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Yank Flees "Death Ship"

Wellford Gunner Sole Survivor of Doomed Aircraft

Six Zeros attacked a squadron of three Yank planes on patrol duty overGuadalcanal. Three of the Jap ships were shot down, but one of the otherthree enemy craft shot away the tail assembly of an American plane,sending it into a long glide toward the sea.

There was a lone survivor of the Yank ship - Sgt. Lovell Drake, a turretgunner, of Wellford, near Clendenin. He was saved because of some quickthinking.

In his ward at the army's Letterman hospital in San Francisco, theCharleston-born sergeant, tells the thrilling story of the survival thus:

His outfit was ordered to photograph every inch of the Jap held territoryin the vicinity of his station. Day after day they flew over enemypositions and then came the day when the Zeros attacked them. AfterDrake's plane was riddled and the tail assembly shot away, some sixthsense told the sergeant to jump and luckily he did because the planeexploded when it hit the water, killing the remainder of the crew.

After polishing off the remaining Zeros, one of the Yank planes droppedSgt. Drake a life raft and he spent the next 25 hours awaiting rescue. ACatalina flying boat picked him up. He is recuperating in Lettermanhospital from a wrenched back. He wears the Purple Heart.

Sgt. Drake shortly will be discharged from the hospital and his firstdestination will be Wellford, where his wife and a three-year-old sonawait him.

The sergeant's army career began in 1937, and since, he has seen actionin all of the important Pacific war theaters -- New Caledonia, NewHebrides, Guadalcanal and the Henderson field struggle.

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