The captain of the landing craft saluted as Admiral Halsey touched the deck of his ship. The admiral wanted to see with his own eyes those pilots from VMF-214 everybody spoke of.
In the meantime the pilots aboard his carrier could enjoy a nice rest.
“Are they expecting me?” he asked to his chief of staff.
“Yes sir they are. As a matter of fact some of them wanted to escort you ashore”.
The admiral looked up and indeed, he could detect two small dots in the sky, flying a holding pattern above his ship.
Peter flew above the fleet, admiring his birds-eye view. The carrier floated amidst its escort ships. If he looked very carefully he could detect the small ship carrying Admiral Halsey ashore.
Together with his wingman he had planned to circle around the ship carrying the admiral and to perform at least one low fly-by to impress the admiral.
But from high above Peter also noticed something that worried him. The carrier would be a sitting duck in that laguna. If the Japs managed to sneak some bombers past the fighter screen, they could wreck the task force.
Peters nightmare was about to come true. Some miles away, a flight of Japanese Rufe was patrolling the neighbourhood. They had learned their lesson and stayed away from the airbase with those Corsairs.
But now one of them had spotted small grey objects on the horizon. Watching through his binoculars, he counted several US warships including a carrier! The pilots knew that if they broke radio silence the Americans would immediately leave the Laguna, so their only hope was to make a quick bomb run before alerting command of the presence of the carrier.
If they were lucky they might damage the carrier for the follow-up attacks.
“Enemy fighters!”
On the landing craft someone had spotted the approaching Rufe. The captain immediately took action.
“Man all guns, warn the carrier of the approaching enemy”.
Quickly the sailors manned the guns. Their ship was a small target but perhaps they could knock some fighters out of the sky before they reached the carrier.
Peter heard the warning from the captain also on the radio. Immediately he dove to the deck in the direction of the enemy planes.
The japs were flying very low, perhaps to slip underneath the anti aircraft fire. Since the two formations were flying head-on Peter had to watch out not to crash into the sea. He quickly pulled up from his dive and circled around the enemy fighters at high speed.
The first Jap was already approaching the landing craft. Peter did not know whether the Jap was aiming for the landing craft or whether he was going for the carrier. But a quick burst from Peter’s guns ended any future for the Jap. Spewing fuel, the Rufe rolled onto its back and crashed into the sea.
But the Japs were persisting. Another Rufe tried to fly past the landing craft. But the gunners had their sights set squarely on the Rufe.
Their machineguns blasted, sending hundreds of bullets towards the Rufe. Admiral Halsey, who had to watch the enraging battle and who hated it to be a bystander, saw how the gunners hit the Rufe. The gun-crew cheered as the fighter caught fire.
Inside the cockpit the pilot screamed as the flames engulfed him. His screams were broadcast on the radio, unsettling the other Japanese pilots.
The japs were now getting pretty close to the carrier. Its escort ships began joining the fray.
Peter flew without hesitation into the fire form the escort ships. He had to prevent those japs from dropping bombs on the carrier.
But the Rufe-pilots had a hard time dodging the ground fire and at the same time dropping their bombs. One pilot tried to call out to their home base to report what he saw. He was so focused on counting the enemy ships that he failed to spot Peter on his tail.
Peter was so close he could read the markings on the tail of the Rufe. A single burst of his machineguns ripped through the tail, separating it from the rest of the fighter.
At the Japanese home base they listened in horror to the report of the pilot, who reported the carrier before his screams sounded through the radio as his tailless aircraft plummeted to the sea.
With the last Rufe smashing into the sea, Peter and his wingman had stopped the attack cold in its tracks.
Back at the base, Peter and his wingman were immediately ordered to the harbour. At the pier they watched how Admiral Halsey stepped out of the landing craft.
“These are the fighter pilots?”
“Yes, sir they are.”
Peter and his wingman saluted for the Admiral, who recoginezed Peter as the young pilot who ran him over on the carrier some weeks ago.
The Admiral smiled and saluted the men.
“Boys, that was the best flying I ever saw. If it were not for you my carrier would now be on the bottom of the sea. I will personally see that you are rewarded for this.”
The Admiral kept his word, two weeks later Peter and his wingman received the bronze star.