employment of women as fighter
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pilots, Mister President. She is however still an American citizen and the wife of an American officer serving in the Philippines.’
‘’And the top air ace part, General, how do you explain it?’’ replied in a critical tone the President, sitting in his wheelchair behind his desk. ‘’We have our own Army Air Corps fighter pilots, formed and trained at great expense here in the United States, who are being decimated by the Japanese fighters and can barely hold their own. On the other hand, if I can believe this newspaper, we have a teenage girl with a civilian pilot’s license but no formal military training at all, who is chewing the Japanese and spitting them out while nearly making it look easy. What the hell is wrong with that picture, General Arnold? What do you think that the American public or the Congress wil think of that?’’
Arnold didn’t answer at once, being deeply embarrassed by Roosevelt’s question, which he had to recognize was a most valid one.
‘’Uh, Mister President, I did speak yesterday by submarine telephone cable with Major General Lewis Brereton, our air commander in the Philippines. He gave me a few details about that young Ingrid Dows, who by the way has now a confirmed total of seventeen Japanese planes shot down as of yesterday night. She actually had some prior military training and experience…with the German Luftwaffe. She is also the adopted daughter of the late Nancy Laplante, Mister President.’
Roosevelt, who had met at length Nancy Laplante during her visit to Washington last December, put down the newspaper he was holding and stared at Arnold.
‘’Go on, General.’
‘’Well, while it is true that Dows was not formally trained as a fighter pilot, she did benefit from the knowledge and experience of top German air aces serving around her in France. The main thing however, according to Brereton, is that she is applying the lessons from the future which her adoptive mother gave her concerning this war, including how to exploit the Japanese planes weaknesses to outfly them. She is also supposedly a born pilot and an extremely accurate shot in air combat.’
‘’So, this girl is applying the lessons and knowledge Laplante brought to us, but our pilots don’t. Is that it?’’
Arnold cringed under the angry glare of the President.
‘’Until two days ago, yes, Mister President. General Brereton has however told in no uncertain terms to his fighter pilots to use Dows’ tactics, or else. It seems that our present fighter doctrine and tactics are nearly useless and need to be completely
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revised. I have directed that such reviews be started at once, using the lessons learned in the Philippines.’
‘’And what about that girl?’’ said Roosevelt, pointing at Ingrid’s picture on the front page of the newspaper. ‘’Up to now, the Army, Navy and the Congress have all refused to follow the example of the British, who are now employing women by the thousands in nearly every military trade and seemingly doing quite well despite of that.
Could that girl, who is a legal American citizen, be enrolled in our own air corps, especially in view of her phenomenal successes?’
‘’Legally, she can’t, Mister President. To be completely honest, even if we somehow managed to find a way to enroll her in the Army Air Corps, she would probably end up being subjected to an intolerable level of harassment of all kind from officers resenting the idea of having female fighter pilots.’
Roosevelt, even if he didn’t like that last statement from Arnold, had to agree with him.
‘’So, we may have a winning ticket in the Philippines in the person of that girl, but we can’t use it ourselves because of ingrained misogyny? Great!’
‘’Uh, while we are stil talking about her, Mister President, General Brereton informed me that General MacArthur is forwarding to you a request to award Dows the Congressional Medal of Honor, for the way she and her leader turned around a Japanese bomber formation heading towards the Cavite Navy Yards. Admiral Hart is said to be warmly supporting that award request.’
‘’The Medal of Honor, for a girl? Are you nuts, Hap?’’ exclaimed in a horrified tone Admiral Stark, the Chief of Naval Operations. Before Arnold could reply to that, Roosevelt cut him off by answering himself in a harsh tone.
‘’Nancy Laplante won three times the Victoria Cross, a medal that is easily an equal to our Medal of Honor, Admiral Stark. I had and still have a profound admiration for that incredibly brave and capable woman and I find your prejudiced view on this quite myopic, if not to say downright stupid. Should I remind you of the cost to the Navy and this nation of having ignored Laplante’s advice concerning the defense of Pearl Harbor?
Are you again ready to prejudice the nation because you oppose the service of women, Admiral? If you do, then I will expect your immediate resignation. We have a war to win, a war that is shaping up to be both costly and lengthy, and we will need to use all the resources at our disposal, including the service of women if need be.’
‘’Are you considering having women serve on warships, Mister President?’
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‘’On warships, no! But in an isolated, cocooned environment such as found on airfields, why not? General Arnold, I want you to study the question of eventually enrolling and employing female aviators, including as fighter pilots and bomber crews, like the British do, and to submit a report to me on the subject, so that I could approach the Congress with an appropriate law proposal. Consult also the Hourglass files received from Laplante last December to see what they say about military service by women. It may tell us about potential problems to watch for about that subject and how to avoid them. Admiral Leahy, once you will have received that award proposal for Dows from MacArthur, prepare a certificate for my signature.’
‘’It wil be done, Mister President.’
‘’Good! Now, let’s discuss what we could do to help our men in the Philippines resist the Japanese.’
The discussion that followed proved to be both long and frustrating to Roosevelt, with little being truly decided by the end of the meeting.
20:13 (Manila Time)
Thursday, October 30, 1941 ‘C’
The Dows’ residence, Manila
Philippines
Ken’s heart accelerated when he arrived at his bungalow and found a Filipino Army jeep parked in front of it. His fatigue evaporated at once and he entered his house at a near run.
‘’INGRID, YOU’RE HOME?’’
At first glance, he saw only Julia and Juanita and their families in the lounge, listening to a local radio station. He smiled to them briefly and was about to rush to his bedroom when Ingrid appeared to him at the corner of the hallway, smiling. She was wearing her combat uniform and Ken was able to see her new rank insignias on her collar, as well as the medal ribbons pinned to her shirt.
‘’A captain? And with the Distinguished Flying Cross added to your DSC?’’
‘’Yup! General MacArthur promoted me on Tuesday, apart from giving me the DSC. I got the DFC yesterday, for shooting a ZERO and two VALs. My total in the air now stands at sixteen victories.’
Ken’s eyes glowed with pride as he glued himself to her for a kiss.
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‘’When I think that I married our first air ace. Nancy would be proud of you.’
They then exchanged a long kiss before Ingrid took one step back and grabbed his hand, leading him towards the bedroom.
‘’Let’s forget the war tonight, Ken. I only have a short permission and I have to be back in Batangas by tomorrow morning. Let’s use our time well in the meantime.’
06:59 (Manila Time)
Tuesday, November 4, 1941 ‘C’
American submarine USS SARGO
On patrol 720 kilometers east of Manila, in the Central Pacific The captain of the USS SARGO, one of the submarines of the Asiatic Fleet on patrol off the Philippines, didn’t know if he should scream with joy or cry with despair as he looked through his periscope. His radar had warned him thirty minutes ago, while he was cruising on the surface, of the approach of a large group of fast ships heading Southwest towards the Philippines. He had then ordered his submarine to dive to periscope depth, while slowing down to silent running. Now, his caution had paid off, handsomely. With his boat chief standing beside him and holding an opened ships recognition book, he inspected the long triple file of warships about to pass him.
‘’Exo7, write the following message down for immediate transmission in clear to the Asiatic Fleet headquarters, with info copy to the Pacific Fleet headquarters. Start with our actual position. From USS SARGO, have detected a large group of enemy ships heading Southwest on heading 220 at 25 knots. Made visual contact with Japanese Combined Fleet at 06:57, Manila time. Following ships identified in order of progression: battleships KIRISHIMA, HIEI, NAGATO and MUTSU heading triple file of ships; fleet carriers AKAGI, KAGA, ZUIKAKU, SHOKAKU, HIRYU and SORYU; escort screen made of heavy cruisers TONE, CHIKUMA, TAKAO, ATAGO, MAYA and CHOKAI, plus six AGANO-class light cruisers and fourteen FUBUKI-class destroyers.
Repeat the message at intervals until you receive confirmation of receipt from Asiatic Fleet.’
7 Exo: Term used in the U.S. Navy to designate the second in command of a ship, or Executive Officer.
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The Exo, like the other men in the cramped control room of the submarine, looked wide-eyed at his captain.
‘’My God! This is what I call hitting the jackpot, Captain. These ships must be the ones who attacked Pearl Harbor. Are you sure that you want to send this message in clear, Captain? The Japanese will know that we are here if they intercept our message.’
The captain of the USS SARGO looked with a resolute expression at his executive officer.
‘’The Japanese wil know very soon that we are here anyway. Send that message immediately and advise me the moment that we receive confirmation. This may be the most important message we wil ever send in this war.’
‘’Right away, Captain.’’
As his exo hurried towards the radio compartment, the captain returned his attention on the view from his periscope and gave a series of curt orders.
‘’Torpedo Officer, prepare all tubes for firing. Have your men ready to reload them immediately once the first salvo is fired. Turn starboard, ten degrees! Raise speed to seven knots! We will try to slip between two of the heavy cruisers of the screen, then wil approach the carriers.’
The next ten minutes were very tense, with all the American sailors most conscious of the risks they were now taking. The exo then returned in the control room to speak to his captain.
‘’Captain, the headquarters of the Asiatic Fleet have confirmed receipt of our message, as did the Pacific Fleet headquarters.’
‘’Perfect! We wil try to torpedo the SHOKAKU, then wil dive to a depth of one hundred feet and let ourselves float down the lineup as the Japanese ships pass by.
With all the noise from these big carriers, their escort destroyers should be unable to hear us on their sonar. Then, if we are lucky, we will attempt a second attack.’’
‘’Understood, Captain!’’ replied the exo, his heart accelerating.
After another two minutes, the captain judged from his calculations to be in the optimum situation for his attack and raised again his periscope. His heart jumped in his chest when he saw that the port flank of the SHOKAKU, barely 300 yards away, filled the field of view of his periscope. He then gave the order that all had been waiting for.
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‘’STEADY ON COURSE! FIRE TUBES ONE TO FOUR!’
The submarine shuddered as compressed air ejected the torpedoes in the four forward tubes. The captain then gave the order to immediately turn 180 degrees to port and fired his four aft tubes in succession, watching the boat’s compass as he did to spread out his four aft torpedoes. The last of the eight torpedoes was barely out of its tube when four powerful explosions were heard in quick succession, making the American sailors scream with joy. The captain didn’t waste time in giving more orders then.
‘’DIVE TO ONE HUNDRED FEET! TURN PORT, HEADING 060! SLOW DOWN
TO SILENT RUNNING!’
Less than a minute later, three more explosions were heard through the submarine’s hull, making the captain smile with satisfaction.
‘’With seven torpedoes in his bel y, the captain of the SHOKAKU must have one hel of a stomach ache now. Let’s drift quietly down the line of Japanese ship for a few minutes, then we will go back to periscope depth to see if any ship stopped or slowed down to give assistance to the SHOKAKU.’
With the machinery noise from the big Japanese warships reverberating inside the submarine as they dispersed in one big hurry, the captain was quite certain that there was no way that the escorting destroyers could hear him on their sonar. His suspicion was confirmed when the explosions of dozens of depth charges were heard, at least a few hundred meters to his aft. He then smiled to his sailors to reassure them.
‘’The Japs are depth-charging blind. They don’t know where we are. Torpedo Officer, how is the reloading of our tubes going?’’
‘’Tubes one, two, five and six are now reloaded and ready, Captain. The other tubes wil be all reloaded in five minutes.’
‘’Good! Helm, turn starboard to heading 220 but stay at present depth and speed. We wil listen to see if anyone slowed down to help the SHOKAKU.’
‘’Aye, Captain!’’
After another four minutes, the chief sonar operator’s voice came on the intercom.
‘’Captain, I have two contacts on heading 220 which are slowing down considerably. I also have noises of steel bulkheads giving up.’
‘’I knew it!’ said triumphantly the captain. ‘’Any sign of a destroyer actively pinging for us?’’
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‘’Four destroyers are pinging, but they are actual y sailing away from us, Captain.’’
‘’Perfect! Helm, steer to 205 and raise speed to five knots. Let’s put ourselves on the port flank of the SHOKAKU and of those two rescuing ships.’’
After a further twenty minutes at slow speed, and guided by the reports from his sonar operators, the captain had his submarine go back up to periscope depth and anxiously looked through his optics the moment the periscope head broke the surface.
He smiled at the sight that greeted him.
‘’The SHOKAKU is listing heavily to port and is in fact close to capsizing: it is finished! There is also one light cruiser and one destroyer alongside its port flank, probably taking on survivors from the carrier. Helm, steer to heading 352 and reduce speed to three knots. Torpedo Officer, stand by to fire all forward tubes… Steady as she goes!... FIRE ALL FORWARD TUBES!’
Again, the noise of compressed air and shudders told him that his four torpedoes had hit the water. Again, he ordered a half-turn to point his aft tubes while still watching the three Japanese ships through his periscope. He started to feel worry when the Japanese destroyer which had stopped alongside the sinking carrier suddenly broke away and accelerated while turning towards him, passing besides the still stopped light cruiser: the Japanese must have spotted his periscope. Then, as in a miracle, a geyser of water erupted against the hull of the destroyer, half raising it out of the water, while three more geysers erupted against the flank of the light cruiser. The captain whooped with savage joy at that sight.
‘’WE GOT BOTH THE DESTROYER AND THE LIGHT CRUISER! LET’S
FINISH THE SHOKAKU! TORPEDO OFFICER, FIRE OUR AFT TUBES IN A SPREAD, NOW!’
‘’AYE, CAPTAIN!... ALL AFT TUBES NOW FIRED! IMPACT DUE IN TWENTY
SECONDS.’’
The results from those four torpedoes were nothing less than dramatic. Shaken by three more explosions, the carrier SHOKAKU’s list to port quickly got more severe, with the 32,000-ton ship finally capsizing and then sinking by the bow. The fourth torpedo hit the already gravely damaged light cruiser, breaking it in two, while the destroyer slowly sank by the bow. All the while, the captain took pictures with a camera through his periscope, to substantiate his victory claims and document the end of the Japanese ships. For
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good measure, he fired two more torpedoes at the destroyer once his forward tubes were reloaded again, giving the coup de grace to the destroyer. The captain was all smile when he gave his next set of orders.
‘’Helm, steer to 220, make your speed six knots and dive to fifty feet. Once out of sight of those sinking ships, we will surface and recharge our batteries while trailing the rest of the Japanese fleet. With luck, we will be able to catch them later.’
The USS SARGO was not able to catch up to Kido Butai, Admiral Nagumo’s force, but it caught a day later Nagumo’s resupply flotilla as it hurried to join up with the surviving five fleet carriers and their escorts. Expending his last torpedoes, the captain of the American submarine managed to sink a precious oiler ship and an ammunition ship before retiring back to Cavite for rearming and refueling. The crew was met on the Cavite docks by a thankful Admiral Hart and a crate of bourbon bottles, plus the news that they had earned a Presidential Unit Citation.
14:39 (Manila Time)
Batangas Airfield
Philippines
Jesus Villamor was sitting near his plane, on which six mechanics worked frantically to repair the damages received during the air battle of the morning over Manila Bay, when his operations sergeant ran out of the pilots’ hut and shouted at the top of his lungs.
‘’ENEMY AIR RAID CROSSING THE EAST COAST NEAR SAN FERNANDO, HEADING FOR CLARK FIELD!’
‘’DAMNATION!’ exclaimed Jesus, furious. ‘’They sure chose their timing wel .’
Turning his head towards his chief mechanic, he was going to ask him if his plane would be ready soon but the burly NCO shook his head, anticipating his question.
‘’No way that you can take off with that radiator leak, Captain. It wil take at least another hour to repair, plus we have to replace the rudder’s command cable, which was half cut by a bullet. I’m sorry, Captain, but you will have to wait out that battle.’’
‘’DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!’’ said Jesus, frustrated, before looking at Ingrid’s plane, barely visible through the trees separating their two plane hideouts. Ingrid was already
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stepping inside her cockpit to take off in a hurry. Running to her plane, Jesus arrived near her just before she started her engine.
‘’My plane is stil unserviceable. You wil have to take off alone, Ingrid.’
The teenager gave him a wide smile and a thumbs up to reassure him, then started her engine. She was rolling out of her hiding spot less than a minute later and took off, followed by the eyes of the Filipino ground crews. Ingrid’s crew chief watched her take off with gleaming eyes as he stood beside Jesus.
‘’What a girl! She is indeed a lady hawk.’
Having already flown many interception missions towards Clark Field in the past days, Ingrid did not need to consult her map to navigate. Knowing that the Japanese favored approaching at high altitude, Ingrid put her P-40E in a slow, progressive climb towards its ceiling of 8,700 meters. The P-40E being a poor performer in terms of climbing, she barely had time to attain her top ceiling before coming within sight of Clark Field. By now, her attention was however on a number of black smoke trails far away in the sky to the East, which told her that an air battle was already in progress. The few American fighter planes still left in the Philippines had seemingly already intercepted the Japanese force. Ingrid thus decided to post herself above a point a few kilometers east of Clark Field, to intercept any group of bombers which would break through the American fighters. She then tried to contact the fighter controller in Nielson Field but found the frequency jammed with excited shouts and exclamations from the young pilots who were presently engaging the Japanese. Sighing with frustration at that fresh example of the typical lack of radio discipline among American fighter pilots, Ingrid finally decided to contact the control tower of Clark Field instead.
‘’Clark Control, this is Papa Two, over!’
‘’Go ahead, Papa Two.’’ Said a male voice after her second call.
‘’From Papa Two: I am now five miles east of your airfield and wil orbit there to intercept any Japanese bomber coming through. I will advise you if any of them show up. In exchange, could you warn your gunners of my presence, over?’’
‘’Wil do, Papa Two! How many fighters do you have with you, over?’’
‘’I am alone, Clark Control.’
There was a moment of silence on the radio before she got a reply.
‘’Uh, understood, Papa Two. Good luck!’
‘’Thank you, Clark Control. Over and out!’
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Soon, Ingrid saw in the distant sky something that froze her blood.
‘’Clark Control, this is Papa Two, urgent message! Enemy planes now about ten miles east of your airfield. I can now see two successive waves of Japanese planes, with about one hundred planes per wave. KATE bombers are forming the first wave at an altitude of 22,000 feet, followed by a wave of VAL dive bombers at an altitude of 25,000 feet. I can also see about forty ZERO fighters at 27,000 feet. They will be over your airfield in less than three minutes, over.’
She nearly heard the air controller swallow hard before he replied.
‘’Understood, Papa Two. We wil send our personnel to the shelters. You better get out of the way yourself before being swept out of the sky, over.’
Ingrid knew that the suggestion from the air controller was full of common sense: no sane pilot was supposed to attack alone 240 enemy planes. She also knew that very few senior officers would take that against her if she decided to withdraw. She however could not in good conscience let the way opened to the enemy without doing anything.
‘’Negative, Clark Control! I wil do my best to disrupt the aim of the enemy bombers. Papa Two out!’
On the ground, an observation post of the 200th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment was observing nervously the approach of the Japanese with its binoculars and a stereoscopic rangefinder on tripod. A young American lieutenant cranked the handle of his field telephone to contact the command post of Clark Field and spoke in the receiver.
‘’Hello, CP? This is OP Number Three. We have two massive waves of Japanese bombers on approach from the East at over 20,000 feet, with fighters on top cover. I evaluate the enemy force at over 200 planes. The leading bombers are now three miles southeast of my position… Uh, one moment!’
Covering his receiver with one hand, the lieutenant shouted at his sergeant, who was watching the Japanese plane through binoculars.
‘’HEY, SARGE, THE CP IS ASKING IF WE SEE ONE OF OUR FIGHTERS
ABOVE US.’’
The NCO, originating like most of his comrades from New-Mexico, looked around the sky for a moment before freezing to follow a single dot in the sky.
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‘’I have it, Lieutenant! It’s a P-40 and he is diving alone on the VALs of the second wave. This guy is either completely nuts or he is the bravest sonovabitch I ever saw.’
The lieutenant relayed that information, less the last remark of the sergeant, getting in return a directive.
‘’…Understood, Major! SERGEANT, KEEP AN EYE ON THAT P-40 AND TELL
ME WHAT HE DOES. CORPORAL MARTINEZ, GET ME A COUNT OF THE
JAPANESE PLANES BY TYPE.’
‘’YES, LIEUTENANT!’’
The sergeant spoke again a few seconds later.
‘’The ZEROs just saw our P-40, with six Japs diving on him. If this guy does not leave now, he is cooked... The P-40 is now above the second wave of bombers and is turning to its right… He is lining up to fly down the left wing of the wave… He is opening fire… YES! ONE VAL IS ON FIRE!... The ZEROs are now behind him but this guy is diving hard and they can’t seem to be able to follow him… POW, IN THE KISSER!
ANOTHER VAL JUST EXPLODED!... This guy is a real ace! He is now turning while diving and is going towards the KATEs of the first wave, with the ZEROs stil in pursuit.’
As his sergeant commented the air battle, the lieutenant relayed his account by telephone to Clark Field in more sober words.
‘’… Our P-40 is now going down the left wing of the first wave of bombers…
He’s firing… ONE KATE IS HIT! ITS ENGINE IS ON FIRE AND… A SECOND KATE
JUST LOST A WING AND IS FALLING DOWN. Our pilot has now bagged four Japanese planes but the ZEROs must be really mad at him. He is now turning back towards the second wave and picking up speed. The ZEROs still seem unable to catch up with him… Our P-40 is now climbing and is firing again. ONE MORE VAL CAUGHT
FIRE!’
‘’Christ!’ said one corporal near the lieutenant. ‘’One against 200 and he stil managed to shoot down five Japs? This guy is incredible.’’
‘’He’s not finished yet, José.’ replied the sergeant, his eyes still glued to his binoculars. ‘’He is now turning back again and diving at the ZEROs pursuing him…
HOLY SHIT! HE JUST EXPLODED ONE ZERO! I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS GUY!... SHIT!
HE’S NOW GOT BLACK SMOKE COMING OUT OF HIS ENGINE… HE’S HOWEVER
STILL DIVING BACK ON THE KATES OF THE FIRST WAVE… His engine is now clearly on fire. He better parachute out now if he wants to survive this fight… MY GOD!
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HE RAMMED ONE OF THE KATES! Both planes are now falling in flames. I don’t see any parachute opening.’’
The artillery lieutenant, like many of his men, lowered his head in silent tribute to the brave P-40 pilot, then passed the news by telephone. The surviving ZEROs were climbing back to their original positions when Corporal Martinez announced the result of his count.
‘’Lieutenant, I can count 96 remaining KATEs in the first wave and 93 VALs in the second wave, plus 39 ZEROs on top cover.’
The young officer passed that information along and was about to put down his receiver when he saw a parachute pop open less than 300 meters above his observation post and about 500 meters away, making the lieutenant nearly shout in his receiver.
‘’OUR P-40 PILOT WAS ABLE TO JUMP. HE IS GOING TO LAND NEAR US…
Yes, Major! With pleasure!’
Putting down his receiver, the lieutenant blew a loud whistle towards two mounted soldiers of the Philippine Scouts who were waiting on their horses near the OP, ready to relay messages if need be.
‘’HEY, GUYS! FOLLOW THAT PARACHUTE AND BRING ME OUR PILOT.’’
‘’SI, LIEUTENANT!’’ replied one of the scouts before spurring his horse forward and leave at a gallop, followed by his comrade. In the meantime, the guns defending Clark Field had opened a dense, murderous fire on the Japanese planes, their proximity-fused 75 mm shells exploding among the KATEs of the first wave. One, two, then three KATEs were hit in succession, falling in flames or breaking up in midair before they could drop their bombs. The anti-aircraft guns were still firing at maximum rate, sending over 200 shells per minute in the sky, as the KATEs started lobbing their bombs all over the airfield. Most of those bombs however simply created craters in the ground. The light bomb load capacity of the Japanese planes, combined with the spoiling effect of the fire from the guns, helped limit the damages to the airfield. However, the bombs from the following VAL dive bombers proved more accurate and destroyed or put on fire many hangars and buildings, apart from hitting one of the fuel dumps of Clark Field. Seven VALs paid for that, shot down by the combined fire of the 75 mm and 37 mm guns and of the .50 caliber heavy machineguns of the 200th Regiment. Once out of bombs, the Japanese air armada then turned back and withdrew towards the East, leaving the shaken Americans to look over the damage to their airfield.
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The young lieutenant at the OP was looking anxiously at the fires on the base when the two scouts came back at a trot, one passenger sitting behind the leading scout’s saddle. The young officer hurried to them, closely followed by his sergeant, only to see with disbelief that the pilot was a young woman. The latter was wincing with pain and seemed to have been burned to her back, neck and left arm. The leading scout saluted the lieutenant before asking him a question.
‘’We picked up Lady Hawk, Lieutenant, but she is seriously burned. Do you want us to bring her to the infirmary of Clark Field?’
‘’Yes, but just a moment, please.’ answered the lieutenant before approaching the pilot, a beautiful teenager with reddish-brown hair whose face was now darkened by smoke.
‘’You were fantastic up there, miss. Can I have your name, rank and unit, so that your airfield can be advised that you are alive?’
‘’Captain Ingrid Dows, 6th Pursuit Squadron of the Filipino Army Air Corps, based in Batangas.’’ answered the girl, clenching her teeth in order not to moan with pain. The lieutenant noted down that information, then came to attention and saluted her.
‘’Your unit wil be advised without delay, Captain. Corporal, you can now bring her to the base infirmary…gently.’
‘’Si, Lieutenant!’
19:15 (Manila Time)
Infirmary of Clark Field
Major General Lewis Brereton looked around with sadness at the crowded room of the infirmary serving the airfield. While casualties could have been much higher, the number of dead and wounded was still too much for his overwhelmed, suffering command. The pilots from the 24th Pursuit Group had done their best to stop the Japanese before they could arrive over Clark Field but had to face nearly sixty ZERO
fighters. They still had managed to shoot down five of the ZEROs and eleven of the bombers, but at the cost of seven of their P-40s and four pilots confirmed dead. One of the 34th Pursuit Squadron’s pilots who had bailed out was here, wounded, and Brereton had the firm intention to shake his hand, as well as the hand of another fighter pilot who had done the impossible today. He, like his aide, Captain Norman Lewellyn, came to attention and saluted as two stretcher bearers passed by them, carrying out of the
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infirmary a body covered with a bloodied blanket. The general and his aide then slowly walked down the central alley of the ward, talking with the wounded and attempting to raise their morale. Brereton, who knew by sight and name the few fighter pilots left in his command, stopped finally at the foot of the stretcher occupied by Lieutenant Ralph Carey, whose left upper leg sported a wide, blood-soaked bandage. Brereton started by shaking his hand after crouching besides him, smiling to the young pilot.
‘’You and the other pilots of your squadron did a magnificent job today, Lieutenant Carey. What is your personal score in air combat now?’’
‘’I have three confirmed victories, General.’ answered the pilot in a tired but proud voice. ‘’I shot down one ZERO today, but his wingmen didn’t appreciate. I was able to damage one but his buddy nailed me before I could finish him.’
Brereton, a veteran pilot from World War One, smiled on hearing that account.
‘’I’m sure that you will find that Japanese again one day and teach him a lesson, Lieutenant. How is your leg?’’
‘’The doctor told me that a 7.7 mm bullet went through the muscles of my leg but didn’t touch the bone. I should be back in a cockpit in a few weeks at most, General.
We wil get more planes, General, wil we?’
‘’New planes are already on their way by sea towards Australia, where we will establish a training and conversion center for fighter pilots. I have given orders so that the wounded pilots, aircrews and ground support crews be evacuated by air to Australia, for treatment and recuperation. They will then be reorganized into a new, provisional unit. You should be on your way to Darwin in two days at the most, Lieutenant.’
‘’And her, General?’’ asked timidly Carey while pointing at another stretcher three meters away. ‘’Wil she also get another plane?’
Brereton looked in that direction and saw a young woman lying down on her belly, her torso bare but still wearing combat trousers and boots. A medic was busy delicately applying bandages to large burns covering her left arm, neck and part of her back. The girl was evidently suffering a lot but was clenching her teeth to keep silent, her eyes closed. Brereton looked at her for a moment before returning his eyes on Carey.
‘’Captain Dows wil also get another plane, Lieutenant. We can’t waste such a good fighter pilot. I will see you on your departure for Darwin, Lieutenant. Again, congratulation for your heroic stance in the air.’
‘Thank you, General.’ replied proudly the pilot.
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Brereton and his aide spoke with two more wounded before stopping at the foot of Ingrid’s stretcher. The general then contemplated the teenager, thoughtful.
According to all American regulations, she should not be wearing a combat uniform and, even less, be a fighter pilot. However, she had proven the hard way that she was not only worthy of being a fighter pilot, but that she was also made of the stuff of great aces.
Apart from being by far the top allied air ace in the Pacific, her seven victories of today, which had been confirmed by numerous witness accounts from gunners and observers of the 200th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment, put her total at 29 air victories. She had thus broken the old record of 26 victories held until now by the great Eddie Rickenbacker in 1917 and was now the top American air ace of all times. Her incredible courage, shown again when she had attacked alone over 240 enemy planes, also put her in a class apart. From what he had heard recently from the United States, her name was now making many around the country question the conventional wisdom that women didn’t belong as combat pilots, while many Air Corps generals could be described as being in a state of near denial concerning her case. However, as much as those generals and many politicians didn’t like it, she had to be employed as a fighter pilot, for the greater good of the country.
Brereton was about to speak to Ingrid when General MacArthur, followed by his usual public relations circus act, entered the infirmary. Someone then shouted an order that made the medics present come to attention. MacArthur looked with big eyes at the one who had shouted the order.
‘’Sergeant, this is an infirmary, not a parade square. You don’t expect all these brave men to get up from their stretchers, are you?’’
