Two funny stories from the Pacific war

Discussions on WW2 in the Pacific and the Sino-Japanese War.
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Literalman
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Joined: 03 Jul 2014, 20:41

Two funny stories from the Pacific war

#1

Post by Literalman » 07 Aug 2014, 14:53

In his book Lonely Vigil: Coastwatchers of the Solomons (New York: Viking Press, 1977), Walter Lord told of an American flyer, 2nd Lt. Michael Yunck. He was shot down and paddled his raft to Santa Isabel.
On the fourth day he finally met a party of three natives roasting a pig on the beach. Using a combination of pantomime and pidgin English, he tried to explain that he was an American aviator. He put on, he felt, a very good show: spreading his arms like wings … “flying” up and down the beach … pointing his fingers like machine guns … and adding sound effects. The natives watched for about 30 seconds, then the youngest spoke up with flawless British accent: “I understand. You are an American aviator. We work for Mr. Geoffrey Kuper, who is the Coastwatcher on the island, and we will take care of you.”
In the Time-Life Epic of Flight series, the volume Soldiers of Fortune (Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1981) mentions that one pilot in the Flying Tigers "had five American flags painted on his aircraft; he had personally crashed five P-40s and thus qualified as a Japanese ace."

OpanaPointer
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Re: Two funny stories from the Pacific war

#2

Post by OpanaPointer » 07 Aug 2014, 16:18

I'll just be borrowing that. Citation will be intact.
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