The emergency hatch would not release
and Summers could only hope that the im-
pactwoulddislodgeit.“I heard the right
propeller tip tick the tops of the waves,
but was able to make the correction and
startedtoskimthetailalongthetopofthe
water.Ikeptthestickpulledbackasfar
asIcould,intomystomach,andthenthe
nose burrowed into the water with a hell
ofabang,anditfeltasthoughIhadhita
brick wall.”
Summers wrenched open the hatch as the
aircraftbegantosink.Surroundedbygur-
glingwater,heunbuckledhisrestrainthar-
ness and struggled upwards only to discov-
er he was pinned into the bucket seat by his
parachute harness. He took a deep breath as
hewaspulledunderwiththeaircraft,the
nose of which bottomed out on sand. When
he finally freed himself he pitched the lifer-
aft, stored behind the cockpit, out into the
swell. Summers still wore his parachute as
32 |FLIGHTPATH
Hetookadeep
breath as he
was pulled
under with
the aircraft
bleedingbadlyfromwherehisshinbonehad
broken the skin. He injected half a grain of
morphine into Evans’ left arm and applied
sulfadiazine to the open wound. Splinting
thelegwithalifejacket,thetwoatechoco-
late and drank fresh water from the rations
pack stowed in the liferaft.
OnlyafterColonelMiltonJohnsonhad
landed and entered the mess tent for dinner
was he informed that one of his crews had
ditched. He quickly assembled two senior
pilots, Major Raymond Klein, and his broth-
er and operations officer, Major Charles
Johnson,toflyasearchwithhim.Heas-
signed other pilots as gunners/observers.
Meanwhile, from inside the badly tossed
liferaft,thedriftingmencouldseeacross
thelagoon’snarrowneck,thecontroltower
of an airfield, one of Utarom’s satellite fields.
At17:15hours,aUSAAFOA-10ACatalina,
operated by the 3rd Emergency Rescue
Squadron,appearedonthehorizonand
Summers tried desperately to release a flare
from its wet, shrunken webbing, breaking
two fingernails in the process. They placed
adyemarkerinthewaterinstead,butthe
OA-10A passed overhead without seeing
them. Fifteen minutes later the trio of John-
son’s searching A-20Gs passed three miles
to the north, but this time the two men suc-
cessfully fired red flares and attracted the
attention of the crews. As Summers noted in
hisofficialreport,“ourprayershadbeenan-
swered”. Moments before the arrival of the
Havocs,aplumeofblacksmokeappearedon
the horizon and both men assumed that
their aircraft had exploded.
Milton Johnson guided the Catalina to the
downed men. “Ipulleduponhisleftwing,
loweredmylandinggearandfullflaps,
and decreased my airspeed to 150 mph. I
succeeded in getting him to let down with
me in formation and led him to the loca-
tion where the two other A-20s were cir-he rolled to the surface. His sight was ob-
scured as his forehead bled profusely from
lacerations sustained from hitting the gun-
sight. Evans paddled over and both inflated
the liferaft. Evans had to haul Summers in
despite the fact that his leg was broken. The
pilot became nauseous and passed out for
an hour, then came to and saw Evans’ legABOVE:Brothers Major Charles Johnson
(left) and Colonel Milton Johnson confer
overamap.TheA-20Gseenherewas
assignedtoMiltonwhonamedit‘Roff
Rider’ after his small hometown of Roff,
Oklahoma. Instead of the usual letter on
the rudder, Johnson had a motif applied
as the ‘big wheel’ commanding officer.
Insteadofaslantedtailtipofred,blue,
whiteoryellowtodenoteeachofthe
417th BG squadrons, Johnson’s tail
marking incorporated all four colours.
‘Roff Rider’ was lost when it was ditched
by another pilot in March 1945.
RIGHT:The route from Kornasoren
(Noemfoor Island) to the enemy airfield
at Langgoer was just over 300 nautical
miles(556kilometres),areturnjourney
ofclosetofourhoursforanA-20G.‘X’
marks Summers’ ditching spot. Ambon
was one of two bases for the small
detachment of ‘Jakes’ of the 934th Naval
Air Group.