Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

418 Pacifica Military History
Hurtling ever closer, I could see the upturned faces of the French sailors
from where they crouched in the ship’s gun tubs, blasting salvos of
antiaircraft fire up at me.
I waited forever for the range to close. Finally, at about three thousand
feet, I took a tiny bit of lead and opened fire on the ship’s bridge. The
roar of the six guns, added to the already deafening racket from the
engine and the airstream, was almost mind-numbing. Fascinated, I
watched the tracers from my guns arc toward the ship, seemingly in
slow motion. Then, in an explosion of sparkling flashes, my bullets found
their mark on the bridge of the destroyer. At the same time I could see
glass from the windows in the bridge rain on the deck and the sparkling,
explosive flashes of my incendiary rounds. In total, each Wildcat carried
1,440 rounds in the ratio of five armor-piercing to three incendiary to
two tracer rounds. That meant that for every flash I saw—too many to
count—four other rounds of ammunition smashed into the target. The
effect of our gunfire was dramatic. Already the lead ship was smoking.
As I pulled out of the dive, my face sagged under the increased gravity
forces of the pullout. Leveling out at high speed just over the top of the
bridge, I could see sailors dashing around, doing whatever sailors do
when their ship is under attack.
Under fire from the opposite side of the ship, I double-checked the
throttle against the stop. I looked back over my shoulder, where I could
see the muzzle flashes from the antiaircraft guns, and I consciously willed
my aircraft to climb faster. Unscathed and back at altitude again, I
wheeled around to my left and set up for another attack. By now our
flight had more or less separated into a bunch of single airplanes pressing
attacks against the French ships and being careful to avoid colliding
with each other.
Altogether, we made several more runs apiece against all three of
the destroyers. On each run, I was amazed at the effects of my guns
against the thin-skinned ships. And the other pilots experienced the same
success. The decks and superstructures of the French ships were riddled
with holes, and soon no one was moving about topside. The antiaircraft
fire dropped off dramatically as well. By the time we ran low on fuel
and ammunition and began to reform our flight for the trip back to the