| THE LANDING |
THE APPROACH
Tom, Jess and Charlie returned to the task force and prepared to
land aboard the Essex. The anti-aircraft shrapnel had disabled the hydraulic complicating the landing. Tom describes the
event in his own words. |
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| "The right landing gear fell into place, but the anti-aircraft hit had jammed the left one. As we neared the Essex and
began our approach, I climbed out of the belly gun position up to the area behind the pilot." |
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TOUCH DOWN
"I held on for dear life! The landing wasn't hard. The tail hook grabbed the arrest wire and the left wing slid along the deck.
We jerked to a stop." |
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SAFE ABOARD
"I opened the canape, jumped out on the right wing and slid down to the deck. Some guy, I still don't know his name,
practically picked me up and carried me across the flight deck. Charlie, Jess and I all made it without a scratch." |
|
"After some of the important equipment was taken out, "Tilley1" picked the
plane up and dumped it overboard. We bet on how fast it would sink. It took eleven seconds!" "We flew another mission
that afternoon."
1 Tilley is the deck crane in the photo.
The photographs of the landing were taken by Joe Rosenthal. |
