Three Close Calls Over the Gulf of Taranto
Heroes Remember
Three Close Calls Over the Gulf of Taranto
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We were up around the Taranto Gulf, which was one of our runs in
Italy from Malta and we were sure it was an e-boat. They were
something like our motor torpedo boats. They were fast and they
carried torpedos. They also carried some guns as well. Anyway
I was in the tail and they could see this thing and I couldn't.
And we had a, in the tail, in the turret there was,
what we used to call a clear vision. You could (inaudible)
you could open up this thing and you got fresh air in there.
So all of a sudden, I saw this thing and I started to swing
the turret around and then the next thing I know there is red
stuff coming from that side going out that side. My friend Jonesy
was in the astrodome which the navigator used to shoot the stars
for navigation purposes. And the language between he and the
navigator used to shoot the stars for navigation purposes.
And the language between he and the pilot
And the language between he and the pilot the fingers on the
triggers of the four guns and nothing would happen. They
wouldn't work. I guess I was fear. Jonesy was sure that those
things came from the e-boat through the
turret, through my head and out the other side. And I finally got
the voice back and I said, "I'm okay." So we headed for home.
That was enough for that one night.
But other nights we used to go out, and Toranto Gulf, before
the Italians gave up, they had their largest naval ships in
there, in the Toranto Gulf. The, one night we went on a bombing
run, a place called Marsala, it was a railway yard, and
intelligence told us there was only two guns, so you know,
"What's two anti-aircraft guns, you can get away from them."
So when we were going in, the navigator said, "There is
fairly heavy flack." I said, "What's he talking about?"
So Jonesy and I squeezed ourselves into the astrodome and we
counted twenty guns. That was the two that you were talking
about. So we shook hands and he sat down at
the radar and I went back to the radio.
There was one other night we were out and we were doing 99 miles
an hour. And the gas was goin' through it like it was goin'
out of style. We had our straight air gunner in the tail then so
we couldn't use him on the radio or the radar.
He wasn't trained for it. We'd give him a rest though
just let him sit and we would forget the radio.
And he said, "Look at the company I got back here."
The Germans had a Junkers 88, a beautiful night fighter, with a
radar in the nose that looked like a hot plate and it was just
like you'd put, the element on a hot plate. And Jonesy and I got
out and had a look and this thing was right behind us, sittin'
there waitin' patiently I guess. I shook hands again
with Jonesy and he went to the radar and I went to
the radio. And anytime, we were figurin', "This is it."
You'd just wait patiently. The pilot decided
he was gonna put the wheels down and the flaps down, and I think
the aircraft just about came to a halt. Now this guy's behind us
and he went, "Vroom!" at about 300 or 400 miles an hour.
Right over our heads. What he didn't know, and I think
what he was scared of, why he left us so fast, he knew what the
aircraft was. He figured we had guns in the nose. We didn't.
Because when he'd go over the top of us,
you'd open up the guns in the nose.
We didn't have any guns in the nose because we
had taken them out to carry torpedos and depth charges.
That was one night.
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