War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1717 Dumbo Crew

The biggest problem of sleeping next to an airport is the noise. Besides the deafening noise, another problem of sleeping next to an airport on a tropical island is the mosquitoes that seem to never be able to fill their stomachs but never get tired.

When Wei Ran was once again awakened by the roar of an airplane, his hands, neck and even face were already covered with bumps from mosquito bites - even though the mosquito coil under the bed was still burning and there were already many dead mosquitoes around the coil.

Since he couldn't sleep anyway, he simply put away the mosquito coils, crawled out of the tent and looked at the airport runway outside.

In the morning sun that had just emerged from the horizon, he was also able to clearly see the Tamba, which could take them on a bombing mission at any time.

In addition to the name given to it by the crew members, the nose of this B29 also has a painting of an animated character that was only recently born in this era - Dumbo.

In any case, this is a weapon of war after all, so naturally there is a bomb rolled up on the long trunk of the Dumbo.

In addition to the paint job above, there are also a lot of ground staff carrying out maintenance work around the aircraft.

Raising the camera to take a picture of the bomber, Wei Ran took out the MK43 telescope belonging to Captain Evans from his gas mask bag and looked around the airport.

At this time, a large number of B29 bombers were parked on the apron of the airport, and there were more or less ground crew members busy around them.

Further away, several trucks were busy transporting truckloads of bombs to various ammunition depots at the edge of the airport.

It was obvious that fighting was on the agenda and the bombers here would soon have a feast.

Putting away the binoculars and gas mask bag, Wei Ran walked into the woods, selected the most pleasing coconut tree and urinated under it.

When he came back, Brad was awake.

"Let's go back"

Brad yawned while scratching the mosquito bites all over his body. "I think I did something stupid. There are too many mosquitoes here."

"What are your plans during the day?" Wei Ran asked as he followed the other person and climbed into the jeep.

“I don’t have any plans.”

Brad yawned, started the car and drove back while saying, "What about you, Mr. Reporter? Is there anything I can help you with?"

"I don't have any plans. Maybe I'll just go for a stroll." Wei Ran responded casually.

"If you want to participate in the bombing, it's best not to run far," Brad reminded.

"Of course, I won't miss the bombing."

Wei Ran suppressed his anticipation and replied, "Today is only March 3th, and the bombing will not begin until tomorrow afternoon."

After rushing back to the cabin, Brad fell asleep on the bed. Wei Ran, who was completely sleepy, went into the bathroom and took a cold shower to wake himself up completely. Then he took his camera and drove alone to wander around the busy airport.

As he braked and pressed the shutter button again and again, the Kodak camera in his hand faithfully recorded the busy ground crew, the M47 incendiary bombs piled up like walls, and the E38 cluster bombs loaded with 69 M46 incendiary bombs.

Of course, there are also various greetings written on these bombs, either in colorful chalk or paint.

After wandering around for most of the morning, he successfully found Grant at a location almost diagonally opposite the airport and the tent where he slept last night.

He was lying on a hammock in the shadow outside a bell tent, absorbed in reading a classic American novel, Moby Dick.

Looking inside the tent, there were four folding single beds placed on the side. On some of the beds were a guitar, some had a palette and an easel, and others had a radio and a baseball bat, or a baseball glove and a baseball.

Just from these details, we can see that the people who usually rest in this tent have a very rich and colorful spare time life.

But at this moment, there was no one in the tent, but there were several flight suits hanging there.

"Victor, why are you here?"

Grant used a long coconut leaf as a bookmark to close the novel he had only read a third of, and as he sat up he subconsciously asked, "Where's my brother?"

"Which question do you want me to answer first?" Wei Ran said as he stepped out of the car.

"The first one," Grant said as he invited Wei Ran to walk into the tent.

"I had been wandering around the airport all morning looking for people to interview, and then I saw someone here from a distance."

Wei Ran said, sitting down on a bed that looked fairly clean, "But I didn't realize it was you I met until you greeted me."

"Okay, it seems to be a coincidence. What's the second question?"

Grant said this, pulling out a bottle of Coke from a wooden box filled with ice, opened it and handed it over.

"He is sleeping in the cabin."

Wei Ran took a sip of the cold Coke and said, "How about I ask now?"

"Of course." Grant also opened a bottle of Coke, took a sip, and sat down on the folding bed opposite Wei Ran.

Glancing at the Kodak camera hanging around the man's neck, Wei Ran asked curiously, "Do you usually rest here?"

"This is the tent for our five gunners"

Grant said, pointing to a bomber not far away, "Now each bombing mission only requires one gunner, so the other four will stay here. This tent is the base for our crew."

"Moby Dick?"

Wei Ran raised the telescope hanging around his neck and looked at the plane about a hundred meters away. On the side of the nose of the plane, the name Moby Dick was written, and next to it was a picture of a white whale wearing a flight communication headset and holding a bomb in its mouth.

"It's also the name of a white sperm whale in the novel I was reading just now."

Grant explained casually, "Our crew plans to jointly operate a whaling ship after the war is over, so there is no better name than this."

"So where did all those whaling sailors go?" Wei Ran put down the telescope and asked curiously.

"USO Club," Grant raised his finger and pointed in a direction, saying nonchalantly, "They went to please those sweethearts."

"What about you? Why don't you go?" Wei Ran asked while giving the other person a cigarette.

“Someone has to stay”

Grant replied casually, "Besides, I have no interest in pretending to be a gentleman in front of those sweethearts. I would rather take care of the business of recruiting nuclear women."

"Are there any nuclear women here?"

“It’s in the town not far from the airport.”

Grant raised his hand and pointed in a direction, "If you are interested, just take a bottle of Coke and two cans of Soul Meat and you can enjoy their service.

Of course, you have to be careful about getting sick, because they basically all have sexually transmitted diseases, especially the younger they are.”

“I’ll go when I have time.”

Wei Ran smiled and said, "Grant, how about introducing your crew? Or taking me around the bomber?"

"Sorry, neither of them."

Grant did not hide his defensiveness at all. "I don't want you to get to know them. Besides, I'm just a gunner. I don't have the right to take you around the bomber alone."

"It's a pity, but I won't break the rules."

Wei Ran wisely chose to give up, stood up and walked out while saying, "Okay, Grant, I'm going to continue looking for a suitable interviewee."

"Wait a moment"

Grant called Wei Ran, then took off a key chain as thick as his wrist from the edge of the mosquito net at the head of the bed, and then took out a red safety pin pull ring ribbon and handed it to Wei Ran.

“I learned this from my brother.”

Grant said, "If you really follow the bombing, remember to take a streamer with you to the sky. It can bless you to return to the ground alive."

"Really?" Wei Ran asked with a smile as he took the key chain and ribbon.

"You can trust Brad when it comes to luck," Grant joked, "so bring it with you."

"Thank you for your blessing." Wei Ran shook the small gift in his hand, turned and walked out of the tent.

After driving away from Grant's "residence", Wei Ran circled to the kitchen, said hello to the black kitchen helpers with whom he had become familiar, and in return received a hearty lunch.

Wei Ran randomly found a shady spot, took out a sailor bag from the metal notebook, tied the hammock to two palm trees, and lay on it, leisurely enjoying his lunch.

Overall, life here is comfortable and doesn't feel like being on a battlefield - except for the annoying mosquitoes.

After finishing his lunch leisurely, Wei Ran assembled the ribbon Grant gave him onto the huge keychain, and then hung it on his belt.

After packing up the hammock and driving back to the wooden house, he found that the house was extremely lively at this moment. In addition to Brad, there were five other people sitting inside.

All five of them were wearing flight suits, holding cold Cokes and thick cigars between their hands.

"Hey! Victor! You're finally back!"

Brad, holding a cigar in his hand, greeted Wei Ran enthusiastically, and then tapped an American lunch box with his fork, "Gentlemen, our reporter Mr. Victor is back."

"Hello"

Wei Ran took the bottle of Coke handed to him by Brad, opened it, and clinked glasses with the five of them.

“Let me introduce you.”

Brad threw the fork in his hand onto the table, put his arm around a man with a goatee next to him and said, "This is Captain Charles of the Dumbo bomber, and the one next to him is Co-pilot Baker."

After Wei Ran shook hands with both of them one by one, Brad clinked his Coke bottle with the third person, "This is Bob, the navigator, next to him is Arthur, the mechanic, and finally Jack, the wireless operator of Dumbo."

After Wei Ran shook hands with the three of them and got to know each other, Brad continued, "There are also their bombardier and gunner, but they are having fun in the club now. We will have a chance to meet them later."

"That's right"

Captain Charles said excitedly, "Victor, welcome you and Brad to our Dumbo. We will provide the best service."

"That's right," the co-pilot, or first officer Baker, was also abnormally excited, "We will let you take enough photos!"

"We have already installed the filming bracket in the cabin ourselves this morning," said mechanic Arthur, who also seemed a little overexcited.

"Did you give them drugs?" Wei Ran asked Brad.

"Just some happy candy," argued Radioman Jack, who was also high.

"Jack is right, they are just some candies that make people happy." Brad said innocently, "Victor, do you want one?"

"certainly"

Wei Ran answered without thinking, then took the pill handed to him by the other party and threw it into his mouth, but actually hid it between his fingers.

He "washed down" the non-existent pills with a sip of Coke, and his other hand put the hidden pills into his pocket without leaving any trace.

Although he was cheating secretly, his attitude obviously won the favor of Charles and others. As expected, the topic at the table started from the free women exchanged for the disgusting canned soul meat, and then talked about their bombers and bombing missions.

"I expect a new bombing mission soon"

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Charles lowered his voice slightly, "And it must be a low-altitude bombing, which is much more dangerous than high-altitude bombing. Brad, Victor, are you really going to follow us to carry out the bombing mission?"

"We already bought the tickets," Brad said, "right, Victor?"

"certainly"

Wei Ran responded, and then pretended to be curious and asked, "Charles, is the news accurate?"

"Bob, please explain it to our reporter," said Charles.

"We conducted several training sorties yesterday."

Navigator Bob lowered his voice slightly, "Training requires us to use radar to navigate from low altitude and visually search for ground bombing targets."

"What height?" Brad asked almost subconsciously.

"5000 feet"

Radio operator Jack replied, "The crews participating in the training are basically at an altitude between 5000 and 7000 feet."

"We speculate that it is most likely a night bombing."

Co-pilot Baker guessed in a low voice, "Although this altitude can avoid most light anti-aircraft guns, it is still within the range of heavy anti-aircraft guns that are used by nuclear weapons, so I guess it must be a night bombing. If it is during the day, this altitude is too risky."

"Only that Iron Butt (also the barbecue chef's nickname) loves us so much, but he actually assigned us such a suicidal mission." Mechanic Arthur complained.

“Now we can only pray that we can survive.”

Charles' casual words made Brad stunned for a moment, and he also noticed the large key chain that Wei Ran was going to wear, as well as the safety pin pull ring ribbon on the key chain.

“We may need to pay attention to the mission situation.”

Mechanic Arthur asked with some concern, "Brad, were you really a bombardier before?"

"Of course, although I was flying a B17, we also used the difficult-to-use Norton sight."

As Brad spoke, he walked to the bed, opened his box, took out a photo of him, his crew, and General LeMay, and showed it off proudly.

There is no such thing as photo-editing to change faces in this day and age. These photos undoubtedly dispelled the last worries of half of the crew.

"I also flew the B17, and I was the co-pilot at that time."

Captain Charles said with emotion, "Even wearing the bulky B3 flight suit, I still feel like my bladder has frozen."

“I flew too.”

"It was cold, but it was an excellent airplane," said Arthur, the mechanic.

"Has your B17 ever had an accident?" Brad asked mysteriously.

"Of course, of course there have been accidents."

Charles said with lingering fear, "Once we had to make an emergency landing and used the machine gunner on the belly of the plane as a brake pad. That incident gave me nightmares for a long time."

"On the last landing of the B17 I was on, only the captain and I survived." Arthur continued, "That was also my last time flying a B17. After I recovered from my injuries, I started training for the B29."

Perhaps he felt balanced in his heart. After hearing what the two of them said, although Brad said some regretful words of comfort, Wei Ran vaguely felt that the other party seemed to be secretly relieved.

The small action that confirmed his guess was that Brad subconsciously kissed the amulet he pulled out from his collar.

"I haven't flown a B17, but I have flown a B24 bomber," said navigator Bob.

"I only flew our Dumbo," said Jack, the radio operator, a new soldier who worked in the post office before joining the army.

When the topic turned to the models of aircraft that each of them had flown, Wei Ran was inevitably asked about his previous experiences.

"Did you participate in the Battle of Guam? Asan Beach?" navigator Bob asked curiously.

"That's right"

Wei Ran nodded. "I was a medical soldier at that time, and now I have several friends serving in Guam."

"My girlfriend is in Guam. She's a nurse."

Navigator Bob said, "Maybe she knows you."

"What's her name?" Wei Ran asked almost subconsciously.

"Louise Garland"

Bob said, "It's a red-haired girl from Minnesota, Victor, do you know her?"

"Sorry, I don't know him." Wei Ran said apologetically.

"She also participated in the Battle of Guam"

Bob said happily, "And she survived, she was not injured, and she is still working in Guam."

"This is really rare," Brad said subconsciously.

"Indeed, her luck has always been very good." Bob said proudly.

As the topic became more and more irrelevant, the food and drinks on the table became less and less.

Finally, Charles and his companions, who had eaten and drunk their fill, said goodbye and left the cabin, leaving behind two practical little gifts they had brought - two mosquito nets.

"I'm going to wait in the tent later."

Brad asked as he cleaned up the remaining garbage on the table, "Victor, do you want to come with us?"

"Do you think there will be a bombing mission tonight?" Wei Ran asked.

"There will definitely be a bombing mission either tonight or tomorrow night," Brad said confidently.

"In that case, I'll go take a shower, and then we'll go over there." Wei Ran said, taking out a towel and walking into the bathroom.

In less than 10 minutes, the two of them drove the jeep back to the tent and each installed a mosquito net to block out mosquitoes on their folding beds.

Although he knew there would be no results today, Wei Ran still waited patiently in the tent with Brad.

"Did you see Grant today?" Brad, who was lying on the bed, asked abruptly.

"Did you see it?" Wei Ran asked.

"I saw the keychain and safety streamer on your belt," Brad said.

“He said he learned it from you.”

Wei Ran looked across the emblem at the other folding bed opposite him, "Any explanation?"

"I lied to him"

Brad smiled and said, "Grant would believe anything I said. Lying to him gives me a sense of accomplishment."

"I can tell"

“But I regret it.”

Brad sighed, "I just wanted to be admired, but I didn't want my brother to yearn for the bullshit romance on the bomber. I'm worried that he will die on the bomber."

"He won't," Wei Ran said almost certainty.

He knew that Grant would die on another battlefield after World War II, as an enemy to him.

"I hope so"

Brad sighed, "I actually planned to buy the bombardier and gunner's tickets from his crew, but it didn't work out."

"He will live to see this war through, and so will you."

Wei Ran said to himself, "Besides, Grant is not a child anymore. Compared to him, you may be more worrying."

Unfortunately, I don’t know if it was because he was too sleepy or he was deliberately avoiding it, but the response to Wei Ran was the snoring sound coming from Brad’s side.

Shaking his head helplessly, Wei Ran closed his eyes. He also needed to rest up.

On this day, Master Li Mei, who was far enough away from the two of them, finally gave the order to go to Beijing to roast the dumplings.

Before these specific instructions reached the ears of the crew members with the most nerve endings, this huge war machine had already started running at full speed.