Six Philippino Fighter Pilots Against Fifty-four Japanese Raiders

Friends: This post, an old favorite from an earlier blog, is my way of bringing the fire from my old internet hearth to my new one.  Enjoy!

"Fighting Filipino pilot. Manila. Captain Jesus Villamor, commanding officer of the 6th Pursuit Squadron, Philippine Army Air Corps, is pictured getting out of plane after returning from a flight to Batangas Field. The youth, who leads a daredevil squadron of six Filipino pilots in erstwhile training planes who took on fifty-four Japanese air raiders over Batangas and shot down two, said he "got so mad" he forgot to be scared. One of the Filipino pilots was wounded and parachuted to safety and another was killed, Captain Villamor said, when seven Japanese planes "rode him down." He is the son of the late associate justice of the Philippine Supreme Court and trained as a pilot at Randolph and Kelly Fields" Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, [LC-USE6-D-009642 (b&w film nitrate neg.)]