“You know Doug Douglass, of course?” Crookshanks said. “Sure,” Canidy said. Doug Douglass was short, crew-cutted, and young-looking. The first time Canidy had seen him had been on the ship on the way over. He had thought then that Douglass looked fnore like a Boy Scout than an officer and pilot. He had subsequently learned that Douglass was a West Pointer, one of those rare “natural” pilots. Douglass also shared (as much as could be expected of a West Pointer) much of Canidy’s amused scorn for Crookshank’s attempts to “shape up” the Flying Tigers.
Canidy wondered if Douglass’s irreverence for proper behavior and the “wrong attitude” had earned him a place on Crookshank’s shit list.
“What I’m going to do, Canidy,” Crookshanks said, “is send up early-moming patrols of two aircraft, to watch the area the Japanese usually come through.”
Canidy nodded.
“There’s the ground spotter network, of course,” Crookshanks continued, “but we don’t really know yet whether that really works. And we don’t really know how well our air-to-ground communications are going to function. That’s what we hope to find out from you two.”
“When do we go?” Douglass asked.
“First light, about fifteen minutes.”
“OK ‘ ” Canidy said. “Why me?”
“Because you’re a pretty good navigator,” Crookshanks said. “I want a pretty accurate position report, to compare with the ground spotter network’s report.”
“OK,” Canidy said.
“Any Other questions?”
“You plan to have me doing this regularly?”
“For the time being. You and Bitter can alternate. I plan to have an afternoon patrol, too. And we’ll rotate the pilots from the squadron who will fly with you.”
“I don’t like to fly pool airplanes,” Canidy said.
“The only aircraft we have are assigned to squadrons. You’ll have to fly what’s available.”
“I don’t care which one,” Canidy said. “I would just like same one, time after time.” th I don’t see how I can arrange that,” Crookshanks said. fie waited until Canidy nodded, and then went on. “Now, the way this will work this morning is that you will fly patrol until we send y” a report of incoming aircraft from the ground spotters. You will th., confirm sighting. When you have their location, you will so report by radio. We’re not sure about our communications, so while you,re reporting by radio, Doug will hightail it back here with the same in_ formation. You will remain in sight of the Japanese formation.”
“OK,” Canidy said. “And what if we sight a formation before we get it from the ground spotters?”
“Same thing. Fix the location, course, altitude, and so on, radio it, and send Doug back here immediately.”
“OK,” Canidy said. “Am I supposed to attack the formation?”
Crookshanks met his eyes. “Use your own judgment,” be said softly.
Canidy nodded. Then he drained his coffee.
“I’ll see you on the flight line in ten minutes, Doug,” he said.
“If I’m late,” Douglass replied, “you just go on without me.”
Canidy smiled at him. At least he wouldn’t be going out for the first time with some damned hero, eager to do battle with the Dirty Jap.
They found a Japanese formation before they were advised of its presence by ground spotters relaying the information through Kunming.
They were on oxygen at fifteen thousand feet. Six thousand feet below, flying directly toward them between two cloud formations, were a dozen Japanese airplanes, too far away to be typed, flying in two uneven Vs.
Canidy waggled his wings, and at the same time turned to look at Doug Douglass, who was flying two hundred feet off his right wingtip. Douglass was also waggling his wings and pointing ahead. Canidy nodded and held up his chart for Douglass to see. Canidy ed the location on his chart and went on the air long enough to mark transmit, once, the coordinates. Just the coordinates, not the altitude or direction or airspeed. He had no way to judge those. Doug Douglass would have to estimate their altitude, airspeed, and direction and report them as well as he could. It was possible that the Japanese would have their radios tuned to the same frequency they were using.
Douglass bent his head over his lap, obviously marking down the coordinates Canidy had given him; then he raised his head and shook it exaggeratedly: OK.
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