Free Once They Were Eagles by Frank Walton Page A

plane flamed and spun down.
    Another Zero cut across in front of him, evidently attempting to join the remaining five. Bolt circled in behind him in a diving turn, bore-sighted him, and flamed him with a short burst.
    Quill Skull Groover was on Moon Mullen’s wing when the action began. They opened fire from 300 yards on a Zero to the right of them and then noticed a flight of Zeros waiting for them to lose altitude.
    Moon and Groover pulled up in a climbing turn, looking for friendly planes to join, but none were in sight, only the 10 to 20 enemy planes.
    As the two Black Sheep attacked, Groover saw one Zero pull in a tight loop and swing in toward Mullen’s tail. He turned in to it as Mullen straightened out.
    Three more Zeros came in on Groover’s tail.
    Mullen saw tracers eating into Groover’s plane and then saw the Georgia boy’s wing catch fire. Mullen circled and fought off the swarm attempting to finish Groover.
    As he battled them, one of the Zeros made an overhead pass on him, hailing him with machine gun bullets. One shattered as it entered the Plexiglass canopy and wounded Mullen in the left shoulder.
    Mullen turned toward the Zero and it dived out. Another came in from the left; Mullen swung on him, raking him from stem to stern. The Zero flamed and went down burning.
    Mullen pushed over and dived after Groover.
    Groover was badly hit. A 20-mm shell had exploded in his wing, setting it on fire; at the same time, another shell had entered the right side of his cockpit, breaking his right arm and ankle, wounding him all along the right side, and setting fire to the cockpit. Quill pushed over in a dive and beat out the cockpit fire with his hands; during the dive, the fire in his wing went out.
    Shaking off the attacking Zeros, Groover leveled at 10,000 feet, put his nose down, and headed for home. On course, he began to take stock of his damage. Half his instruments and his radio were shot out; his right aileron was gone; he had two huge holes in his left wing. His right arm was useless, his right leg numb, and blood had soaked through his clothing from wounds in his arm, side, and leg.
    As he got out his first aid kit to treat himself, the engine quit! Dropping the kit, he worked over the remaining controls till he got the engine running, holding the stick with his knee as he did so.
    We saw Groover as he brought his plane onto our field. From a long way out we could see the huge hole in his wing. We kept our fingers crossed as he limped cautiously in, and with one aileron control and one elevator not functioning, put his Corsair safely down on the strip.
    Quill was through for this tour; Doc bandaged him up and loaded him on a plane for Guadalcanal and the naval hospital there.
    Mullen’s wounds were slight; after being patched up, he insisted on flying another mission that day.
    Our box score for the day was four Zeros destroyed and two probably destroyed, while all our pilots got back to base. The squadron totals were now 18 and 12.
    And we had gained even more respect for Groover’s “old feelin’.”

 
10 | Zeros Snapped at Their Heels
    On Sunday, 26 September, we sent 11 Black Sheep to Bougainville as high cover for a Marine torpedo bomber strike on the Japanese antiaircraft positions near Kahili Airdrome. The Marine bombers thoroughly plastered the target, then joined up and headed for home. As they did so, the fight began. Seven Black Sheep attacked and scattered a dozen Zeros that were harassing the bombers, sending one down smoking.
    The other four Black Sheep, with Moon Mullen leading, ran into real trouble—some 20 Zeros. Rollie Rinabarger, in Mullen’s second section, found his engine heating up and could not stay in position.
    Lagging slightly on a turn, Rinabarger received a long burst from a Zero that dived on him. One 20-mm shell exploded in his right stabilizer, another in his left wing gas tank. Machine gun bullets beat a steady tattoo on his