Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

Free Sample Chapters 219
the attack would be launched against the rear of the Enterprise formation
and from out of the sun.
Hidaka’s attack completely surprised the Americans. Ironically,
only moments before the Japanese struck, LCdr Jack Collett, in the lead
Avenger, had wondered aloud about the total absence of chatter on the
radio—radio silence was seldom perfectly maintained—and had asked
ARM1 Tom Nelson whether the radio was functioning. Nelson indeed
found that someone had turned the frequency selector from the torpedo
channel, and he made the necessary change. But it was too late.
*
The first American warplane to be struck by the Japanese fighters
was Collet’s. ARM1 Tom Nelson had just heard a bleat of “Bogeys!”
over the radio and was cranking back his tunnel-mounted .30-caliber
machine gun when he heard the throaty voice of the .50-caliber turret
gun overhead. An instant later, the Avenger shivered right down her air
frame and involuntarily fishtailed. Then the starboard wing went down
a bit. Nelson realized that the torpedo bomber was gliding toward the
ocean. A quick peek out the starboard porthole revealed a sick sort of
look on the face of Lt(jg) Robert Oscar, the pilot of the TBF stepped off
Collett’s starboard wing.
Oscar’s expression told Nelson that it was time to go. He was just
beginning to move when he realized that smoke was pouring through
the fuselage of the airplane. He grabbed the interphone mike and yelled
into it to get Collett’s attention, but there was no answer. It looked more
and more like the engine had been damaged or destroyed and the pilot
had been injured or killed.
By the time Nelson called to warn Collett, the latter had already
exited the cockpit. Lt(jg) Raymond Wyllie, the pilot of the rear TBF in
Collett’s division, saw the squadron commander climb out onto the right
wing and jump. He was never seen again.
Meanhile, Tom Nelson crawled into the radio compartment and
pulled the locking pins on the hatch, which he kicked out into space.
AM1 Steve Nadison was still in the turret, so Nelson had to get his
attention and hand him his parachute. As he did, he realized that Nadison
had balked at wearing even his parachute harness in the cramped turret.