clingtheliferaft.Severalcircleswere
made by all three A-20s and the Catalina
inanattempttosighttheliferaftinsemi
darkness.FinallyMajorJohnsonputus
on to him and we kept buzzing the raft
making abrupt pull-ups until the Catali-
nasightedhimandmadealandingfor
rescue”.TheOA-10Aputdownintothe
swell and taxied towards the men, but in the
strong current they missed the throw-line
sosignalledtheCatalinawithalamp.The
amphibian reappeared, then lost them
again, however, on the third approach, its
pilot, First Lieutenant Walter Griffeth, dived
fromthewingwithathrow-linefastenedto
hiswaist.Heswamtotheraftwhichwas
then hauled in by the rescue crew. As he
clambereduptheCatalina’sladder,Sum-
merssawEvansbehindhimtryingtoclimb
onboardwithhisbrokenleg.TheOA-10A
overflew Noemfoor to reach Biak at 23:00
hours. Vehicles were lined up 45 degrees to
therunwaywiththeirheadlightsfacingin
the direction of landing. After two aborted
passes, and nearly sixteen hours airborne,
theCatalinatoucheddown.Thenear-naked
Summers was the first to disembark. No-
body had told him that recently arrived
nurses had arrived to watch the excitement!
When Colonel Johnson visited the hospi-
talnextmorning,Summerslearnedthatthe
black smoke they had seen the previous af-
ternoon had not been his burning bomber,
butaJapanese‘Jake’seaplaneshotdownby
the rescue Havocs. As they approached the
area, Johnson saw the seaplane heading
FLIGHTPATH|33Sources:
674th BS and 417th BG microfilm official
histories, letters from Joe Nedela, crew chief
of ‘MY JOY’ and Norman Summers 1991, 2/Lt
Summers’ E&E report, and Col Milton
Johnson’sofficialcombatreport(October
1944), kodochosho 934 kokutai.eastat500feet,placingitdirectlyinfront
and slightly above Charles Johnson’s A-20G.
Theseaplanesuddenlyturned180degrees
and its rear gunner opened fire. Klein fired
shortburstswithhisaircraft’snosegunsat
theseaplanefromarangeof550metres.
Oneburstwasseentoenterthetarget’s
starboard wing. Klein got in so close he had
toturnsharplytoavoidthe‘Jake’.Johnson
then fired a longer burst into the seaplane
which burst into flame and crashed. The
Havocsstrafedtheburningdebris.
The E13A1 ‘Jake’ was assigned to the
934th Naval Air Group (kokutai). On 1
March 1944, this unit was deactivated and
most of its pilots were posted to fighter
units. A small detachment of eight ‘Jakes’,
however, was deployed to Ambon and
Makassarandreactivated.Inastrokeofco-
incidence,thedetachmentwasagaindis-
bandedthesamedaytheHavocsshottheir
‘Jake’ down. The victim, therefore, may have
been staging to Utarom for redeployment
when it met its fate. Milton Johnson submit-
ted,“...the ‘Jake’ crashed head on into the
water at an estimated speed of 170mph
andIbelievethattheentirecrewwas
killed by my machine gun fire prior to
the plane’s crashing. The whole episode
lasted only about one minute and the
‘Jake’wasfarinferiortotheA-20sin
speedandcouldonlyslipandskidinan
attempttogetawaywhiletheA-20shad
topullouttothesideformakingpasses
inordertokeepfromoverrunninghim.
The Jake was shot down at 17:30 hours.”Over the next few days from his hospital
bed,Summersarguedwithvisitingpilots
whether or not he should have ditched into
thewindastheyhadbeentaught.Hecon-
tendedthatthewavesweresufficiently
highthatsuchanapproachwouldhavedriv-
enthebombersquarelyintoonewithdevas-
tating consequences. However, Summers’
misadventure saved future lives, for his
proven theory as to how gunners could best
survivefutureA-20Gemergencylandings
was adopted. Engineers proved that the
Martin turret Plexiglas could be cleanly re-
movedwithonebirdshotroundfroma.45in
calibre pistol. Each gunner was henceforth
issued one such round, carried in the cham-
ber, on missions. The changes were adopted
byallPacificA-20GunitswhileSummers
wasrecuperatinginSydney.Thepractice
wasimplementedinthefieldandpresented
to the USAAF command structure as afait
accompli. Summers returned to the U.S. af-
tercompletingfiftymissions.Fortherestof
hislifeheremainedmoreproudofthe
‘Summersditchingprocedure’andthemen
it saved than of his combat experience.The dispatched E13A1 ‘Jake’ seaplane was assigned to the 934th Naval Air
Group(kokutai), tailcode prefix 34, and was one of the detachment of
eight aircraft reactivated in mid-1944, deployed to both Ambon and
Makassar. When again deactivated on 1 October 1944, the remaining
‘Jakes’ were reassigned to the 25th Special Base Force.[[email protected]]