PEARL HARBOR PAYBACK

Flight Journal, Apr 2005 by Bergin, Bob

As he flew past the edge of the airfield, Bond realized that he had a hail of machine-gun fire all around him. He turned sharply to the right and was about to start his fifth pass when he looked up and saw three P-40s. He had been lucky to get away with four passes; another would have been really pushing it. He climbed to join the three P-40s-Rector, McGarry and Bartling. Bond looked at his watch. The attack had lasted from 0716 to 0724-eight minutes.

The four P-40s turned away from the airfield and headed northwest around the mountain. Bond took the lead, and Bartling joined him. Rector and McGarry were close behind. Bond looked back and saw five distinct fires but noted that "much smoke hid the farthest part of the field from my view." Off to the southeast, where he circled until Boyington joined him, Neale watched "... eight or nine fires burning on the field-two of them very large." Bond's flight of four P-40s and Neale's flight of two separately set their courses back to Nam Sang.

Ed Rector first noticed McGarry falling behind. When McGarry rocked his wings, Rector circled back and tried to get alongside, but McGarry was flying so slowly that he flew right by. Up front, Bond looked back repeatedly just in case the Japanese had gotten aircraft off to pursue them, and he noticed that McGarry was having a problem. He and Bartling turned back. Rector was circling now. There was smoke coming from McGarry's engine, and he was losing altitude.

The Salween River was just ahead. If McGarry could get to the Burmese side of it, his chances of survival would improve. Suddenly, the P-40 rolled over, and McGarry dropped out. He was about 1,000 feet above the trees when his parachute opened. The P-40 nosed down, crashed into the side of a hill and burst into flames. McGarry landed in a clearing 200 meters away, got to his feet and waved.

The three P-40s circled slowly overhead. With flaps and gear down, Rector made a slow pass over McGarry to drop a candy bar that he kept as an emergency ration. Bartling flew over and dropped a map. Bond put a circle on his map to mark McGarry's position and wrote the time. He flew over McGarry one last time and dropped it. All that could be done for "Black Mac" had been done. The flight of three P-40s turned on a heading for Nam Sang.

Later that day, eight of the Chiang Mar raiders landed at Loiwing. "Scarsdale Jack" was missing. His flight never reached Lampang. Newkirk's plane had been struck by ground fire while he was strafing an armored car south of Chiang Mai, and he hit the ground at high speed. There wasn't a chance that he had survived.

In his diary, Charlie Bond reflected on the events of the day. He was sure that at least 50 Japanese aircraft had been lined up on the field and that the AVG had destroyed 25 or 30. "Indeed, this was a great success for the AVG and the Allies," he wrote. The next day, March 25, 1942, The New York Times headlined the victory: "U.S. Fliers in Burma Smash 40 Planes." It was the one bright spot on a front page on which other headlines spoke of Japanese bombers pounding Corregidor and of the loss of two U.S. destroyers off Java. The official AVG tally for the Chiang Mai raid was put at 15 Japanese aircraft destroyed.