World Battlefronts: MEN AT WAR: Ensign Denby’s Luck

Ensign George Denby of Van Nuys, Calif., on air patrol off Luzon, was jumped by Zeroes. A shell fragment wounded him in the right leg. His Hellcat’s tail was shot off. Denby was thrown from the spinning plane, pinned against the outside of the cockpit; he pushed himself free, pulled his rip cord and blacked out. When he came to, he was hanging in a half-broken parachute harness. Three Zeroes missed him with strafing passes. His life jacket was punctured. Denby plopped into the sea, swam with one hand, used the other to keep his dye marker dry lest it reveal his position to the Japs. Four sharks appeared; one gashed his leg, another rubbed against him like a cat. A U.S. destroyer steamed up, missed running him down by six feet. He was sucked under, passed by the churning propellers, bobbed up in the ship’s wake.

That was all. The destroyer turned around and rescued him.