kaleun
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Joined: 5/29/2002
From: Colorado
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Showa 16th Month 9 day 15.
(September 15th 1941)
Finally it was here; today was their last patrol; tomorrow the training daitai would return to Nagasaki, they would all transition to the new Zero fighter and to real carriers. The small carrier Shoho was at Nagasaki waiting for them with a few Zeroes for training.
Ito could not wait to say Sayonara to Shangai. As far as he could tell there was nothing redeeming about the city. It did provide an opportunity for him to practice his English. He met this young commander, Kemp Tolley, who was on the gunboat Wake, traipsing up and down the Yang-Tze. He enjoyed playing poker with him but the relations between their two countries were so tense now that it wasn’t seemly for the two officers to socialize.
The patrols in, despite being war patrols were not too difficult. They had only lost three planes so far, and two those were operational losses, planes that crashed on landing. One was due to enemy action, the landing gear and a wing, riddled by AA holes collapsed on landing, but all the pilots survived. The American Volunteer Group was active further south, so they never had to face the flying tiger, the P40B.
Today should be an easy flight. A short trip north, at 5000 meters, fly circles for a while, keeping a lookout for Chinese aircraft, and then return to Shangai for dinner at the Bund.
Ito jumped into his cockpit eagerly. He had strafed enemy positions; they usually stopped firing and jumped for cover once they figured his peanut guns were firing at them. He had dropped bombs on suspected enemy locations; but he had never been in a dogfight. It was just as well, he thought his machine guns would be particularly effective on an angry dragonfly; he wasn’t sure if they would actually work on an irate goose, a duck might be scared of them, just might.
Saburo Watanabe, his buddy at the academy would be flying with him today. The captain Ishii now trusted the young ensigns to fly some missions unaccompanied by adults. Smiling, the two young men gunned their Nakajima engines and the two little fighters took flight and, climbing, turned north.
At 3000 meters, the two little planes crossed a thin overcast, but soon they were at their assigned altitude, over their patrol area. For two hours they settled in the patrol routine, one plane leading and the second one keeping a lookout for any enemy planes that could try to ambush them.
Ito was the wingman when he saw Saburo rock his wings. His friend pointed down and to the right and, sure enough, two or three thousand meters below them, there were two of those ugly Chinese biplane fighters, oblivious to their presence.
Saburo rocked his wings again and dived on the obsolete fighters. Ito stayed on his friend’s wing, until he split to take the fighter on the left. Saburo chased the one on the right.
Ito achieved an ideal attack position, behind and above his enemy; he approached until he was as close as he dared. The Chinese pilot continued to fly straight and level, as if this was peacetime. He would not make that mistake twice. Ito pressed on the trigger button and his guns opened fire on the hapless Chinese plane. Too late the Chinese pilot realized his mistake; He jinked his aircraft violently,trying to shake Ito from his tail. His engine already smoking, the aircraft turning black from leaking oil. Ito stayed on the biplane, intermittently spraying him with tracers until the old airplane caught fire, raised its nose, in a final act of defiance, and went into a final, fiery spin.
Elated, Ito looked for his friend. It took him a while to locate him. Horrified, he saw that the biplane was on Saburo’s tail, spraying him with fire from his twin machine guns; the little white fighter already smoking. Ito pushed the throttle to the stops, going to rescue his friend. He almost made it. Seconds before he opened fire, Saburo’s Claude flipped on its back and exploded. Ito opened fire on the biplane; he was close enough to see his tracer hitting the enemy cockpit, and the Chinese pilot’s body shaking from the impact of his gun’s rounds. The old biplane went into a long curve and crashed into the ground.
< Message edited by kaleun -- 8/21/2007 6:08:12 PM >
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Appear at places to which he must hasten; move swiftly where he does not expect you.
Sun Tzu
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Niitaka Yama Nobore. Son of Heaven Vs Buttsworth - 
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