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of him and strafe, Conner agrees. The two young pilots turn<br />
back, Conner making his third run into the flak. With his<br />
two machine guns pitted against the anti-aircraft batteries<br />
of the Jap he leads the young and unknown pilot with his<br />
precious torpedo in to attack. The torpedo goes home in the<br />
belly of a cruiser. Conner looks back when he clears the<br />
hail of anti-aircraft. The other plane has been hit and is<br />
falling. It flames for a few seconds on the sea and<br />
disappears. no one gets out.<br />
1045 - The Japanese have taken up the chase again intent now<br />
on destroying Taffy Two which, alone of the three original<br />
groups, is still uninjured, still able to maul the Jap<br />
again.<br />
On the six ships of the group the men are working under<br />
terrible pressure and yet the precision has not been broken.<br />
The planes are taken aboard with the minimum interval and as<br />
soon as they are out of the arresting gear the plane crews<br />
swarm over them. Only bombs are being loaded. There are no<br />
more torpedoes for the escort carriers were sent to the<br />
Philippines primarily to bomb and strafe the enemy on shore.<br />
It was not intended that they should fight Japanese<br />
battleships unaided.<br />
1115 - A striking force has been launched again. As though<br />
in a drill off the California coast the men in the ships<br />
have armed the planes, gassed them, got them ready to go;<br />
the pilots have been briefed, and given a sandwich and the<br />
launch has been made with planes leaving the ship at<br />
intervals of 15 seconds. Throughout the day this disciplined<br />
work has continued with no man wavering in his job.<br />
The ships flee on, the men in them wondering if the<br />
pilots - the great majority of them in their first real<br />
combat - can do it again, can stop the march of the<br />
battleships. Wondering if six baby flattops, built to ferry<br />
aircraft, slung together in the Kaiser yards in a matter of<br />
months, can stop the weight of Japanese warships so close<br />
astern, so close to the fine taste of murdering the helpless<br />
carriers.<br />
1200 - The Japanese force has been whipped by planes.<br />
Japanese ships lie crippled in their pools of oil dirty on<br />
the blue sea. The surviving ships are running<br />
4 <strong>Leyte</strong> <strong>Gulf</strong>
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