“LOOKS PRETTY”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 June 1942, Page 3

“LOOKS PRETTY”

AMERICAN AIRMAN’S COMMENT ON STORM OF ENEMY FIRE. DURING MIDWAY ISLAND BATTLE. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) HONOLULU June 11. The Pearl Harbour correspondent of the “New York Times” says that the participants unanimously credit Lieutenant James Moore with the classic remark of the Midway Island battle. Moore’s plane flew over a major concentration of Japanese warships, including battleships, cruisers, transports, and tenders. His crew mates say it was real hell, with Zeros bursting away at them, while every flak gun from the Japanese invasion fleet was blasting shells. Moore, who had never before seen anti-aircraft fire, watched with interest the bursting shells through his bombsight, and then calmly remarked to the crew, "Say, that stuff sure looks pretty through here.” It was Moore’s nonchalant crew who bombed and set on fire the first battleship in the battle, while the same crew in the same plane on the following day scored eight hits against a carrier. Returning from the second flight, the crew reported that shrapnel bounced off their fuselage like hail off a tin roof, and a check-Up proved that numerous pieces of shrapnel were embedded in the tail and wheels. Members of the crew, when asked what they felt during the battle, replied, “A craving to take after more Japs.”