Several minutes after that, Parks wiggled his wings, seeming to point with his right wing tip. Bill followed the line down, and there they were, two thousand feet below them.
He was surprised at the color scheme. The Kates' fuselages, wings, and rear appendages were painted a lemon yellow. And the red ball of Japan was not readily visible on either fuselage or wings. From the windscreen forward, the Kates were painted black. And so was the bomb hanging under the fuselage.
Jesus Christ, there's a lot of them!
I'll be goddamned, the Zeroes are below them! What the hell is that all about? Didn't they think we'd try to intercept?
Following Parks's lead, he put the Wildcat into a dive, correcting without thinking about it for the Wildcat's tendency to drop the right wing and turn the nose to the right.
As he approached his first target, Bill could clearly see the aft-facing gunner bringing his machine gun to bear on him.
That bastard is shooting at me!
That triggered two other-alarming-thoughts:
Christ, I didn't test my guns!
I forgot to pull my fucking goggles down!
The Wildcat shook with the recoil of the.50 caliber Browning machine guns in the wings. And two other thoughts came:
Jesus, my tracer stream is way out in front of him!
I'll be goddamned! He blew up! How the hell did that happen?
And then he was through the layer of Kates and approaching the layer of Vals beneath them.
I fucked that up! I didn't get a shot at any of them, and here come the fucking Zeroes!
Our Father, who art in heaven-
I don't think I can turn this sonofabitch enough to lead him-
I'm skidding all over the fucking sky! You 're a real hot pilot, Mr. Dunn. In a pig's ass you are!
OK shit, there goes one of our guys. His right fucking wing just came off!
For yea, tho' I walk through the valley of the shadow of death-
That's right, you miserable cocksucker, just stay right there another five seconds, four, three-
Gotcha!
Holy shit, there's somebody on my tail! A fucking Zero, what else?
I can't get away from him.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed-
Chop the fucking throttle, stupid! Put it in a skid, let him overshoot you!
Oh, my God, the windshield's gone. I can't see a fucking thing. I'm going to die. Where the fuck are those goggles? Where the hell is that Zero? Why does my leg feel wet? Did I piss my pants?
Not unless you're pissing blood, you didn't.
I thought it was supposed to hurt when you got wounded.
Oh, shit, it hurts! I wonder if it's broken?
(Three)
"How do you feel, Dunn?" the tour guide from the Atlanta Zoo asked, pulling up a folding metal chair to the side of Dunn's bed. "Well enough to talk to me?"
What if I said "no"?
"Yes, Sir."
"The more you can tell me about what happened out there, the better," the tour guide said. "You want to take it from the beginning?"
"We were at fourteen thousand, about thirty miles out, when Major Parks spotted them. He showed us where they were and went into a dive, and I went after him."
"And?"
"And that's all I remember."
"Come on."
"I remember being surprised that the Zeroes were on the bottom of the formation, not the top."
"OK. That was unusual. They apparently intended to use the Zeroes to strafe the field here. I guess they didn't think we had anything to send up against them. When you went in the dive, then what happened?"
"I shot at a Kate."
"You got it. It was confirmed."
"The Kates were on top. Then there was a layer of Vals. I went right through them without firing a shot. And then I was in the Zeroes."
"And?"
"I don't know. I don't remember much."
"You are credited with shooting down one of them. You don't remember that?"
"Who says I shot down a Zero?"
"I don't immediately recall."
"The Skipper?"
"Major Parks didn't make it back, I'm sorry to say."
"Shit."
"I was hoping that perhaps you might have seen him go in."
"I saw somebody go down. His right wing, most of his right wing, came off. I don't know who it was."
"When was that?"
"I don't know. Toward the beginning."
"That was the only time you saw one of ours go down?" "Yes"
"You're sure?"
"I told you, that was it. How many of ours went down?"
"A good many, I'm sorry to have to tell you."
"How many is a good many?"
"We lost fifteen. Two Wildcats-not counting yours, although yours has been surveyed and is a total loss-and thirteen Buffaloes."
"We only had nineteen Buffaloes with us."
"In addition to yourself, Captain Carey, Captain Carl, and Lieutenant Canfield came back. Of Major Parks's flight, I mean."
"You mean the rest are dead?"
"Do you remember when you were hit?"
"You mean everybody but the four of us is dead?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Oh, my God!"
"Do you remember being hit?"
"No. I remember the windshield going."
"In other words you don't know who shot you down, whether it was a Zero or some other type aircraft?"
"It had to be a Zero. I was in the Zeroes."
"But you don't know for sure?"
"I don't even know how I got back here."
"You came back and made a wheels-up landing."
"I found my way back here by myself?"
"How else?" the Naval Intelligence debriefing officer asked, a tinge of sarcasm in his voice.
"The last thing I remember is when I lost my windshield. And got hit."
"You don't remember heading back here?"
"The last thing I remember is trying to pull my goggles down after the windshield went."
"You were apparently flying with the canopy open-"
Christ, I forgot to close the canopy, too?
"Was I?"
"The shell, most likely a 20mm, apparently entered the cockpit from the side-"
"Just one round?"
"There were others. In the engine nacelle. Another just forward of the seat. But the one-the one which entered the cockpit-apparently exploded going through the windshield, from the inside out?"
"Yeah," Bill said, understanding.
"What they took out of your face and leg, legs, was debris from the windshield and control panel. Perspex and aluminum fragments."
"Then it was a Zero."
"Presumably." The Intelligence officer looked directly at him. "You have no memory of breaking off the engagement and heading back here?"
"No."
"Could you determine, do you have any memory of determining, from your instruments, or from a loss of control, that your aircraft was no longer airworthy?"