He was thrown backward, slamming his head into the back of the empty copilot’s seat as the pilot suddenly banked right. For a moment, he thought the buzz filling his ears was a result of the impact, but it didn’t take long for him to recognize it for what it really was: the F-15’s Gatling gun.

Takahashi crawled back to the headset on the floor, but the cable connecting it to the control panel had been severed. When he looked up, he saw the American fighter coming in from the east, the flash of the twenty-millimeter rounds fully visible through the windscreen. This time there was nothing the pilot could do. The bullets ripped through their wing, causing the jet to buck wildly. Takahashi managed to get into the copilot’s seat but a moment later the metallic screech of the wing’s structure tearing away filled the cockpit.

The jet lurched sideways and Takahashi tried to get hold of the seat’s harness as the whistle of the air passing over the damaged aircraft grew deafening.

The pilot wrestled with the stick for a moment but then just gave up and allowed the plane to spin toward the earth.

67

67

Over Eastern China

Their first pass had been unsuccessful due to Smith’s insistence on micromanaging the targeted area. On the second, the pilot stitched a perfect line into the Japanese plane’s wing. As they streaked by, Smith twisted in his seat to watch the aircraft lurch violently and then begin to cartwheel.

“Swing around!” he said and the pilot arced the F-15 north, allowing them an uninterrupted view of the crippled plane as it dropped toward the empty landscape below. The wing finally gave way, leaving a trail of shredded metal in the sky. The fuselage held together until impact, thank God. The wreckage—and presumably Ito’s weapon—remained confined to an area only a couple hundred yards in diameter.

“Let’s do it,” Smith said.

The pilot obliged by putting the plane into a dive, aiming at what was left of Sanetomi’s plane. There was no way to maneuver the weapon they carried once it was away, forcing them to get dangerously close to the target. They only had one shot at this and a miss—even a near one—wasn’t an option.

“On my mark, sir.”