Oral History Interview with John Dehaven, September 26, 2005 Page: 3

                                
3

a tank, five hundred gallon, underneath. Of course, I'll always remember, at
Chi kiang, (?) they were still building runways there and where they made,
maybe three, or four hundred, koolies pulling a roller and when the got
finished they had built a real good runway.

Mr. Morris:
Mr. Dehaven:
Mr. Morris:
Mr. Dehaven:
Mr. Morris:
Mr. Dehaven:
Mr. Morris:
Mr. Dehaven:
Mr. Morris:
Mr. Dehaven:
Mr. Morris:
Mr. Dehaven:
Mr. Morris:
Mr. Dehaven:

Mr. Morris:
Mr. Dehaven:

All by hand? Shovels and.....
All by hand.
How long were these flights?
Oh, between three and four hours. I remember one night we were coming
back from a mission and I got lost from the rest of the fellows, some way.
So I, you know, you start going off one direction, you really get lost. I
thought I was in the right vicinity and I shot off my machine gun over the
town. Then they turned the lights off down there. Then, all of a sudden, I
saw a light come on, must have been twenty, or thirty miles, away and I
figured that was where I was suppose to go. I came back to Chi kiang and
made a night landing. So at least, I stayed in the same area.
Did you do a lot of night flights, or was that unusual?
Not too much. There were some, but not too much.
What was really your primary mission? Blowing up the supply lines, the
trains, the barges, or bridges?
Yeah. They were mostly bridges. Not too much of the trains.
Were you ever under threat of being overrun by the Japanese?
No. Not where we were. We really weren't.
I assume that the Japanese had planes to?
Oh yeah. They had the Zeros. We ran into them a few times. Not too many.
How 'd you do?
I think I had one hit on one. I didn't have any medals from that.

How was the P-40 compared to the Zero? Could it keep up?
The Zero was very maneuverable and were quite quick. The P-40 was a
good stable.....it had a lot of torque to it. You had to use a lot of left rudder,
like when you're climbing, or going down. It was good, stable little