was about 500. Col. Borum: Do you use Drums with hand pumps, motorized pumps, or what? Major Fisher: They are extremely valuable. The most valuable piece of equip- ment is motor driven gasoline refueling equipment. The one with a washing machine engine. That little engine is wonderful. We used the hand pumps for refueling the drums. Col. Thomas: How about portable lighting system? Major Fisher: We have to operate at night right now. It has been used at Del Monte and other fields. It seems to be all right. Major Fisher: Night lighting. Darwin had their own. No. 10 cans full of kerosene and a stick rope in it were used. Col. Blair: If you had pursuit, they would not be doing so much day flying? Major Fisher: If we had P-47's we could take over. They should go down to Australia. Col. Thomas: What about fuel stores down there? Major Fisher: It is in barrels dispersed around the field. That way you don't lose so much. They should be painted green, brown or something instead of red as they are now. Major Fisher: On the bases we are operating from the Bob trucks. The Govern- ment bought a lot of trucks in Java. Col. Borum: What about light maintenance equipment? Major Fisher: One P-40 engine was changed in the field at Java. Col. Borum: Is the mobile depot group in the field? Col. Thomas: The mobile depot group is supposed to take care of wrecks, etc. Did you ever recover any of these crashes? Major Fisher: We did not have time. The Dutch fished a couple out of the water. You can' t do anything when you are operating the way we were. Col. Hoag: Are destructors being used on bombsights? - 11 - |