Volume X
Number 49
THE STATE
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
May 8
1943
Emerrii
.«•
mMOr, Jtiui' 1,
19ЯЯ,
at Oic PoMafllca >1 KoIkIrIi. North ('ariillna, und-r llm Art of Murrli 3, l«7U
Riding the Tail of a Comet
Sergcsini T.
П.
Love tell* liow it fo<»ls to be
a tail-turret gunner al»oar«l a l)umhiii{>
plane, fly in
ц
over enemy territory.
HAVE you ever ridden tin* (nil
of u comet ? Well, Sgt. T. I).
Love, Ashcvillo youth with the
Roynl Canadian Air Force, has; not
once hut many times and lie has lived
to tell his story, lie was tail-turret
gunner on a night bomber and made
26 operational flights over enemy
territory before returning recently
for a well-earned rest. After visiting
his mother in Asheville he has gone
to Canada where, in all probability,
he will be given an assignment a» an
instructor, lie has six months off
from actual lighting.
Since very few if any of you will
ever get to ride the tail of a comet,
let Sergeant Love, who joined the
R.C.A.F. in 1941 after being turned
down by the United States army air
corps, take you along.
“We usually know when we're
going over early in the afternoon.”
he says. “But we don’t know exactly
when or where. We know because we
take the ship up for an hour-cheek to
see that it is in perfect working
order. That’s the final tost after the
overhaul.
Careful of the Plane
Sergeant Love, of Asheville, who is
now with the Royal Canadian Air
Force.
making Mire we are all bombed up
ami ready for the takeoff. Then we
wait for the first plane to get the
starting signal from the tower. It i-
not much of a time to he pretending
and we fi-el a little shaky. We never
get used to it.
“Then we get the signal and start,
slow at first and then fattier. Mo>t
of the fellows kind of hold their
breath, 1 guess. Taking off with that
big load of Itomhs is a sort of tricky
thing. Then we get that smooth,
feathery feel and know the plane
is in the air.
"I’m sitting up there in a little
bubble and the only thing 1 can see
is air and ground and more of the
same. It’s like hanging on to the
tail of a comet on that takeoff.
"Once in the air we have a period
of comparative relaxation. All we
have to do is wait. But we keep
thinking about what’s ahead and the
waiting is not so easy. Finally we
approach the enemy coast. We’re
plenty high now, hut not high enough
to 1)0 completely clear of tin- flak.
Evasive Tactics
“The pilot begins what they call
evasive tacties ami the tail gunner
— that’s me -gets shaken around
(Cotilhnml on /xu/i t ii'i'dI e)
THE COVER PICTURE
We agree with you: that this
is one of the prettiest cover
pictures we ever have run. The
young lady in the midst of the
dogwood blossoms is Miss Sara
Yokley, daughter of
О.
H.
Yokley, of Mount Airy.
"Those ground crews are sort of
persnickety about the planes. They
don’t cure anything about ns, hut they
hate our guts if we let anything
happen to the ship — bullet holes or
anything like that. After a while we
get the idea that they just sort of lend
it- the planes to take out and we feel
like apologizing if we bring one hack
with a scratch on it.
“We come down from tliut hour-
check and hang around waiting.
Everybody sort of tightens up. They
got sort of edgy. We pass the time
by laying bets on where wo nr: going
К
ft JAMES A. BEST
ami what we’re going to carry along.
Then along about 1 :30 o’clock we
get called in for the final briefing
and we get maps, courses, objectives
and what we’ll drop.
"Things are getting tense now.
The boys don't talk much. We just
keep checking maps, and gun», and
1
