they took to
midnight
requisitions and
stole what they
needed
60 |FLIGHTPATH
Without a doubt, he thought, going in low
after ships was far more effective than try-
ingtobombthemfrom20,000feet.Goingin
low gave them another opportunity to inflict
damage.Asheattackedtheshipsinthehar-
bour at Cebu during the Royce Mission, his
bombardier had strafed their decks with his
machinegun.Asinglemachinegundidn’t
do much damage, but what if more could be
stuffedinthenosesofthesenewbombers?
PilotscouldsuppressAAdefencesasthey
made their runs. They wouldn’t need fight-
erstodothatforthem.Thereweren’tfight-
ers available to do it anyway.
‘Big Jim’ Davies listened with skepticism.
He didn’t think it could be done. The engi-
neering challenges were daunting, to say
theleast,andanymodificationofaircraft
neededtobedoneinprescribeddepotswith
AirForceMaterielCommand’sexpressper-
mission,whichseemedunlikelyatbest.Be-
sides,Daviesargued,evenafewextranose
guns wouldn’t be all that effective at the
prescribed five to ten thousand feet.
“Forget the book, Jim”, ‘Pappy’ said. “Set
firetothegoddamnedbook!”Itwastimetogo
in low. How low? Ten to fifty feet off the trees.
CaptainDonP.Hall,oneofDavies’squad-
ron commanders, listened to the old flyer’s
ideas.Hallwasanoldmemberofthe3rdAt-
tack Group. Like Davies in the 1930s, Hall
hadspenthundredsofhoursflyingstrike
aircraft, buzzing treetops while dropping
sacksofflouronasimulatedenemy.He
came up through attack aviation at a time
when almost everyone else was obsessed
with high-level precision bombing. Now
seemed the time to resurrect the old ways.
‘Pappy’ saw an ally in Hall and worked on
himuntilhecamearound.Facedwitha
united front, Davies caved.
DonHalland‘Pappy’formedaformidable
team, a perfect combination of tactical,
practical and mechanical skills. They made
this project their priority. ‘Pappy’ neglected
his day job commanding the 21st and threw
himselfintothetask.Victorywastheonly
path back to his family. The 21st could win
no battles, but squadrons of gun-laden
bombers could.
Right away, Gunn and Hall ploughed
headlong into such red tape and supply de-
pot politics that their experiment was near-
ly derailed.TheyacquiredtheirA-20anddrewupa
list of things they needed. First, they need-
ed .50in calibre machine guns. They
couldn’t get them. Many of the officers run-
ning the depots were absolute by-the-book
types who categorically refused to release
anything to the combat units that was not
part of their table of allotment.
ThedepotsrefusedtogiveHalland‘Pap-
py’anything.Infact,thesupplytypes
around Charters Towers who were sup-
posed to be taking care of the 3rd Attack