JM7M-JA

Milford Johnson escape from Java

There were several B-17 airplanes and combat crews plus several maintenance personnel that were left in Java to fly as many combat missions as they could before evacuation to Australia. I was one of the maintenance crew.

We fueled and serviced, removed and replaced, bomb bay tanks and bombs. We replaced one horizontal stabilizer that had been crushed while hiding the airplane in the woods, and removed a stabilizer from a wrecked plane. Planes and crews were in the process of learning and things were getting touchy. there were several shot up and bombed out B-17's on this airport, I don't remember the name, but it could have been near Madium.

In one of the hangers there was a table set up with a can of corn beef with hard tack on it. If you got hungry that is what you would eat. There was one meal that was set up in one hotel and I would estimate a couple hundred American personnel were in attendance and we called it a last supper. I personally knew about a dozen of the people and we were friends.

The bombers were doing some night raids and then keeping out of sight during the day. There were a squadron of World War I, open cockpit, two winged, two and three place, airplanes that landed and I think the English flew them from Malaya or Sumatra. I believe there were around fifteen or more of the planes. They left the next day to attack a Jap aircraft carrier, (hear say) and only one plane came back. I never saw any of the planes again. There also was a P-40 fighter that landed at the base. It was supposed to have come from the north. Any way I was asked to take a Dutch pilot and show him how to start the engine and answer any questions about the plane. He could talk some English, so we started the engine and I explained or answered his few questions. He was very pleased with the plane and said he would fly it in combat as long as he had fuel and ammunition and was alive. He took off and that was the last I saw of him. The Dutch had some old B-10B's 2 engine bombers and their fighters were Curtis Trainers.

A friend of mine, a radio operator on a combat crew, left for Australia and he had an Army Garand rifle he gave to me without a clip. He told me where he had hid the clip in the hanger so I could find it. I never could understand why he kept the rifle and the clip separate from each other, and I never was able to find the clip. While I was looking for it an officer came up to me and asked about the gun. I told him that I had a gun and no ammunition or clip. He said that he had a .45 and he could get ammunition for the rifle because we may have to go to the mountains and fight a guerrilla war along with the Dutch. I could have shot the rifle as a single shot with .30 caliber machine gun ammunition. I never saw the officer again. He must have boarded a plane that night.

The Dutch were applying scorched earth on anything that the Japs could use. They mined the airport runways and blew up the electric power plants so we had to use barrel hand pumps to fuel the bombers. The officers decided that it was time to get out, so we fueled up everything that would fly.

There was one B-17 that no one was working on and I found out that the hydraulic systems were not working and that about half a dozen spark plug adapters to the leads were missing. If we had them the engines would run and the plane could fly at low attitudes with no super chargers or brakes. In a bombed out hanger, on the other side of the air field, was a B-17 that was beyond repair and it had engines on it with spark plug leads. I told the others that I would get some tools and go over and get what we needed from the wrecked plane, but I needed something to stand on to reach the engines. We had a flat bed truck that was used to haul fifty five gallon fuel barrels The driver wouldn't take me over there and the hanger was about a mile away. I finally talked him into letting me drive the truck over there but no one wanted to go with me. I got my tools and a couple of flash lights and headed over to the hanger. I pulled the truck under an engine of the plane, so I could stand on the cab of the truck to get the parts that I needed. It took only a few minutes to retrieve the parts with a wrench, pliers, and a pair of side cutters. I jumped into that right handed Ford, and sped out of the hanger in a hurry.

We went to work on the B-17 that needed the leads. All the engines started up and ran okay. We serviced it with gas and oil, and removed all the extra weight (ammunition, guns, and tools). I can't remember how many people were going to fly on the plane, but the numbers that come to mind are eighteen to twenty two.

There was another B-17 that was leaving at the same time and it was loaded about the same. I can't remember the identification numbers of the planes, the officers, or the pilots names. there was a Captain McPhearson but I don't recoil the plane that he flew when he left Java. I was in the same group when we got to Australia and flew two times with McPherson. One from Melburn to Long Reach to help set up a new base and again to Port Moresby New Guina.

My recollection of leaving Java was about one thirty in the morning on March 3, 1942. There was a lot of moon light with some patches of clouds. We taxied out to the runway and I stayed out of the airplane while the engines were run up for mag and RPM tests. I then pulled the wheel chocks and discarded them. The plane was moving and I ran to the rear access door while two of my friends helped me get inside.

About two or three hours before take off, the Dutch blew up with explosives, the bombed out hanger that I had been in for the spark plug leads. Any way, we circled to get altitude and the Dutch blew up the run ways. As we were circling and climbing, the plane hit an air pocket and we dropped five hundred feet. We climbed up and dropped down at least two more times. There was some injuries but none of them were life threatening. We flew to Broom Australia and landed okay. It was day light and everyone was tired, hungry, and dirty. There was a cooking place set up and we ate breakfast. The people in charge had taken over some vacant houses in town and they assigned several of us to what they called "Japs house". They told us the Japanese had left and moved out before the war. They also gave us a mosquito net and a blanket. We went to the house for some rest and sleep.

The next morning we went back to the airport and checked the plane out. There were about ten people there. They'd found that on the right side of the plane at the junction of the radio compartment and the rear section was a row of rivets with the heads snapped off. We figured that the B-17 almost broke in two, when we had rough air turbulence, as we were taking off at Java.

We heard airplanes and guns firing. There were Jap Zeros making firing runs on Broom Port Harbor where there were several Dutch Flying Boats that had evacuated from Java and were being loaded to fly further south. Several women and children were wounded and killed as airplanes were burning and sinking into the harbor. All together a total of twenty two planes were destroyed.

When we heard and then saw the planes we all ran for the holes and trenches that had already been dug before we arrived. When the Japs were done with the harbor they hit the airport and shot up and set fire to all the planes plus one LB or B-24 that was shot down over the harbor. The harbor patrol went out looking for survivors and they didn't find any.

Around forty eight hours later one American sergeant from a plane made it to shore, and same people living along the coast brought him into Broom. He was sun burnt and had large blisters on his face and lips. Broom Australia has one of the three highest tides in the world. He said that when he was about to reach shore the tide would switch and drag him back out to sea.

After the Japs left, the ranking officer called a meeting of all personnel and said there was a possible chance of an invasion, and we would have to get out the best way we could. We had no guns, no transportation, and could not reach anyone by radio. The ranking officer asked for volunteers to go to the coast to watch for an invasion force. If the enemy was spotted they were to fire shots to warn us.

John W. Kunket, Robert H. Stewart, and I were to stand by the church and ring the bell for five minutes, then run to China town to catch some trucks that were on stand-by to take us to the interior to cross the desert after the raid. The town people all left, but a few old timers stayed. One man that stayed was the owner of a grocery store. He had a slit trench, and a rifle, he said he would kill as many Japs as he could before they killed him. He gave us some caned food and meats. We ate real good there. The police department issued a .45 cal. six shooter to each of the 3 of us at the church. We never had to use them, and they were returned before we left Australia.

A GI operating the telephone switch board was getting fatigued after a couple of days, and I was looking for someone to relieve him for a few hours so he could get some rest. I volunteered because I had some experience with a switch board growing up in rural Kansas.

Around the third day the powers that be in Perth Australia sent a plane to Broom to observe what was happening there. I don't recall any more planes coming in from Java while I was in Broom. There was one more exciting event while we were in Broom. A B-24 or a LB-30, I couldn't tell them apart, came in one evening and loaded up a bunch of GI's to go to Perth. I would guess about twenty-five personnel were on board when the pilot took off down the runway. One of two things could have happened, the left landing wheel tire blew out, or the nose wheel collapsed causing the plane to crash on take off with the nose in the sand, and the tail end up. Everything was pitch black, and someone yelled fire. The right outboard engine caught fire, the pilot set off the extinguisher, and turned off all the electrical switches. In the darkness everyone was rushing to get out of the plane. I was in a bomb bay luggage rack. The walk way between the radio compartment was crowded with fifteen to eighteen men sitting at the front of the plane where they had been placed for take off. The only way out was through the back, and when we reached the door it seemed like a ten foot drop to the ground. We all got out, and the plane did not burn. I think we finally made it to Perth the next day.

Milford B. Johnson