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Capt
Harry Kozik
Guam 1945
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Harry
Kozik, Airplane Commander, recounts the following stories:
"One
night over Japan - I have forgotten the target - a twin
engine fighter "Betty", came up under us firing, and
we dumped our load of bombs on him and knocked him out
!
On
another night we an incident much more serious, although
we didn't know it at the time. On the run to the target,
Ed (Williams) told me we had lost 200 gallons of fuel
almost instantaneous ! As we were busy over the target,
I brushed it aside as nothing to worry about other than
to wonder if we had enough to get back home. We did
get back to base with only enough fuel to make one pass
to land. It wasn't until the next day when our Crew
Chief handed me a handful of 20mm shrapnel that he had
gotten from our inboard fuel tank, that I learned the
reason for the disappearing fuel.
To
this day, I don't know why that shell exploding in our
tank didn't blow the wing off. The only explanation
I can give is that, as per procedure, we topped off
our inboard fuel tanks before the bombing run and because
they were full of liquid fuel there were no vapors.
Therefore, the liquid with no vapor to ignite absorbed
the force of the exploding shell. Luck as surely with
us that
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