Engine Restored as Craft Enters "Suicide Dive"
Tokyo, Feb, 11.
Crippled by five machine-gun bullets fired from the ground, a Japanese naval aeroplane crossed the South China Sea to its base late in January to complete a most unusual chapter in the annals of the service, the Navy Ministry revealed to-day, The exploit was compared to that of a Japanese monoplane fighter that flew back from Nanchang to its base near Shanghai with two-thirds of one wing shot off.
The machine, donated by the Women's Section of the Hyogo branch of the Navy League on November 19 last year, is officially known as Patriotic Plane No. 152, With Flight Warrant Officer, First Class, Yutaka Wada at the controls, and Flight Warrant Officer, Third Class, Shigeo Kato in the observer's cockpit, the machine took off with other machines on January 24 to bomb the Canton-Hankow Railway, Troop Train Encountered Spotting a Chinese military train, the machine swooped down directing stream of machine-gun fire at the soldiers who filled the cars, Bri fire was returned, Cireling over the speeding train several times, the plane continued strafing until its bullets riddled the locomotive's boiler which spurted steam, Bullets hit the plane's motor and the craft rapidly lost altitude. Rather than make a forced landing, the airmen decided to hurl their machine against the train, Therefore, they directed the craft towards the train, As the altimeter read "50," the engine suddenly resumed its familiar roar, Tugging fiercely at the controls, Flight Officer Tada managed to pull the machine out of its "suicide dive,"
Through a fierce anti-aircraft barrage, the plane began a hard ascent as the crippled motor haltingly responded and finally at a safe altitude, No, 152 turned homeward and managed to reach the base without further mishap—Domei,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.