I got to Melbourne on March 10th. General Brett is sending back all heavy 
 
bombardment pilots he can spare since we lost so much equipment. We are to 
 
form new units.
 
                 : Do you have any idea of the chance of surface vessels getting 
 
to the Philippines?
 
Major Fisher: No, sir, I don't.  I wouldn't like to be on a surface ship 
 
that was trying to get into the Philippines. We left Harivales at night. 
 
We got down on the island of Mindoro to sit during the day. It was a 3 day, 
 
2 night trip. At 2:30 the next afternoon a Navy patrol bomber found us and 
 
bombed us 40 minutes. The first bomb he dropped struck off the stern of the 
 
boat. The next approach, he dropped one that hit out on the edge of the rail. 
 
He made six more approaches, each time further back but he never hit the boat                               
                                                          
A number of men jumped off the boat after the first bomb was dropped and at-
 
tempted to swim to shore. One of the bombs hitting the water killed a 
 
number of these men.The next night we pulled into some coves on the island 
 
of Negros. The captain of Panay which was a mutinous ship told us 
 
that some bombers had come over the day before and sunk his ship and we 
 
evacuated our boat.  No bombers came over that day and that night we went on 
 
down to Mindanao. 
 
The Japanese intelligence is perfect.  There is nothing they don't know 
 
about our operations and our strength.
 
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