During World War II, the Army had a problem: Many troops weren’t reading the preventative maintenance manuals — long, boring instructions on keeping guns, tanks and other equipment clean and battle-ready.
Army officials turned to newly drafted Pvt. Will Eisner, who arrived at Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1942 as something of a celebrity because of his success as the comic artist who created “The Spirit,” a popular strip that ran in dozens of newspapers, including The Baltimore Sun.
Eisner transformed the manuals into comics, in which Sgt. Half-Mast and Connie Rodd would remind the hapless Joe Dope of the dangers of improperly oiling artillery, recklessly driving tanks and otherwise acting foolishly with equipment.
The comics, which were printed and distributed to all troops, remain the most widely circulated of all time, said Benjamin Herzberg, a former assistant to Eisner. “He had a monthly distribution of hundreds of thousands,” Herzberg said.
Under Eisner, the maintenance manuals were made into a monthly comic magazine that became known as The Preventative Maintenance Monthly, or PS Magazine, which is still published today. The Army dictates the subject matter by interviewing troops stationed around the world about their most frequent equipment hiccups and what tips they need.
In the early years, the comics were heavy with sexual innuendo to hold the troops’ attention. A 32-page booklet on M-16 maintenance distributed to every soldier in Vietnam was entitled “Treat Your Rifle Like a Lady.” Connie Rodd, a buxom blonde pin-up girl, was regularly depicted in various states of undress.
Many soldiers at the time barely had a high school education; some couldn’t read at a fifth-grade level, said 1st Sgt. Richard Bernard, a panel member.
“So what’s the best way for you to reach somebody who can’t read the technical manual itself or understand some of the words, but to make a comic strip that grabs their attention?” Bernard said.
The magazine’s supervisory editor, Jonathan Pierce, said the comics have become more politically correct, but no less necessary.
“It’s an interesting confluence of time right now, because with all the deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, so many of the maintenance soldiers were taken out of their maintenance responsibilities and put into infantry support roles so they could expand the number of combat patrols, and then maintenance was left to contractors,” Pierce said. “So now we have soldiers coming back to their maintenance duties that they haven’t done for the past 10 years. We’re in the same position we were in at the beginning of the Korean War.”
“Now we’re back with a group of soldiers who don’t know maintenance, and we’re having to reintroduce not only the idea of maintenance but the idea of the magazine itself,” he said.
The February 2017 edition of the magazine, its 771st issue, was the last in print. The Army has developed a PS Magazine app, which displays the cartoons on soldiers’ smartphones.
Command Sgt. Maj. Toese Tia Jr., said he remembered having to read the magazines when he was going through mechanics training. “As a mechanic coming up, I am a product of Mr. Will Eisner’s PS Magazine,” he said. “It has a legacy that will go well beyond my time.”
Information is from Military.com
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Aaron Butler – Monticello, UT; US Army, Afghanistan, SSgt., KIA
Willie Combs – Detroit, MI; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division
Bruce Forsyth – Edmonton, ENG; RAF, (TV personality)
James Harmon – W.Palm Beach, FL; US Navy, Vietnam
Abigail Milam – Lexington, KY; US Army, Hawaii, 2/25th Aviation, SSgt., KIA
George Murray – Oceano, CA; USMC, WWII, PTO, Pfc, KIA (Tarawa)
Ronald St.Mary – Massena, NY; US Navy, Korea, USS Albany
William Turner – Nashville, TN; US Army, WWII, ETO, SSgt., B-26 “Hell’s Fury” engineer, KIA (Amsterdam)
George Uhazie – Uniontown, PA; US Army, WWII, 1st Sgt.
Brian Woeber – Decatur, AL; US Army, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, pilot, KIA
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75 years later – WE REMEMBER!
Biography and pictures courtesy of Richard Walker
LeCLARE ALLERTHORN WALKER (1918)
“Clare” Walker (1918)
(picture taken 1942)
LeClare Allerthorn Walker, known as Clare, was born in Norwich, Ontario, Canada on 22 June, 1918, the 2nd child of Spence Allerthorn and Mildred Loral (born Bushell) Walker.
When Clare was just two years of age, in 1920, he moved with his parents to Troy, New York, U.S.A. He attended No.18 Elementary School there from 1924 to 1932. During the last 2 years of this period he was very active in the Boy Scouts of America. In the summer of 1932 the family, now consisting of 6 children, returned to Norwich where Clare attended High School and graduated in 1938. During his High School years he was a member of the High School Cadet Corp in which he served as Commanding Officer for 3 of those years. He was also active in sports…
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Author unknown
These men with silver wings
Troopers from the sky above
In whom devotion springs
What spirit so unites them?
In brotherhood they say
Their answer loud and clear.
“Airborne All the Way.”
These are the men of danger
As in open door they stand
With static line above them
And ripcord in their hand.
While earthbound they are falling
A silent prayer they say
“Lord be with us forever,
Airborne All the Way.”
One day they’ll make their final jump
Saint Mike will tap them out
The good Lord will be waiting
He knows what they’re about
And answering in unison
He’ll hear the troopers say
“We’re glad to be aboard, Sir,
Airborne All the Way!”
https://mypoetrythatrhymes.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/happy-birthday-us-army-airborne/
Click on images to enlarge.
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Please check out the honor365 site– they have honored Smitty !!!!
I was very proud that they requested dad’s information.
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Melvin Alsager – Mount Home, ID; US Air Force, 28th Recon Squadron
Harold Davis – Zanesville, OH; US Army, WWII, PTO, Silver Star, Bronze Star, KIA
John Freitag – Ashland, IL; US Army, WWII, ETO, POW
Victor Greenblatt – Brooklyn, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII & Korea, navigator
Christopher M. Harris – Jackson Springs, NC; US Army, Afghanistan, Spc, 2/504/1 BCT/82nd Airborne, KIA
Jonathan M. Hunter – Columbus, IN; US Army, Afghanistan, Sgt., 2/504/1 BCT/82nd Airborne, KIA
Dr. Janet Kemp – Carthage, NY; Civilian, VA’s National Mental Health Program Dir.; VA Crisis Hotline, Ret. 30 years, Service To America Medal
James Miles – Dallas, TX; US Army Air Corps, WWII & Korea, Lt.Col. (Ret.)
Henry Soderholm – Malden, MA; US Air Force, Vietnam, MSgt. (Ret.)
Thomas Vogt – St. Louis, MO; US Army, WWII & Korea
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Richard Sherman
Richard Sherman trained as a bombardier and navigator for B-25 bombers. He served in the 11th bomb squadron. He served 13 months in China, during which he flew 52 missions and was shot down once. During that time, only seven men from his squad were lost.
He was shot down on February 13th, 1944. What they thought was a Chinese fishing vessel was a Japanese warship in disguise.
Sherman used his “pointy-talky,” a Chinese-English dictionary, to communicate with the Chinese to get help getting to a place where they could get picked up.
WWII pointie-talkie
One of the Chinese told him that the dictionary wasn’t necessary – he spoke perfect English. The Chinese took the Americans by charcoal-powered bus, occasionally stopping to stir the charcoal. At every village they came to, the people held a celebration. Sherman has a piece of cloth, signed by the Chinese, as a memento of this time. Only later did he learn that the Japanese would have killed him and the Chinese who signed the cloth if they had found it.
Sherman claims he didn’t have enough sense to be scared. That, along with his training, kept him from panicking – but there would be tense times while in China.
Raids into China were typically scheduled in the morning. The flight to pick up Sherman and his crew was later in the day. The Japanese were bombing the American airfield, so the flight kept getting pushed back.
11th Bomb Squadron
The flight crew was told to contact the Chinese for instructions on where to land. As the day turned to night, the crew was unable to see a runway when someone on the radio told them to “put your wheels down and get ready to land.” Suddenly, kerosene lamps outlined the strip.
Sherman’s parents had received telegrams stating that he was MIA. Now they received one from the Red Cross stating that they should disregard any previous message. At that point, they knew that he was OK.
Flight crew of the B-24 Liberator airplane, named ‘Betty J’ 11th Bomb Squadron
As a bombardier, Sherman sat towards the front of the plane. Once, his plane was hit by Japanese fire, sending Plexiglass into his arms and face. Seventy-one years later, an x-ray technician noticed that he had a foreign object between his eyes. Since it had been there so long without causing issues, it was decided to keep it there. Sherman received the Purple Heart for that mission.
Gen. Claire Chennault always knew where his men were, according to Sherman. Chennault was not one to kid around, but if you did your job, you would have no trouble from him.
General C. Chennault
After WWII, Sherman worked at Olin Mathieson. One day he received a phone call asking how quick he could get his clothes together and get to Cincinnati. Five days later, he called his wife Pat to tell her he was in Germany. The Russians and Germans had moved tanks to the Berlin Wall, making the U.S. nervous. Sherman was put in charge of the automotive division, which was required to be able to pack up and move overnight, if necessary.
Chennault continued to be connected throughout Sherman’s lives. Their son became friends with Chennault’s grandson when they attended Neville High School together. Also, the Shermans, along with Nita Brinson and others, helped start the Aviation Historical Museum that is now known as the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum. Sherman has some memorabilia on display in the museum.
They also have several paintings that Chennault painted after retiring from the military.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Please check out the honor365 site– they are honoring Smitty today !!!!
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Ben Angel – Native Tewa American; Las Vegas, NV; US Army, Military police
Colin Bower – Queensland, AUS; RA Air Force, WWII
Michael ‘Red’ Cerio Sr. – Emira, NY; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Antietam
A soldier from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Regiment, waits amid the gravestones during funeral services for Army Spc. Sean R. Cutsforth, of Radford, Va., a member of the 101st Airborne who was killed in Afghanistan in December, Feb. 24, 2011, (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Anthony Formosa – San Francisco, CA; US Navy, WWII
Edward Gray – Newark, NJ; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division, Bronze Star
Ty Hardin – Austin, TX; US Army, Korea, 1st Lt., pilot; (beloved actor)
Richard Klenoski Sr. – Saginaw, MI; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Lt.Colonel (Ret. 26 years)
James Lancaster – Denver, CO; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO
Hugh McCormick Jr. – Baltimore, MD; US Navy, WWII, ETO, Cmdr. (Ret.) subchaser SC-525
Harry Patrie – Celina, OH; US Navy, WWII
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I am always saying that we need to look at all sides to every story and to do that we need to meet them. Here is Nasuko from Japan who also feels that way. Please give our new Blogger a warm welcome!!
We Japanese cultivate the fields, religious 神, love nature.
We Japanese wanted to defend our country “Japan”, not merely fighting to invade other countries.
We Japanese have wisdom.
We Japanese love peace.
We Japanese love Japan.
All images pick up from SNS
朝鮮人特攻兵 光山文博（卓庚鉉）少尉
朝鮮人特攻兵 光山文博（卓庚鉉）少尉
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Merian C. Cooper was born in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. He was the youngest of his siblings and at the age of six, he started to dream about exploration and adventures, a common dream among future aviators. Then he studied at the United States Naval Academy, but didn’t finish it and became a journalist.
It was not enough to satisfy his taste for adventure. In 1916, Cooper joined the US National Guard and was to help catch Pancho Villa in Mexico. The year after, he was appointed lieutenant, yet he refused the promotion because he wanted to participate in direct combat. To fulfill his desires, he went to the Military Aeronautics School in Atlanta to learn how to fly and graduated with the top grades in his class.
In autumn 1917, Cooper went to France as a rookie, then learned the skills of a bomber pilot in Issoudun, France, and served with the 1st Day Bombardment Group. On one of his missions in 1918, he was shot down over Germany and suffered burns and injured his hands. His general signed a death certificate for him, but that’s not the end of the story. Cooper survived somehow and was taken prisoner.
Merian C. Cooper
After World War I came to an end, he returned to France, but not for long. On February 1919, Captain Cooper went to Poland with a mission from the American Relief Administration to provide aid to the destroyed countries of Europe. In the meantime, Russia transformed into the Soviet Union after the October Revolution in 1917. This would prove fateful for the future life of M
In Poland, he often discussed the importance of the air force in modern warfare. Cooper also had a second motive to help Poland – as he often mentioned, his great-grandfather John Cooper served under Casimir Pulaski in the Siege of Savannah and considered him as a friend. Merian wanted to repay this debt and the possibility was soon on the horizon.
With the outbreak of the Polish-Soviet War, Cooper got permission to form a squadron, so he went back to France, recruited eight more pilots and returned to Poland with Cedric Fauntleroy. All of them were assigned to the Polish 7th Air Escadrille, better known as the Kościuszko Squadron. Faunterloy was a commander, Cooper led the second group “Pulaski”.
In 1920, Cooper and his Escadrille fought on the front. They supported many actions, including the Advance on Kiev, mostly on reconnaissance missions and fights against Budyonny’s Cavalry Army. On one of these missions, Cooper and his crewmate Crawford were shot down, yet they managed to escape on foot. Two months later Cooper became a commander of the squadron assigned to the city of Lviv.
On 13th of July 1920, Merian C. Cooper was shot down for a third time. This time, it happened behind enemy lines. The Soviets captured him. He tried to escape and because of that Russians sent him to a labor camp near Moscow. Free spirits like his were impossible to tame, and he tried to escape again with two others Polish POWs. This time, he was successful and after 700 kilometers they reached Latvia and from that point they headed back to Poland.
Thanks to the supplies and volunteers from many countries, Poland managed to win that war. In Polish historiography, it’s often called the “Miracle over Vistula”. Merian C. Cooper repaid the debt of his family and gave back even more. For valor, he was decorated by Józef Piłsudski with the highest Polish military decoration, the Virtuti Militari.
Merian C. Cooper
Cooper wrote “Things Men Die For” during his time as a prisoner-of-war. It was a hapless autobiography published in 1927. Why was it hapless? In 1928, Merian started to regret releasing some details about “Nina” (Małgorzata Słomczyńska) as it was proof of his relationship outside the wedlock, so he bought back over 5,000 copies of the manuscript, almost all the amount which had been printed. His life in Poland was also an inspiration for the movie “The Starry Squadron,” a romantic story about Polish girl and an American volunteer pilot. Unfortunately, all copies of this movie were destroyed by Soviets after the WW II.
His most famous work is “King Kong” from 1933, a movie that everyone knows. He wrote the screenplay and was co-director of it and even flew in the scene where an aircraft was shooting at the giant gorilla. He was the one who finished off the King Kong. The movie was a huge success that brought over 1,8 million $ (and a single ticket cost .15¢).
World War II for the United States started in 1941. Cooper was 47 years old, yet he re-enlisted and was commissioned a colonel in the U.S. Army Air Forces. He served with Col. Robert Scott in India and also worked as logistics liaison for the Doolittle Raid. He later served in China as chief of staff for General Claire Chennault of the China Air Task Force, which was the precursor of the 14th Air Force and served then from 1943 to 1945 in the Southwest Pacific as chief of staff for the 5th Air Force’s Bomber Command.
At the end of the war, he was promoted to brigadier general. For his contributions, he was also aboard the USS Missouri to witness Japan’s surrender.
It’s worth mentioning that the famous 303 Squadron inherited all traditions from the Polish 7th Air Escadrille, including the honor badge design. It was one of the most successful squadrons during the Battle of Britain
He was awarded the Order of Virtutti Military, Poland’s highest military decoration for heroism and courage and also the Polish Cross of Valour.
Merian C. Cooper
Additionally, he was awarded the Mexican Border Service Medal, the World War I Victory Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. Also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, but he declined to accept the medal.
Cooper was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1952 and have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, though his first name is misspelled “Meriam”.
Merian C. Cooper died in 1973 at the age of 79 in San Diego, California.
Information was received from War History on Line. Pictures were mainly from the Cooper Museum and Wikipedia.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Norris Bird – Hampton, IA; US Navy, WWII & Korea
Wayne Carver – Logan, KS; US Army, WWII, ETO
Robert Flucker – Rochester, MI; US Army, WWII
Standing Guard
Charles Hankins – Sulligent, AL; US Navy, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, Master Chief (Ret. 32 yrs.)
Ardis Hudak – Toledo, OH; US Navy WAVE, WWII
Paul McCullough – Hialeah, FL; USMC, Korea, Purple Heart
Edward O’Neill – Papakura, NZ; RNZ Army # U42660, Vietnam, Infantry regiment, Victor 5 Co.
Robert Perkins – Sebastopol, AUS; RA Air Force # 12569
Hans Schlichting – Houston, TX; US Army, 11th Airborne Division
James Walsh – Johnston, PA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO
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St. Christopher’s
ROCKHAMPTON, Australia — As 33,000 troops take part in Talisman Saber war games near Rockhampton along the central Queensland coast, a small chapel overlooking a pasture serves as a reminder of when about 70,000 U.S. soldiers called the city home.
The nondenominational Saint Christophers Chapel, built in 1943 by the Army’s 542nd Engineer Battalion, is the only structure remaining from when Rockhampton served as a springboard and training location for Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s World War II island-hopping campaign. The city hosted the 1st Cavalry Division and the 24th, 32nd and 41st infantry divisions on a half-dozen camps between 1942-44.
Along with the open-air, pavilion-style chapel, the grounds include a band rotunda dedicated to a servicemember who helped maintain the chapel decades ago. A concrete pillar from an artillery declination station used by 41st Infantry Division howitzers stands at the chapel’s foot, a
Cliff Hudson, 79, of Sawtell, New South Wales, first visited the chapel about 30 years ago because it shares its name with his son. “My wife always wanted our daughter to get married here because of the Christopher name,” he said.
Hudson said he is drawn by the chapel’s interior boards listing names, sporting events and results of competitions from the 1940s. The boards were taken from a nearby war-era sports field and placed inside and U.S. and Australian flags and seals adorn the gates and interior.
Saint Christopher’s nearly deteriorated in the years after WWII. Vandals destroyed parts of the chapel in 1959, prompting locals and the 41st Infantry Division Association to start caring for the site. Today, the chapel and its grounds are immaculately maintained, and church services are held each year on the Sunday closest to the Fourth of July.
Julie Henderson, 77, of Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, said she’s glad the chapel still stands. “It’s nice to come and remember the soldiers who served in the war because we weren’t there,” she said.
For further information about the chapel please click HERE!
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Air Activity in Java
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William Andrews Jr. – Palm Springs, FL; US Air Force, Korea, Bronze Star
Lowell Bailey – Thomaston, GA; US Army, Korea, POW
Bruce D’Agostino – Natick, MA; US Air Force, photographer (Founder of Humanitaian International)
John Ekenbarger – Nashua, NH; US Army, Korea, POW
Richard Ford – Broad Channel, NY; US Army, WWII
George Franklin – Pensacola, FL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 127th Engineers/11th Airborne Division, demolition
Quentin Gifford – Mankato, MN; US Navy, WWII, USS Oklahoma, KIA (Pearl Harbor)
Thomas Madison – Austin, TX; US Air Force, Vietnam, Col. (Ret. 20 yrs.), pilot, POW
Warren Glenn Ranscht – Racine, WI; US Army, WWII, ETO, WIA
Albert Zuidema – Falls Church, VA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, pilot, WIA
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Please remember that today 7 August is the U.S. observation of Purple Heart Day. Shake the hand of a veteran!
And say a prayer for our 3 Marines missing in the waters off Australia. Thank You.
Lt. Benjamin R. Cross of Bethel, Maine; Cpl. Nathan Ordway of Wichita, Kansas; and Pfc Reuben Velasco of California.
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Billy Young decided to enlist at age 15.
It remains the single-worst atrocity against Australians at war. Yet many Australians have probably never heard of Sandakan. So few men returned from the Japanese prisoner of war camp on the island of Borneo after World War II it has become a neglected chapter in Australia’s wartime history.
In fact 2,000 Australians spent time as POWs at Sandakan. And of the nearly 1,800 still captive there at the end of the war, only six men survived.
All of which makes Sydney man Billy Young rare indeed. He spent three years as a POW under the Japanese.
He is the only surviving rank and file Australian soldier who spent time at Sandakan. And he is the only POW still alive who was imprisoned at Outram Road Jail in Singapore.
Now aged 90, he has written a book about his inspiring story. “Billy: My Life as a Teenage POW”, co-written with historian Lynette Silver.
Mr Young would never have gone to war if his mother had not abandoned him as a baby. Adora Shaw walked out on Billy and his father William in Hobart in about 1927 and returned to Sydney with another son Kevin, from an earlier relationship.
Billy never saw her again. One of his earliest memories is of his father taking him to Sydney to search for her, and later showing him her grave. She had apparently died of tuberculosis.
William “Big Billy” Young w/ his son Billy, age six. in Sydney. photo courtesy of: Lynette Silver
A decade later his father also died. He had joined the Australian Communist Party and gone to Spain to fight in the civil war, but was caught and shot by forces loyal to dictator General Franco.
“When he was gone, I was like a wild animal,” Mr Young says from his home near Hurstville. “I was a rebel. I wanted my dad. He was the only person of authority I could listen to.”
At 15, a fellow student told him he wanted to enlist in the army. It was 1941. Australian troops were fighting overseas. Billy decided to join him. “The fella said to us ‘what mob do you want to join?’ And we said the one that goes overseas. He said ‘that’s the AIF’, and I said ‘that’s us’. He said ‘how old are you?’ And we said ‘how old have you gotta be?’ He said 19. We said ‘well, we’re 19’.”
See Billy Young, only a short 1:41
With no parents to give consent, the boys took the enlistment forms and signed each other’s paper. At 15 they were soldiers.
Hoping for a boys’ own adventure, they joined the 100,000 allied troops in Singapore. Mr Young says initially there was no fear of the Japanese. “Intelligence officers used to say to us: ‘Those Japanese — they’re nothing. They’re blind. They all wear glasses, they’re short-sighted’,” he says.
“But when they came down it was no laughing matter. They knew what they were doing.”
Soon after Billy’s 16th birthday the allied forces crumbled under the Japanese. Billy was suddenly a prisoner of war at Changi.
Then, with hundreds more soldiers he was shipped to Borneo to build a Japanese airstrip at Sandakan in the Malaysian jungle. It was stinking hot, humid and overrun by mosquitoes. But it was nothing against the brutal treatment of the Japanese.
The lack of food and water, torture and beatings were all common. “Sandakan was tremendously brutal towards the end of the war. Food was cut back to below starvations rations,” co-author Ms Silver says.
“And as Japan was losing the war, the punishment handed out was far more brutal than in the beginning. People were placed in a cage for 40 days and 40 nights. And some of them actually died in the cage.” Mr Young survived the Japanese brutality. But he watched other POWs suffer from starvation and the worst violence.
Mr. Young’s depiction of Jimmy Darlington’s punishment
One such victim was a young Aboriginal soldier Jimmy Darlington, who had dared to strike a Japanese soldier for washing his clothes in the prisoners’ cooking pot. He was bound and tied to sharp stakes of wood and left to suffer.
“One of the Japs grabbed a bucket of water,” Mr Young says.
“Another was grabbing ropes and he put it in the water, and knelt him on the platform and tied him down with ropes, or wet ropes. The sun started to shine and dried the ropes. And the ropes tightened up, and cut right into his wrists and his legs.”
Only after Mr Young and his mates created a diversion to distract the Japanese could another Australian soldier — an ambulance officer — move in to cut the ropes. Without it, Mr Young says Darlington would have died.
Prisoners line up for rice.
But far worse was in store for Mr Young. After a failed escape he was tried and sent to the hellhole that was Outram Road jail back in Singapore. He spent six months in solitary confinement — forced to sit cross legged for hours at a time.
Food rations were so pitiful prisoners, including Mr Young, became skeletal. He sat by while one of his fellow prisoners, a Dutch man, died of Beri-Beri in his arms.
“I put his head on my lap. I chatted to him and I pushed his chest and felt it. And you could feel it going up and down as he was panting for breath,” Mr Young says. “But death must have had slippers because he died and I didn’t know. So I waited.
“I put him down and I didn’t tell the guard, and I waited till his box of rice came and I put Peter’s bowl by him. And I got mine, I ate mine, and then I ate Peter’s. And that’s the only banquet we ever had between us you know.”
The bombing of Hiroshima signaled freedom for Mr. Young. Returning to Sydney, he couldn’t wait to reunite with his old mates from Sandakan.
But he couldn’t find them. “I waited and waited and waited. It took me ages to find out,” he says.
Only six men of the nearly 1,800 Australians in Sandakan at the end of the war survived. Many had died in the so-called Death Marches, when the Japanese forced them to walk as near-skeletons, 250 kilometres across Borneo.
Hundreds more starved to death. Still others were executed even after the war ended.
“The death rate at Sandakan for the Australians, 1,787 died, was 99.75 per cent,” Ms Silver says.
Some of Mr Young’s mates from Outram Rd also didn’t last long.
Outram Road Jail, Singapore.
“One of my dear friends got home in Tasmania and not home long and he went into his mum and dad’s orchard and blew his brains out with a rifle,” he sobs.
Mr Young was only 19 when he returned to Sydney. He had his own demons to confront. “We had no one who understood the trauma. Not the. Even now… at 91 almost, there are still stories I cannot tell. I bawl like a little baby,” he said.
But 70 years on, the wounds have finally healed. Mr Young today is an avid painter. His home is filled with paintings of his time at Sandakan and Outram Rd Jail.
“He very rarely has a down moment. He is just so positive, and I think that his positive attitude has gotten him this far,” his daughter says.
Mr Young’s paintings — and now the book he has written with Ms Silver — will remain a lasting record of the mates he lost at Sandakan. “For Billy and me they are frozen in time,” she says. “We know them as they were – as 18-year-old men. And that’s probably the great thing about the ode that we say – they shall grow not old as we that are left grow old…”
“For the two of us they are still the people that left Australia as young people, young men with hope for the empire and their country. Taking on the Japanese, and who never came home.”
Click on images to enlarge.
Article contributed by Beari
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Ila Albert – Belmont, MA; US Army WAC; WWII, ETO
Robert Anderson – Omaha, NE; US Army Air Corps, WWII, radar operator
Eric Boyd – Bathurst, AUS; British Navy, WWII
Charles Carlson – Queens, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, Lt., P-47 pilot, KIA
Gennis ‘Pete’ Elks – Farmville, NC; US Navy, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, Sr. Chief Petty Officer (Ret. 32 yrs.)
James Garner – Bridgeville, PA; USMC, WWII, PTO
Dick Helf – Wichita, KS; US Navy, WWII/ US Air Force, Korea
Effie (Robertson) Morton – NZ; RNZ Army WAAC, WWII # 813367, gunner
Ara Parseghian – Akron, OH; US Navy, WWII, (Hall of Fame coach of Notre Dame Univ.)
Amory Shields – Toronto, CAN; RC Navy & Dept. of National Defense
Garnet Winfrey – Bramwell, WV; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, Sgt., 11th Airborne Division Honor Guard
The 54th Troop Carrier Wing was established on 26 February 1943 [one day after the 11th A/B Div. at Camp MacKall] and commenced air transport and medical air evacuation operations in support of Fifth Air Force on 26 May 1943. advancing as battle lines permitted.
The unit took part in the airborne invasion of Nadzab, New Guinea in September 1943 by dropping the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, as well as Australian engineers and heavy equipment.
The wing employed C-47’s almost exclusively, but during late 1943 and much of 1944 also used 13 converted B-17E’s for armed transport missions in enemy-held territory. The 54th supported every major advance made by the allies in the Southwest Pacific Theater operating from primitive airstrips carved from jungles and air-dropping cargo where airstrips unavailable.
In July 1944, the wing dropped 1,418 paratroopers on Noemfoor Island to aid the allied invasion forces. Then assumed the task of handling all freight and personnel moving in troop carrier aircraft in the Southwest Pacific, in addition to scheduled and unscheduled air movement of cargo and troops, and air evacuation of wounded personnel.
In preparation for airborne operations in the Philippines, the 54th TCW conducted joint training with the 11th Airborne Division. August and September 1944 were held in Nadzab. Due to the demands of transport resources in building up Allied strength in Netherlands, New Guinea, the wing rotated the squadrons in Doboduru where they received refresher training in paradrops and aerial supply. The training proved to be of great value at Tagatay Ridge, Corregidor and in the Cagayan Valley, Luzon, when the 11th A/B need a lift for their paratroopers and gliders.
Early December 1944, the 5th Air Force HQ was attacked as well as the 44th Station Hospital. The 187th HQ Company [Smitty was there], set up a perimeter. They stood there through the night, rifles ready. By morning there were 19 dead enemy soldiers. Col. Pearson sent out patrols that located another 17 Japanese hiding out in the rice paddies..
Okinawa
By late 1944 and during the early months of 1945, most wing missions were flown to the Philippines. In February 1945, the wing flew three more airborne operations, all in the Philippines, to help encircle Japanese concentrations. For the 11th A/B Division’s jump on Aparri in north Luzon, the first plane off the ground was piloted by Col. John Lackey. Wing C-47s dropped napalm on Caraboa Island in Manila Bay in March 1945.
11th Airborne Division paradrop, June 1945
When hostilities ended on Luzon, the wing moved the entire 11th Airborne Division (11,300 personnel) from the Philippines to Okinawa on short notice. It would take the 54th Troop Carrier Wing two days to transport the 11th Airborne using 351 C-46s, 151 C-47s and 99 B-24s; with their bombs removed and crammed with troopers. The planes had carted the men; 1,161,000 pounds of equipment and 120 special-purpose jeeps for communication and supply.
Glider training
The 54th then began transporting occupation forces into Japan, beginning with General Swing, the 187th Regiment (and Smitty). On the first day, 123 aircraft brought 4,200 troopers to Atsugi Airfield. During September 1945, the wing also evacuated over 17,000 former prisoners of war from Japan to the Philippines.
The wing served as part of the occupation forces in Japan from 25 September 1945 to about 26 January 1946, while continuing routine air transport operations and a scheduled courier service. Beginning in December 1945 and continuing into mid-1946, most of the wing’s components were reassigned to other units or inactivated, and on 15 January 1946 the wing became a component of the Far East (soon, Pacific) Air Service Command.
Towing a glider.
Moving to the Philippines, the wing gained new components and flew scheduled routes between Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and the Hawaiian Islands. Replaced by the 403rd Troop Carrier Group on 31 May 1946 and was inactivated.
Further, more detailed information can be found in the publications by the IHRA.
This article incorporates material from the US Air Force Historical Research Agency, “The Angels: The History of the 11th Airborne Division” & “Rakassans”, both by Gen. E.M. Flanagan; Wikipedia and US Airborne Commando Operations.
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John Bettridge – Denver, CO; US Army, WWII & Korea
Gerard Caporaso – Chatham, NJ; US Army Air Corps, WWII, (author: “From the Top Turret: A Memoir of WW2 and the American Dream”)
Daniel Cooney – Plandome, NY; US Army, WWII, ETO
Prosper “Trapper” Couronne – Whitewood, CAN; RC Army, Korea, Warrant Officer (Ret. 24 yrs.), 1st PPCLI
Bruce Goff – Elmwood, NZ; RNZ Air Force # 4214914, WWII
Fred Hartman Sr. – Horsehead, NY; US Army, WWII & Korea
Myron Hollman – Wausau, WI; US Navy, WWII/ US Army, Korea/ US Air Force, Vietnam
Theodore Matula – Lantana, FL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, P-47 pilot
Lloyd Urbine – Ft. Wayne, IN; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Robert Winton – Bowie, TX; US Army Air Corps, WWII
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Jul 29
This gallery contains 12 photos.
Originally posted on henryhogh:
Mange danskere fejrer den amerikanske nationaldag 4. juli ved at deltage i Rebildfesten, der er den største fejring af USAs nationaldag udenfor USA. I USA fejres nationaldagen 4. juli traditionelt med masser af fyrværkeri, som vist her i en tegning fra 1902. Da vi har mange venner i USA ville vi…
Smitty - artwork by Priorhouse.wordpress.com/
Our Silent Observer
Jeep crossing
