"We flipped the pages to the flag of the United States and pointed to it. Their face lit up and they knew who we were," recalled Griffith Williams, a US veteran.

Williams was one of the legendary Doolittle raiders in World War II.

This month, the daring Doolittle raiders will reunite with a representative of the Chinese people who saved their lives 50 years ago.

Zhao Xiaobao, 78, was the owner of that seaside hut on Tantoushan island in Xiangshan County in East China's Zhejiang Province.

She went to Washington DC last week to reminiscence with the Doolittle raiders about their encounter in 1942.

The Doolittle raiders took off in 16 US bombers on April 18, 1942, from the aircraft carrier Hornet, 600 miles (965 kilometers) off the coast of Japan.

Their top-secret mission was to bomb Japan in retaliation for the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii four months earlier.

The bombers were to have been given enough fuel to land in war-torn China, where Chinese forces would help smuggle them to safety.

The daring attack was organized and led by the US flying ace Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, a legendary flyer and a famous aeronautical engineer.

After successfully completing their bombing of the Japanese cities selected, the crews of the 15 attacking bombers parachuted out or crash-landed in China. They came face to face with the equally startled Chinese peasants.

Zhao Xiaobao, who was then the 18-year-old bride of local fisherman Ma Liangshui, said: "My husband and I heard a thunderous noise a distance away on the foggy evening of April 18 and quickly fled into the mountains for shelter. We thought the bandits were coming."

After several hours in the mountains, Ma plucked up enough courage to steal back home but he came upon someone with a torch at the village gate.

Ma lay down on the ground and, in the faint light, saw some "big-nosed" foreigners. He sneaked out of the village again and asked other fishermen for help.

When they returned, however, the foreigners had disappeared.

"We searched every corner and, at last, found four of them huddled up in our pigsty," said Zhao. "They seemed to be very frightened."

As the foreigners didn't show any signs of hostility, the fishermen went in to try to get them out.

To their amazement, the foreigners threw coins at them.

Williams said: "Of course, they (the fishermen) could not use the American coins, but it was to show our good intent."

Finally the foreigners inched out, shivering from cold.

The villager later learned that the four US airmen had ditched their plane in the sea and swum ashore. Zhao dried their wet clothes and they ate eggs and dried shrimps with their fingers.

"As bandits often stormed into our village, that was about all we had to offer," said Zhao.

Communication seemed almost impossible. Williams recalled: "We had a great deal of difficulty making it known who we were. They didn't know any more about us than we knew about them. Of course, they knew we were not Orientals but they didn't know if we were Germans or Russians."

In the course of trying to communicate, the little girl appeared with the picture book.

"The identification of the American flag was the first identification that we had," said Williams.

Ma and Zhao put up the four Americans in their house that night. "Our bamboo bed was too short for them, so their feet stuck out," Zhao remembered.

At dawn, the Americans coaxed Ma out of the house and pointed to the east, gesturing that he should go with them. The puzzled Ma went along - and found a fifth American.

Zhao said: "That afternoon, my husband borrowed a sampan. I bought some old cotton coats to disguise the soldiers. When dusk fell, they sailed out to sea."

They were lucky that night because all the Japanese ships quartered in Xiangshan County were taking shelter in a harbor elsewhere.

Ma and other fishermen took the Americans to local guerrillas, who later guided them to Chongqing, then the wartime capital of China.

The five Americans were not the only lucky ones.

Of the 75 Doolittle raiders who landed in China, five died in crash landings and eight were captured by the Japanese army but the other 62 were rescued by Chinese people and eventually escaped from danger safe and sound.

At great risk to themselves, Chinese people smuggled the Americans from 15 locations in Japanese-occupied territory to Chinese-controlled areas in Southwest China, hundreds of kilometers away.

Zhao Xiaobao has lived a peaceful life since the end of World War II. She has lived with her son's family since the death of her husband.

In 1992, she attended an event in the United States to mark the 50th anniversary of the Doolittle raid.

William Bower, another former Doolittle raider, said: "I am eternally grateful to the Chinese people and haven't anything but good feelings for them. As people, they are just amazing. We were treated with the greatest hospitality. I often wonder what we would do if someone dropped into our backyard."

(China Daily October 23, 2002)