LT. SHIPP RESCUED FROM SEA WHEN PLANE CRASHES AFTER RAID ON JAPAN

Local Air Forces Pilot Awarded Distinguished Flying Cross and PurpleHeart Following Mission Over Enemy Territory.

Sent To Hawaiian Rest Camp

A thrilling account of rescue at sea 1,000 miles from his base in theMarianna Islands, after a bombing mission on the Japanese mainland, wasgiven by 1st Lt. Warren Shipp in a letter received Wednesday by hiswife, Mrs. Jane Page Davis Shipp, who is making her home here with herparents, Mr. and Mrs. S.T. Davis.



Lt. Shipp, aircraft commander of a Superfortress, has been in thePacific Theater of operations since December, and the story of hismiraculous escape from death, with his entire crew of eleven men afterthe huge plane crashed at sea, brings close to home a realization of thehazards experienced by men in the combat areas.

Taking part in a raid on Nagoya, a city on the Japanese mainland, onMarch 19, he wrote, "We did ok until we got over the target then thesearchlights caught us and all hell broke loose. I don't know how manytimes we were hit but it seemed like a million. We caught fire and hadtwo engines shot out but we went on in and dropped our bombs. On the wayout another engine was shot up. We got about one-third of the way backwhen the engine quit and with only one engine left we had to ditch."

"We went down just at daybreak in about a 50 foot sea. All of my crewgot out of the ship and it sank in a few minutes. I got a 4 inch cut onmy right palm getting out of the ship but it is getting along fine.Well, after two days and nights on life rafts a plane spotted us anddestroyer came out and picked up up and we were returned to base."

Lt. Shipp is now at a rest camp in the Hawaiian Islands, where he israpidly regaining the 15 pounds he lost while "out there on the liferafts." As a result of the mission he has been awarded the DistinguishedFlying Cross and the Purple Heart.

He is a son of Mrs. W.H. Shipp, of Pyote, Texas. He entered the servicein January, 1942, and was commissioned in November of the same year. Hisbrother, Lt. Gene Kenneth Shipp, navigator on a Flying Fortress, wasrecently killed on a mission over Germany.