Painting of Aussies in New Guinea, artist unknown
I hope many of you remember the battles that were started for liberating New Guinea back at the original stage of the Pacific War – at this point – they were still going on.
The operations were characterized by prolonged small-scale patrolling with small-scale company attacks. Progress was slowed by the difficulties of transporting supplies overland or by barge and the flash flooding of a number of the rivers the Australians had to cross. In one incident, seven men from the 2/3rd Battalion drowned in the swollen waters of the Danmap River which had risen suddenly after a torrential downpour. After Dogreto Bay was occupied, the supply problems eased somewhat.
Wewak, New Guinea map
On 16 March 1945, the airfields at But and Dagua on the coast were occupied, although fighting continued further inland from there over the course of the following fortnight. On 25 March, Lieutenant Albert Chowne, a platoon commander from the Australian 2/2nd Battalion led an attack on a Japanese position that was holding up the advance on Wewak. For his actions he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Albert Chowne
In the Torricelli Mountains the 17th Brigade continued its advance against stubborn Japanese defense. Nevertheless, by 23 April 1945 they had secured Maprik. The fall of Maprik allowed the Australians to begin constructing an airfield 8 miles (13 km) away at Hayfield, and this was completed on 14 May allowing reinforcements and supplies to be flown in.
Elsewhere the 19th Brigade had begun its assault on Wewak in early May. HMAS Hobart, Arunta, Warramunga, Swan and HMS Newfoundland (of the British Pacific Fleet) as well as the RAAF bombarded the Wewak defenses. On 11 May, a landing at Dove Bay by Farida Force was undertaken to encircle Wewak and prevent the escape of its garrison. Wewak fell on the same day, as the 19th Brigade occupied its airfield.
HMAS Warramunga
The fighting around Wewak airfield continued until 15 May, however, when men from the 2/4th Battalion, with armoured support, attacked Japanese positions overlooking the airstrip. It was during this attack that Private Edward Kenna carried out the deeds that led to him being awarded the Victoria Cross.
Edward Kenna
Following this, the remaining Japanese in the area withdrew into the Prince Alexander Mountains to the south of Wewak. To counter this, the 16th Brigade was dispatched to follow them up, and push them towards the 17th Brigade which advanced towards the east towards Maprik.
Australian 2/3 Battalion at memorial for fallen comrades, New Guinea 1945
These operations continued until 11 August, by which time the 16th Brigade had reached Numoikum, about 23 kilometres (14 mi) from Wewak, while the 17th Brigade had captured Kairivu, 24 kilometres (15 mi) from Wewak. At this stage, word was received that the Japanese government had begun discussing terms for a possible surrender and so offensive operations were brought to a halt.
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‘Psst. It’s okay in here, but don’t go around calling $690 billion ‘chump change.”
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Philip Barbary – Murray Valley, AUS; Australian Army # 45018, Vietnam, 104 Signal Squadron
Robert Costello – Newcastle, AUS; Australian Army, Vietnam
Robert Forstburg – Upper Darby, PA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, 101st Airborne Division
Ralph Regis Giles – Lowell, MA; US Army, Korea, KIA
Gordon Herrick – Rochester, NY; US Army, 11th Airborne Division
Glen McGraw – Centerville, IN; US Army, WWII
Eric Rapps – ENG; British Army, WWII, ETO, 8th Army
Doris Sherman (101) – Como, AUS; Royal Navy, WWII, ETO & PTO, Chief Petty Officer, nurse
Betty Tallarico – Dorothy, WV; Civilian, US Navy draftsman
Geoffrey ‘Boy’ Wellum – Cornwall, ENG; RAF, WWII, ETO, 65th Squadron, Distinguished Flying Cross
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The sentiments spoken by a true American. I hope many will follow Bob MacPherson’s example and once again revere the flag !!
Forty six years ago, I raised my right hand in a room full of strangers and pledged to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. I solemnly swore to do so while standing facing the flag that represents this country. For all of the years since then, that flag has played a central role in my life.
I watched her fly as a green recruit and came to understand she is more than just another piece of cloth. I watched her fly from the deck of many submarines and ships at bases all over the world. I listened with pride one night in Yokosuka Japan while a shipmate played Taps as we retired her for the day. I felt the crushing weight of seeing a comrade under her in a casket bound for home. I felt sadness at the deaths of so many veterans who also shared her…
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RAdm. William A. Sullivan
This is condensed from a story written by Rear Admiral William A. Sullivan and appears in”The Pacific War Remembered” edited by John T. Mason Jr.
ship in Manila Harbor
When Captain B.S. Huie had arrived with his men, I put the gang to work on North Harbor. There turned out to be over 200 wrecks there. Huie cleaned this up and then work began on the Pasig River. For some weeks we had 40 to 60 wrecks cleaned up per week, this was around the end of May.
crossing the Pasig River
Our most important job in Manila was the opening of the main harbor entrance. The Japanese did a perfect job blocking it – far more efficient than any similar job the Germans had done in Europe. There were 5 ships sunk in a staggered line across the entrance. Four of them were old inter-island ships and one was the Luzon, flagship of the Yangtze patrol. I had the steering wheel of the Luzon taken off and sent to the naval Academy Museum.
USS Luzon
About this time, Doc Schlesinger advised me to get the men out of the tents they had been living in and put them in solid buildings before rainy season hit. Requisitions for lumber were ignored. The lumber was being unload by the SeaBees to build build a tremendous 7th Fleet Headquarters.
I watched them and every afternoon at 4:00 pm, they knocked off and went back to their billets. One night a lighter was not properly secured and drifted loose. I sent our boat over to it. Just what we needed! The next morning, the SeaBees returned and went to work as usual.
I turned it all over to our firefighters and the houses got built by mostly Filipino carpenters and guerrillas. No one in the Navy asked where I got the lumber. The only who asked was General Casey, MacArthur’s chief engineer. I told him I stole it from the Navy as the Army was short, so I couldn’t have stolen any from them.
We had a job which received much publicity, the recovery of silver pesos from the waters around Corregidor. I asked MacArthur about using Army divers, but he didn’t want the job of Manila Bay neglected. A week or two later, he brought the subject up again. He said the money had been removed from Manila bank before the Japanese complete take-over. The money was dumped by barges, something like 13 million dollars worth. The United States had both a legal and moral obligation to recover it.
I made up a team of divers and gave the CO of the ARS his orders and he left with an Army finance officer and a MP. They found no silver. An Army Sgt., Bataan Death March survivor, recently released POW, who had worked on the barges, marked the chart with an X. He also said the Japanese had recovered some of the silver themselves.
Dive ship in Manila Harbor
Finally after many dives, the wooden boxes were located at 90 →130 feet down, deteriorated and broken apart. The divers had to sift the silt on their hands and knees. The recovery of the silver continued through my stay. When I left the Philippines (August 1945), I believe something like 7 million dollars in pesos had been recovered.
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August Bill – Woodland, CA; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Vella Gulf
Patrick Churchill – Oxfordshire, ENG; Royal Marines, WWII, ETO
Joseph DioGuardi – Mount MOrris, NY; US Army, Korea, 11th Airborne Division
Gerald Giles – Lowell, MA; US Army, Cpl., medic
Drensel Haws – Emmett, ID; US Navy, WWII
Dick Marshall – Des Moines, IA; USMC, WWII, PTO
John Reith – LA & CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, P-51 pilot
David South – Bozeman, MT; US Army, WWII, ETO, 85th Div., Silver Star, Bronze Star
Albert Trapanese – Bronx, NY; US Navy, WWII
Charles Wright – Millcreek, UT; USMC, WWII, PTO
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Avenging the Doolittle Raids – Project Fugo
November 1944 – Young Japanese girls wore headbands that designated them as Special Attack Force members. Daily they would recite the Imperial Precepts for Soldiers and Sailors before they began a twelve-hour shift in a makeshift factory in Kokura, Japan. Here they were producing 40 foot balloons to carry a bomb package across the ocean as they were released to drift on the Pacific jet stream.
A total of approximately 9,300 of these weapons were made and about 342 reached land, some as far east as Ontario, Michigan and Nebraska. Some were shot down or caused minor injuries and one hit a powerline of the nuclear weapons plant at Hanford, Washington.
Three days before the end of World War II in Europe and just three months before the Japanese surrendered, spinning shards of metal ripped into the tall pine trees, burrowing holes into bark and tearing needles from branches outside the tiny logging community of Bly, Oregon. The nerve-shattering echo of an exploding bomb rolled across the mountain landscape. When it was over, a lone figure—Archie Mitchell, a young, bespectacled clergyman—stood over six dead bodies strewn across the scorched earth. One of the victims was Elsie Mitchell, the minister’s pregnant wife. The rest were children. Four of the children—Jay Gifford, Eddie Engen, Dick Patzke, and Sherman Shoeman died instantly; Joan Patzke, 13 years old, initially survived the explosion but succumbed to her injuries shortly afterward.
Rev. Archie Mitchell and his wife, Elsie
Forestry workers were running a grader nearby when the force of the explosion blew one of them off the equipment. Another dashed to the nearby telephone office, where Cora Conner was running the town’s two-line exchange that day. “He had me place a call to the naval base in nearby Lakeview, the closest military installation to our town,” recalls Conner. “He told them that there had been an explosion and people had been killed.”
Within 45 minutes, a government vehicle roared to a stop in front of the telephone shack. A military intelligence officer scrambled out of the car and joined Conner inside. “He warned me not to say anything,” Conner says. “I was not to accept any calls except military ones, nor was I allowed to send out any information.” The rest of the day proved difficult, as Conner struggled with lumber companies and angry locals who had been stripped of their phone privileges without explanation.
The U.S. government immediately shrouded the event in secrecy, labeling the six deaths as occurring from an “unannounced cause.” But in the close-knit atmosphere of Bly, many of the locals had already learned the truth: Elsie Mitchell and the five children were victims of an enemy balloon bomb, held aloft by a gigantic hydrogen-filled sphere and whisked from Japan to the western seaboard of the United States. The contraption had alighted on Gearhart Mountain, where it lay in wait until the fateful day when it found its victims—the only deaths from enemy attack within the continental United States during World War II.
bomb map
To help avoid similar tragedies, the government lifted the media blackout. In late May 1945, the headquarters of Western Defense Command, based at the Presidio in San Francisco, issued a cautious message entitled “Japanese Balloon Information Bulletin No. 1.” In an effort to avoid a media frenzy and quell public paranoia, the document was to be read aloud to small gatherings “such as school children assembled in groups.
Preferably not more than 50 in a group and Boy Scout troops.” The bulletin warned that many hundreds of Japanese balloons were reaching American and Canadian airspace.
Balloon bombs
For Archie Mitchell, who lost his wife, unborn child, and five members of his church on that fateful day in 1945, life eventually resumed its course. He remarried and in 1947 moved to Southeast Asia to continue the missionary work that inspired him. Unfortunately, fate would deal him yet another blow. On June 1, 1962, a wire report brought his name back into the news: “Today word came from South Vietnam that three Americans had been kidnapped by Communist guerrillas. One of them is Reverend Archie E. Mitchell, a former pastor at Bly in southeast Oregon.” Mitchell was never heard from again.
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J.R. Brown – Henryetta, OK; US Army Air Corps, WWII, B-17 waist gunner, 2nd Bombardment Squadron
Adrian Cronauer – Troutsville, VA; US Air Force, Vietnam, (Armed Forces Radio D.J.), / DOD official
Steve Ditko – Johnstown, PA; US Army, (cartoonist)
Brian Dutton – UK; Royal Navy, Falklands, Lt.Commander, mine clearance expert
Robert Hagan Sr. – PA; US Air Force, Captain, pilot
Homer Myles – Dermott, AR; US Army, WWII & Korea
Paul Racicot – Detroit, MI; US Navy, WWII
Joseph Stanhope – Berlin, NH; US Army, WWII, ETO, Bronze Star
James Shaw – Baird, TX; USMC, WWII, PTO, Korea, Major
Dale Wilson – Des moines, IA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, LT, B-25 pilot, KIA (MIA)
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Eye witness account from Okinawa….
My uncle James M. Barrett was a World War II Marine. He was born in Nov. 1923 in Minnesota. He had a promising career as a welterweight boxer, 
until his country’s call became too loud. On January 18, 1943 he reported for duty with the United States Marine Corps. He went through recruit training in San Diego, Calif. and on the first of May was sent to Sitka, Alaska and in October to Attu, Alaska. The Army had finished cleaning the Japanese off the island, and he drew guard duty for the winter.
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The 4th Gurkhas at kit inspection
Never mess with a Gurkha. Not everyone knows this, but then again, many people don’t know what a Gurkha/Gorkha is. Gurkhas were a branch of troops from Nepal who historically served with the British army and now serve around the world. Gurkha troops served admirably during WWI, winning nearly 2,000 awards for bravery serving in virtually every theatre of the war.
In WWII, the Japanese Empire spread through Asia and the Pacific. Americans mostly recall the island hopping and battles over patches of turf like Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. The British fight (supported by China and some Americans) against Japan centered around Burma (Myanmar) and was a terrible slugfest in the depths of the South Asian jungles.
The Gurkhas were a major force for the British in the Burma campaign and on May 13th, 1945, five days after victory in Europe, the Gurkhas would face intense Japanese assaults. Lachhiman Gurung and his detachment manned the forward-most position on the banks of the Irrawaddy River.
A little after one in the morning the Japanese led a furious assault with around 200 men. The attack was aimed at Gurung’s position as he and his comrades held a hill that would give the Japanese sweeping views and attack lanes to the rear of British positions.
Type-97 Japanese grenade
The Japanese started their assault by tossing grenades into the foxhole of Gurung. Gurung responded by calmly grabbing the grenades and tossing them back. After a couple of times doing this, Gurung’s luck ran out as a grenade exploded in his right hand as he was trying to throw it away.
The blast took off Gurung’s fingers and most of his hand. It fractured several bones in his right arm and left shrapnel wounds in his right leg and face, damaging his eye. Gurung’s comrades were completely incapacitated by the blast, and so the defense fell to Gurung.
He brought up his rifle with his left arm and gunned down the advancing Japanese, even reloading with his left hand. Try reloading a rifle with your non-dominate hand, it’s quite difficult, even without life-threatening wounds.
Bleeding profusely in the middle of the night, Gurung held off sporadic assaults for four hours. As the sun rose, the Japanese assault faded away. Of the approximately 200 Japanese attackers, 87 of them were dead, with 31 of them laying in the immediate vicinity of Gurung’s location.
garrison hill during advancement
Gurung was immediately hospitalized where he would eventually lose his right eye. His right arm was saved, but he lost most of the use of his right hand. He would be awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions.
Gurung still wanted to serve and was allowed to return to his unit, staying with them through the liberation of India in 1947. He retired shortly after to work on a farm in his native Nepal.
Gurung had five children and eventually moved to London where he would pass away from pneumonia in 2010. The Gurkhas again served in nearly every theatre of the world war, earning close to 3,000 awards for bravery.
The Gurkhas were known for outstanding bravery in battle and their use of the fearsome Kukri blade as a utility knife and in battle.
Sir Ralph Turner, a well-known British professor, had this to say about the Gurkhas: “Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last, your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had country more faithful friends than you.”
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WACs Wanted – 2 to 1
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Leonard Bellis – Philadelphia, PA; US Army, Captain
James Brook – OR; US Navy, WWII, pilot, / FBI
Charles H. Daman – Coeur d’Arlene, ID; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, SSgt., nose gunner, KIA
Thaylon Hobbs – Logan, UT; US Navy, WWII
Charles “Bud” Jenkins – Fayetteville, NC; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, Pfc., 307th A/B Engineers/82nd Airborne Div., KIA
Robert McCooley – Patterson, NJ; US Navy, Cuban Missile Crisis
Frank Perry – San Leandro, CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Robert Rusello – Massena, NY; US Army, 221 Signal Corps
John Stormer – Altoona, PA; US Air Force, historian, / (author)
Max Tadlock – Toledo, OH; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, pilot
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US Army 77th Division hears the news on Okinawa
Victory in Europe was welcome news to Allied troops in the Pacific and the China-Burma-India theaters of war. They greeted it with thanksgiving but there was little celebration. As a London Times special correspondent in Burma wrote, “The war is over. Let us get on with the war.” Now that Europe would no longer be receiving the bulk of troops and materiel, officers and enlisted personnel in the war against Japan hoped they would be given more men and equipment quickly, in order to end their war sooner.
Meanwhile, fighting continued in New Guinea, the Philippines, Okinawa, the CBI and elsewhere. Kamikazes still made suicide dives to sink Allied ships. The lights may have gone on over Europe and America, but a funeral pall still darkened the Pacific and Asia.
SMITTY _ New Guinea 10/24/44
Smitty, my father, when asked how he had felt, merely shrugged. “I was happy for my fellow soldiers over there, but we had work to do, so we didn’t think about it very long.”
From The May 7, 1945 Edition of Stars and Stripes
OKINAWA, May 6 (ANS)—The reported death of Adolf Hitler and the word of surrender of the German armies in Italy was good news to soldiers, sailors and marines here but there was no celebrating.Most of the fighting men figured it wouldn’t mean a thing to them “until we can see some help coming and see a chance of ending the war out here.”
They termed Hitler’s death “good riddance” and said it was a good thing he went that way because there probably would have been lots of bickering around if we had taken him alive.”
Gen. Daniel I. Sultan
Gen. Dan I. Sultan, commander of the India-Burma Theater, on V-E Day, paid tribute to the fighting men who won the European war in a short statement to the troops of the India-Burma Theater broadcast over the American Army radio stations in the Theater. The text of Gen. Sultan’s statement:
“Today in Europe, German military might has been broken. After almost six years, organized hostilities have ceased. The great work of reconstruction of the shattered continent can now begin.
“We recognize the tremendous achievements of the Allied Armies in Europe who won this victory, for we too have been fighting. We know the cost of driving back a tenacious enemy – we know the necessity for close co-operation of all branches of our forces, the close union with our allies in the common cause. We know the heartbreaking conditions of combat under adverse weather and over difficult terrain – the back-breaking work of construction and supply in support of combat operations. So, as fighting men, we pay tribute to the fighting men in Europe.
“Their victory is in part our victory. We have done with less man and supplies, so that they might have more. Their victory brings our victory nearer. The men who broke the German ground defenses in the west, who destroyed her essential industries from the air, can now turn their attention to the war with Japan. The industrial strength of the United States, until now producing for the war both in Europe and in Asia, can turn its full productive force to the Far East.
“This is the day of Germany’s defeat and Europe’s liberation, but we must not forget that there is still a tough battle to be fought before the Japs are licked. Every one of us knows his part in that fight; and if every one of us will do his part to the utmost, Japan’s defeat and the liberation of Asia will come surely and swiftly.”
The Pacific War
The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia greeted V-E Day with the question, “Since when has it been customary to celebrate victory halfway through a contest?” The war with Japan had been the great threat to Australia itself, and the country’s sons were still fighting and dying in that war. Accordingly, the mood was more somber than in Europe. On May 9, some 100,000 people attended a service at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne.
For the most part New Zealanders observed V-E Day on May 9, although there was some spontaneous dancing in the streets. Preparations had been underway for weeks, in part to keep celebrations from getting out of control. Events included speeches, thanksgiving services, and the singing of the national anthems of New Zealand, America and the Soviet Union. A People’s Victory March in Christchurch drew 25,000.
In the U.S., many communities attempted to subdue celebrations, wanting to give the occasion the solemnity they felt it deserved and reminding Americans that, as Truman said, “Our victory is only half over.” Across the country, however, joyous celebrations broke out. Thousands gathered in New York’s Times Square. New Orleans took on the appearance of Mardi Gras, with people dancing in the streets. Church bells rang out the glorious news in small towns and major cities.
In the Soviet Union, Stalin himself seemed less than enthusiastic. His deputy Nikita Khrushchev telephoned to congratulate the Soviet leader on his victory, and Stalin reportedly snapped at him, “Why are you bothering me? I am working.” The USSR’s official victory parade took place in a downpour over a month later, on June 24.
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‘Bring back rationing!’
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Harold Bishop – Sacramento, CA; US Navy, WWII, submarine service
Christopher A. Celiz – Summerville, SC; US Army, Afghanistan (7th deployment), Sgt. 1st Class, KIA
Dallas ‘Chris’ Christenson – Pensecola, FL, US Air Force, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, MSgt. (Ret.)
John Hart – Keesville, NY; US Army / US Navy
Melvin Hilscher – Kulm, ND; US Army, WWII
James McLean – AUS; RA Air Force # 428761, WWII, Flight Sgt., 83rd Squadron
George Meyer – Bristol, CT; US Navy, WWII, Medical Corps
Ruskin Reddoch – Troy, AL; USMC, WWII, 1st Lt., Silver Star, Purple Heart
Elliot Seidman – Delray Beach, FL; US Navy, WWII, PTO, radioman
Maria Swafford – Boydton, VA; Civilian, US Map Service, D.C., WWII
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Jul 14
This gallery contains 11 photos.
Originally posted on USS Hornet (CV-12)-A Father's Untold War Story:
John T. Ryan US Navy It is May 1945, the world is still at war and my father, Seaman First Class, John Thomas Ryan is still serving on the USS Hornet (CV-12). In my last posts, I began the Battle of Okinawa and…
In the book, “A COVERT AFFAIR”, Jennet Conant follows the OSS detachments that operated in the CBI Theater. These members of the forerunner of the CIA included Elizabeth (Betty) MacDonald, her future husband Frederick MacIntosh, Julia McWilliams and her future husband Paul Child, and many others.
From time to time, the OSS teams would report armed clashes in the area (China) as local factions jockeyed for position, “The warlords were always shooting at each other,” recalled Betty, “But we never really felt scared. We had pretty good protection, and the Flying Tigers kept the Japanese at bay.”
Betty MacDonald w/ colleagues in the doorway of the flooded MO print shop during the 1945 flood in Kumming. The fortified walls around the outpost made the OSS compound a lagoon.
Betty also reported, “the Chinese never followed the rules. Smuggling was a way of life. They brazenly peddle state secrets and are equally overt about trading everything from information to arms with the Japanese. Everything is for sale.”
Chiang’s people had to approve any proposed OSS operation. Paul Child said, “The warp and woof of war in China is complex beyond belief. The inner workings, the who-influences-who, the deals, the sleights of hand, the incredible chicaneries, the artistic venalities, the machinations and the briberies.
Julia Child & others of the OSS
“Some facts are so incredibly romantic and sinister that only hearing hundreds of verbal reports from the mouths of horses themselves finally convinces me of the dreadful reality of the under-the-sea war – the war of back alleys, back rooms, big parties, magnificent whores and equally magnificent blackmails. It almost becomes the “real” war of which the news-war is only the surface expression.”
American officers of OSS Detachment 101
The chances for honest-to-God peace in China seemed almost impossible. Even with the European part of the war officially over, the action in the CBI seemed to be amplifying. Paul Child wrote home to his twin brother Charles in dismay, “Building up, plans for months ahead, materials and personnel being striven for and allocated, and anticipated dangers faced. Perhaps you will never know what it is to feel profoundly lonely. Well, you become empty, unbased and bereft.”
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Roundup’s staff cartoonist, Sgt. Ralph J. Somerville, was so overjoyed on V-E Day that he sat right down and drew up this cartoon of the situation in which Mussolini, Hitler, and Hirohito find themselves. Of course, as nay fool can plainly see, there isn’t but one title for this: Two off their War Horses and One on His Ass.
Bulletin Board: “There will be absolutely no more experiments in jet propulsion with company vehicles!”
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Elmer Brown – Orlando, FL; US Navy, WWII, Lt.Commander (Ret. 30 y.)
Arthur Kelm-Gelien (Tab Hunter) – San Francisco, CA; US Coast Guard, (actor)
Saman Kunan – Roi Et, THAI; Thai Navy SEAL, Cave rescue
Cidon Long – Anson, TX; US Army, WWII, homefront German POW guard
Joseph Maciel – South Gate, CA; US Army, Afghanistan, Cpl., 1/28/3rd Infantry Division, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, KIA
Helen Miller – St. Paul, MN; US Army WAC, WWII, ETO
George Ritter – Toledo, OH; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division
Robert Sutcliffe – Lynbrook, NY; US Navy, WWII
Deisel Tykeson – Ross, ND; US Army, WWII, PTO
Harrison Ward – Lenoir, NC; US Army, WWII, Bronze Star
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B-24 Liberator, “Black Magic”, 7th Bomb Group
Outstanding mission of the period was a record bridge-busting jaunt by B-24’s of the Seventh Bomb Group, which destroyed or damaged 37 rail and road spans on the Burma-Siam railroad east of Thanbyuzayat. The Japs have been using rail cars with special auxiliary wheels which can leave the bombed-out trackbed and use the highways, and pilots reported seeing several of these, some of them directing machine gun fire at the attackers.
B-29, WWII
HEADQUARTERS, XX BOMBER COMMAND, INDIA – (UP) – Administering treatment prescribed by a medical officer by radio at this headquarters, two crew members of a B-29 returning from a raid on Japanese-occupied Burma saved the life of a third member of the crew.
When the crew member was seriously wounded by shell fire over the target, Sgt. Patsy J. Grimaldi of Brooklyn, radioed the following message to his base:
“Wounded man on board. Shot in neck. Can’t move right arm. Think collar bone broken. Advise if possible.” The radioed pulse and respiration reports continued every ten minutes during the ship’s return trip. An ambulance met the plane at the airstrip and the injured airman was rushed to a hospital where he is now recovering.
Sgt. Grimaldi, who is a member of the Billy Mitchell Group, Twentieth Bomber Command, sent back the messages as well as rendering first aid. A tactical mission report said he “is to be commended on the manner in which he discharged his duties under a trying situation.”
A XX BOMBER BASE, INDIA – The navigator who called calmly over the interphone to ask for certain information received as an answer, “Hell, I couldn’t piece these maps together if I wanted to.”
The answer came from Lt. Harold Vicory of Greenleaf, Kans., 23-year-old radio officer aboard a B-29 Super-Fortress who fortunately was not working with his legs crossed during a mission over Jap-occupied Singapore.
“Enemy fir was very thick,” said Vicory. “The Japs were really peppering us. I was at my desk with a packet of maps and charts when gunfire pierced the belly of the plane, zipped right between my legs, up through the top of the desk, through the maps, and shot out the top of the plane. It all happened pretty fast.”
After he had collected his wits, Vicory examined his maps to discover that the Malay Peninsula had disappeared in thin air.
“They wiped themselves off the map and didn’t know it,” he exclaimed. “And just about that time, the navigator called back and wanted me to give him some information.”
WACs in the CBI
WACS IN THE CBI
The War Department announced this week that 15,546 WAC’s of the Corps’ total strength of 94,000 are serving overseas, including 334 in India and Ceylon.
Other distribution includes, European Theater – 7,030; Southwest Pacific, including Australia, New Guinea, Dutch East Indies and Philippines – 5,255; Italy – 1,612; Guam and Hawaii – 206; Africa and Egypt – 596; Alaska – 103; and Bermuda, Labrador and British Columbia – 394.
Here are two Americans rescued by the 14th Army near Pegu after having been POWs in the hands of the Japanese. At left, Lt. Allan D. DuBose, of San Antonio, Tex., finds it’s the same old Army as he “smilingly” absorbs a shot from Sgt. Orlando Roberto of the 142nd General Hospital in Calcutta. After 18 months as a prisoner in Rangoon, DuBose finds that times change, but not the Army. And at right, Maj. Wesley Werner of St. Louis, happily quaffs his first bottle of beer at the same hospital in Calcutta. Werner had been a prisoner of the Nips since November 17, 1942. A former pilot with the old Seventh Bomb Group he is remembered by old timers in the Theater as the skipper of the noted B-24 Rangoon Rambler. Werner was one of the best known airmen in the 10th Air Force.
CALCUTTA – Happiest group of American soldiers in the India-Burma Theater this week were 73 prisoners of war liberated by the British 14th Army near Pegu on their drive to Rangoon.
The first group of recaptured American prisoners, mostly Air Corps personnel, was recuperating in 142nd General Hospital in Calcutta – with American beer, cigarettes, good food, candy bars, fruit juice, newspapers, magazines and everything possible that Army authorities and Red Cross would provide comfort.
Behind them was a grim memory of starvation, filth, disease and indignities administered by the Japanese to the “special treatment” group composed of flyers captured after the bombing of the Japanese homeland began.
The rescued men will also never forget the forced march out of their prison stronghold in Rangoon to north of Pegu where their Japanese guards deserted in the face of bullets and sound of artillery of the advancing 14th Army.
Two airmen, Lt. Kenneth F. Horner, New Orleans, and Pfc. Smith W. Radcliff, Dexter, Kans., had been prisoners for nearly 35 months; many others had sweated out their return since the fall of ’43 and only two of the recaptured prisoners had been missing since this year.
Click on images to enlarge.
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“IS THERE REALLY A COSTUME PARTY AT THE RED CROSS TONIGHT?!”
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George Bezecny – brn: CZECH; British information Service & US Army Intelligence Div. / USMC
Donald Gillis – Cancouver, CAN; RC Navy, WWII
William Hare Jr. – Sylacauga, AL; US Army, WWII, ETO
Ray Jones – Chesterfield, MO; US Air Force, Sgt.
Eleanor Kruger – Pottsville, PA; civilian, War Department, decoder
Arthur Mulroy – Brooklyn, NY; US Navy, Korea & Cuban Missile Crisis, USS Antietam
John Peter Jr. – Swansea, IL; US Army, 11th Airborne Division, medic
Gary Riggins – Sawyer, KS; US Army, WWII, Engineer Corps
Michael Sklarsky – Bristol, FL; US Air Force (25 y.)
Homer Waybright – Fayetteville, NC; US Army, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, Sgt. Major (Ret.)
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Smitty - artwork by Priorhouse.wordpress.com/
Our Silent Observer
Jeep crossing
