[Cracken]

so was the pilot of the C-47 a traitor or something?

He might have been dumb. Read this:

February 10th was a day that truly set 1LT Curdes apart from all other Airmen. Curdes led a flight of four P-51s from a field at Mangaldan in Central Luzon to perform reconnaissance of the southern tip of Formosa. Their mission was to locate a small temporary airfield being used by the Japanese. Finding nothing there, they continued on to the northernmost of the Bataan Islands. Curdes and his wingman, Lt. Schmidtke flew over the northern half and the two other P-51s flown by Lieutenants. Scalley and La Croix took the southern half.

Suddenly Scalley called out that they were attacking a small field on Bataan Island and Curdes and Schmidtke joined them. La Croix’s aircraft was hit and he had to bail out. Curdes saw La Croix’s parachute open as his Mustang went into the water. La Croix climbed into a little rubber dingy that was part of the parachute pack. Curdes ordered Sculley back to base in order to get another flight out to provide cover for La Croix. Also Sculley was to see if a rescue PBY amphibian aircraft stationed at Linguyan was available. He told Schmidtke to climb to 15,000 feet and broadcast a “Mayday” and to provide cover for Curdes. Curdes would stay low to make sure that the Japanese didn’t try anything. Curdes made another strafing run on the airfield

When he pulled up, he saw a twin engine aircraft heading for Japanese held territory. Although it looked like a C-47, he wasn’t sure that it wasn’t a Japanese copy of a DC-2. He closed in and saw the American insignia on the aircraft. He attempted to contact the pilot of the aircraft using various VHF frequencies, but received no reply. The aircraft now went into its final approach glide to land on the strip below. Curdes dove in front of the aircraft three times to try and spoil the C-47s landing, but the pilot continued to try and land. Curdes fired a burst of machine gun fire across the nose of the aircraft, but the transport pilot ignored it. Finally Curdes decided that he would force the transport to ditch into the ocean.

Closing to within approximately twenty yards, he shot out the right engine, then the left. The plane hit the water and came to a stop with 50 yards from La Croix’s raft. Two large rubber dingies inflated and twelve personnel including two women climbed in. Curdes flew above the rafts and dropped a note that said “For God’s sake, keep away from shore. Japs there.” After seeing that they were safe, Curdes returned to flying protective cover. La Croix paddled over to the two dingies and tied them together.

The pilot of the transport became lost in bad weather, his radio had gone out and his fuel gauge read empty when he had sighted the landing field on Bataan. La Croix explained the situation to them.

Curdes continued to fly cover until four more Mustangs arrived to replace him and Schmidtke. A PBY came out at dawn the next morning to rescue La Croix and the others. After Curdes returned to base, he was in for a shock when he saw the names of the survivors of the transport. One of the nurses aboard that plane was the very same nurse that he had a date with the night before!