So you maintained a deception on the regular frequency, and executed the real plan on another frequency.
That’s right.
Very well. Now, at four twenty-six, approximately, you took off?
Our pilot revved up the two rotors. For a minute there it didn’t look like we were going to get off the ground at all, but finally we got off the pad. There wasn’t much breeze; otherwise I think we might have drifted against some goddamn building before we had enough altitude to clear them. It seemed to take forever to get above the buildings with that weight aboard. Anyway we established our radio contacts on both frequencies With the elements in the air and on the ground?
Right. The Starfighters, the crop duster, General Hawley, at Floyd Bennett Field, and Captain Grofeld at the bank. Williston’s crop duster was circling over Astoria, Queens, by the time we took station above midtown Manhattan. The Starfighters were circling at about five thousand feet-just below the bellies of the clouds. Now, we had established with General Hawley that Harris and I would call the shots from the helicopter, since we were in visible contact with what was going on. He’d agreed to that, with Captain Grofeld.
Go on, please.
We flew north at about forty miles an hour, moving uptown. We were holding to an altitude of seventeen hundred feet in the helicopter. That put us a couple of hundred feet higher than Craycroft’s bomber and some distance inside the oval of his flight path. He was traveling at about three times our speed, and he passed outboard of us on the way north.
The timing of your scheme was precarious, wasn’t it?
Very touchy. Very. The crop duster and the Starfighters had to coordinate their moves. The jets had to hit him immediately after the crop duster, If they were even a few seconds too late, it wouldn’t work because Craycroft would have time to react.
Describe the events, please.
We all had visual contact with one another, of course, and that made it easier. The technical problem was to get the crop duster out of the way of the jets.
Yes, I understand that.
You know it’s damned hard to describe the action when five things were going on simultaneously.
You’re doing very well so far, Sergeant.
I’ll try, anyway. The Starfighters were to come in from the west-from above the Palisades, on the Jersey shore. They had to fly straight at Craycroft. Collision course. At the same time, the crop duster had to come in from the east-behind Craycroft, because he had to be moving parallel to Craycroft. Now, the way we’d set it up, the crop duster would make its pass and then break right, turning north and dropping down a few feet. Then two of the Starfighters would make their passes and turn left-also north, but climbing away so they wouldn’t knock the crop duster around in their afterwash.
Right. Go on.
At the same time our helicopter had to be south of Craycroft’s plane. Our exact position didn’t matter, but we had to be within about a half mile of him when the planes made their passes at him. Our transmitters were pretty weak-that was on purpose-and we had to be in close range to make sure we were jamming his radio reception at that point.
I’m still with you, Sergeant.
(Laughter) Okay, I’ll try to keep it simple. We flew across town at about the level of Ninety-sixth Street, and we hovered at sixteen hundred feet directly above the Central Park Reservoir.
At what time did you reach that point?
Four forty. Craycroft was doing his little ballet over Brooklyn at that point. We could see him quite clearly-the air wasn’t very hazy. Of course, that meant he could see us, too.
Go on. What happened next?
We’d timed his circuits, of course, we knew it took him about three minutes from the time he crossed the East River into Manhattan to the time he made his turn at the top of Central Park. I started the stopwatch when he was crossing over above the Williamsburg Bridge.
That gave you a three-minute countdown to attack him?
Right. The jets were throttled down to three hundred miles art hour. They started in from a point fifteen miles due west of that point.
“That point” being his turn over Central Park?
Yes. In other words, starting from where they were, the jets would intercept Craycroft at a point roughly above Ninety-sixth Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Their run was timed to coincide with his.
I’ve got that. Proceed, please.
In the meantime the crop duster had a maximum airspeed of about a hundred and sixty miles an hour. It was a converted Piper Apache, by the way. Anyhow, it started from a point above Queens, some eight miles due west of that same interception point. The crop duster had to intercept him just ahead of the jets.
Of course.
Harris and I had our hands on the radio transmitters, ready to broadcast our jammer signals. Of course, we could see what was happening, and we’d push the buttons at the exact second when the crop duster went into action.
Now, let’s establish the exact purpose of this complicated maneuver, shall we?
The purpose was simple. To blind him and confuse him as to his location and bearings. The execution wasn’t so simple, of course.
And the jets were to deflect him from his course, is that right?
Two of them were. The third one was waiting to pounce on him.
All right. Go on with your narrative, Sergeant.
It all happened simultaneously, as I said. That’s what makes it hard to describe clearly. But I’ll do my best. Craycroft came up the East Side. He started his leftward turn, cutting across the Germantown area, slicing off a northeast corner of the park, reaching the apex of the turn right over the northern tip of the park at Lenox Avenue. At that point the crop duster had also crossed the East River and was about fifty feet above the bomber. The crop duster was flying parallel to him, a bit to his left. The crop duster passed him and was perhaps thirty feet ahead of him when the bomber, making its leftward turn, passed under the tail of the crop duster.
Meanwhile the jets were where?
Just crossing the Hudson River, a bit south of the bomber and a mile to the west.
The bomber flew under the tail of the crop duster. Then?
The crop duster dumped its load. Eighty gallons of thick white paint in a high-pressure spray.
The spray hit the nose of Craycroft’s bomber?
It covered it completely. Painted the nose of the plane white and dappled the fuselage halfway back its length. The paint completely covered Craycroft’s windshield and side windows Windows which were sealed, so that he couldn’t open them to look out.
That’s right. Our intention was to blind him. We succeeded. Now, as soon as we saw the paint spray issue from the tanks of the crop duster, Harris and I hit every button in sight. This activated the three transmitters and the electromagnet. The transmitters jammed his radiocompass and his LORAN navigation system. The electromagnet deflected his magnetic compass.
So the effect on Craycroft was He abruptly found himself blinded. His instruments were going haywire-needles spinning all over the place. He no longer knew where he was or what direction he was heading.
Then the jets The two Starfighters hit him in tandem. They swept directly over the bomber, about twenty feet above his tail, and as they crossed above him they made steep banking turns to the left.
What was the effect of that maneuver?
The jet exhausts from both planes struck Cray-croft’s bomber at point-blank range. The bomber was pushed-literally pushed-nearly half a mile off its course.
Straight out over the Hudson River.
Yes, sir. That was where the third Starfighter hit him. Slammed him full of twenty-millimeter cannon fire. Knocked him straight down into the river. The B-17 came apart in several pieces before it hit the river.
And the bombs?
Well, that was the crux, wasn’t it? He’d reacted the way you’d expect. He pushed the bomb-release lever.