LEYTE, A TOUGH BATTLE At Leyte Gulf, we heard that the Japanese fleet was on its way to enialate us. They had their war ships approaching from three directions, one fleet coming from the East, and one coming from the North. And worse, and one coming up from the south, heading towards us. We would have been surrounded had it not been for Admiral (Bull) Halsley and the seventh fleet, which rushed up to attack them. One of the Japanese fleets took such a beating it turned back, and the other two fleets lost so many ships they had to quit, too. The Japs felt that they had to win at all cost, and that this would be the battle to end all battles. They thought to cripple our fleet so we couldn't continue our march across the Pacific, on our way toward Japan. As we got into the Leyte Gulf, the planes from Japan and the islands of the Philippines were all over us. We sure were glad that we had Richard Bong and his squadron fighting overhead. They were fighting so intently that they didn't realize they were flying right into our flack after the Japanese airplanes. As I said before the sky was full of Japanese airplanes, and we were so scared we were shooting at anything that flew over our ship. The boys in the flying squadron were really using some bad language, telling us can't we tell an American plane from a Japanese plane. But they didn't see it from our view, because when there was so much flack from over 100 ships firing, the whole sky was full of black dots and smoke. You couldn't tell an airplane insignia because they were up too high. That is where the Jap would come in then dive his plane straight down right into a ship. If you didn't get them while they were flying overhead, you couldn't hit them whenever they were diving straight down. About here I would like to say how greatful we all were for all the pilots who flew in the Pacific theater. If it wasn't for them I think a lot of us would not be here to-day. So I am putting it at this point of my book, the gratitude to the one I think contributed the most in my estimation. That person was Major Richard I. Bong. I am also greatful to Major Thomas B. Maguire, Jr. I am installing the Picture of the airplane that they flew and I remember seeing them fly over us many times which was the famous P-40 Mustang. Index | Photographs | My Stearman | Learning To Fly | My Flight Instructor WARTIME EXPERIENCES Liberty In Leyte | Leyte | Tokyo Rose | Sea Of Bodies This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page