ONE ANGEL LEFT
by Jack Morris
Excerpts from Chapter One ---- "The Big Bang"
On February 10, 1944 our formation of twenty planes of U.S. Marine Fighter Squadron 218 flew on a mission from Bougainville to Rabaul. We joined up with fighters from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and New Zealand Air Force to cover a flight of B25 Bombers in a bombing raid on Vunakanau, one of Rabaul's five airfields. To reach our target, we flew 220 miles over water and another twenty over a vast carpet of verdant jungle wilderness that comprised most of the Gazelle Peninsula on the Northern end of New Britain Island.
As we approached our target we could see some anti-aircraft fire, puffs of benign-looking black smoke off to our right, but nothing else of a hostile nature.
As we continued our approach, the fighter planes went into a weaving pattern at three levels. Our division flew at the middle level, in pairs, section leaders with wingmen together. The entire formation flew well past the target, then made a wide sweeping turn toward Rabaul, and things started to go wrong.
The pair of Corsairs we were scissoring with took off in a straight line to cover the bombers. My section leader and I were in a tight right turn trying to catch up. At the moment I realized I was going to be tail- end-Charlie in this whole formation, I caught sight of a flight of about ten enemy fighters to our left and above.
This meant that when we completed our turn they would be at six o'clock high, a very dangerous turn of events that called for a split-second decision. We could turn toward them and take them on or try to out run them or dive out and rejoin the formation farther on.
The split- second was all we had and before I could warn my leader, it was gone. We both had full throttle but he started to pull away: he had a new plane, I an older re-hab. I hit the mike button and started to speak when a black explosion and a feeling of doom enveloped me.
I was hit and I was blind. No doubt about what I had to do next. To bail out, you had to pull two pins to jettison the canopy. Groping blindly, I could find only one pin, so I reached up to use the regular handle and pulled it back as far as I could. Then, Ipassed out.
My plane was spinning or spiraling toward the earth, rapidly losing altitude. When I came to, the feeling of doom deepened. I still couldn't see; altitude was running out and so was my life. With deep resignation I said to myself, "This is it!
I felt the weight of my body pressing against shoulder straps and seat belt. Hey! There's a way out! I must be upside down. All I have to do is pull the release. I reached for it and lifted. At once, I flipped out of the cockpit; immediately my hand flew to the rip cord handle and pulled hard.
* * * * * *
As I sat there in the tranquil setting on the sandy beach by a pool under a waterfall, a feeling of edginess came over me as I looked around. I tried to recall what happened after I pulled the ripcord.
