HISTORY

ved that their destination are Philippines

and since most of the pilots lacked the

experience navigating on such a long

distances Pappy was supposed to be

their “Flock Leader”. Three P-40s did not

complete the difficult route and several

landings enroute. Over several days Pappy himself covered some 15,000 kilometers by flying back and forth. Upon his

return from Surabaya on Java he tried

to avoid Japanese-held Davao but at the

dusk he encountered a Japanese patrol

floatplane which shot down his unarmed

Beechcraft. He spent the night in jungle and on the following day he reached

the airport in Zamboanga. He was lucky

because shortly another Beechcraft landed whose pilot was tasked to remove

a tail wheel and propeller blades from

a destroyed B-17. Those were the parts

necessary to make at least one B-17 at

Del Monte airworthy. The pilot took Pappy on board, and he repaid the favor by

helping to repair B-17 which with twenty

pilots and mechanics on board headed to

Darwin – with Pappy in the left seat of

course.

Like a homing pidgeon

According to many sources, Pappy had

no problem to fly anything airworthy.

Even more legendary were his navigational skills. He was supposedly something like a human “homing pidgeon”.

It did not matter what the destination

was or how long the flight took. Leading the formation Pappy always reliably

Douglas A-20G. The final modification of its attack version.

nose in the direction of flight and taking

a long sniff, he said, ‘Directly ahead of us

is where we want to go.’ Of course, by

this time I was somewhat doubtful of Pappy’s navigation technique. I asked how

this established the direction we should

take. Pappy said, ‘Well, some weeks ago

I flew over this area and there was an

old dead cow just ahead. I am following

the smell.’ Despite such extraordinary

navigation methods Pappy always got to

his destination without any error. I never

did see him refer to a map, yet on many

flights with him I never found any error

in his navigation.”

Pappy’s activities during approximately

one month after his return from Java are

not reliably documented but it is said,

and it would look like him, that he flew

Boomerang with Australians defending

“As we passed over the ground that was entirely unfamiliar to me,

I asked Pappy where we were and how he knew the direction to

Townsville. At that point Pappy reached over to his navigation kit.

As I looked into it when he opened it, I saw that it had no maps. However, it had a large bottle labeled Panther Juice.” (Maj. Tom Gerrity)

brought it to the destination without any

navigational preparations. And he even

could not do it, he did not use maps!

“I recall one particular flight on which

I accompanied him, “recalled after some

years Major Tom Gerrity. “This flight

was from Brisbane, Australia, north to

Townsville. We were flying along at low

altitude. Pappy seldom flew above five

hundred feet. As we passed over the

ground that was entirely unfamiliar to

me, I asked Pappy where we were and

how he knew the direction to Townsville.

At that point Pappy reached over to his

navigation kit. As I looked into it when he

opened it, I saw that it had no maps. However, it had a large bottle labeled ‘Panther Juice.’ Pappy pulled out the bottle,

pretended to drink from it, then lifting his

November 2022

Rabaul. Boomerangs were no match

for Zeros and most of them were shot

down including the one flown by Pappy.

Shortly before that however he supposedly had managed to shoot down a Zero.

He saved himself on a parachute and

landed in the jungle approximately ten

miles from Rabaul. For two weeks he

was walking through wilderness until he

reached the little town of Basmata. From

there he was evacuated by a flying boat

to Australia together with other Australian pilots. On his walk through the

jungle, he only ate berries and worms,

lost 25 pounds (11.4 kilos) but survived.

Later he shared his survival experience

with other pilots. And he also tested the

green pilots’ guts when in the mess hall

he loudly described which worms and

Photo: worldwarphotos

bugs are good to eat. The veterans recalled how this information helped some

of them survive.

Bombing sights’ “relocation”

In the beginning of April, a couple of first

B-25s arrived in Australia to equip the

3rd Attack Group. It was the first twin-engine bomber capable of flying from

Darwin to Del Monte on Java which was

still in the American hands. It was decided to form the group of ten B-25s

and three B-17s under the command

of Brigadier General Ralph Royce and

Pappy sensed the chance to get back to

Philippines and learn something about

his family’s fate. He offered himself for

a position of a pilot and group’s technical officer. The 3rd AG commander,

Col. “Big Jim” Davies was glad to accept

Cpt. Gunn. A guy of his capabilities

came handy. There was a little problem

though. Those B-25s were missing the

bomb aiming sights. Pappy recalled that

recently he spotted some B-25s when

he flew via Canberra. It was twelve

aircraft received for a Dutch squadron and

Pappy decided to do some closer research on this. He got jumped to one DC-2

and took off for Canberra. No one knows

what exactly happened there but next

day Pappy returned with twelve Sperry

bomb sights. Some time in May that year

General Kenney, 5th AF Army commander learned about the Dutch complaining

about missing bombing sights from their

B-25s. But at that time there were plenty of them in stocks in Australia so the

whole issue was settled.

After the gunsights relocation operation, the raid of the group of ten B-25s

and three B-17s took place on April 12

with the target being the ships in Davao’s port. After the raid the group landed

at Del Monte, re-armed and re-fueled

and flew off for another raid, this time

INFO Eduard

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