NEW CLIPPER ROUTE
TO CHINA IS OPENED
Spans Two-Thirds of Word East of U. S.
With Stops at Umleseribed Places
The American air route to the Far Fast, smashed by
the Japanese attack in the Pacific on Doc. 7. has been
reformed on a 16,800-mile airway spanning two-third-.•
of the world east of the United States. Pan American
Airways disclosed recently.
The new link is flown in a week at an average speed
throughout of 100 miles an hour, including stops. It
pioneers nearly 3,800 miles of new route between Af
rica and Burma across the stormy Indian Ocean. De
tails of operations, equipment and terminal locati n'
were withheld.
Previously established links, it was confirmed, c >v
er some 13,000 miles of the distance. These are 10,000
miles of the airline’s new service between New York
and Khartoum, Egypt, via South America, and 2.000
miles between Rangoon, Burma and Hong Kong,
China, on China National Aviation Corporation. re
airlines operates C.N.A..C. with the Chinese Govern
ment. “1 can only confirm that there is a new line f
communiation from the Far Fast.” said I. W. Van Du
sen. vice president of the airline. “Yes, all of the links
making it up are operated by Pan American Airways.”
Returns by New Route
Existence of the through route to China cam • to
light during a press interview held for Captain Fred
S. Ralph, commander of the airline’s Hong Kong clip
per destroyed without loss of life in the first Japan *
air raid on Hong Kong on the morning of Dec. 7. C p
tain Ralph returned recently to this country on v
clipper flying the new route westward from China.
It was made cleer that he did not arrive on the Pacific
Clipper, which made a 24,686-mile flight from New
Zealand after war in the Pacific closed its island
liases for flight back to &an Francisco.
Describing his experiences of the last month, the
captain pointed out that his trip home to his wife : no
two children was made at a 100-mile average speed
throughout seven days. He waited three weeks in
Chungking before being able to start home. Six other
clipper crew members acompanicd him. A lieuteant
in the Royal Naval Reserve and trained as a Nave
pilot in dive bombing, Captain Ralph commented in
would “like to tell but I’m tied,” when asked about
details of the initial Japanese raid on Honk Kong..
The clipper was an S42B, four-engined Sikorsky fly
ing boat that was valued at $250,000 when it entered
the airline service about six years ago. Ready to take
off and loaded with gasoline, the craft was at its d
at Paitek airport on the Kowloon mainland of Her
Kong when the Japanese raid began. Enemy plamv.
in a group of thirty-five, said the captain, machine
gunned the clipper after loosing their bombs over fuel
tanks and radio stations. Incendiary tracer bullets
fired the gasoline tanks of the craft, which burned m
the water.
When the attack started at 7:50 a.m. (Hong Kong
time on Dec. 8), crew members had just enough time
to find refuge off the airport and Captain Ralph was
forced to hide behind a concrete pipe, one of many
the Chinese had placed on the field months before to
prevent Japanese plane landings.
Previously twenty-seven passengers seeking to go
to Manila had been sent back to their hotels, he con
tinued, on receipt of word that the flight would be
canceled. Something was amiss that morning, he re
called in outlining the time-table of events. “The
crew and I were ordered at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for
an early start,” he explained. “We showed up at the
airport about 6:15, At 7:10 word came that the flight
was delayed and the passengers went back to the
city. At 7:15 word came of the Japanese declaration
of war on Great Britain. We got some of our belong
ings out of the ship and were still at it when the Jap
Marshal Gocring
Congratulates
The Ja^nese
T'k'-n. (From Japanese
Pro;v!f'3st Recorded in N.
V.)- Marsh?! of the Reich
Hermann Gocring tele
fT’Tioh- J congratidations to
the Jaoaneso commander
of fo’xes in Malaya on the
sue .‘-s of the Japanese
driv down the Malay Pen
:nsi:la.
anc e planes appeared.
Mach’ne Gunned Plane
“In 5 m'nutes from when
we first saw them, they did
their bombing and then
thev c ime down to 50 and
75 foe! of tK’ ground to
machine gun the plane.
That was the first of sev
eral attacks that day.”
Evacuation of Americans
and Chinese National Gov
ernment members in the
city was organized at once,
he said, but flights out of
the area were held up un
til evening to gain the cov
er of darkness. Chinese
land planes, ordinarily us
ing a single unblocked run
way, were trundled into
the village near by or to
the airport edge and cover
ed with grass camouflage.
About the C.N.A.C. pilots
eight of them American
and four Chinese, Captain
Ralph commented:
“Thev sure did the sweet
est job of flying you ever
saw. They are used to bad
conditions. Bad weather is
good weather to them.
They used it to avoid en
emy planes, and sometimes
take off into 3,000 or 4,000
feet of overcast, fly on in
struments for an hour and
then come down to check
on where they are.”
The Clipper crew left
Hong Kong on the last
plane and flew to Chung
king, where their home
ward flight lasting seven,
days began.
Captain Ralph, who had
brought his clipper in from
Manila on the day before
the war started, was asked
if he noted any signs of on
emy activities in the China
Sea. He denied seeing “any
thing unusual” and com*,
mented “we never did” on
that run.
I.uv'nia Wallace Young Mission
Miss Constance Erickson,
Superintendent
11:00 a.m. — Church School.
5:00 p.m. Worship Service.
Sermon topic: “What Will II .p
! pen Next?" W. P. Wood will
preach.
JALLOPIES MAY PREVENT JAP PLANE LANDINGS
v ■ J.r
Derelict autos and trucks litter an open part of Kapiolaui Park in Honolulu to
forestall the possible useof the area for a surprise landing of Japanese invader
planes. In the bbackground is famous Diamond Head.
U. .
ARMY’S N E W L I C H T R I F L E—Capt. J. A. Gellatly demonstrates the new Winchester
carbine, a light rifle being adopted by the I\S. army, at the Winchester plant in New Haven, Conn.
The gas-operated carbine will largely rep'ace the .45 caliber pistol among infantry troops. It’s lighter
and shorter than the (i.irar.J, will be carried by means of a sling.
IIONOLUI.' FIX' S ITS DEFENSES
Surprised by the first Japanese attack; defenders of Hawaii are ore
ueienses against further raids. From a cane field a cam juflaged coa '
; dop) points seaward the extent of the recoil is the only indicate :i
jbeach gun (bottom) is being fired with smokeless powder, firing Is u x
ja heavily camouflaged divisional artiller command post.
FIRST AID GOES ON INDKIt II \\VAll
Soldiers put finishing touches on an underground operating room of regiment 1
first aid station on the island of Oahu. The station was ready for casualtie
seen through the doorway. Note the ventilators topped with “bird houses.’