HQ, I at Pursuit Sqdn, AVG APO 607 S/F Cal.
25 Mar 42
Dear Mr. Bitter:
By the time you read this you will have heard that Ed has been hurt. I thought you would like to know what happened.
! 1@ 1NNN We mounted a two-flight (10 ac) low-level strafing assault on the Japanese air base at Chien&aaai, Thailand. Our squadron commander led one flight, I had the other, and Ed was in line to take the place of either of us if anything should happen. We went in on oxygen at 20,000 feet, and went down near the field for a straftng run. Some of the ships had 50-pound HE bombs in their flare chutes. There was a lot more antiaircraft on the way down, and many more heavy machine guns on the deck when we got there, than intelligence had led us to expect.
The skipper took a hit and was shot down his first pass, and Ed took a hit just below his right knee on his third pass. I think it was a glancing shot or a rickoshay (sp?), because the wound, while unpleasant, isn’t nearly the mess it would have been had he taken a direct hit from a.50, which is what the Japs use, we having obligingly showed them how to build them.
Ed managed to get his aircraft up to altitude again, but on the way home he went on the radio and said that he was feeling bad, and faint, and wanted to set down (rather than risk lo sing consciousness while still in the air).
Luck was with him. There was a riverbed in the middle of nowhere that looked like it was hard enough to take a landing, and he set it down without trouble. Once he was there, and we knew it was safe to land, we were able to land another plane, load him into that, and with the pilot sitting on Ed’s lap and ducking his head to get it out of the prop blast, he was able to make off and get Ed back to the base. That was the worst part. Once he was on the ground, they gave him something for the pain, did what they could here for his knee, and arranged for him to be flown to India, where there is a brand new General Hospital (US Army) in Calcutta. Probably the best indicator of his condition is that he told me just before he left for Calcutta that he will be back in six weeks. I don’t think so. I think they will probably ship him home just as soon as they can arrange for it. He is not in danger, so the worst that Will happen is that he may have a stiff knee.
I have to out this off now, because I’m now the squadron commander and I’m finding that means a lot of work. Ed and I had become good friends, and what I’ve been thinking is that if something like this had to happen, this wasn’t so bad. We’re really going to miss him around here, but he’s going to come out of it all right.
Sincerely, Pt,44 D,04-S&”, Al” Peter Doug lass, Jr.
Chandler Bitter showed Helen the letter, then suggested she call Bran don and read the letter to him. After that he left for work. When he returned that evening, she mentioned to him that she had also called Ann Chambers and read the letter to her. Ann was Brandon’s daughter and their niece, and she was working on Brandon’s newspaper in Memphis.
Helen had also called Mark and Sue-Ann Chambers in Mobile. The rest of the afternoon she’d spent having Peter Doug lass’s letter photographed so that she could send copies to other friends who would be interested.
There was a second letter from the Chinese embassy the next day. Eight flowery paragraphs proclaimed that a second gold miniature Flying Tiger was being sent with the personal gratitude of the Chinese people and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.
Mrs. Bitter had that letter photographed, too, so that it could be sent to sundry and assorted relatives and friends. When things calmed down a bit, she was going to have the letters framed. She was also going to have the second gold Flying Tiger mounted and take it to The Plantation in Alabama. She would hang it all in the library of the family vacation residence there with the other family war memorabilia, some of which went back to the War Between the States. Helen’s behavior astonished Chandler. He had been married to her a long time, and thought he knew her. What seemed to be the strange truth was that the traditional roles were reversed. He was nearly sick with fear and relief for their child, and she was reveling in his heroism.