Major Milton Joel, eighty-one years later…

I recently received the following comment from Jim Rubin, concerning Major Milton Joel, commander of the 38th Fighter Squadron of the 55th Fighter Group until his death in combat over Holland with Me 109s of Jagdgeschwader 1 on November 29, 1943.  (Among the posts about Major Joel, see here and here in particular.)

Being that – for a reason presently unresolved! (&$#@^&* (!?!)) – comments to this blog are not displayed in my sidebar, I thought I’d share Jim’s comment by turning it into a post.  (Extraordinarily brief, by the standards of my blog!)  So, herewith:

Maj. Milton Joel was my cousin (my dad’s contemporary, although eight years Pop’s senior).  When Pop (now 96 y.o. and going strong) was in the U.S. Army of Occupation in Germany (1945-47), he spent a lot of time trying to track down cousin Milton’s remains, but was unsuccessful.  Cousin Milton called my Pop “Little Buddy” and Pop loved and revered him.  The Joels, Weinstein’s and the Rubin families were all heart broken over the loss of Milton.  By all accounts he was a warm, kind and witty man.

My reply: Thanks very much for your insightful and moving comment, Jim.  Trying to ascertain Major Joel’s fate was a noble effort on the part of your father, but given the time-frame – the immediate post-WW II years – such an endeavor would have been utterly daunting, and well-high impossible.  For one thing, MACRs (Missing Air Crew Reports) were not declassified until the 1980s, while then-relatively-recently captured German Luftgaukommando Reports were – I think? – in a transitional stage of custody among & between American and British Forces.  

In human terms, the only survivor among the P-38 pilots shot down on November 29, 1943 was 2 Lt. John J. Carroll, and the possibility of even identifying him – as a returned POW, in 1945, as a person to interview, as one would do in “our” world of the twenty-first century – would have been miniscule, due to confidentiality of military and other records, unless one previously had an “in” among and familiarity with 38th Fighter Squadron personnel.  

As I explained in my series of posts about Major Joel and the other 38th Fighter Pilots lost over eight decades ago in the late November sky over Holland, I believe that Major Joel was shot down over the Netherlands, within or very near the area between Hoogeveen and Zwartsluis, as denoted by the blue oval.  

I do not believe his “Flying Wolf” ever (ever) reached a point anywhere near the Ijsselmeer or North Sea. 

I base this conclusion on the description of the sequence of events encompassing the shooting down of Lieutenants Albert A. Albino and Carroll, and, the arrival of Captain Rufus R.C. Franklin and 2 Lt. James W. Gilbride (of the 343rd Fighter Squadron, which by then, after having gone into two Lufberry Circles, was heading back to Nuthampstead under the command of a pilot who shall remain anonymous…) over Meppel and Hoogeveen, after they broke from their squadron to come to the aid of Major Joel and Lt. Carroll. 

If this is so, certainly a central and entirely valid question is why the wreckage of 42-67020 was never found in this area of the Netherlands – which certainly has hardly been devoid of human habitation! – and reported upon by either the Germans, or, Dutch authorities.  To this I can offer no answer.  I can only suppose that like Lt. Albino’s Spirit of Aberdeen, Major Joel’s P-38H impacted so very deeply into the Dutch earth, perhaps unwitnessed in an uninhabited locale, as to have obliterated its point of impact, let alone the aircraft itself.  

On an unrelated note, I’ve often wondered about the eventual fate of Major Joel’s correspondence – letters and V-Mails – with his parents and family members, let alone documents of an official nature, such as his pilot’s log-book.  (His widow Elaine having destroyed their personal correspondence before she passed away many years ago.)  Alas, I suppose this invaluable material has been lost to the randomness of time.      

Anyway, thanks for remembering Major Joel, and thanks for your comment.

Here are two views of CG * A, Major Joel’s un-named “Flying Wolf”…

                                                                 

Here are my blog posts about Major Joel…

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: I – A Fate Unknown

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: II – From Proskurov to Richmond

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: III – On Course [Revised post! … December 18, 2023]

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: IV (1) – Autumn Over Europe

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: IV (2) – Autumn Over Europe – The “Flying Wolf” Identified [Updated post…]

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: V – A Monday in November: Major Joel’s Last Mission [Updated Post! – January 14, 2021]

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: VI – The Missing Years

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: VII – A Battle in The Air [Updated post! – January 14, 2021]

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: VIII – A Postwar Search: The Missing of November [Updated Post! – January 14, 2021]

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: IX – The Major, Still Missing  [Updated]

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: X – Fragments of Memory

Next: Part XI – References  (No pictures, just lots of citations and links.)

And, these related posts…

The Names of Others: Jewish Military Casualties on November 29, 1943

An Echo of His Final Mission: 2 Lieutenant James M. Garvin, KIA November 29, 1943

 

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: II – From Proskurov to Richmond [Updated Post! … Jan. 13, 2021 and December 18, 2023]

(Update II – December 18, 2023: This year, I received an interesting message from P-38 historian John Clements. Specifically: “I stumbled on your websites the other day doing a semi-regular troll for P-38 information on the web. I am working on a book on the P-38, trying to present the most accurate information possible. I was stunned when I came across the two photos of Milton Joel standing in front of a P-38D during the Carolina Maneuvers in the articles from 2020.  #96 has all of the characteristics of a YP-38, not a P-38D.  It could also be a straight P-38, but I have never seen any model of the early aircraft with a YP-38 style lower cowling.”

Upon receiving John’s message, I consulted Volume I of Bert Kinzey’s two-part series on the P-38 – specifically, the set of 1/72 line drawings of the YP-38 on pages 23 through 25 – and immediately verified John’s observation: In YP-38s, the oil cooler inlets are less circular than those of the D version, featuring a vertical double-divider in the center. This is entirely consistent with the appearance of the inlets of the aircraft behind Major Joel.  As related by John, “I haven’t found evidence of any kind that this style was on any other model. I’m including another photo of the YP that was used in wind tunnel tests in Virginia. It’s the best photo of the engine nacelle of the YP’s that I have found so far.”

Thanks, John!  More information and photos appear below…!)

(Update I – January 13, 2021: Originally created on November 12, 2020, this post has been updated to include three new images.  These comprise a portrait of Milton Joel standing before a Stearman PT-17, taken while be was in Primary pilot training, and, two images from the U.S. School Yearbook database at Ancestry.com.  The latter are specifically from the 1940 Yearbook for the University of Richmond, Milton Joel’s alma mater.  These two images comprise a group photo of the University of Richmond Aviation Club, and, Milton’s graduation portrait.  Scroll on down to take a look…)

 

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Part II: From Proskurov to Richmond

Let’s start at a man’s beginning…

Milton Joel was born in Richmond, Virginia, on July 12, 1919, to Joseph and Minnie (Weinstein) Joel.  Characterized as a “change of life baby” due to his parents’ then relatively advanced ages (in the context of that era) of 38 and 32, respectively, he would be their only child. 

Joseph, described by Sara F, Markham (the best friend of Milton’s (eventual!) wife Elaine Ebenstein) as, “…a Judaica scholar and a homespun philosopher who was always writings letters to the Op-Ed page of our reactionary gazette, the Richmond Times-Dispatch,” owned and operated the Virginia Jewelry Store, following – to a minor extent – the footsteps of his own father, Salomon.

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Fortunately; remarkably, Joseph’s literary and historical bent led him, towards the end of his life in 1960, to compose – with Myron Berman (then rabbi of Temple Beth-El in Richmond) – an essay covering his family’s genealogy and history.  This appeared in the July 1979, issue of The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, under the title “My Recollections and Experiences of Richmond, Virginia, 1884-1892.” 

Though focused on his father, Joseph’s essay enables us to place Milton’s life in a deeper, multi-generational historical context.

The introduction to the essay (there’s far more to it!) follows below.  (References to the Ukrainian SSR should be understood in terms of the essay’s 1979 publication.)

THESE memoirs constitute a small portion of the autobiographical manuscripts written by Joseph Joel (1882-1960) near the end of his life.  They display a panorama of Jewish civilization at the turn of the century as well as the reflections of an East European immigrant upon life in Europe America.  The narrative, which focuses mainly upon the experiences Joseph Joel’s father, Salomon Czaczkes (Joel) (1853-1934), constitutes both the epitome and antithesis of an immigrant’s odyssey from Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian empire to America in the period immediately prior to World War I.  What is perhaps unique about Salomon Joel’s peregrinations is that unlike the majority of his East European compatriots whose transatlantic passages were paid by prosperous relatives from America, Salomon Joel and his family eventually returned to Europe on a prepaid ticket provided by the European branch of his family. (1)

Brought to these shores while yet an infant, Joseph Joel years later pieced together the poignant details of his parents’ migration from Proskurov, originally part of Poland but through annexation in the eighteenth century incorporated into the Russian empire. (2)   Because Salomon Joel had lived within the borders of Galicia, he was looked upon with suspicion by the Russian government.  With ten growing children to provide for, Salomon’s father earlier had decided to move from Tarnopol (3) to Podwoloczyska (4) as the railroad had been extended to that border outpost between Russia Austria-Hungary and afforded economic advantages for merchants dealing in agricultural products.

When his mother died, Salomon Joel was subject to the vagaries of his stepmother.  It was she who was responsible for his enrollment in a yeshiva or Jewish parochial school away from home and for his early marital alliance with a cousin of hers in Proskurov. (5)  Eventually he was himself the father of ten children, three of whom, including Joseph, were born in Europe.  The untenability of his legal status, the precarious nature of his livelihood, and, finally, the pull of a brother and a sister already residing in America were primary factors motivating the emigration of Salomon Joel with his family. (6)

Joel had a difficult time adjusting to the American economy.  Although he had been a grain merchant in Europe, he opened a jewelry store in Richmond, which proved a fiasco.  Never having learned the business, he was always dependent upon the services of trained technicians whom he had to employ.  Devoting himself more to communal pursuits than to his livelihood, Joel moved frequently within the city of Richmond and finally to Chicago to try his luck during the World’s Fair of 1893.  When economic conditions in the United States worsened shortly thereafter, Salomon Joel returned with his family to Podwoloczyska. 

In Europe, Joel was assisted by his stepbrother but never fared well.  He typified a large segment of immigrants who could not adjust to the American environment and to a certain extent may be categorized as Luftmenschen, trying to subsist on air.  Salomon Joel died in Europe, and tragically a large number of his family were later massacred by the Nazis. (7) 

Joseph Joel, however, returned to America in 1914 and, after a brief sojourn in Deming, New Mexico, became a jewelry merchant in Richmond.  More successful than his father, he wrote nostalgically about the good old days of strong religious and family ties, which contrasted rather starkly with the environment of the ‘fifties.  Joseph married Minnie Weinstein, the daughter of a Landtsmann or compatriot from Tarnopol, whose family’s voyage to America had been facilitated by Salomon Joel.  Their only son, Captain [sic] Milton Joel, was killed during World War II.  In later years, Joseph Joel, despite certain eccentricities, became a patriarch to his family. 

1) Joseph Czaczkes, a banker, Salomon Joel’s stepbrother, was the family’s benefactor.
2) Proskurov today is in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.  The population of the city was forty percent Jewish until World War II when it was occupied by the Germans.
3) Tarnopol, Galicia, today is called Ternopol and is in the Ukrainian SSR.
4) Podwoloczyska, Galicia, is called Podvolochisk and is in the Ukrainian SSR.
5) Salomon Josel first married Yetta Bernstein and upon her death, her sister Bertha.
6) The children of Salomon Joel were as follows:
Fannie (1873-1891), buried at the Sir Moses Montefiore Cemetery in Richmond
Moses (1877-1904), buried in Podwoloczyska
Yetta died in infancy and was buried in Podwoloczyska
Joseph (1882-1960), buried at Beth Ahabah’s Hebrew Cemetery in Richmond
Israel (1886-1930), buried in Wiener Neustadt
Esther (1980-ca.-1940), exterminated by the Nazis
Herman (1890-1965), buried at Sir Moses Montefiore Cemetery
Efraim (1893-1977), buried at Sir Moses Montefiore Cemetery
Mushke or Moses (1904-1930), buried at Sir Moses Montefiore Cemetery
Robert (1898 –      ), a resident of Miami
and Clara (1912 –      ), a physician in Baltimore
(7) Members of his family from America visited him just prior to his death in 1934.

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But how did “Czaczkes” become “Joel”?

As noted elsewhere in the essay, Joseph’s, “…father [was] Salomon Czaczkes, who changed his name on arrival at Richmond, Va. to Salomon Joel.  This changing of name was due to the fact that there were few foreigners here and the people just couldn’t pronounce the “Cz” as “Ch” as in Chicken,” etc.”

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A 1930s view of the Joel family home in Richmond. (c/o Harold Winston)

This Oogle Street View shows that the now-nearly-century-old residence (it was constructed in 1922) looks much the same today. 

Milton’s bar mitzvah portrait. (c/o Harold Winston)

Though I don’t know the date of his bar mitzvah, Milton’s birth on Saturday, July 12, 1919, may (may…) have correlated to a Bar Mitzvah date of July 18, 1932 (Tammuz 14, 5692).  If so, his Haftorah would have been Parshat Pinchas, concerning which there is a vast amount of commentary, such as these examples from…

The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (z”l)

Torah.org

My Jewish Learning

Wikipedia (well, inevitably Wikipedia!)

Chabad

Though, unsurprisingly, there’s little information about Milton’s childhood and adolescence, it is known that he graduated in 1936 from Thomas Jefferson High School in Richmond.  There, he was active in the school’s newspaper, aptly titled The Jeffersonian, as reported in Richmond Times-Dispatch article of February 16, 1936.


In the photo, Milton is among the group of students in the right-hand image, where he stands second from right in the second row.

Caption: “The staff of editors of The Jeffersonian, pictured above, includes those who served last term and their successors for editorial positions this term.  They are: Front row, left to right, Norman Robinson, Grant Morton, Adelaide Rose, Constance Strailmann, Watson James, Jr., and Thurman Day.  Second row, Shirley Sheain, Rosa Ellis, Mary Elizabeth Alvis, Ruth Keppel, James Harris, Milton Joel and Jane Obermeyer.  Back row, William Franch, Elizabeth Johnson, Charlotte Nance, Kathering Priddy, Robert Howard and Austin Gribb.”

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Milton’s father Joseph, at the family home in the 1930s or 40s. (c/o Harold Winston)

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Though the source of his aeronautical inspiration is unknown, Milton’s interest in flying was apparent by the time he attended the University of Richmond (he first attended the University of Virginia), his enrollment commencing in 1936.  There, he participated in a pilot training program sponsored by the CAA (Civil Aeronautics Authority; later the Civil Aeronautics Board), which was covered in the following three Richmond Times-Dispatch news items.

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Students Are Taught to Use Parachutes – – – on the Ground

Richmond Times-Dispatch
December 19, 1939

University of Richmond flying students received their first instruction in parachute jumping yesterday, but, to the relief of many, the training was given on the ground.

Instructor J.H. Preissner pointed out the correct method of opening the ‘chute and delved into technical details for the benefit of the class of 17 students at Byrd Airport.

The group has been receiving the flight instruction, sponsored by the Civil Aeronautics Authority, since October 18, in two classes of two hours’ duration each week.  The course, consisting of 72 hours of class work, will be completed in June.

10 Are Active Pupils

Prior to the beginning of actual flying instruction 10 days ago, the students were taught civil air regulations and aerodynamics.  Ten member of the class are active pupils while the others are alternates.

Examinations will be given by the Federal Government.  The training is being given the students by the Government at approximately one-tenth what would be charged at private fields in order to raise the number of civilian pilots in the United States.

The students are in no way obligated to the Government, however, it was pointed out.  In all probability an advanced course will be given next year.

Caption: COLLEGE PUPILS STUDY ‘CHUTES – University of Richmond students who are taking a flying course under the Civil Aeronautics Authority, got their first instructions yesterday in taking to the air via a parachute.  Members of the class are shown above with Instructor J.H. Preissner.  Left to right, are Milton Joel, Parke Starke, Harvey Chapman, Ernest Taylor, Clyde Ford, Donald Murrill, Mr. Preissner, Samuel George, Thomas Bruno and Tom Wiley.

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In this Richmond Times-Dispatch news article of February 28, 1940, covering CAA pilot training of University of Richmond Students, Milton stands at the far right.  (c/o Congregation Beth Ahabah Archives)

A nearly similar image – below – appeared in the University of Richmond 1940 yearbook, which specifies that the fourteen men in the photo are actually members or associates of the University of Richmond Aviation Club. 

A close inspection reveals that these are actually two different photographs, albeit taken by the same photographer: S.L. Baird.  The giveaway?  While the men are standing in the same relative locations in the pictures, there are minor differences in their poses and facial expressions.  

The aircraft is a Rearwin Cloudster, a, “…two or three-seat civil utility aircraft produced by the Rearwin Aircraft & Engines Company of Kansas City, Missouri beginning in 1939.  It was a strut-braced, high-wing monoplane of conventional design with an enclosed cabin and fixed, taildragger undercarriage.”  You can view a restored Cloudster in this 2010 video narrated by owner Ed McKeown, from the Aero-News Network. 

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This photo published (I think?) in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on July 7, 1940 illustrates CAA student pilots.  With hands on the controls – I think this is a Cloudster – Milton sits adjacent to the aircraft’s entry door. (c/o Congregation Beth Ahabah Archives)

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Milton’s graduation portrait.

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After his university graduation, Milton pursued flying in a military vein:  Here is notification received by his parents concerning his enlistment in the Regular Army on October 12, 1940, and, his departure for the Alabama Institute of Aeronautics at Tuscaloosa.  (c/o Congregation Beth Ahabah Archives)

The following three images show the Alabama Institute of Aeronautics as it appeared in the 1940s. 

This photo shows classrooms, dormitories, a hangar, and numerous (Boeing Stearman?) biplanes.

A barracks room.  Simple and spartan, but it does the job.

Flying cadets return from training. 

From the Archives of Congregation Beth Ahabah in Richmond, Virginia, this image shows Milton Joel standing before a Stearman PT-17, presumably at Tuscaloosa. 

Very (very!) close examination of the photograph (it’s actually a paper photocopy, thus accounting for its graininess and low resolution) reveals that the Stearman’s serial number is 40-1841.  According to the Aviation Archeology database, this aircraft was involved in a landing accident at Albany Field, Georgia, on October 29, 1941, while piloted by Donald P. Chapman.

The date of the photograph is unknown, but from crispness of shadows and bright illumination, it was certainly a very sunny day.

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Having completed his Basic Flying School at Gunter Field, Alabama, in March of 1941, Milton next attended Advanced Flying School at Maxwell Field, Alabama, from which he graduated the following May.  Along with six other Aviation Cadets from Virginia, Milton appeared in this Richmond Times-Dispatch photograph on April 27, 1941.  Here, the seven cadets and flight instructor Lieutenant Neener stand before a North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer.

Caption: YOUNG PILOTS TRAIN – Seven Virginians are shown here checking final flight plans with Lieutenant E.H. Neener at Maxwelll Field, Ala., where they are in training.  They are (left to right) Cadets Glassel Stringfellow of Culpepper, Charles R. Mallory Jr. of Richmond, Milton Joel of Richmond, Lieutenant Neener, Cadets George L.J. Newton of Powhatan County, Roy L. Reeve of Arlington, R.L. Tribble of South Boston and Thomas Campbell of Franklin.  The cadets will graduate next month with more than 200 hours’ air training at the Advanced Flying Field.  They will be commissioned second lieutenants and sent on extended active duty with regular Air Corps units. 

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A review of National Archives Records covering Honor Rolls of WW II Army Dead (via the National WW II Memorial website) reveals that all the above (then) Cadets, as well as Lt. Neener, survived the war.  Milton was the only member of this group who did not return.

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This news item of May 2, 1941 from “The Richmond Daybook” section of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, reports on Milton’s final stages of Advanced Flying Training at Maxwell Field, Alabama.

FLYING Cadet Milton Joel, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Joel of Greenway Lane, Richmond, has begun the final phases of his flying training at the Air Corps Advanced Flying School, Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Ala.  On May 29 he will be graduated into the status of second lieutenant, Air Corps Reserve, receive military aeronautical status of “pilot” and be assigned to extended duty training with a regular squadron for a period of one year.  Cadet Joel finished his basic training at Gunter Field, Montgomery, last March.

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This photographic portrait of Milton as a Flying Cadet, from the United States National Archives’ collection “Photographic Prints of Air Cadets and Officers, Air Crew, and Notables in the History of Aviation”, in NARA Records Group 18-PU.  Notation on the photo (not visible in this image) states “Graduated 5/29/41”.  This image is only one of the collection’s many thousands of portraits and related photos, which – spanning the very late 1930s through approximately 1944 and having heaviest coverage from 1941 through 1943 – includes a small number of photos from WW I and the twenties, and, a few pictures of foreign aviators from the 20s and 30s.  You can read much more about the this collection in Five Pilots in December (which displays images of the five Army Air Corps fighter pilots who lost their lives during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), at my brother blog, ThePastPresented.  (Milton’s portrait, serial number “P-8000”, is located in Box 47 of RG 18 PU’s 105 archival storage boxes.) 

On May 30, 1941, Milton’s high-school newspaper the Jeffersonian reported his graduation from Maxwell Field.

Flying Cadet Milton Joel ’36, who was business manager at the Jeffersonian in 1935-36, was graduated into the status of second lieutenant, Air Corps Reserve, at the Air Corps Advanced Flying School, Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Ala., yesterday.  He also received the military aeronautical status of “pilot” and was assigned to extended active duty training with a regular squadron for a year. 

A little over a month later, on July 21, the Times-Dispatch reported Milton’s assignment to the 27th Pursuit Squadron of the 1st Pursuit Group, then at Selfridge Army Airfield, Michigan.

Richmond Aviator Goes to Michigan

SELFRIDGE FIELD, Mich., July 21 – Milton Joel, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Joel, Greenway Lane, Richmond, and recent graduate of the Air Corps Flying School, Maxwell Field, Ala., has been assigned as a second lieutenant with the World War famous First Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field, and has taken over his flying duties with the Twenty-Seventh Pursuit Squadron, Major Robert S. Israel, Jr., commanding officer of the “P-38” Fighter Group, revealed today.

Joel, who has attended both the University of Virginia and the University of Richmond, is required to accomplish a minimum of fifty hours’ flying monthly.
Beside the regular aerial flights, Joel must undergo intensive ground flying.  Key to the paradox is the Link trainer, an ingenious and complex device which makes it possible to simulate the conditions of blind flying.

In November of 1941, Milton’s assignment to the 27th Pursuit Squadron involved participation in the Army’s Carolina Maneuvers, with the 1st Pursuit Group (a component of the 6th Fighter Wing) taking part in all four Maneuver phases: Louisiana Phases 1 and 2, and Carolina phases 1 and 2, from September 15 through 27, and November 16 through 27, respectively. 

These two images show Milton standing before a P-38D YP-38 Lightning bearing aircraft-in-squadron number “96”.  The aircraft carries temporary (water-based-paint) Maneuver markings, consisting of a red cross upon its nose, and, (rather fading) white paint on the bottom of its gondola and wings.  (c/o Sarah F. Markham)

In this image, the crest of the 1st Fighter Group is visible on Milton’s service cap, while the Army Air Corp’s pre-war “triple-pinwheel” orange and blue emblem is visible on his left shoulder. (c/o Sara F. Markham)

Here’s an example of the pre-war art-deco-ish shoulder Army Air Force patch, worn from July 20, 1937, through March 19, 1942, when it was replaced by the more well-known winged star. 

Continuing with John Clements’ identification of this plane as a YP-38, here the list of all YP-38s – but one – compiled by Joe Baugher:

MSN 122-2202/2214.  Model 122-62-02 service test aircraft.

689 crashed during high-speed dive Nov 4, 1941 over Glendale, CA, killing test pilot Ralph Virden.
690 assigned to NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Virginia Nov 27, 1941 to Feb 4, 1942. To Parks Air College, St Louis, MO Feb 26, 1942.
691 assigned to NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Virginia  Nov 27, 1941. Scrapped at Sacramento Air Depot Dec 17, 1945.
692 scrapped at Lowry Field, Denver, CO Jul 5, 1945.
693 relegated to class CL-26 maintenance trainer at Chanute, AK Jul 24, 1942.
694 relegated to class CL-26 maintenance trainer Jan 5, 1943, Granite Falls, WA.
695 w/o Jul 23, 1941, Alpena, MI.?
697 used as class CL-26 maintenance trainer Jan 5, 1943 at Lockheed
698 scrapped Mar 20, 1946 San Bernardino, CA.
699 crashed Jun 23, 1941, Atlanta, MI.  Pilot Lt Guy Leland Putnam killed.
700 relegated to class CL-26 maintenance trainer Jan 27, 1943 at Brookley Field, Mobile, AL.
701 relegated to class CL-26 maintenance trainer Jan 5, 1943 at Lockheed

On discussing the above list, John noted that aircraft “696” is missing.  Being that the plane-in-squadron (tail) number of Major Joel’s plane is “96” (as seen in the photo on page 81 of Dana Bell’s Air Force Colors), John suggests that the plane could be the absent “696”, or specifically, “39-696”.  Makes sense to me!

The photo below, provided by John, is of, “…the YP that was used in wind tunnel tests in Virginia.  It’s the best photo of the engine nacelle of the YP’s that I have found so far.”  The front of the nacelle is identical to that of Major Joel’s plane.

Interestingly, Bert Kinzey’s book states that for YP-38, “Armament was to be two .50-caliber machine guns, two .30-caliber machine guns, and a single 37-mm cannon.  However, this was not fitted, and the gun ports were faired over.”  In that context, perhaps 696’s armament of two machine guns, the muzzles of which are covered with streamlined cylindrical fairings, represents a modification carried out after the plane was assigned to the 1st Fighter Group.

The specific P-38D YP-38 serving as a backdrop to Major Joel can be seen (a very tiny portion of it can be seen) in Army Air Corps Photo “A 20599AC / 342-3B-41009”, dated November 3, 1941:  The number on its port fin and rudder is visible immediately to the left of the port fin and rudder of P-38 “67”, the latter in the right center of the image.  This picture can be found on page 81 of Dana Bell’s Air Force Colors, Vol. I.

Another photo provided by John: 1st Fighter Group P-38s – #54 and #51 – at the Carolina Maneuvers.

From Air Force Colors, Vol. I, here’s an illustration of a P-38D in “red force” markings:

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Two images of Milton in the United States.  Date unknown; location unknown.

(c/o Ida Joel Kaplan)

(c/o Harold Winston)

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While assigned to the 27th Fighter Squadron, Milton was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in February or March of 1942, and then Captain in June.  It was at the latter rank that on October 3, 1942, he took command of the 38th Fighter Squadron at Paine Field, Washington.  This photo, showing Milton wearing a flight jacket with the insignia of the 27th Fighter Squadron, can therefore be dated as having been taken before that date.  (c/o Harold Winston)

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The circumstances – random luck? – a mutual acquaintance? – by which Milton and his future wife, Elaine Ebenstein of Beverly Hills, California, met one another, are unknown.  However, most definitely known is that they were married at Paine Field in June of 1943, as reported in the Richmond Times-Disptach on June 25, of that year.

Miss Ebenstein Will Marry Major Milton Joel, USAAF

Mr. and Mrs. Herbert R. Ebenstein, of New York and Beverley Hills, Calif., announce the engagement of their daughter, Elaine, to Major Milton Joel, United States Army Air Force, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Joel, of Richmond.

The wedding will take place June 29 [Tuesday] at Paine Field, Everette, Wash.
The groom is a graduate of the University of Richmond in the class of 1940.

Characterized by her friend Sarah Markham as “tall, thin, and regal”, here is Elaine’s portrait. (c/o Harold Winston)…

…and, here’s a view of Minnie, Joseph, and their beaming daughter-in-law in Richmond.  (c/o Ida Joel Kaplan)

Next: Part III – On Course

1,507 – November 12, 2020

A Missing Man: Major Milton Joel, Fighter Pilot, 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force: III – On Course [Revised post! … December 18, 2023]

[Update: Created in November of 2020, this post has been updated to reflect information provided by Andrew Garcia, pertaining to the P-38 that serves as a backdrop for the image of Major Joel and Capt. Joseph Myers, Jr.  The picture can be seen towards the (very) bottom of the post.]

Part III: On Course

Now in command of the 38th Fighter Squadron, Milton’s promotion to Major was announced in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, on February 2, 1943. 

MAJOR AT 23 – Milton Joel (above) son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Joel, 5 Greenway Lane, is believed to be one of the army’s youngest majors.  He completed his civilian pilot’s course at the University of Richmond in 1939 after attending the University of Virginia.  He later trained at Tuscaloosa Field, Ala.  He was commissioned a second lieutenant in May, 1941, promoted to first lieutenant in February, 1942, and a captain in June.  He is now commanding officer of a fighter squadron at Pendleton Field, Ore.

Flying-battle-axe emblem of the 38th Fighter Squadron, digital…

…and physical, as a patch, available from EBay seller EZ.Collect.  (Not a “plug” – I simply found this image via duckduckgo!)

________________________________________

Three and a half months after taking command of the 38th Fighter Squadron, on February 19, 1943, Milton and several of his squadron’s pilots gathered for this group photograph, under what seems (?) to have been an overcast sky.

Interestingly, at least four pilots in the rear row (thus all perhaps in the rear row?) were members of the 27th Fighter Squadron (Milton’s former squadron) and attained aerial victories in the Mediterranean Theater.

Though this image is present in the squadron’s historical records (specifically, in AFHRA Microfilm Roll AO 136) inquiries to the National Archives revealed that it’s absent from the WW II U.S. Army Air Force Photo Collection.  Thus, it seems to have remained at squadron level, never having been bureaucratically passed “upwards” to any higher organizational level.

From a technical point of view, the photograph clearly illustrates the counter-rotating propellers used in all P-38 Lightnings commencing with the XP-38, with the exception of 22 of the 143 P-38s which had been ordered by the Royal Air Force as Lightning Mark 1s.  As such, viewed from the “front”, it can be seen that the propellers rotate outwards, away from the aircraft’s central gondola and toward the wings.  

Another point: It appears that the aircraft’s nose has been painted, perhaps as a form of squadron identification. 

The text on the photograph states…

“(G868A – 22M – 33AB) (2-19-43) FLYING OFFICERS, 38TH FIGHTER SQUADRON, PN FLD, WN. (RES)”

…while the back of the image bears the notation…

Restricted Photograph

Do not use without permission U.S. Army Air Force

Air Base

Photo Laboratory

…and includes the pilots’ surnames – and their surnames only.  However, this clue enables identification of most of these men.  They are:

Front row, left to right (All members of the 38th Fighter Squadron)

Wyche, Wilton E., 0-729407
Ayers, Jerry H., 0-659441
Leinweber, Gerald F., 0-659473
Joel, Milton, 0-416308  (KIA 11/29/43 – MACR 1429 – P-38H 42-67020; No Luftgaukommando Report)
Hancock, James H., 0-659122
“Meyer” (Myers?), Joseph, Jr., 0-659166
Leve, Morris, 0-791127 (KIA 1/31/44 – MACR 2110 – P-38J 42-67768; Luftgaukommando Report AV 641/44)

Rear row, left to right (The four identified men were members of the 27th Fighter Squadron)

Ellerbee
Conn, David M., 0-732171
Meikle, James B.
Connors
Dickie
Crane, Edwin R., 0-728980
McIntosh, Robert L., 0-802054
Harris
Smoot
Hammond
Purvis

Here’s another 38th Fighter Squadron photo, from Robert M. Littlefield’s Double Nickel, Double Trouble.  Taken on June 4, 1943 at McChord Field, Washington, these seven men comprise the original squadron commanders of the 38th Fighter Squadron, and, the four officers heading the 55th Fighter Group.  Akin to the preceding photograph, an inquiry to NARA revealed that this photograph is absent from the WW II U.S. Army Air Force Photo Collection.  Also paralleling the above photo, this P-38’s nose (the plane is a P-38G-15) has been painted – probably – in white or yellow, and bears a (plane-in-squadron?) identification number.  Unusually for a stateside warplane, this aircraft bears nose art.  This takes the form of Walt Disney’s “Thumper” holding a machine gun, and the appropos nickname “WABBIT”.  (Albeit no relation to Elmer Fudd…)

The men are…

…left to right:

Major Richard W. (“R. Dick”) Busching, 0-427516, Commanding Officer of the 338th Fighter Squadron
Major Milton Joel, 0-416308, Commanding Officer of the 38th Fighter Squadron
Wendell Kelly, Group Operations Officer
Colonel Frank A. James, Commanding Officer of the 55th Fighter Group
Lt. Colonel Jack S. Jenkins, 0-22606, Group Executive Officer
George Crowell, Group Operation Officer
Major Dallas W. (“Spider”) Webb, Commanding Officer of the 343rd Fighter Squadron

________________________________________

This third image, from the collection of 38th Fighter Squadron pilot (and only survivor among the four 38th Fighter Squadron pilots shot down on November 29, 1943 – but we’ll get to that in a subsequent post) John J. Carroll, was taken on July 20, 1943.  From The American Air Museum in Britain (image UPL 40377) the photo shows the original members of the 38th Fighter Squadron sent to England in late summer of 1943.  (This picture also appears in Double Nickel, Double Trouble.)

Paralleling the above pictures, this photograph is absent from the WW II U.S. Army Air Force Photo Collection.  The text on the image as published in Double Nickel, Double Trouble (but not visible on this web image) states:

“(G1067 – 22M – 33AB) (7-20-43) FLYING OFFICERS, 38TH FTR. SQDN. (RES)”

The men are:

Front, left to right

Shipman, Mark K., 0-431166
Wyche, Wilton E., 0-729407
Ayers, Jerry H., 0-659441
“Meyers” (Myers?), Joseph, Jr., 0-659166
Joel, Milton, 0-416308 (KIA 11/29/43 – MACR 1429 – P-38H 42-67020; No Luftgaukommando Report)
Meyer, Robert J.
Leinweber, Gerald F., 0-659473
Hancock, James H., 0-659122
Unknown

Rear, left to right

Albino, Albert A., 0-743330 (KIA 11/29/43 – MACR 1428 – P-38H 42-67051; Luftgaukommando Report J 307?)
Fisher, D., (“David D.”), (T-1046) (KIA 1/31/44 – MACR 2106 – P-38J 42-67757; Luftgaukommando Report Unknown)
Brown, Gerald, 0-740139
Unknown
Kreft, Willard L., 0-740219
Erickson, Wilton G., 0-748934 (KIA 12/1/43 – MACR 1430 – P-38H 42-67033; Luftgaukommando Report Unknown)
Erickson, Robert E., 0-743324
Gillette, Hugh E., 2 Lt., 0-740169 (KIA 10/18/43 – MACR 1040 – P-38H 42-66719; No Luftgaukommando Report)
Steiner, Delorn L., 0-740297 (KIA 1/31/44 – MACR 2105 – P-38J 42-67711; Luftgaukommando Report Unknown)
Fisher, (Paul, Jr.), (0-740149)
Peters, Edward F., 0-746168
Peters, Allen R., 0-743368
Carroll, John J., 0-743313 (POW 11/29/43 – MACR 1431 – P-38H 42-67090; Luftgaukommando Report Unknown)
Unknown
Garvin, James M., 0-740164 (KIA 11/29/43 – MACR 1427 – P-38H 42-67046; Luftgaukommando Reports J 338 and AV 513 / 44)
Forsblad, Richard W., 0-740153
Des Voignes, Clair W., 0-743425 (KIA 7/13/44 – MACR 6709, 6717 – P-38J 42-28279; Luftgaukommando Report J 1635)

________________________________________

The 55th Fighter Group departed McChord Field, Washington, for England on 23 August 1943.  The Group reached Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, on August 27, remaining there until September 4, when the Group boarded the H.M.T. Orion (a 24,000 ton ocean liner launched in 1934) in New York Harbor, the burned-out wreck of the SS Normandie – renamed the USS Lafayette – visible nearby.  The Orion departed the next day, reaching its English base at Nuthampstead on September 14.  Milton’s diary verifies these dates and locations.

In this image (U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 2009.006.096) a Coast Guard J4F Widgeon flies near the wreckage of the Lafayette, with the Empire State Building faintly visible in the distance.  This area is probably the location of the Orion’s departure for England.  

________________________________________

During this hectic interval, Milton kept a diary covering the 18-day trans-Atlantic journey, in which he recorded observations and impressions of people, places, and events, noting the controlled chaos associated with the rapid movement of his squadron and group to a foreign shores.  Specifically mentioned (albeit not including first names!) are pilots Willard L. Kreft, Gerald F. Leinweber, Mark K. Shipman, Albert A. Albino, Colonel Frank A. James, and ground officers Octavian R. Tuckerman (Ordnance), and Arthur S. Weinberger (Personnel). 

The first two pages of Milton’s diary are shown below, followed by a transcript of all diary entries.  Milton’s penmanship was not (!) the best, so the text includes some “gaps” (thus [“_____”]).  But, enough of his writing is legible such that the sequence of events, his impressions of people (one observation of human behavior is quite frank by the standards of the 1940s) and sense of activity emerge from the document’s pages, as do his pride in his squadron. 

Aug 23-1943 En Route Paine Field to NY P of E

This first entry in the daily record of events and sidelights of my participation in the action toward victory is made with the hope that it will not suffer the ignominity of becoming merely another bit of evidence of slovenly performance & tasks undertaken.  At 08:30 AM left Mukilteo Washington in command of the 38th Fighter Squadron.  Everyone eager and straining at the bit just as I am.  Feel sure we can do a good job of it since I know we are better in a hundred ways than any outfit that has previously left the cont. for foreign duty both in efficiency and spirit.  Wish Elaine could have been there to see us off but that would have been an anticlimax.  Then too make it a first not to see her after the men were placed incommunicado.  What’s good enough for them is good enough for me. 

Aug 24 ’43

Trip so far completely uneventful, train shakes so cannot write. 

Aug 25th ’43 No change.  All serene. 

All the men really on the ball – violent bridge game constantly in progress involving _____ _____ [Willard L.] Kreft & [Gerald F.] Leinweber.  They have screamed themselves hoarse.  Particularly Leinweber now sounds like a fog horn.  Sporadic poker games continue on.  [Mark K.] Shipman is like a kid just bubbles over with enthusiasm.  He wrangled a ride on the engine & stayed there some four or five hours.

Aug 26th Everyone thoroughly encrusted in soot. 

We look like miners not soldiers.  [Albert A.] Albino & his _____ _____ _____ _____.  Shipman worried about poker games _____ as though we should see that pilots learn to take care of their money.  Losses haven’t been heavy.  _____ (_____) & I talk him out of it.  Is indignant when we try to explain that paternalism should not be carried that far.  Am proud as pink over the conduct & appearance of the outfit at exercise time at stop by the wayside.  Even though they are grimy they are sharp.  Leinweber spends waking hour looking for a spoon from his mess kit – 200 pounds of almost _____ _____. 

Aug 27th Camp Kilmer, N.J.

– arrived here at 08:05 from then on it was nit & tuck – nip a breath & tuck it away to last for an hour or two when you may or may not be able to catch another.  Was met at the station with everything but the brass band. 
I.F. a billeting officer, a supply officer, a medical man, a rail transportation man & truck transport man and two or three others for good measure.  We whisked the men off the train & marched them off to their barracks.  I stayed behind with _____ (Exec. Off) & went through the train with a rail officer & train Rep. & a Pullman Rep. to check for damage.  There was none.  Dashed madly to new quarters while the rain started to pour.  Have a piece of paper shoved at me telling me that I and the whole staff report at 9:00 AM for instruction –  Do not have time to even wash off the weeks soot & grime or change clothes. 

We report, Larry (_____) S-2, _____ S-1, Shipman S-3 & _____ S-4 & I _____ _____ officer _____ who gives us 2 hours instruction & a thousand sheets of paper (S.O.P. – Standard Operating Procedures). 

We receive a schedule for the day which is a killer.  Return to barracks Four & officers are just settling down.  Tuckerman & Weinberger have just returned with the baggage detail & the baggage and it is all stowed away in our building –  Rush away to lunch.  Return & going to quit as too tired to continue. 

Sept 1 Have decided that war is hell. 

If the battling will be as rough as the getting to it.  We’ve had at least 6 countermanding orders on our load list, we pack them then unpack.  Then pack.  Then unpack.  That’s the way it goes.  Everyone is beginning to get thoroughly disgusted but that’s the way they said it would be. 

This camp is tremendous place thousands & 10’s of thousands of men pour through here each week.  They are practically re-equipped.  It’s amazing really.  We had a meeting today and there were at least 300 unit commanders and adjutants.  This is going to be a tremendous deal, but big rumors are rampant.  Morale however is getting very low.  Pilots like a bunch of race horses.  They’re tense & at each others throats practically.  Mainly due to hanging around with nothing to do & hangovers, everyone having gone to New York last night & night before.  I went in.  Had a big lobster dinner & a fried chicken but was too tired to stay late. 

Sept 14 Haven’t had a moment to do more than write a few words to Elaine. 

Left Camp Kilmer on the 4th in the morning for Embarkation.  Our B-4 bags & packs were so damned heavy don’t know how we made it.  Rode the train to ferry & thence off the harbor to the pier and boarded H.M.T. Orion.  Saw the Normandie still lying serenely on her side like some tired old man refusing to get up & go to work.  As soon as all the men were aboard I managed to drag my raincoat, briefcase, blanket roll, mussette bag, gas mask, pistol, web belt and canteen aboard half carrying & half falling over my B-4 bag to my stateroom.   This was pleasantly surprised by a Staff Sergeant Symanoff who brought me four letters from Elaine.  She had a hunch – the _____ _____ _____ that I would come to New York and had contacted Gene Symanoff who worked in the port.  That was to prove the greatest treat to date aboard this tub. 

No sooner did I get on board ship then was I summoned to Col. James’ [Frank James] room – where I found a great stir & dither.  I was informed that I was to be Deck Commander of “E” Deck, which at this time didn’t seem so bad.  Was soon to find out just what a rough deal it really turned out to be.  Col. James was the senior line officer slated to come aboard and was then made troop commander.  We were informed that there had never previously been American troops board ship and in addition there were 2000 more of them than the British had ever conceived of placing aboard.  I.E. We had 7000 troops placed helter skelter on the ship and no one with us had ever had any experience of either handling troops aboard ship or _____ _____ any permanent _____.  Men had been loaded helter skelter like sardines thrown into the can and then lid forced down.  There were not even any set instructions orders or the like.  This looks like the goddamnedest mess the brass hats could dream up & was.  Went below & found my deck was “double loaded” I.E. 1500 men eat & sleep below deck & 1500 sleep & two above on another deck for 24 hours.  All eat below in double shifts of 2 sittings each man shifting the _____ _____ for each of the 2 meals and again in the middle of the day.  At night there wasn’t room either below or above to move an inch without stepping on someone’s face 1/2 _____ staying below slept on mattresses on the floor and tables the other half in hammocks.  Those above decks slept on blankets on hard decks rain or shine – oh rough –  To add to it all compartments on all decks had to pass through my deck to go to & from the galley also the twice daily canteen details also went through all the latrines for EMs aboard ship were also located _____.  At meal times shift it looked like 42nd & Broadway on New Year’s Eve.  How we ever got any organization is still a mystery to me.

To add to it all men consisted of the raunchiest crew I had ever seen.  A larger proportion was criminals most of whom had 2 to 3 court martials against them some of whom even brought on board by armed guard.  It was utter chaos.  For first 3 days there was utter chaos and it took some days to eliminate the confusion.  Many groups had one unexperienced 2nd Lt. in command who had just picked them up the day before.  There was a group of 80 officers all _____ aboard who much like the men here were as motley as Joseph’s Coat and had an equivalent record.  We found the total officers straight aboard to be 700 including eighty very recently commissioned and very eager nurses.  These turned out to be as big a problem the 2nd Lts went after them like hound-dogs after a bitch in heat.  I believe most of these girls were actually in heat because it seemed they were very cooperative.  Ended up by picking a staff from the staff of the squadron & assigning each squadron officer a job with the men.  Had about 150 officers assigned me and to other deck commander and took them down into Compartment Commanders and watch officers so that officer would be with the men 24 hours a day. 

Morale for the first four days was the lowest I’ve ever seen it.  The confusion was unimaginable.  At meal time the corridor looked like 42nd & Broadway on New Year Eve.  Only thing that made it satisfactory were boat drills weren’t always went over in first order.

There is a Moving Picture version of a British Colonel aboard as permanent Liaison Officer.  Had been troop C.O. for two years aboard same ship.  Knows every knook and cranny.  Knows every argument that comes up with ships company before it comes up.  Without his help this tub would have sunk in this chaos.  He is one of the shrewdest men I have ever met & just as humorous.  Whenever an argument in Staff Meeting is going the wrong way he can draw a red herring through the conversation so fast that it makes your head swim or tell some fantastic typical statement.  “Ships officers are dead from 2 PM til’ four.  If you attempted to wake one up the ruddy funnel will fall off.” 

Took about seven days to get things afoot so that trip became very pleasant U.S.O. shows helped immensely.  Billy Gilbert the Hollywood _____ artist is aboard with a troop and his shows have done wonders for morale.  After the first three days the men’s spirits raised and remained amazingly high considering the hardships of sleeping in stinking holds & open but cold decks.

No excitement yet other than an incident the seventh night out.  A Swedish ship blasted through the entire convoy at perpendicular courses & all ships had to make a sweeping torn to avoid her she was completely lighted & must have completely silhouetted us also made sub contact at the same time & depth charges were dropped well over the place which sit up a “ruddy din”.

About 1/3 of the men were thoroughly sick the second & third day out when it got fairly rough out water has been like a mild pond ever since.

Units were so spilt up _____ Lord knows how we will debark them.  Tuckerman has been made garbage disposal officer and has taken a hell of a beating.  Trash & garbage has to be disposed of only at a _____ _____ prior to black out to prevent causing a trail so it’s a hell of a job.  Carroll is official announcer on P.A. system and as _____ that an official ____ for everyone aboard when he announces _____ time.  Typical crack “Dumping time tonight will be at _ _ o’clock.  Stick out your cans for the scrounger man.  Tuckerman the garbage man.” 

Cards & crap games fill every deck & latrine.  Officers and men at it 24 hours a day.  One EM cleared $ 1300 one day.  Some even have set up boards with numbers on them carnival fashion & have this game in the canteen. 

________________________________________

The 55th Fighter Group, the first P-38 equipped 8th Air Force Fighter Group to enter combat with the Luftwaffe, moved to Wormingford, England, on April 16, 1944.

________________________________________

During the 55th’s movement to England Milton managed to send a single V-Mail letter to his parents in Richmond, in which he commented on the hectic nature of the Group’s inter-continental journey, a sea-food dinner in Manhattan, and expressed pride in his wife, Elaine. 

In light of Milton’s then as-yet-unknown future, the letter closes with the unintentionally (or not?…) prophetic statement, “It will probably be some time until you hear from me again so don’t worry.  This is my real opportunity.  Think of it in that light.  I’m really on my way home in a way that this is what I had to get under my belt before I could do that.” 

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Joel
1119 Hull Street
Richmond, 21, Va.

Milton Joel, Major AC
38 Fighter Sq 55th Fighter Group
APO #4833 c/o Postmaster New York
Sept. 3, 1943

Dear Folks,

Have been here “somewhere” in New Jersey.  Have never had such an exasperating or busy few days in my life.  It’s just like recruit camp all over again.  Quite an experience.  We’ve been held incommunicado so didn’t have time to call anyone in N.Y.  Managed to get in one evening long enough for a lobster and a drink.  Wonderful to eat Eastern sea food again.

Elaine is in L.A.  Got a letter from her yesterday.  She’s done a swell job of taking care of our affairs and getting home.  Her attitude about this whole thing, I tried to give you a hint about two weeks ago but you couldn’t catch on evidently.

Did Elaine send you some pictures that we took?  I’m proud of them particularly the ones taken in the house.  Got a swell letter from Elaine’s father.  Our two weeks of living together you know showed Elaine to be every thing that I thought her to be plus a great deal.

It will probably be some time until you hear from me again so don’t worry.  This is my real opportunity.  Think of it in that light.  I’m really on my way home in a way that this is what I had to get under my belt before I could do that.  Don’t send any thing until I ask for it.  Use “V” mail.

Love to all
Milton

________________________________________

This Oogle map below shows the location of Nuthampstead (indicated by Oogle’s emblematic red pointer) in relation to London. 

This British Government Royal Ordnance Survey aerial photo shows Nuthampstead Airfield as it appeared on July 9, 1946.  Annotations on the photo are from Roger Freeman’s 1978 Airfields Of The Eighth, Then And Now.  The original image has been photoshopifically “rotated” from its original orientation such that the north arrow points “up”.  As such, the orientation of the airfield is congruent with the area as seen in the contemporary Oogle Earth photo, below.

Here’s a contemporary Oogle air photo view of the area of Nuthampstead airfield and its surrounding terrain.  Practically all the land upon which the air base was situated has been turned over to agricultural use.

________________________________________

Newly arrived at Nuthampstead, the 55th Fighter Group’s Commanders are visited by Major General William E. Kepner (far left), then head of the Eighth Fighter Command. 

To General Kepner’s own left in the photo (left to right) are:

Col. Frank B. James
Lt. Col. Jack S. Jenkins, 0-22606
Major Dallas W. Webb
Major Milton Joel, 0-416308
Major Richard W. (Dick) Busching, 0-427516

Though I don’t recall the specific source of this image as used “here” in this post, this picture can also be viewed at the 55th Fighter Group website.  It also appeared in print in the October, 1997, issue of Wings magazine (V 7, N 5, p. 13), where it’s noted as having been part of Jack Jenkins’ photo collection, from which the names above are taken.  There, Milton’s name is incorrectly listed as “Walton”.  Wings mentions that General Kepner, then in his 50s “…flew his personal P-47D everywhere, including an occasional sortie into combat.  Kepner was a strong and successful commander.” 

________________________________________

The following Army Air Force photographs, taken some time between the 55th Fighter Group’s arrival at Nuthampstead in September of 1943, and November 29, 1943 (that sad day will be covered in detail in subsequent posts…) may be well known to those with an interest in the history of Eighth Air Force fighter operations, and, the P-38 Lightning.  But, for those newly acquainted with this story: 

First, image A1 79829 AC / A14144 1A.  The photo caption states:

“Flight leaders of the 38th Fighter Squadron, based at Nuthampstead, England, gather for an informal briefing by Major Milton Joel of Richmond, Virginia just before a mission over enemy territory.  They are, left to right: 1st Lt. James Hancock of Sebring, Fla., 1st Lt. Gerald Leinweber of Houston, Texas, 1st Lt. Joseph Myers of Canton, Ohio, and 1st Lt. Jerry Ayers of Shelbyville, Tenn.” 

Obviously posed (Lt. Ayers and Major Joel have wry smiles) it’s still a great photo.   Notice that Lt. Hancock and Major Joel are – gadzooks! – smoking!  (In the world of 2020, how … er … uh … um … ironically, dare I say “refreshing ”… as it were?)

Second, image: B1 79830AC / A14145 1A. 

The caption?

“Lt. Albert A. Albino of Aberdeen, Wash., and Lt. John J. Carroll of Detroit, Mich., both members of the 38th Fighter Squadron stationed at Nuthampstead, England, discuss the map of a future target in the squadron pilot room.”

Like the above image, this photo is almost certainly posed, but it’s still an excellent study.  While Lt. Albino wears a classic leather flight jacket, it looks as if Lt. Carroll sports a home-made (?) sweater.   

By day’s end on November 29, 1943, Lt. Albino would no longer be among the living, and Lt. Carroll would be a prisoner of war. 

________________________________________

After Major Joel failed to return from the mission of November 29, Captain Mark K. Shipman of Fresno, California, took command of the 38th, until replaced in that role by Capt. Joseph Myers. 

The below portrait of Major Shipman (long before he became a Major!) is from the United States National Archives’ collection “Photographic Prints of Air Cadets and Officers, Air Crew, and Notables in the History of Aviation”, in NARA Records Group 18-PU, which also includes (see prior post) a Flying Cadet portrait of Major Joel.  Major Shipman’s photo is from Box 84 of the collection.  You can read about the collection at The Past Presented.

This image, from The American Air Museum in Britain, shows Captain Shipman in front of his personal P-38, 42-67080, “Skylark IV”, “CG * S”.  This photograph appears on page 93 of Roger Freeman’s The Mighty Eighth, albeit in cropped form, and transposed (a mirror-image) from the actual print.  Major Shipman was officially credited with 2.5 aerial victories:  One in North Africa, and two in Europe.

This image of the aircraft and ground crew was photographed by Sgt. Robert T. Sand, who not-so-coincidentally completed Skylark IV’s nose art.  Note that the 20mm cannon has been removed from the plane’s nose.

The below article about Major Shipman appeared in the Pittsburgh Press on February 6, 1943, and pertains to his experience on January 23, 1943, while he was serving as a lieutenant in the 48th Fighter Squadron of the 14th Fighter Group.  Accounts of this mission, in which the 48th lost six pilots – of whom Lt. Shipman turned out to be the sole survivor – can be found at emedals.com  and Rob Brown’s RAF 112 Squadron.org.

U.S. Flier Walks 2 Days Through Italian Positions

Pilot’s Clothes Stolen, So He Wraps Feet in Rags; Brings Back Valuable Information

By the United Press

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, North Africa.  Feb. 6 – For two days Lt. Mark K. Shipman, 22, Fresno, Cal., wandered over desert and mountains, his feet bound with shreds of his uniform, but when he finally reached an American outpost he brought with him valuable reconnaissance information.

The lieutenant told about his experience today.

His Lightning fighter plane was shot down on the morning of Jan 23 when he left formation to help a comrade fighting a cluster of Messerschmitts.  Lieut. Shipman said he made a belly landing.

“The ship was practically undamaged,” he said.  “I ran about 40 yards away because I knew the Messerschmitts would strafe me.  Three of them riddled the plane with three dives.  Then I went back to it and took out a helmet, canteen and pistol and started hiking for the mountains.”

Clothes Stolen

Lieut. Shipman said all his clothes except his trousers and undershirt were stolen from him, although he managed to retain a wedding ring and Crucifix which were presents from his wife.  (The dispatch did not say who did the looting.)

“I found I couldn’t walk in my bare feet,” Lieut. Shipman continued.  “So I cut off my trousers below the knees and wrapped the cloth around my feet.  I walked over a mountain knowing by the sun I was traveling toward the American lines.  I found a narrow dirt road and started making better time but my feet were getting sore.

Fixes Crude Bed

“So I took off mv trousers and managed to cut off more cloth above the knees, which I added to the strips I already had tied about, my feet.  I turned off the trail and went over to a creek bed and fixed a crude bed in a hole. I got kind of warm and rested.

“After a while the moon came up and I got out and started down the creek bed.  About 10 o’clock I passed what I believed were some Italian tents and snaked along silently, finally getting into the open.

“I ran along a dirt road for a while and was hiding in a ditch when a motorcyclist came along.  He was Italian.  I decided it was safer to keep off the road.  My feet were so sore I could scarcely stand so I made a sort of fox hole about a hundred yards from the road.

Crosses Road

“When daylight came I positively identified other passing vehicles as Italian.  I crossed the road and crept along, finally reaching three Italian road blocks.  I took off my white cotton undershirt so I wouldn’t be conspicuous.

“By that time I was getting desperate and I decided on a break.  I got into ravines and at times I saw Italian sentries on both sides.  After I sneaked along for about five miles I didn’t see any more Italians.   About 5 p.m. I approached an American outpost.  They recognized me.”

________________________________________

Capt. Joseph Myers, Jr. and Major Joel stand before a P-38.  The date and location of the image are unknown.  Thanks to information from Andrew Garcia in November of 2023, I’ve been able to correlate the four-digit Lockheed Aircraft Company factory production number “1526” on the fighter’s nose to its Army Air Force serial: The aircraft is P-38H 42-67015.  Being that this aircraft isn’t listed at the Aviation Archeology database and there is no Missing Air Crew Report for it, it seems that it survived the war, I assume to be turned into aluminum siding or pots & pans after 1945.  (Photo c/o Harold Winston)  

Another image of Capt. Myers, this time in front of his personal aircraft, P-38J 42-67685 “Journey’s End’ / “CG * O”, with ground crew members Sergeants K.P. Bartozeck and J. D. “Dee Dee” Durnin.  The image presumably dates from very late 1943, as “Journey’s End” was destroyed during a single-engine crash-landing on January 4, 1944. 

This image, from The American Air Museum in Britain, can also be found on page 93 of Roger Freeman’s The Mighty Eighth.

This image shows Lt. Col. Joseph Myers, seated in a P-51D Mustang, to which the 55th Fighter Group began converting in July, 1944.  He commanded the 38th Fighter Squadron between February 10 and April 22 of that year.  This image is from the collection of Dave Jewell.

________________________________________

Another pilot whose P-38 sports distinctive nose art: Capt. Jerry H. Ayers and ground crew in front of his personal aircraft, P-38J 42-67077, “Mountain Ayers” / “CG * Q.  Like many examples of 55th Fighter Group nose art, this painting was completed by Sergeant Robert T. Sand. 

Just One Reference!

Maloney, Edwatd T., Lockheed P-38 “Lightning”, Aero Publishers, Inc., Fallbrook, Ca., 1968 (The book includes a table correlating Lockheed Aircraft Company serials to Army Air Force serials.)

Next: Part IV (1) – Autumn Over Europe

11/13/20 – 1,634

A Very Long Mission: First Lieutenant Henry Irving Wood, Fighter Pilot, Prisoner of War of the Japanese, 1943-1945

Many posts at TheyWereSoldiers specifically pertain to the military service of Jewish soldiers in the Second World War.  Inevitably, one of the themes that follows is the experience of Jewish prisoners of war in the European and Mediterranean Theaters of War, given the nature, ideology, and aims of Germany during that conflict.  Such posts as…

January 14, 1945 – A Bad Day Over Derben

An Unintended Return:  The Tale of S/Sgt. Walter Bonne, a German-Born Jewish Soldier’s Experiences as a Prisoner of War, in Aufbau, May 18, 1945

Eighteen Days from Home: Corporal Jack Bartman (April 20, 1945)

Double Jeopardy Remembered – The Reminiscences of a Jewish Prisoner of War

The Reconstruction of Memory: Soldiers of Aufbau – Jewish Prisoners of War

The One That Got Away!…  “I Was A Prisoner of War of the Nazis” – “Ich war ein Kriegsgefangener der Nazis,” in Aufbau, October 15, 22, and 29, 1943

… focus on this topic directly, while many of my other posts – particularly those specifically covering Jewish military casualties in WW II, some of which mention American POWs at Berga-am-Elster, Germany – touch upon this in passing.

What of the experience of Jewish servicemen captured in combat against Japan, whether in the Pacific, or, the CBI (China-Burma-India) Theaters of War?  In the United States armed forces, the total number of Jewish military personnel captured in the Pacific Theater – soldiers, Marines, and sailors captured during the war’s opening months during the fall of Corregidor and Bataan, and later on, aviators in the Army Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps – was vastly fewer than those captured by Germany, Italy, Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria.  This is an indirect reflection of the greater magnitude of the Allied war effort against Germany and its European allies, relative to that against Japan.

Based on my investigation of a very wide variety of documents and sources, I’ve determined that a total of 686 Allied aviators – from the air arms of all Allied nations – survived Japanese captivity.  (See this post, albeit the numbers therein need revising…)  This number indirectly reflects several factors inherent to the Pacific air war, and over all, indicates the hauntingly low probability of an Allied flier – once captured – actually surviving Japanese captivity through and specifically beyond Emperor Hirohito’s announcement on August 15, 1945 of Japan’s surrender.

Of the thirty-five Jewish aviators captured by the Japanese during combat missions from among all branches of the American armed forces between 1942 and August 7, 1945 (…information about the latter date here…), First Lieutenant Henry Irving Wood (0-789035), was one of the nineteen who survived the war.  A fighter pilot, he was shot down on October 1, 1943 during a bomber escort mission to Haiphong, French Indochina, a regular destination for American combat aircraft in a war that that began some two decades later. 

Though I mentioned his name some five years ago (2018) in a post about the experiences of 1 Lt. William S. Lyons – Revenge of the Tiger – only very recently did I discover that there has long existed a complete account of his experiences.  This comprises a full chapter – a revealing chapter – in Wanda Cornelius’ and Thayne R. Short’s 1980 book DING HAO – America’s Air War in China -1937-1945.  As described by Short in the book’s introduction, “Of dramatic importance was Henry I. Wood, who chose Wanda and me to reveal his 36-year-old secret by walking into the 1978 [November 18, to be specific] reunion of the Seventy-fifth in Nashville, Tennessee, when everybody had thought him dead in flames over war-torn China in 1944.  An entire chapter tells his story.”  Here, the by-1978 civilian Henry I. Wood relates the events of his last mission, his capture, imprisonment, mistreatment, and eventual return to American military control.

Lt. Wood’s story is presented in full, below.  It begins with a portrait (from DING HAO) of him sitting in his P-40, and is accompanied by maps, images of Missing Air Crew Reports, and, War Crimes Case File Index Cards from NARA Records Group 153 (Records of the Judge Advocate General’s Office) which pertain to postwar depositions or reports about his experiences.  In these, Lt. Wood mentions the names of several American (and one Chinese) military personnel, and these are accompanied in dark red text, like this – by insertions giving the full names and serial numbers of these people. 

I have absolutely no idea if the account in DING HAO was written by Mr. Wood and provided to Cornelius and Short, or, if it’s a transcription of either a cassette recording (this was in the ancient, pre-digital world 1978, after all) or a one-on-one interview.  Such information isn’t given in the book. 

What about Henry I. Wood, the person?  He was born on July 11, 1918, in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of Isadore Raymond (1883-1945) and Josephine Harris (Hughes) (1890-1979) Wood, and had two brothers, one of whom was Bernard Bear Wood (10/6/21-12/26/85).  The family’s wartime address was 2217 Herschel Street, in Jacksonville.  His paternal grandmother was Adaline Silverberg Wood.

Information about his MIA status appeared in the Jacksonville Commentator on October 21, 1943, and in an official Casualty List released by the War Department on November 5 of that year.  His name does appear in American Jews in World War II; it’s on page 86.

His loss in combat is covered in Missing Air Crew Report 759, which indicates that he was missing in P-40K 42-46250. 

Henry Irving Wood died on October 28, 1986.  I have no information about his postwar life, or, his place of burial.

Isadore and Bernard were two of Isadore and Josephine Wood’s three sons.  Their third son, RM 2C David Robert Wood (5519400), born on Oct. 6, 1921, did not survive the Second World War.  A crew member of the USS Albacore (SS-218), commanded by Lt. Cdr. Hugh Raynor Rimmer, he was one of eighty-five men killed when their submarine struck a mine and sank on November 7, 1944, just off Cape Esan (east of Hakodate), Hokkaido, Japan.  (See also…)  There were no survivors.  His name is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii. 

Henry I. Wood was one of eight 23rd Fighter Group pilots who survived as POWs.  The names of the seven others are listed below, along with their serial numbers, squadrons, date of capture, type of aircraft flown upon their “last” mission (and when known, the aircraft serial number and pertinent MACR number), the location of the POW camp where they were interned, and, their state of residence.  Of those USAAF Fighter Groups from among whom men survived as POWs of the Japanese, only the 311th Fighter Group had more men who returned from Japanese captivity, with ten POWs surviving the war.  And so, the names:  

Lucia
, Raymond W., 1 Lt., 0-427755

74th Fighter Squadron
POW 3/19/43; P-40; No MACR
Omori Headquarters (Ofuna) – From Glendale, New York
Reported in News Media 4/12/1943

Pike, Harry M., Lt. Col., 0-024110
Headquarters Squadron
POW 9/15/43; P-40; MACR 15584
Omori Headquarters (Ofuna) – From Westbury, New York
Reported in News Media 10/19/1943

Quigley, Donald L., Maj., 0-432207
74th Fighter Squadron
POW 8/10/44; P-40N 43-23400; MACR 7349
Shanghai POW Camp, Kiawgwan – From Ohio

Bennett, Gordon F., 1 Lt., 0-797926
74th Fighter Squadron
8/29/44; P-40N 42-106318; MACR 8017
Shinjku, Tokyo – From Massachusetts

Thomas, James E., 2 Lt., 0-812174
118th Fighter Squadron
POW 9/4/44; P-40N 43-22800; MACR 8115
Shanghai POW Camp, Kiawgwan – From Kentucky

Taylor, James M., Jr., 2 Lt., 0-817130
75th Fighter Squadron
POW 11/11/44; P-51C 43-24947; MACR 10078
Shanghai POW Camp, Kiawgwan

Parnell, Max L., 2 Lt., 0-686010
118th Fighter Squadron
POW 12/24/44; P-51C 43-24984; MACR 10967
Shinjku, Tokyo – From Georgia

Neither the War Crimes Case Files nor Wood’s story in DING HAO make any reference to the implications of his being a Jew, in terms of his experiences as a POW, probably because there simply weren’t any, this almost certainly never having been focus of interest by his captors to begin with.  Of course, this would presume a nominal awareness on their part about Jews and Judaism beforehand, which I doubt was manifest in the rank and file of the Japanese military at that time. 

Admittedly conjecture on my part…!  I think that during the 1930s, while there was likely some familiarity with Christianity among the Japanese people, knowledge about Jews was essentially limited to the very few who were members of economic or social elites residing in the United States as college or university students, or, military attaches and diplomatic personnel.  In that context and setting, any awareness that emerged “about” Jews would probably have been a sort-of-caricature derived from popular culture, rather than a result of direct interpersonal interactions.

This was a definite aspect of what befell Second Lieutenant Joseph Finkenstein (0-730433), a fighter pilot in the 339th Fighter Squadron of the 347th Fighter Group, 13th Air Force.  Born in Denver on April 20, 1921, he was the only son of Frank Israel (9/27/88-2/4/66) and Dora R. (Goalstone / Udelson) (10/29/92-1/9/67) Finkenstein, and the half-brother Joe Louis and Rita Pellish, Dora’s children from a prior marriage.  The family resided at 718 ½ South Ridgeley Drive in Los Angeles.

The insignia of the 339th Fighter Squadron insignia, from a2jacketpatches.

✡                                 ✡

These two photos of Lt. Finkenstein are via Rita Pellish Diamond.  First, his graduation portrait…

…and second, here he’s standing on the wing of a PT-17 Stearman (probably 41-8959) during Primary Training.  If I have the serial correct, based on the Aviation Archeology database, the photo may have been taken in 1942, at Ocala, Florida.

– .ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. –
…Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím
May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

✡                                 ✡

Joseph Finkenstein did not survive the war.  He was missing in action on his eighth combat mission, during the “Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre” of February 14, 1943, P-38G “21”.  Though the MACR covering his loss (#585), his IDPF (Individual Deceased Personnel File), and, NARA Records Group 153 are devoid of any information about his ultimate fate, a Japanese propaganda broadcast transmitted to the American West Coast on November 24, 1943, and recorded by the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service (NARA Records Group 262) – the text of which was never incorporated into his IDPF – definitively confirms that he was captured. 

The text of the broadcast, almost certainly abstracted from a transcript of his interrogation, reveals that his interrogator (or interrogators?) took particular note of Finkenstein having been a Jew, with Joseph’s residence in Los Angeles implying that the interrogator (a member of the Japanese military? – the Kempei Tai?) subscribed to antisemitic caricatures about Jews prevailing in the American entertainment media, likely from pre-war residence in the West Coast. 

Joseph Finkenstein’s name appears in a War Department Casualty List that was issued to the news media on March 11, 1943, and also in the records of the National Jewish Welfare Board, but most definitely not in the 1947 compilation American Jews in World War II.  The records of the American Battle Monuments Commission – which indicate that his name is commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery – note that he was awarded the Air Medal and Purple Heart.

Though Joseph Finkenstein’s fate will never be known among men, based on the general location where he was lost, I believe that he was imprisoned at Shortland Island.  Later, he may well have been transported to Rabaul, New Britain, the latter being the location where 2 Lt. Wellman H. Huey – also of the 339th; also lost on February 14, 1943; who also never returned – is definitely known to have been held captive.

Here’s Lt. Huey’s Class 42-I graduation portrait, from the United States National Archives collection “Photographic Prints of Air Cadets and Officers, Air Crew, and Notables in the History of Aviation – NARA RG 18-PU”.

The body of literature pertaining to the experience of Jewish POWs of the Japanese is – unsurprisingly – extraordinarily small, but what does exist is utterly compelling.  I know of four books in this limited genre.  They are:

Barbed-Wire Surgeon, by Alfred A. Weinstein, M.D., MacMillan, 1956

Chaplain on the River Kwai – Story of a Prisoner of War, by Chaim Nussbaum, Shapolsky Publishers, 1988

These two were penned by members of the Army Air Force:

They Can’t Take That Away From Me – The Odyssey of an American POW, by Ralph M. Rentz, Michigan State University Press, 2003

ETA Target 1400 Hours or Hi Ma, I’m Home, by Irving S. Newman, 1946 (unpublished manuscript)

I’m sure that there exist other yet-unpublished manuscripts, collections of letters, and diaries, but whether these will reach publication by now, nearly eight decades after the war’s end, is problematic.

Also problematic is the question of whether, in the “fundamentally transformed” America of 2023, there remains – and will remain? – an interest in history. 

Truly, the past is a very different country. 

And what of the future?

✡                                 ✡

So, onward to Lt. Wood…

Here’s his Craig Field (Alabama) graduation portrait, also from the Photographic Prints of Air Cadets and Officers, Air Crew, and Notables in the History of Aviation – NARA RG 18-PU. (Specifically, Box 102.)

xx

And now, his story from DING HAO

Introduction

Of dramatic importance was Henry I. Wood, who chose Wanda and me to reveal his 36-year-old secret by walking into the 1978 reunion of the Seventy-fifth in Nashville, Tennessee, when everybody had thought him dead in flames over war-torn China in 1944.  An entire chapter tells his story.

Lt. Henry I. Wood, Prisoner of War

Lt. Wood, in the cockpit of what is presumably his “personal” P-40 Warhawk, at the 23rd Fighter Group’s base at Kweilin, China

Insignia of the CBI (China-Burma-India) Theater, which appears on the left shoulder of Lt. Wood’s jacket.

On October 1, 1943, sixteen P-40s of the Seventy-fifth escorted bombers over Haiphong.  Over the target the bombers made direct hits on installations and upon completing their runs turned the formation for home.  Suddenly enemy Zeroes struck and in the battle, four Zeroes crashed to destruction.  Lt. Henry I. Wood, pilot of one of the P-40s, disappeared in the brief interval of fighting.  So read the record of that fateful day.  The men believed Wood to be gone forever since he did not return to base.  He arrived in China early in March of that year, a few days before the Fourteenth Air Force was activated.  This was his thirtieth mission.  He had downed a bomber the previous June or July in combat.  Years afterward, Wood recalled all that had happened to him after he was shot down on October 1, 1943.

This example of the 75th Fighter Squadron insignia is from Flying Tiger Antiques.

The October 1 mission had been postponed three separate limes due to bad weather, and finally, instead of taking off during the morning, we took off shortly after noon.  The mission was uneventful until we got over the target at Haiphong when the B-24s dropped their bombs.  I had been scheduled to lead the right rear flight and Don Brookfield [1 Lt. Donald S. Brookfield, 0-430778, 75th FS, 23rd FG, 4 victories], who already had orders to go home, elected to go with us.  He took the flight and I look the echelon as the clement leader.  Of the eighteen fighters who were doing the escort, two didn’t join up.  One was my wingman and one was Brookfield’s.  So I flew wingman for Brookfield and only two of us were guarding the right rear.  We were at about twenty-one thousand feet and the bombers at twenty thousand when we went over the target.

After the bombers dropped their bombs and turned northeast, instead of heading back to base, Brookfield for some reason kept staying over the target.  But at twenty thousand feet we couldn’t see much but smoke, so we got quite a bit behind the main formation, about one and a half miles behind to be precise.  Antiaircraft fire was hitting us all around.  I took a severe hit from “AA” fire and was picking up my microphone to call Brookfield, when we were hopped by about thirty fighters.  Brookfield peeled off to the left and I peeled off to the right.  I dove down approximately five thousand feet, picking up considerable speed, and turned up into the last part of the bomber formation.

The last Zero had left the fighters and had gone to the bombers and it began a half roll through the tail bombers.  And as I pulled up to the loop, one of the Zeroes came out in front of me, and I fired my guns.  He still hadn’t dropped his bamboo wing tanks, and he flamed immediately.  I flew within fifty feet of him and saw his wing disintegrating as he went down.  My own engine seemed to quit but I didn’t think much of it, because often in a high angle of attack and after firing six .50s, the airplane tends to stall out.  So it didn’t immediately dawn on me that it had stopped.  I just nosed over to pick up airspeed, and then I realized that I didn’t have a working engine.

The antiaircraft fire had hit the tail section of my airplane.  At that time the P-40’s control surfaces were fabric, but the rest was metal.  I could see most all of my right aileron and most all of my right elevator.  The rudder was pretty badly damaged, and I didn’t have good control of the aircraft.  I leveled off and looked around to see if anybody was following me.

Then I dropped down to see if there were any more Zeroes.  I couldn’t jump because I knew they would shoot at me in midair.  Next I tried everything I could think of to get the airplane engine going again, but I couldn’t get it to come to life.  I turned off and on all of the switches, even doing the ridiculous thing of turning off and on the gun switch.

I theorized that I had taken a hit earlier from the “ack ack” or possibly from the fighter that first fired at me, before pulling away when I dove.  It must have nicked the gas line and when I fired my guns, the vibration shook it where it wouldn’t feed.

Many years later Wood learned about a similar incident from another Seventy-Fifth Fighter Squadron member, Charlie Olsen [1 Lt. Charles J. Olsen, 0-789937, 1 victory].  Olsen said that his plane engine once quit and restarted at twenty-five hundred feet, and when he got it back to the base they found several aircraft with belly tanks full of some sort of green slime.  The belly tanks had been shipped over from the United States and were not properly cleaned out before being put to use.  The slime moved up to the carburetor and caused the engine to cut out.  Therefore, Wood came to the conclusion that perhaps it was green slime which killed his engine rather than a hit in the carburetor.

I got low to about eleven hundred feet as indicated, and I knew I was near a small village northeast of Hanoi, probably about thirty miles from the city.  And I jumped.  What I did to make sure my plane was destroyed was to trim it up nose heavy, crouch down in the seat, and when I was ready to go, I was in a stooping position.  I just pushed the stick forward.  In theory, if you did that you would do a back flip out of the airplane.  I didn’t do a back flip.  I did sort of an angle flip over the side.  I used to dive in high school, so I just tipped my body naturally, instinctively, and it is a good thing that I did because as I turned and went by the horizontal stabilizer, it was just about two inches in front of my nose.  And my feet just cleared the vertical stabilizer.  As soon as I realized I was clear of the airplane, I counted two and pulled the ripcord.  It is a good thing I pulled it when I did because I was almost too low to jump.  I was in some low foothills, and I fell backward, forward, and backward again and on my back swing, or my third one, I hit the ground.

A wind caught the chute dragging me until it collapsed up the hill about fifty feet.  My face was scratched a little.  I disengaged the chute.  This was about 4:30 in the afternoon and there was still considerable daylight in Indochina at the time.  So I took the chute down the hill with me into a rice paddy, because I knew I was too deep into enemy territory.

Missing Air Crew Report 759

Lt. Wood was flying on my wing when the bombers went into their run.  I last saw him when the escort made a turn following the bombers from the target.  Major Brady (B-24, Flight Commander) states that he saw a P-40 and a zero make a head-on pass; the zero exploded and the P-40 went straight down smoking badly.  This was probably Lt. Wood.  Other bomber crews reported a pilot parachuting from a P-40 shortly after leaving the target.

DONALD S. BROOKFIELD,
1ST Lt., Air Corps

From Carl Molesworth’s book 23rd Fighter Group – ‘Chenault’s Sharks’ , this painting by Jim Laurier – of Lt. James L. Lee’s P-40M number 179 in late summer of 1943 – is a representative view of a 75th Fighter Squadron Warhawk during the time-frame of Lt. Wood’s service in the squadron.  Note that the squadron insignia appears on the fin, over the painted-out serial number.  Unfortunately, MACR doesn’t list the side number of the aircraft Lt. Wood was flying on his last mission. 

I got into the paddy and laid down between the growing rice there.  In about twenty minutes I could see activity come into the rice paddy, coolies, natives, and later men in uniform.  I just laid real still and several times within twenty or thirty feet of me they would come by, but they didn’t see me.  The parachute was wadded down beside me in the water.  After dark, about nine o’clock, I decided I could move.  I got up cautiously.  My parachute was soaked but there was a little fishing paraphernalia in there, and I took it out along with a machete, some C-rations, and a chocolate bar from the pack.  I look them with me toward the little village I had seen as I was coming down in the parachute.  About a quarter until ten, I came to the edge of this village, which was a compound composed of mud huts arranged in a circle.  I worked my way all around the wall until I came to the entrance.  Entering, I saw several people standing by a fire.  Immediately a dog began to bark.  And I said in Chinese, “I am your very good friend.”  I was hoping I was anyway.

And as I started over to these natives at the fireplace, there was an elderly man of about sixty there.  He held up his hands to indicate to the rest of them to be quiet, and I walked over to him, reaching for my little booklet called a pointee-talkee.  I turned my leather jacket inside out to show I had a Chinese-American flag, and I pointed to the place in the book which said I was an American pilot, to help me, that my government would pay him well.  This happened the day after payday and I had a good bit of Chinese yen which I did not know was any good to them or not, but I pulled it out anyway.  I gave it to him indicating that be would get much more if he could hide me and work me back into China.

He apparently knew no English but motioned to me, indicating that things were all right and took me into one of the little mud huts.  They gave me some cold boiled water and scrambled eggs.  I was sitting on the floor by a little table eating the eggs and drinking the water when something caused me to be apprehensive.  It was a noise, a kind of dull thud.  It was probably a rifle butt striking the side of the mud hut.  What had happened to me was that a platoon of Japanese soldiers led by a lieutenant and a noncom who could speak some English had come to the village.  They had been brought there by the people I had talked to.  I had asked for the Chinese guerillas.  They had sent for the Japanese troops instead.

The locals were probably too scared to hide me because they were afraid they would be killed if they were caught.  I indicated from the book for them to hide me.  They took me to the next room, but there wasn’t any real place to hide because there wasn’t anything there besides thatch rugs on the floor and a small table in the corner.  I held up a couple of these rugs over me in the corner.  Then suddenly, the room lit up and I could hear these gruff voices which I presumed were saying “hands up” in Japanese.  I didn’t move.  Somebody snatched the rug.  I stood up with my hands up.

I was not treated rough initially, surprisingly enough, as I had been led to expect I would be.  They did take my jacket off and search me thoroughly, and the one which could speak some English said, “Never mind.  Never mind.”

He took me to the other room where I had been eating and motioned for me to finish.  I had suddenly lost my appetite.  In fact I was so confused (and even though I had fairly good intelligence – later I graduated with honors from college) by being treated nice, that I asked them through the pointee-talkee what Chinese troops were doing in this area?  And there was an uproar – a sound of laughter when one of them read it to the others.  Finally the tall one who kept saying.  “Never mind.  Never mind,” said, “Ha.  Ha.  You think we Chinese.  We Japanese.”

It was a big joke to them, but not to me.  They then tied my hands behind my back and put some of the troops in front of me.  They had cattails which had been dumped in kerosene which were lit and we started traipsing through the rice paddies, with troops in front and back of me.  And it was pretty slippery trying to walk through the rice fields and every once in a while I would start to go down.  I was afraid that somebody would shoot me in the back thinking I was trying to escape.  I had no such ideas at the time, being in the middle of a bunch of Jap soldiers.

After about forty-five minutes or an hour we reached a road where they sent up some flares and indicated to me to sit down.  While we were sitting there one of the soldiers took the chocolate bar they had taken from me and offered me some.  And I said thank you to him.  They all laughed.  They thought it was funny since they had taken me prisoner and confiscated my food and here I was thanking them for offering me something to eat.  In about thirty minutes, a big truck came down the road and we all piled into it.  It had an open bed with low sides.  I stood in the middle with the rest of them hovering around me.  My hands were still tied.  We came to a compound which was apparently a troop training area because there was a number of barracks.  I was taken inside one of the buildings with an extremely mean-looking Japanese.  The only other Japanese I had seen like him was when I had shot down a bomber on another mission and flew almost into the nose of his plane before I cut under it.  And I could see the pilot’s face there.  I had apparently killed the copilot and the pilot was just staring at me through the canopy.

This mean-looking fellow had on a kimono, not a uniform, and he apparently was the man in charge.  I found out the next morning he was a captain, and he was definitely in charge of the outfit.  The man glared at me, and through one of his subordinates, he told me to answer his questions or he would cut off my head.

And I nodded my still intact head that I understood.  He then asked me what my rank was and I told him first lieutenant.  He then asked me how many planes were in my formation.  I said to ask one of his pilots who was up there on the mission.  He must not have liked my answer because he became even more enraged.  And he had someone tie my hands behind my back, to the back of the chair and my feet to the runner of the chair.  Then he took out some paper towels and took his own neck and wiped it and removed his sabre from its sheath, indicating to me that he was going to cut my bead off.

He then had someone tell me to answer his questions and I nodded that I understood and be asked the same questions again.  I told him that I did not have to answer questions of this nature.  He then ordered his soldiers to carry me outside where there was a big bonfire.  They set the chair down with me in it, and at that moment I was convinced I was going to be killed.

I had always been told that one’s life flashed before you if you were going to die.  Mine didn’t flash before me.  But I had already done some thinking along these lines during the afternoon.  I had been very apprehensive.  Then I went to the compound and met the natives, and I got a glimmer of hope that they were going to hide me.

And I thought, “This is going to be rough on my mother as she has six boys in service, and I am going to be the first to go.”  And the last thing I thought about as he started to bring down the sword was how I used to have to wring chickens in the neck, and my mother plucked them afterwards when I was a kid.  I could see me squirming around with the reflexes going and I thought to myself, “I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me squirm.’’  So all I could think of was to stick my neck way back as far as possible so he could have a good clean whack.

Down came the sabre, stopping just an inch above my neck.  He did that twice and then he said something in Japanese and untied my legs.  He untied my hands from the chair but left them tied behind my back, took me over to a tree, tied my hands to the tree, and wound the rope around my whole body and the tree.

He apparently gave them instructions, “Ready!  Aim!  Fire!” in Japanese because they all brought their rifles up to bear and they all clicked on empty magazines.  He did that twice.  Then it began to dawn upon me that he was apparently just trying to scare me, that they were stiff wanting the information or I would already be dead.

They took me to a guard compound or jail and put me on the floor and took off all my clothes except my shorts.  My hands were tied behind my back and hands tied to my feet.  They laid me on the concrete floor and put a hard bag of cement under my head.  I would have been much more comfortable lying flat.  And then they proceeded to beat me with long sticks which looked like broom handles.  Some of the officers took off their boots and began beating me too.  And I lapsed into unconsciousness.  Several hours later, I awakened and all of them had gone.

NARA Records Group 153 Case File 56-41 (August, 1946)

1st Lt. Henry Irving Wood states that he received a beating following his capture at Luc Nahm, Indo China, by a roving detail of Jap soldiers, but does not know their names or any unit designation.

This document, from NARA, is a summation of Case Files 56-41 (above), and both 58-132 and 61-47 (see both below), and is based on an interview of Lt. Wood that occurred at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco on October 9, 1945.  Due to the circumstances and nature of his treatment by the Japanese, as well as the near-impossibility of specifically identifying any of his captors, let alone locating them postwar, further investigation was fruitless.   

This map shows the location of “Luc Nahm” (actually, Luc Nam) then French Indo China, and now, Vietnam…

…while this map, at a smaller scale than above, shows Luc Nahm to the southwest, and Guilin (Kweilin) China – the 23rd Fighter Group’s base during the time frame of Lt. Wood’s service – to the northeast.

In this guard compound the guards were sitting along a bench with a noncom in charge, and one of them had apparently brought some incense because I had been bitten badly by mosquitoes and didn’t realize it until I came into consciousness.  As my awareness came back and the mosquitoes were still chewing on me, that was really the worst part so far because I couldn’t scratch the bites.

Shortly before dawn, I noted the noncom in charge kept reading a big heavy book, which was probably a Japanese-English dictionary.  He came over to me showing a little paper with writing on it.  Looking at it he said, “You are very brave man.  My maundy you go to New York.”  My maundy is a Chinese term meaning “later.”  Why a Japanese would use a Chinese word, I don’t know.  But that is what he said.

I had never heard of a prisoner being expatriated from Japan so I was very skeptical of what be said.  And then a humorous thing happened.  Just as he finished saying the words, the paper still in his hand, an officer walked in and the Japanese soldier jumped to attention.  He said something which sounded like Jejugius and presented arms, even though they were indoors.  And I could see what he had in his hand was carefully camouflaged so that the officer could not see it.  I am sure he would have caught hell if indeed he had written there what he said to me and somebody bad seen it.

The next morning about ten o’clock, my uniform was given back to me and I was told to dress and put the jacket on with the flag outside.  I was paraded in front of a large formation of Japanese troops while the captain in charge was speaking lo them.  I didn’t know what he was saying about me.

NARA Records Group 153 Case File 61-67 (August, 1946)

Lt. Henry Irving Wood states they were marched through the streets of Canton and Hanoi, China, in a ceremony exhibition before the Jap Army during Oct. 1943.

Later in the afternoon I was put in a truck again and taken to Hanoi.  I recognized the town when we got there to the suburbs because there were a good many signs in French and English which the Japanese had not obliterated.  I was taken to a beautiful occidental type building in the heart of Hanoi, led inside, and the ropes were taken off my hands.  Shortly later.  I was seated in a nice dining hall with china and silverware.

A very nicely dressed man in Western style clothing, a Japanese, came in speaking with an Oxford accent and told me he was sorry I had been mistreated the night before and wished to assure me this was not the Japanese’ nature.  But I should realize that there was a war going on and sometimes troops from the field got upset.  He said I would be treated well in the future, and he just wanted to talk to me a little.  He didn’t often get a chance to talk with an American.  I didn’t believe that.

It turned out that his name was Ariaa and he was the Japanese premier for French Indochina at the time.  It became obvious in a very short time with him trying to converse with me, that he was trying to discuss military information with me through seemingly irrelevant conversation.  First he asked me where I was born.  Where did I live?  Did I have brothers and sisters?  Apparently these questions were innocuous.

Then he said, “How did you like the place you were flying out of in China?  Where was that?”

Of course I refused to answer the questions.  And I told him in a nice manner that I didn’t mind talking with him, but there were things of obvious military significance and he must realize it.  After he understood he wasn’t making any headway, he apologized, said he had to leave and that I would be served a nice meal right at the table I was sitting at.  And again he apologized for the behavior of the Japanese.  As he left the room other Japanese came into another door and immediately tied me up and hustled me down to a basement where they had made some cells by taking a large room and segregating them with four-by-fours from the floor to ceiling with an inch space between each board.  They stripped me of all my clothes except my shorts, made me get down through a little door like an animal cage into one of the cells where there were four native Vietnamese, I presume.  They indicated for me to sit on the floor like the others were doing with knees crossed and with my hands folded across my knees.  So I sat there for a while and naturally that got tiring, so I leaned back and when I did, I was yelled at in Japanese, and a long thin stick came through the bars and I was knocked in the bead.

So I learned that I was supposed to be sitting and not lying down.  I was kept in this room for five days without food.  I was allowed to have water twice a day.  They got us up in the morning and put us to bed at six at night and allowed us water and took us to the ben jo as they called it, which was the bathroom, consisting of a little slit in the floor.

At the end of the fifth day, they brought me a big fish head which was supposed to be a delicacy in that area.  I still wasn’t hungry enough to cat a fish head, but later on during my incarceration, I would have gladly eaten it.

The next morning after offering me the fish head in the middle of the morning, they took me out of the cell and into a room where there were a number of Japanese in a big ring on the floor and others sitting behind them in chairs.  And that is where they started pressuring me in earnest about intelligence.  I let them know that all I would tell them was my rank, name, and serial number.  They tried to talk me into the information by being innocuous in their questioning like Ariaa had done.  They felt that if I talked they would get their information.  After they questioned me about an hour and a half, they put me back into the cell.  That afternoon about three o’clock, they took me out again and told me that I had to talk.  They were tired of talking to me in this manner, and they expected me to answer the questions.  When I refused to answer, they locked the windows.  There was this little device I called a windlass.  They put wires on your wrists and put it around your finger and tightened it gradually, pulling the finger back until it broke.  They didn’t break my finger but it was very painful.  And they also took a hammer and you can still see the scars on my hand where they broke the bones.  This went on for several days, and after the second day, they initiated a new procedure where they had a ladder which was inclined at about a forty-five-degree angle to the wall.  Then they tied me to the ladder with my head low, and they put water-laden heavy towels over my face where I would choke and gasp and eventually pass out.  Then they would bring me to and ask the questions again.  This went on for about three weeks.

NARA Records Group 153 Case File 58-132 (August, 1946)

1st Lt. Henry Irving Wood, states he was imprisoned at Nanking, China, and placed in solitary confinement for about 21 days.  Received severe treatment.

Then they took me to an airfield where I had been on an escort mission a time or two when the B-24s had bombed them.  While I was at the airfield up in a high room, but not in a control tower, there was an air raid alarm.  Everybody became very excited and they were bustling me out of the building and into a truck.  There were a number of trucks trying to leave the field with troops on them.  No pilots were trying to take off because they apparently felt that the American planes were imminent which they were.  They had not received the alarm in time.  But there was a road which paralleled the runway.  And as we were leaving I looked up and I could see the B-24s at a high altitude and barely make out the fighters with them.

I knew that the bombs bad already been dropped and were on their way and sure enough in a matter of seconds, the bombs were dropping all around us.  I had extremely mixed feelings – I was hoping that they would blast the hell out of the Japanese, but I sure didn’t want to get hit It was a real terrifying feeling to be in that situation.  We continued on down the highway for several miles, got into ditches on the side of the road, and stayed there for an hour.  Then we got back into the trucks and went back to the airfield.  Unfortunately the bombing had not been accurate, almost all of the bombs had gone off parallel to the runway about three hundred yards from the road we had traveled.  A couple of the bombs had hit the field, and one bad hit a large hangar where a number of airplanes were housed, and there was considerable damage to the planes as I could see fires still burning.  I could see the damaged airplanes.

Later on during the day I was put on this airplane, a Lockheed Lodestar, along with some Japanese passengers, and there were four guards with rifles and bayonets accompanying me and a Japanese captain in charge of the troops.  In the course of the flight it was very pleasant.  This particular officer was very courteous, and he indicated he understood English but he could not speak it well though he could write it.  He showed me pictures of his children and said he had been away from home five years.  He made no attempt to interrogate me for information.  He also offered me some of his chow because they apparently didn’t have any box lunch for me on the plane.  He gave me some cheese and a sandwich and I could tell from the course of the sun that we were flying along the southern China coast over towards Taiwan.  And sure enough we landed on the island.

For the first time in several weeks I had an enjoyable couple of hours, apparently while the plane was being refueled.  I got to lie outside in the open on the grass near the runway.  It was a beautiful sunny day and in no way was the captain in charge attempting to hamper me.  I had come through some pretty difficult times in the course of the flight, from a mental condition.  Several times I felt that I might have had the opportunity to get out of the seat in a hurry, run up to the front of the plane.  There was a “stepover” in the Lodestar which was approximately two and a half feet high, separating the cockpit from the area for the passengers.  I kept thinking that if I could realty get up there and grab bold of the pilot’s wheel, I could spin that plane in with everybody on board and accomplish something besides being a prisoner.

I could never bring myself to do it, but I would have never reached the cockpit if I had tried.  I’d have been stabbed in the back or shot.  But I bad some real tough times worrying whether I should try or not.  I had been in excellent health at the time I went down.  My main activity in Kunming – I wasn’t a gambler or a player of bridge – was working out with weights and doing a little running and push-ups and reading a good many books.  My health was good at age twenty-five and I was in top physical condition before my capture.  My health had not deteriorated rapidly in their hands.  After the first five days I had a fair diet with rice in the morning with some sort of Chinese vegetables and the same thing in the evening.  I was getting an adequate diet even though it wasn’t the most palatable one.

We eventually landed again, and I ascertained that I was in Nanking.  What made me realize that was I was again in solitary but not made to sit on the floor this time.  I was allowed to walk around all I wanted to.  The room was approximately eleven feet long and five feet wide, so I paced up and down that room most of the day.  It was right near the entrance of a large compound, and I could see into a large courtyard.

The second day I was there a big black car came up with general’s flags on it and a man got out.  I am sure it was the man they called “The Tiger of the Orient.”  He was the Japanese general in charge of that area.  He simply came over and looked at me through the bars, didn’t say anything, looked at me for about thirty seconds, and turned around and walked away.

Again I stayed in this cell for approximately three weeks because I was making marks with my fingernails on the wooden bars, four-by-fours, but wider spaces between them than the ones before, about two and a half inches.  One day they came in and said I would be moved that day.  They had not tried to interrogate me at all in Nanking and this morning they told me why they had stopped questioning me.

They told me they had captured a Chinese pilot named Chen [2 Lt. Ping-Ching Chen – Survived as POW] who was in my unit and that he had been badly wounded and they had been able to get all the information they wanted.  And I found out later that what they said was true because I was taken to a prison camp with him and he said he had been wounded – his leg bad been broken and he was shot in the arm.  Apparently under the severe mistreatment he had and the painful conditions, be told them things they wanted to know.

Missing Air Crew Report 759

Lt. Chen was flying on my wing when the formation left the target area. He remained in his position for approximately fifteen (15) minutes. When my flight turned back to protect two straggling bombers, Lt. Chen was missing.

THOMAS W. COTTON,
1st Lt., Air Corps

From Nanking we traveled to Shanghai where I was put into a large prison camp.  At that time, it held Italian prisoners from a ship that had been scuttled in the harbor at Shanghai.  It also contained some civilians from Wake Island, Marines from Wake Island, and the North China Embassy Guard.  It was a well-formed prison camp, and I simply was put into a cell by myself for approximately one week and then released with the general prisoners.  I remained in this camp from December of 1943 until late May 1945.

Other than two bad personal experiences in the long stay at the prison camp, it was not particularly bad other than the lack of communication with the outside, poor diet, and very little recreation.  We normally worked nine days and then were off one day.

My first bad experience was when I was asked to work by Maj. Luther Brown [Major Luther A. Brown, 0-3815, POW Dec. 8, 1941], who was a Marine major acting as executive officer for Colonel Ashhurst [Colonel William A. Ashurst, 0-000028, POW Dec. 8, 1941], who was the senior American officer in charge of the camp.  Brown had ordered me to go to work in a garden with other Americans which stood within the compound.  I told him I didn’t feel like I or any other prisoner should work.

He attempted to reason with me, saying that he was in charge and this work was not of any particular help to the Japanese.  It helped get us our own food and was of some value.  It was up to him to make a decision like that, and it was not up to me as an individual to decline or accept.

I still felt it was my own individual decision and I told him so.  He went over to a Japanese noncom named Neasaki [Lt. Myasaki], who was in charge of this particular detail.  Neasaki walked up to another prisoner who had a shovel, grabbed it, and hit me on the side of the head with it as hard as he could.  It knocked me to the ground.  I was stunned.  And when I got back up Major Brown told me he was sorry, but if I didn’t work, I would get similar treatment.  That was my first experience with any collaboration by an American with the Japanese.  I later found out that within a small group there was considerable collaboration.

NARA Records Group 153 Case File 58-108 (January, 1946)

1st Lt. Henry Irving Wood states on or about 10 Nov 1943, while a PsW at the Shanghai War Prison Camp, he was engaged in a detail of hauling dirt within the camp compound area.  Lt. Myasaki seized the shovel which he was working with and struck him a heavy blow in the face; he then turned and struck 2nd Lt. Robert E. Greeley, M.C., also in the face.  Myasaki was involved in torture treatments, such as water treatment, breaking fingers with a windlass contraption and numerous beatings.  Col. Otera was Jap commanding officer. 

In fact volumes of information on it were filled out in Manila at the end of the war, but nothing was done by the psychiatrists or attorneys.  They felt that a lot of what we said, due to living under such bad conditions for such a long time and to our mental health, was imagined.  But that wasn’t so.  It wasn’t until the Korean War that they realized that we were brainwashed and that there were Americans who collaborated with the enemy after they became prisoners.

I decided I had better go to work, that I didn’t want to get whacked anymore since I was a lone individual in the crowd.  Life was bearable except for the dairy drudgery of going out to work on days when it was cold and sleeping in a building that wasn’t heated and observing some American prisoners, including Major Brown, sleeping on innerspring mattresses with big trunks full of canned food from the Marine ship stores which they had been able to salvage in Peking.  They were treated differently from the rest of the prisoners too.  The reason why they were being treated differently, I found out, was they surrendered lo the enemy.  You can’t blame them for surrendering.  They were the embassy guards when the war broke out, and these people were the ones who had been fraternizing with the locals on a daily basis, the Japanese who occupied Peking at the lime.  And as the embassy guards, they were good friends with them, drank with them, danced with them, fraternized with them, and the Japanese gave them twenty-four hours to surrender.  For doing this, they were rewarded.  There was no attempt to dispose of the military hardware they had, which consisted of guns and bayonets and food.  Anyway, whatever arrangements were made, the former guards kept their personal clothing, watches, trunk loads of food, and it was shipped from Peking to the prison camp in Shanghai.  Their goods were maintained in a separate warehouse, and they were allowed to use it and no one else.

I found out that before I came to the camp, the Wake Island Marines, the ones that defended Wake Island, were put into the camp and Major Brown would not allow them to associate with the Peking Marines.  Here was a group of Marines who had been undergoing harsh mental treatment and some of whom were wounded, and they weren’t even allowed to associate with other Marines, who were the former embassy guards.  It took months before Major Devereaux, who after the war became a brigadier general, was able to resolve the situation with Major Brown and get him to share some of the clothes with the other prisoners.

Besides Brown, there must have been between sixty and eighty people from the embassy guard, including several officers, a number of captains who enjoyed the favors.  Major Brown allowed everybody from the former guard better treatment than the rest.  It may not have been the others’ nature to take advantage of the situation while fellow Americans were deprived, but Colonel Ashhurst apparently made the decision and Major Brown implemented it because Ashhurst said he was a sick man and put his executive officer in charge.  Finally Devereaux apparently overcame the situation.  He had been the commander at Wake Island.

Otherwise there was just minor ill-treatment when they would call a shakedown, like trying to find out why so much electricity was being used at the camp.  Some of the men had been taken to town to build a rifle range on “front days.”  They called it Mt. Fuji, but it was just a hill.  On a “front day” the Japanese would take us and mistreat us, telling us that there were severe conditions on the front.  We were well protected, so we should be mistreated because our [sic] comrades were having a rough day at the front.  There was a song we made up.  “With a front day every day out of nine / They run a short load (we’d push cars up this hill and we’d push a light load if we thought the Japanese weren’t watching) / Then Yaza day is a day of rest / Yaza day …  Yaza day.  …”

Eventually, in May of 1945, treatment wasn’t as harsh as usual and we received two Red Cross boxes.

Then Colonel Otaru, who was the Japanese commander at the camp, indicated we would be moved.  We were transported in boxcars from Shanghai beginning in late May of 1945, on up through Manchuria down through Korea to Pusan on the southern tip, where we were put into a large encampment with one water spigot for the entire camp.

We were kept in the camp mostly out in the open for four days, and we didn’t know what we were waiting for.  But apparently they were waiting to put us on a ship to take us up by rail to Hokkaido, the northern island, where they had in mind to put us to work in the mines.  It was a real rough trip, and the only time any prisoners escaped en route was a time when five escaped by cutting barbed wires late at night.  We were separated in two ends of the boxcar with barbed wire, and in the center of the car was the Japanese guard.  There was a small window in each end with wire over it.  They were able to cut the wire by putting a little commode there and placing a blanket up for a screen and fooling the guard by making him think they were just going to the bathroom there.  And they were able to work the barbed wire loose and five slipped out into the night before they were discovered.

Then we left Pusan on a ship.  We were crowded into the hold where we stood up.  I don’t know how many hours we were on there.  But it must have been between thirty-six and seventy-two hours on board, and there was no room between the bodies.  Then we were moved across the Tsushima Straits, into Japan proper onto Honshu island, put on small Japanese railroad cars, eighty to a hundred of us on each car, lying on the floor, under the seats, on the seats, up in the baggage baskets.  They had heavy opaque screens over the windows so you couldn’t see what was going on outside.  But we were so tightly packed in there that there were several places we cut the screens and could see the vast devastation of the countryside that the B-29s had wrought It was just at ground level for blocks on end close to the railroad tracks.  In one place we saw hundreds of railroad cars which had been destroyed.  And every now and then there was a B-29 raid and we would huddle up in the cars in some subterranean chamber.  They were really trying to protect us at that time.

We finally reached the island of Hokkaido, the northern island and were taken to a small mining town called Ashamitzabetsu.  At that time they separated the officers and the civilians and the airmen for the first time.  I felt they were trying to protect us and give us more consideration than they ever had before, or they wouldn’t have done that.

So on the third day they ordered us to go to the mines and I refused to go.  I was the only one out of eighty-three of us (among them were Marines, an orderly, two Navy medics, and several enlisted men who had been put in with the officers).  Brown was still in charge of the camp.  I refused to go out.  I was ordered to stand at attention by the Japanese this time.  Brown finally lost all of his friends he had in the move, and he had been mistreated several times himself for the first time since his incarceration.  So I stood at attention all day long, from when they first went out at seven o’clock in the morning, and I was still standing at attention when they returned at five o’clock in the afternoon.

They ate and I was still at attention at ten o’clock that night.  Every time I moved, and I couldn’t help but move, I was beaten by a particular guard standing over me at the lime.  He hit me with a rifle butt

But I must have accomplished something by my tenacity at that late stage in July of 1945 because the next day, instead of standing at attention again, and instead of taking me out to the mines, they put me lo work at a pookey party.  Pookey was a plant very much like an elephant ear, edible if you did a lot of boiling.  I was taken out with several Japanese and two other Americans, and we went out to the forest.  There were streams and low mountains, and it was beautiful country.  There we cut pookey.  It was carried back to camp and boiled for our food.  And for the rest of the time I went on pookey parties, and they made me the rice cook for the camp.  So I never did work in the mines with the rest of the prisoners.

On August 14, the commandant of the camp, the first lieutenant did not come to the camp.  No one was taken out to work.  No one was taken out to pookey parties, and we realized something must be going on.  Three days later some lieutenant colonel whom we had never seen before came in and told us the story that the Americans had some horrendous bombs but the Japanese would never surrender.  They also kidded us about being cowards for surrendering and said the Japanese would always commit hari-kari before surrendering

But the Japanese people as a whole had given in due to the horrendous weapons, he said.  And we were to wait there and see what was going to happen to us.  Well, I didn’t want to wait, even though I was urged by Colonel Ashhurst and Major Brown, whom I had no use for, to wait and see what would happen.  I felt we should be fed better and have better care, and I talked another officer, Lieutenant Rouse, into leaving with me.  We simply walked out of the camp.

We ignored the guards who hollered something to us and kept walking.  They didn’t do anything.  We went down to the center of the little town to the railroad station and kept saying, “Sapporo!  Sapporo!”

We ended up on a railroad train car, were transferred to another one and onto a third, and by the time we got to Sapporo on the third train, there was a Japanese noncom who spoke very good English and who asked us why we left camp.  We told him we understood there were some American Air Force officers in Sapporo and we wanted to be taken to them.  And sure enough, we were taken to a place where there were eleven men under Maj. Don Quigley, who turned out to be a squad commander of the Seventy-Fifth Fighter Squadron of which I bad been a member.  He came to China after I did and became squad commander before he was shot down.  For the next few days, we lived like kings.  Quigley got on the ball and got us on tours of the farms, universities, and even a small group to church.  Instead of being treated like prisoners, we were treated like tourists.  And we had plenty to eat, eggs, all sorts of vegetables, good meat, things we had been told earlier weren’t available.  I was real glad that I had the nerve to walk out of camp along with Lieutenant Rouse, who was a bomber pilot.  [1 Lt. Richard R. Rouse, 0-735669.  Member of 11th Bomb Squadron, 341st Bomb Group, 14th Air Force, captured November 11, 1943, during mission to Yochow, China, in B-25G 42-64757.  Aircraft shot down by anti-aircraft fire and crashed with all six crew members surviving.  Five of the six eventually survived war as POWs, being interned at Shanghai POW Camp.  Loss covered in MACR 1106.]

After a few days, one of the Japanese soldiers said the Americans would be coming in and they would be dropping supplies first and for us to go out and mark an area where they could drop them.  And they did.  They dropped big fifty-five-gallon drums from parachutes with clothes and food in them.  We had good food, good shoes, and uniforms again.

But some unfortunate things happened, too.  I remember when I was in the Shanghai camp there was an enlisted man, a Marine who was always in good humor even though in terrible health.  He almost died several times.  A Captain White, a Marine non-flying officer, had marked the drop for the camp where this Marine was, and he didn’t make the people stay far enough from the area.  And this sick Marine and two others were standing close to where the drum came in.  The parachute slipped off it, and it killed all three of them standing together.  This man had been captured at the outbreak of the war, the first day of the war, and he was killed by one of our own air drops at the end of it.

Several days later we were taken to an airfield where Americans had flown in some DC-3s and some P-51s.  And we were flown to the Philippines.  Army Air Corps men were flown to the Philippines and the Navy-Marines were flown to Guam.  We arrived at the Philippines September 12, 1945.  There we were plainly told after we revealed all of the tales of the Shanghai prison camp personnel, not to talk about it again.  We were interrogated several days by psychiatrists and by American attorneys, who were members of the armed forces and civilians, and we had to sign statements that we would not relate any of this when we got home or else we could not be taken home before we were cleared.

They didn’t want any of this information in the newspapers.  And they didn’t want to believe us, and they didn’t want us knocking any other Americans.  It was all right to tell about any atrocities of the Japanese, but with Americans we were supposed to show our patriotism.  Luther Brown had gone through the Naval Academy and was promoted to colonel before he retired.  And nothing was ever done to him.  They wouldn’t believe that an American officer would do what he did.  He was such a party boy at Shanghai that he had become real stout, but after getting in prison camp, he decided to take care of himself, and he slept in a private room with an innerspring mattress and worked out with weights.

I returned to the States October 8, 1945.

Notes

Crew members of B-25G 42-64757

Pilot: Rouse, Richard R., 1 Lt., 0-735669 (California)

Co-Pilot: Townsend, Alton Lloyd, 2 Lt., 0-672253 (Louisiana)

“On November 10, 1943, as a co-pilot on a low altitude mission over Yochow, China, Alton and a crew of 5 others were shot down and captured by Japanese and held in a Chinese prison camp for 10 days.  Because of the treatment the Chinese received, Alton and the crew were grateful to be Americans!  The six American prisoners were taken down the Yangtze River by boat at which time the Americans bombed the boat, not knowing Americans were on board; 2 of the 6 member crew escaped the boat—one drowned and one was picked up by a fishing boat and returned to the Japanese who had to move the prisoners to another boat to continue down river.  They were interred at the Allied Prisoner of War Camp at Shanghai, China.  Later the Japanese transferred Alton and his remaining crew with 1000 to 1100 other prisoners of war packed in rail cars through Manchuria to Korea and then in the hull of a boat crossing the Sea of Japan from China to the Northern Island of Japan, Okido.”

Navigator-Bombardier: Walsh, George T., 2 Lt., 0-741817 (Missouri)

Flight Engineer: Penka, Carl Steven, S/Sgt., 38165009 (New Mexico)

Radio Operator / Gunner: Hogue, Harold Franklin, S/Sgt., 18166447 (Arkansas)

Gunner: O’Brien, David J., Sgt., 32471178 (Died during escape attempt) (New York)

Sino-Japanese air operations on October 1, 1943
from
Sino-Japanese Air War 1937 – 1945 (by Håkan Gustavsson)

20 P-40s and P-38 escorting 22 B-24s pounded Haiphong warehouses and harbour.  Some 40 Japanese interceptor rose to meet them in an air battle lasting some 40 minutes.  30 Japanese aircraft were claimed to be shot down (!) for the loss of three P-40s.

2nd Lieutenant Chen Ping-Ching from 75th FS, 23rd FG, was shot down at 15:30 over Haiphong and he bailed out of P-40 42-45906 (MACR 758).  1st Lieutenant Thomas Cotton reported:

“Lt. Chen was flying on my wing when the formation left the target area.  He remained in his position for approximately fifteen (15) minute.  When my flight turned back to protect two straggling bombers, Lt. Chen was missing.”

1st Lieutenant Henry L. Wood (0-789035) from 75th FS, 23rd FG, was also shot down at 15:30 over Haiphong in P-40K-1 42-46250 and was missing (MACR 759).  1st Lieutenant Donald Brookfield reported:

“Lt. Wood was flying on my wing when the bombers went into their run.  I last saw him when the escort made a turn following the bombers from the target. Major Brady (B-24, Flight Commander) states that he saw a P-40 and a zero make a head-on pass; the zero exploded and the P-40 went straight down smoking badly.  This was probably Lt. Wood.  Other bomber crews reported a pilot parachuting from a P-40 shortly after leaving the target.”

The third P-40 crashed-landed and the pilot, Wang Te-Min, was killed.  [Sharks Over China: Lt. Te-Min Wang, CAF, Oct. 1, 1943, “KIFA engine trouble; en route to Haiphong; P-40”]

2nd Lieutenant Akihiko Nishidome (NCO79) of the 25th Sentai and Sergeant Major Yasuo Hasegawa (NCO86) of the 33rd Sentai were killed over Haiphong.

Other References – Books

Cornelius, Wanda, and Short, Thayne, DING HAO – America’s Air War in China – 1937-1945, Pelican Publishing Company, Greta, La., 1980

Jackson, Daniel, Fallen Tiger: The Fate of American’s Missing Airmen in China, Master’s Thesis presented to Faculty of Department of history, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Tx., December, 2017

Molesworth, Carl, Sharks over China: The 23rd Fighter Group in World War II, Castle, Edison, N.J., 2001

Molesworth, Carl, 23rd Fighter Group – ‘Chenault’s Sharks’ (Aviation Elite Units 31), Osprey Publishing, Oxford, England, 2009

In Baltic Skies: The Last Flight of Ensign Aleksander Broch, March 15, 1945

Within my ongoing series of posts about the military service of Jews in the Second World War, a frequent thread – specifically for events in 1945 – has been reference to the six reference works created by the late Benjamin Meirtchak, covering Jews in the armed forces of Poland.  Published in Tel-Aviv between 1995 and 2003, Meirtchak’s books encompass virtually every facet of Jewish military service – and Jewish casualties – in Poland’s armed forces, ranging from men who were officers, members of the Polish Resistance, service in the Polish armed forces in exile, POWs captured in the German campaign of late 1939, and, the over 400 Jewish officers murdered during the Katyn Massacre in April and May of 1940.

While Mr. Meirtchak’s works are as invaluable as they are unique, perhaps inevitably – due to the sheer number of names involved – the information within them is typically limited to a man’s name, rank, military unit (that is, for men who served in infantry and armor) year and place of birth, father’s name, and for those men killed in action or who were murdered as POWs – date of death, and if known, place of burial. 

However, there are some men in Meirtchak’s books whose stories – by absence of substantive information – are enigmatic. 

One such man is mentioned in my post covering Jewish military casualties on March 15, 1945: Warrant Officer Aleksander Broch (“Soldiers from New York: Jewish Soldiers in The New York Times, in World War Two: Hospital Apprentice 1st Class Stuart E. Adler – March 15, 1945.), which is limited to the following information:

Polish People’s Army [Ludowe Wojsko Polskie]

Broch, Aleksander, WO, in Poland, at Zachodniopomorskie, Kolobrzeg
Born Sosnowiec, Poland, 1923
Mr. Stanislaw Broch (father)
Kolobrzeg Military Cemetery, Kolobrzeg, Poland
Jewish Military Casualties in the Polish Armies in World War II: Vol I, p 73

This is how the record for WO Broch appears in Volume II of Jewish Military Casualties in the Polish Armies in World War II, in a format and content consistent with other biographical entries…

…while here’s the book’s cover, the plain appearance of which is identical to that of Volumes I, III, and IV.

I’d long assumed that Broch’s story would remain unknown, but fortunately, that supposition has been proven to be incorrect.  The answer to the puzzle was discovered in a very unanticipated source:  The database of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Center of the nation of Israel. 

Though the central focus of Yad Vashem is upon the fate of the civilian Jews of Europe and North Africa during the Shoah, the Center’s archives, which are a historical repository as much as a museum (and far more than a simple museum, at that) comprise a tremendous variety of artifacts, documents, and photographs, that – hailing from the late 30s through the mid-40s – encompass a wide variety of facets of Jewish life, as a civilization, during that time period

In this sense, Yad Vashem possesses a trove of material relating to the military service of Jews in the Allied armed forces during the Second World War, which is accessible – akin to records directly pertaining to the Shoah – by entering search terms in the dark blue banner atop the Center’s home page.  Though the website’s search engine isn’t designed to allow the “Advanced Searches” typical of other digitized archives and repositories, the search records, once returned, can be displayed by order of Relevancy, person’s Name, Photos, the names of Righteous (Among the Nations), Testimonies, Movies and Books, and, Artifacts.  Simultaneously, search results can be filtered by Subject, Source, Rescue Mode, Religion, Profession, Collection, and Language, these seven fields being displayed within the web page’s left sidebar.  Examples are show below… 

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Here’s Yad Vashem’s home page.  The search field occupies the horizontal dark blue banner at the top of the page.  Clicking on the small magnifying glass symbol at the right end of the banner transforms it into a search box with text stating “Type and press enter…”

…and here are the 120,652 results generated (in November of 2023) by typing “Jewish Soldiers”.  As can be seen under “Refine and Filter” in the left sidebar, and, record types listed horizontally, results are filtered after searching.     

Here are the total “hits” returned for a variety of searches pertaining to Jews in the military in WW II:

“Jewish Partisans” > 10,600
“Jewish Prisoners of War” > 92,500
“Jewish POWs” > 4,400
“Jewish Brigade” > 3,780
“Jewish Women Soldiers” > 1,695
“Monte Cassino” > 137
“American Jewish Soldiers” > 750
“British Jewish Soldiers” > 2,080
“French Jewish Soldiers” > 880
“Greek Jewish Soldiers” > 145
“Polish Jewish Soldiers” > 13,100
“Russian Jewish Soldiers” > 3,700

An impressive and moving example of the nature of Yad Vashem’s holdings, and, the website’s design and ease directly relate to my June, 2021 post “The Jewish Brigade at War – The Palestine Post, April 13, 1945”, which includes biographical information about Private Asher (Uszer) Goldring [גולדרינג אשר] (PAL/16323).  Presumably captured by the Germans after a night-time battle in the Senin Valley of Italy on March 31, 1945, he was never seen again.  Seventy-eight years later, he is the only fallen member of the Jewish Brigade whose body has never been found.      

Yad Vashem possesses an enormous trove of documents about Asher, as described in this catalog entry:  “Letters related to Asher Goldring, born in Konstantinov, Poland in 1910, and other documentation related to him, his wife Hana (Schmuckler) Goldring, born in Strlishche, Poland in 1910, and their family members, dated 1938-1948”.  The full entry states: “Letters sent to Hana Goldring, regarding the fate of her husband Asher, who made aliya to Eretz Israel as a pioneer and enlisted in the Jewish Brigade.  Included in the letters is notification by the British Ministry of War, dated 13/01/1948, that the soldier Asher Goldring was killed in action; letters sent to Asher and Hana Goldring in the British Mandate for Palestine by their families in Poland in 1938; letters sent by Asher Goldring to his wife Hana while in service as a soldier in the Jewish Brigade, written during 13/01-31/03/1945; poems; a newspaper; drawings by Asher Goldring”. 

Comprised of over 200 items (!), a perusal of these documents reveals the magnitude of the Center’s efforts in processing documents for public access:  The quality of the scans is really excellent.  (I’d like to translate them, as they embody a story that merits telling.  But, they’re all in Hebrew.  Oh … well.)

A few other examples of Yad Vashem’s records about the military service of Jews in World War Two include documents pertaining to…

Juda Waterman (B-25 Mitchell pilot in No. 320 (Netherlands) Squadron, RAF)

Naum Naumovich Rabinovich (Yak fighter pilot and ace in 513th Fighter Aviation Regiment (see also), 331st Fighter Aviation Division, 2nd Air Army, Soviet Air Force), a “Refusenik” in the 1980s.  Possible future post.  (Who knows?)

Semion Yakovlevich Krivosheev (Il-2 Shturmovik aerial gunner in 810th Attack Aviation Regiment, 225th Attack Aviation Division, 15th Air Army, Soviet Air Force, who, having been shot down and captured on July 18, 1944, was one of the extraordinarily few Russian Jewish aviators to have survived the war as a POW of the Germans.)  Possible future post.  (Who knows?)

Testimony of Miroslav Sigut…  (Born in Dobratice, Czechoslovakia, 1917, regarding his experiences in Krakow, as a French Foreign Legion soldier in France and as a Czechoslovakian Army soldier in England.”  Includes comments about Squadron Leader Otto Smik of No. 312 and (later) 127 Squadrons, RAF.)

Those just scratch the surface, of the surface.  (Of, the surface.)

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And so, what of Aleksander Broch?

On a whim, I searched for information about “Jewish Pilots”, and was more than startled to find the following: “Confirmation of the service of Aleksander Broch as a pilot in the Polish Army and his having been declared missing during a campaign conducted 15 March 1945; excerpt from the “Polska Zbrojna” newspaper regarding the memoirs of Polish pilots, dated 18 March 1947”. 

Another document about Broch is the “Page of Testimony” that was filed in his memory by his father Stanislaus (Shmuel Barukh), on July 8, 1955, while the latter was residing in Israel.  The aforementioned web page for this document incorrectly lists Aleksander’s date of death as “13/3/1945” and status as “murdered”.

And then…  I remembered my post pertaining to the events of March 15, 1945. 

And then…  I duck-duck-goed “Aleksander Broch”, and was once again startled:  A biography of the pilot by Wojciech Zmyślony appears at Polish Air Force.pl, along with Broch’s portrait.  Zmyślony’s account being invaluable and unavailable elsewhere, I thought it merited presentation “here”, to make the story relevant to a wider audience. 

To that end, a the translation of follows below.  This is followed by two documents about Broch at from Yad Vashem, which are alluded to in Mr. Zmyślony’s list of references. 

One document is the article “Wings over Kołobrzeg – Memories of the fights of Polish pilots”, published in Polska Zbrojna (Armed Poland) on March 18, 1947, while the other is a letter by chaplain M. Rodzai to W/O Broch’s father Stanislaw.  For the purposes of this post, the English-language translation of each document appears first, and then, a transcript of the document in the original.  (Well, as best as I could transcribe them!)  

Accompanying the Polska Zbrojna article are four maps showing locations of places mentioned in Mr. Zmyślony’s story, and, the Polska Zbrojna article itself. 

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So to start, here’s Wojciech Zmyślony’s biography of Aleksander Broch, which includes a portrait of Broch – below – provided by fellow pilot Kazimierz Rutenberg; a fellow pilot in the 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment “Warszawa”; see The Direction Was Clear (Kierunek był Jasny), by Kazimierz Rutenberg.  Wojciech’s article in the original Polish can be viewed here, at Polish Air Force.  

The biography…

Aleksander Broch

– .ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. –
…Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím
May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

Aleksander Broch was born on February 9, 1923 in Przemyśl.  His parents were Jews from Warsaw: his father, Samuel Broch, earned his living as a merchant, and his mother, Perla Lea née Pillersdorf, took care of the house.  Later, Samuel changed his name to Stanisław, and returned to its original Hebrew form – Szmuel – after emigrating to Israel after the war.  The mother later also Hebrewized her name to Pnina.  Aleksander, still as a child (at the age of 10 or earlier), moved with his family to Sosnowiec.  There he attended a primary school, and then the Jewish Co-educational Gymnasium of doctor Henryk Liberman.  The Brochs – parents, Aleksander and his younger sister – lived in a tenement house at the market square in Sosnowiec.  The friendship between two later aviators of the 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment “Warszawa”, raised in Sosnowiec, dates from this period: Broch and Kazimierz Rutenberg, a year younger than him.

When in September 1939 the Third Reich invaded Poland, the Brochs fled east.  After the September Campaign, they had no reason to return to Sosnowiec, incorporated by Hitler’s decree into the Third Reich.  Choosing between two evils, they stayed in Lviv, occupied by the Soviet Union, where at least they did not have to fear Nazi persecution on the basis of their nationality.  It is not known what Aleksander Broch did in Lwów; he probably attended school.  Less than two years later, he was once again forced to flee from the Germans, when on June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the USSR.  Persuaded by his father, he decided to go deep into Russia.  When Lviv was occupied by Wehrmacht troops on June 30, the 18-year-old boy was already somewhere else.  He was not imprisoned or repressed and presumably worked in kolkhozes.  For unknown reasons, he failed to join the Polish Army, formed from July 1941 under the orders of General Władysław Anders (perhaps he was rejected as a Jew).  This army finally left the Soviet Union in September 1942, also taking tens of thousands of civilians with it.

After the Polish troops were moved to Persia (i.e.  today’s Iran), repressions were intensified against the Polish citizens remaining in the USSR, imposing, among other things, Soviet citizenship and making it impossible to leave Soviet territories.  So Broch decided to get to the Polish Armed Forces in the West on his own.  He hoped to reach British-controlled India by way of Afghanistan.  He failed to implement this idea.  He crossed the border of Afghanistan, but was injured by wild animals there and turned back west to the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic.

A few months after the departure of General Anders’ troops to Persia, the formation of the Polish Army began once again.  Commanded by General Zygmunt Berling, who was loyal to the Soviets, it was soon to go to the front in accordance with Stalin’s plans.  In response to the recruitment to the army, Broch volunteered in the first months of 1943 at the recruitment commission in the city of Jolotan, in the Marian district, on the edge of the Karakum desert.  Like all recruits, he was sent to Sielce nad Oką, about 30 km north-west of Ryazan, where the 1st Infantry Division of Tadeusz Kosciuszko.  To reach his destination, Broch had to cover a distance of nearly 4,000 kilometers.  During the journey he made with a couple of companions, he got rid of the rest of his possessions, replacing, among others, clothes for salt, which he managed to sell at a large profit elsewhere, where it was considered a luxury item.  This provided him with the funds needed to reach his destination.

In Sielce, Broch initially joined the infantry.  There, he unexpectedly met a friend from his youth, Kazimierz Rutenberg.  Their paths parted again, but this time for a short time: Rutenberg was assigned to the anti-tank artillery, and Broch (who could ride a motorcycle) was assigned to the communications service in the 1st Tank Regiment.  When the air force recruitment was announced in Sielce, both Broch and Rutenberg applied.  After a successful medical examinations, at the beginning of August 1943 they were transferred to the nearby Grigoriewskoje, where the Air Squadron of the 1st Infantry Division named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko.  On August 20, the Polish squadron was expanded to a full-time regiment, and on October 6, 1943, it officially adopted the name: 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment “Warszawa”.

In Grigorievskoye, students began pilot training in difficult conditions.  The pace was very fast – training (including theory) in the field of basic pilotage and fighter specialization was planned for only ten months.  Theoretical lectures were conducted in Russian, and the list of subjects included: air navigation, airframe construction, engine construction, theory of flight, aerial shooting, aviation tactics, radio communication and parachute training.  After theory, it was time for practice.  Basic pilotage was trained on light UT-2 training aircraft.  The next step was training on twin-steered Yak-7Vs (similar in construction to the target fighter on which the pilots of “Warszawa” were to fly), and finally launching and training in air combat, shooting and aerobatics on the Yak-1b.

On May 28, 1944, Broch was promoted to ensign, which was the first officer rank in the Polish People’s Army.  In August 1944, the regiment was moved to the Gostomel airport near Kiev (now the airport of the capital of Ukraine), and at the beginning of June 1944 to the village of Dys near Lublin.  It was the regiment’s first airport in Poland.  In Dysa, several more experienced pilots joined the unit, and on August 18, 1944, the planes flew to Zadybie Stary, from which combat flights finally began.  When the regiment left for the front, Broch was assigned to the position of the pilot of the 2nd squadron.

On August 23, 1944, the pilots of the 1st Regiment were baptized by fire.  Broch had to wait nearly a month for his first combat assignment.  On September 19, his plane took off from Zadybie Stary together with five other Yaks to cover eight Il-2s from the 611th Air Assault Regiment, attacking targets in the area of the south-eastern outskirts of Warsaw.  The next flight, exactly 10 days later, consisted in the escort of a single Il-2 reconnaissance over the left-bank Warsaw by a pair of Yaks.  On this assignment, Broch used his on-board weapons the enemy for the first time, firing at ground targets.  It was one of the few tasks that the pilots of the 1st Regiment could perform over the insurgent capital…  Unfortunately, it was already dying at the time, as providing effective help to the insurgents was definitely prevented by Stalin’s cynical decisions.

Broch performed another task on October 15, escorting with three other Yaks a group of six Il-2s attacking targets in the area of Nowodwory, Winnica and Jabłonna.  During this flight, Focke-Wulf 190s were spotted flying in the distance, but no combat took place.  A similar flight – an escort of a pair of Il-2s for reconnaissance of the Poniatów-Suchocin-Jabłonna-Legionowo area – Broch made on October 27, firing again on the ground targets he encountered.  On November 8, he flew for reconnaissance north of Warsaw, in the area of Jabłonna, Modlin and Olszewnica.  Two Messerschmitt 109s were encountered in the air, but there was no combat as the fighters moved away.  Broch, however, dived and strafed the ground targets he spotted.  On 20, 22 and 25 November, he flew for visual reconnaissance, respectively: Jabłonna-Nowy Dwór-Leszna-Grądowa, Jabłonna-Nasielska-Kroczewa-Leszna-Warszawy-Błonia and Mokotów-Grodziska-Błonia-Piaseczno.  During the second of these flights, he attacked air defense positions, and during the third – German motor vehicles.  It was Broch’s last combat task in 1944.  The longer break was related to the stopping of the front near Warsaw on the Vistula River.

Broch completed the next three tasks only in 1945, on January 19-20, after the capture of Warsaw.  The first was to cover the parade of the 1st Polish Army, which marched along the ruined Aleje Jerozolimskie.  Broch flew in a formation of six planes, led by the regiment commander, Lt. Col. Ivan Taldykin.  On the same day, he flew to the air cover of his own troops in the area of Warsaw-Błonie and crossing the Vistula north of Warsaw.  The next day he conducted another patrol over the capital itself.

After this series of tasks, the regiment again had a break in combat tasks.  At that time, it was moved to the Sanniki airport near Gostynin, and then to Bydgoszcz, from where flights were started to support the 1st Army of the Polish Army fighting to break the Pomeranian Wall.  On February 20, Broch was covering a pair of Il-2s flying towards Złocieniec.  At the local railway station, four trains without steam locomotives were spotted.  Broch dived and strafed both the trains and the station.  Five days later, he flew for visual and photographic reconnaissance of railway traffic in the area of Szczecinek, Grzmiaca, Barwice, Połczyn Zdrój and Czaplinek.  During the task, he attacked trains at Dalęcino and Grzmiąc stations, and two cars near Czaplinek, which were damaged.  On February 27, he performed a similar task in the area of Drawsko Pomorskie and Złocieniec.  And this time he shot at the train at the station in Złocieniec, defended by a battery of anti-aircraft guns.

On March 1, Broch completed the last mission from Sanniki, escorting eight Il-2s to the Wierzchów area.  He himself also used on-board weapons, attacking infantry in the trenches near Żabin.  Two days later, the 1st Regiment was moved to the recently captured Mirosławiec airport, from which the unit took part in further flights to support the 1st Polish Army fighting to capture Kołobrzeg.  From there, on March 11, 1945, Broch flew in the cover of four Il-2s over “Festung Kolberg”, i.e. stubbornly defended by Wehrmacht troops (including navy and air force) and Waffen SS Kołobrzeg.  The ground guidance station warned that Focke-Wulfs might appear in the air, but the pilots saw no sign of enemy aircraft.

On March 15, 1945, Broch took off at 11:20 at the controls of Yak-9M No. 81 [serial number 3315381, via ARMA HOBBY News Blog] as side [wingman] to second lieutenant Vsevolod Bobrowski.  It was his 17th combat flight and – as it turned out – the last.  The task of the pair was to patrol the skies over Kołobrzeg in order to provide cover for Il-2 Shturmoviks, which were to attack ground targets.  Over the coast, Broch separated from Bobrowski and disappeared.  His leader circled for a long time looking for the wingman, returning to base on the last of the fuel after 2 hours and 45 minutes of flight.  To this day, it is not clear what happened to the pilot.  For years, it was reported in the literature that he was lost in the waves of the Baltic Sea, which, however, is not true, because his body was found and buried.

Ensign Aleksander Broch rests in a mass grave of soldiers of the Polish People’s Army at the War Cemetery in Kołobrzeg.

Wojciech Zmyślony

Sources:

Photo from the collection of Mr. Kazimierz Rutenberg
Documents from the Registry Office in Przemyśl
Documents from the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem
Bulzacki Z., Logbook of flights and combat and reconnaissance reports of the 1st Regiment “Warszawa”, b.w., Poznań 1976
Sławiński K., The First Hunter, Publishing House MON, Warsaw 1980

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This representative image of Yak-1B fighters (not the Yak-which was piloted by Ensign Broch, though the general appearance is very similar) of “Warszawa” is from “Four Fours” at Arma Hobby’s News Blog.  Caption: “Jak-1b No 4, 1 eskadra (squadron) of the 1 Regiment piloted by chor. pil. Edward Chromy.  In the background is the aeroplane No 13 from 2 eskadra.  Artwork by Marcin Górecki.”

Here’s a translation of Polska Zbrojna’s 1947 article about Broch’s last mission.  The translation is followed by four maps, a transcript of the article in Polish, and then, an image of the article.

Wings over Kołobrzeg
Memories of the Fights of Polish Pilots

Armed Poland
March 18, 1947

For half an hour now, Bobrowski and Broch have been cruising over the rough waves, looking for enemy sea transports heading for Kolobrzeg, which is besieged by the First Army.  Strong winds and driving winds carrying fog make patrolling difficult.  At times the world becomes completely dark with clouds floating low over the horizon.  The sea is empty.  Don’t see any movement on it.  Pilots’ eyes, accustomed to the brightness of the landscape, become tired and tired from constant looking.  Second after second, builds into a long rosary of minutes.  No; no change.  Suddenly, Broch’s hawk-like gaze notices, beneath the dark, blurred horizon, several black, monotonous lines swinging on the perpetually wavering waves.

– Transport! – he shouts over the radio to Bobrowski.  In an instant, he notices the barely visible ships.  There’s three of them.  In the depths of the water, near the ships, the spindly shapes of two submarines escorting the transport glide.  Direction: Kolobrzeg.

And now let’s get to work, until they are spotted, until they can take a closer look at the German transports, until the on-board artillery responds.  They made their way through the fog and rain and went two stones [?] down, straight towards the steamships. – One larger one with a characteristic bulge in the hull – a tanker; two smaller ones, full of equipment and combat reinforcements, filled to the decks – he calculates quickly.  Bobrowski and pulls the [control] stick slightly so as not to fall into the ship’s large, smoking stack.  And Broch is already playing with his “machines” [machine guns] on the decks; on the sides, on the stacks – a hurricane is breaking through the sky after the Germans who were not expecting an attack.  A few more series – a faint flash down below.

The fire smolders for a while; twitches awkwardly.  Will it go off?  [Will it explode?]  As if in response, a terrible shock shook the air; the air heaved and vibrated with smoke and fire.  It’s getting hot.  The middle ship carrying gasoline disappeared from the sea surface.  It sank into the depths.  Only in the place where the ship was swinging in front of the waves in the waves, the sea was strangely luminous, full of long spots burning with luxuriant flame.  A strange and terrible, unforgettable image of the burning sea.

That’s enough for today! – Bobrowski shouts with joy and, under heavy fire from the artillery of the remaining ships [?], they return to the shore to submit a report to the command.

Sending shturmoviks now! – he says to Broch, strangely unenthusiastic about the success he has just achieved.  Bobrowski, concerned about his friend’s silence, exhorts on the radio:

Did the eagle become so silent as if he had drunk German gasoline?  But Broch is silent.  Only after a while, when they reach the coast, his voice is heard in the host’s headphones:  Listen, if something happens to me, write home to [?] parents, okay?

Bobrowski suffers.  He thinks for a moment; his thoughts come together.  Then he bursts out: Whatever comes to mind, don’t stop the _____! – and listen to the _____.  But Broch is silent.

The weather is deteriorating with every moment. Immediately after passing the coastal strip, they fall into such fog that they lose themselves completely.  Conscious, attentive to everything, the patrol commander takes a sharp 180-degree turn, trying to turn around and avoid the fog sideways.  Broch flies on.  Bobrowski, terrified by his friend’s absence, constantly calls on him to change course like he did.  The pilot hears him, faintly at first, but he does not respond.  And the fog grows and then disappears.  Just a moment and you won’t be able to turn back.  When this difficult moment passes, Broch is gone.

This is Bobrowski…  This is Bobrowski…  I’m going to pick up… – Broch…  Broch…  Where are you? – a dramatic question flies into space.  Out of nowhere, as if out of this world, the answer comes back.

No, I can’t see!  I don’t know where I am!  Light!…

Keep to the seashore! – advises the concerned friend, because in the meantime he is losing his orientation, unable to find any point of support on the ground covered with spring snow.  Not a single river down there, but full of ash-covered railway junctions and forests.  Forest everywhere.  Minute by minute passes.  Broch no longer responds to the radio signal at all.

Apparently he went over the sea – Bobrowski thought and, afraid of the tentacles of fog that were covering him more and more and unable to determine exactly where he was – he was heading south.

After ten minutes of flight in difficult weather conditions, he suddenly jumped out of the clouds over a German city, next to which there was a lake.  Following the characteristic, broken shoreline of the lake, which he knew from the flight routes in this area, he realized that he was over Walcz, located at the intersection of large roads, 30 km away from the home airport in Frydland [Pravdinsk].

After reporting to the headquarters of the unit and reporting on the flight, attack aircraft of the 3rd Assault Aviation Regiment accompanied by fighters were immediately sent over Kolobrzeg.  They destroyed the German sea transport, which sank at the very entrance of the port.

And Broch?  He left his combat flight for Poland on Saturday, March 15, 1945, and did not return.  And the Baltic Sea jealously guards its secrets.

Five days later, after this combat flight, Kolobrzeg fell and was captured by the soldiers of the First Polish Army.

K. Gozdziewki, second lieutenant

The Baltic Sea relative to Poland, Russia, Latvia, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, with Kolobrzeg in the map’s lower center.

A “close-up” of Kolobrzeg and nearby Polish coastline.

Kolobrzeg, showing Walcz to the south-southeast.

Kolobrzeg, with Walcz denoted by the circle to the south-southeast, and the location of Frydland (Pravdinsk), southeast of Kaliningrad, to the east.  Though the Polska Zbrojna article indicates that the latter two locations are 30 kilometers from one another, in reality, they’re much (much) farther apart.

Skrzydła nad Kołobrzegiem
Wspomnienia z walk polskich pilotów

Polska Zbrojna
March 18, 1947

Już od pól godziny kraża Bobrowski i Broch nad wzburzonymi falami w poszukiwaniu nieprzyjacielskich transportów morskich dażacych do oblężonego przez l Armie – Kolobrzegu.  Silny wiatr i zacinajacy, niosacy ze soba mgle wiatr ultrudniaja patrolowanie.  Chwilami na świecie robi sie zupelnie ciemno od sunacych nisko nad horzyontem – chmur.  Morze jest puste.  Nie wiadę na nim zadnego ruchu.  Oczy pilotów przyzwyczajene od zrólany krajobrazow nuża sie i mecza od ciaglego wypatrywania.  Sekunda uplywa za sekunda narastajac w dlugi różaniec minut.  Nie, żadnej zmainy.  Nagle sokoli wrzok Brocha sposlrzega hen pod ciemna, zamazana linia horyzontu kilka czarnych, jednostajnych kresek rozhuśtanych na wieczystej chwiejbie fal.

– Transport! – krzyczy przez radio do Bobrowskiego.  Ten w jednej chwili dostrzega, ledwie widocżene statki.  Jest ich trzy.  W glebi wody, w poblizu statków suna wrzecionowete ksztnity dwóch lodzi podwodnych eskortujacych transport.  Kiorunek: Kolobrzeg.

A teraz do dziela, póki ich nie spostrzezono, póki moga przyjrzeć sie dokladniej, z bliska, niemieckim transportowcom, poki nie odezwie sie artyleria pokladowa.  Przerżneli sie przez mgly i deszcz i poszli jak dwa kamienie w dól, prosto na sunace parowce. – Jeden wiekszy z charakterystycznym wybrzuszeniem kadluba – cysterna, dwa mniejsze, pelne sprzetu i posilków bojowych, zapelnione aż po pklady – oblicza szybko.  Bobrowski i sciaga lekko drazek na siebie azeby nie wpakować sie na wielki, dymiacy komin statku.  A Broch już gra ze swoich „maszynek“ po pokladach; po burtach, po kominach – przewala sie pak nuragan po niesposdziewajacych sie ataku szwabach.  Jeszece kilka serii – nikly blysk w dole.

Ogień tli sie chwile, pelza niezdarnie drga.  Zgaśnie?  Jakby w ódpowiedzi powietrzem targa potworny wstrzas powietme laluje i drga od dymu j zara.  Robi sie goraco.  Środkowy statek wiozacy benzyne – znikl z powierzchni morza.  Zapadl sie w glab.  Tylko na mieiscu, gdzie przedtyni huśtal sie w przyplywach fal statek, morze bylo dziwnie świetliste, pelne dlustych plam palacych sie bujnyn piomieniem.  Dziwny i straszny, mezapomnlany obraz palacego sie morza.

Na dzisiaj wyzarczy! – wrzeszczy z radoni Bobrowski i pod silnym obstnalem artyleril pozostalych okreów zawracajo do brzegu, ażeb zlożyć raport dowództwu.

Zaraz wyśla szurmowców! – mówi do Brocha, dóry dziwnie nie entuzjazmuje sie odniesionym przed chwila sukcesem.  Bobrowski zaniepokoony milczeniem kolegi nalega przez radio:

Cos tak zamilkl ragle jakbyś napil sie benzyny nienieckiej?  Lecz Broch milczy.  Dopiero po chwili, gdy dolatuja uż do wybrzeża odzywa sie jego glos w sluchawkach prowadzicego: Sluchajl Gdyby _e ze mna cós stalo napisz do domu, do rodżicow, dobrze?

Bobrowski cierpnie.  Chwile zastanawia sie, zbiena myśli.  Po tym wybucha: Co_i_do glowy przyszlo nie zawrazaj gitary!  – i nadsluchuje pinie.  Lecz Broch milczy.

Pogoda psuje sie z każda chwila Zaraz po minec u pasa nadbrzeznego wpadaja w takamgle, że traca siebie z oezu zupelnie Przytomny baczny n wszystko dowodea patrolu kiadze sie w ostry skreto 180 st. próbujac zawrócić i ominać mgle bokiem.  Broch leci dalej.  Bobrowski przerażony nieobecnościa kolegi nawoluje go bez przerwy, ażeby zmienil tak jak i on kurs.  Pilot sluszy go, wptawdzie slabo, ale slyszy i nie odpowida.  A mgla rośnie, poteż nieje.  Jeszcze chwila i nie bedzie można już zawrocic.  Gdy mija ta ciezka chwila, Broche nie ma.

Ja Bobrowski… ja Bobrowski… przechodze na odbiór… – Broch… Broch… gdzie jesteś? – leci w przestrzeń dramatyezne pytanie.  Skadś z daieka, jakby juz nie z tego świata wraca odpowiedż.

Nie nie widze!  Nie wiem, gdzie jestem!  Bladze!

Trzymaj sie brzegu morskiego morza! – radzi zatroskany kolega, bo w miedzyczasie sam traci orientacje, nie mogac znależć na zasnutej wiosenna sazruga ziemi żadnego punktu oparcia.   Ani jednej rzeki, tam w dole, pelno zato popiatanych wezlów kolejowych i lasy.  Wszedzie las.  Mija minuta za minuta.  Broch nie odpowiada juz wcale na sygnal radia.

Widocznie poszedi nad morze – mysil Bobrowski i rainiac sie przed zalewajacymi go coraz bardziej mackami mgly i nie mogac ustalić dokladnie gdzie sie znajudje – bierze kurs na poludnie.

Po dziesieciu minutach lotu w cieżkich warunkach atmosferycznych wyskoczyi nagle z chmur nad jakims miastem niemieckim, obok ktorego znajdowalo sie jezioro.  Po charakterystycznej, lamanej linii brzegow jeziora, ktore znat z poprze laieb przelotow w tym rejonie uzmyslowil sobie, że znajduje sie nad Walczem leżacym na skrzyzowaniu wielkich dróg w odlegiośei 30 km. od [błąd!] macierzystgo iotniska we Frydladzie [Pravdinsk].

Po zameldowaniu sie w sztabie jednosiki i zadniu relacji z lotu, wyslano natychmiast nad Kolobrzeg szturmowce 3 Pulku Lotnictwa Szturmowego w asyśnie mysliwców.  Dokonaly one dziela zniszczenia niemieckiego transportu morskiego, który zatonal u samego wejścia portu.

A Broch?  Wylecial do swego lotu bojovego dla Polski w sebote dnia 15 marca 1945 r. i nie wrócil.  A Baltyk strzeże zazdrośnie swoich tajemnic.

W pieć dni póżniej po tym locie bojowym padl Kolobrzeg zdobyty przez żolnierzy I Armi W.P.

K. Gożdziewki, ppor.

The article, from Yad Vashem…

✡                                 ✡

Here’s Chaplain Rozdai’s letter to Aleksander father Stanislaus…

For
Citizen Stanislaw Broch

in Sosnowiec, 20 Targowa Street

According to the letter of the 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment No. 898/I of August 10, 1945 I will inform you that the son of the citizen, ensign pilot Broch Aleksander, took an active part in the fight against the Germans in the 1st Belarusian Front and on March 15, 1945, he flew on reconnaissance and disappeared without a trace.

At the same time, I am enclosing a certificate attesting to the amount of monthly salaries received by warrant officer Aleksander, issued by Lieutenant Myśliwski.

1 enclosure

Supplementary District Commandant

M. RODZAI
Chaplain

…and, the document in the original Polish.

Do
Ob. [Obywatel] Brocha Stanisława

w Sosnowcu, ul. [ulica] Targowa 20

Zgndnie z pismem l Pulku Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego Nr 898/I z dnia 10 sierpnia 1945 Pr. zawiadsmiem, że syn Obywatela chorazy pilot Broch Aleksander brał czynny udział w walce z Niemcami na l-szym Białoruskim Froncie i w dniu 15 marca 1945 r. poleciał na wywiad i przepad ł ben wieści.

Równocześnie przesyłam w załaczeniu zaświadczenie atwierd za jace wysokość pobiernayc_ poborów miesioczynch przez chor. proc__ Aleksandra, wystawione przez l p. Letn-Myśliwskiego.

1 zał. [załącznik]

Rejenowy Komedant Uzupełnienie

M. RODZAI
Kaplian

The original document, from Yad Vashem…

One reference…

Meirtchak, Benjamin, Jewish Military Casualties in the Polish Armies in World War II: I – Jewish Soldiers and Officers of the Polish People’s Army Killed and Missing in Action 1943-1945, World Federation of Jewish Fighters Partisans and Camp Inmates: Association of Jewish War Veterans of the Polish Armies in Israel, Tel Aviv, Israel, 1994

Soldiers from New York: Jewish Soldiers in The New York Times, in World War Two: February 25, 1945 (United States Marine Corps and United States Navy…)

The prior post having covered Jewish military casualties on February 25, 1945 (Adar 13, 5705) in the ground forces of the United States Army and other Allied nations, “this” post moves to the Pacific Theater of War, and focuses on Jewish servicemen in the United States Marine Corps, and, United States Navy.

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United States Marine Corps

The thirteen Marines whose names are listed below – whether wounded or killed in action – were all casualties during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

3rd Marine Division

(This reproduction of the 3rd Marine Division shoulder patch is by WW II Impressions.)

Jastrow, Mylon Louis, PFC, 438815, Purple Heart
9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Headquarters Company
Died of wounds (.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)
Born Chicago, Il. 6/14/25
Mr. and Mrs. Isidore Louis (1/10/91-9/68) and Frances (Ephraim) (1/9/95-9/9/56) Jastrow (parents)
7050 South East End Ave., Chicago, Il.
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii – Section N, Grave 325
American Jews in World War II – 104

This photo of PFC Jastrow’s matzeva is by FindAGrave researcher Jeff Hall, who, in May of 2017 after a four-year effort, created “…virtual cemeteries for all American Ground Forces casualties during WWII.”  The image shown here comes from Mr. Hall’s project to photograph headstones for all “…WW2 dead at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) in Honolulu.”  Few headstone photos existed for this cemetery before 2008.

Lowe, Leonard, PFC, 395271, BSM, Purple Heart
12th Marine Regiment, 2nd Battalion, D Battery
Wounded in Action
Born Ohio 2/26/20 – Died 4/24/97
Mr. and Mrs. Michael and Bertha Lowe (parents); Florence (sister), 9607 Garfield Ave., Cleveland, Oh.
American Jews in World War II – 494

Newman, Irving, Cpl., 474277, Purple Heart, 1 Oak Leaf Cluster
21st Marine Regiment, 1st Battalion, Headquarters Company
Wounded in Action (wounded previously at Guam; approximately 8/1/44)
Born Brooklyn, N.Y. 12/15/22 – Died 2001
Mrs. Gladys Newman (wife), 223 E. 96th St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry and Kate (Schneiderman) Newman (parents), 223 E. 96th St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Casualty Lists 9/28/44, 5/14/45
American Jews in World War II – 400

4th Marine Division

(This example of the 4th Marine Division shoulder patch comes from TTMilitaria.)

Abrams, Leon Joseph, Cpl., 808008, Fire Team Leader, Purple Heart
24th Marine Regiment, 1st Battalion, A Company
Killed in Action (.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)
Born New Bedford, N.Y. 9/4/20
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel and Esther Abrams (parents), 27 Ryan St., New Bedford, Ma.
Annette C. and Herbert Abrams (sister and brother)
Plainville Cemetery, New Bedford, Ma. – Tifereth Israel, Row B, Lot 43
American Jews in World War II – Not Listed

Becker, William (Zeev bar David), PFC, 859148, Purple Heart
24th Marine Regiment, 1st Battalion, A Company
Wounded in Action
Born Denver, Co. 9/18/24 – Died 9/2/80
Mr. and Mrs. David (1876-9/18/31) and Minnie C. (1890-2/8/48) Becker (parents), 1100 Laurence St., Denver, Co.
Golden Hill Cemetery, Lakewood, Co. – Plot 18
American Jews in World War II – 58

Birnbaum, Seymour, Cpl., 863240, Purple Heart
4th Engineer Battalion, B Company
Killed in Action (.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)
Born Brooklyn, N.Y. 5/12/24
Mr. and Mrs. Louis and Flora Birnbaum (parents); Morris and Ruth (brother and sister), 371 S. 5th St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Casualty List 5/31/45
Place of Burial Unknown
American Jews in World War II – 278

David, Matthew, PhM3C, 8128880, Purple Heart
23rd Marine Regiment
Killed in Action (.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)
Born New York, N.Y. 6/16/23
Mr. and Mrs. Morris (7/10/81-6/23/34) and Sarah / Sabra (Naphtali) (8/10/96-5/16/77) David (parents)
Anna (sister) (4/11/27-12/11/95)
850 Bryant Ave., New York, N.Y.
Another address…  1056 Fox St., Bronx, N.Y.
Mount Carmel Cemetery, Glendale, N.Y. – Section 5, Block J, Lot 525, Grave 1
Casualty List 4/28/45
American Jews in World War II – 295

Galperin, Hyman, PhM2C, 2247056, Purple Heart
Attached to 4th Marine Division
Wounded in Action
Born New York, N.Y. 12/25/24 – Died 6/6/08
Mr. Joseph Galperin (father), 24-17 Ditmars Ave., Astoria, Long Island City, N.Y.
Cedar Park Cemetery, Paramus, N.J.
American Jews in World War II – 317

Gershen, Irvin Jack, 1 Lt., 0-18848, Purple Heart
24th Marine Regiment, 3rd Battalion, I Company
Wounded in Action
Born Elizabeth, N.J. 7/23/20 – Died 12/27/76
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob (Jack) (Gershenowitz) (12/1/96-1/21/68) and Libby (Lillie) (Sherman) (8/11/00-11/19/99) Gershen (parents)
104 Lake Drive, Allenhurst, N.J.
U.S. Marine Corps History Division – Casualty Card Database gives date as 2/26/45
Fold3.com WW II War Diaries: USS Knox 19 (I-3-24-4) COMRANSDIV 44 30
American Jews in World War II – Not Listed

Rozner, James Howard (Yaakov Heersh bar Ben Tzion), Cpl., 329608, Purple Heart
25th Marine Regiment, 3rd Battalion, L Company
Killed in Action (.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)
(wounded previously; approximately 6/26/44)
Born McKeesport, Pa. 6/4/16
Mr. and Mrs. Ben and Esther Rozner (parents), R.D. #1, Washington, Pa.
Beth Israel Cemetery, Washington County, Pa.
Navy Department Casualty Release 8/26/44
U.S. Marine Corps History Division – Casualty Card Database has only one entry – for 2/25/45
American Jews in World War II – 547

Jessica Dulis took this picture of Corporal Rozner’s mazteva.

5th Marine Division

(From Fitzkee Militaria comes this 5th Marine Division shoulder patch.)

Lauer, Julius Howard, PFC, 958064, Purple Heart
26th Marine Regiment, 3rd Battalion, G Company
Wounded in Action
Born Chicago, Il. 6/9/18 – Died 9/17/00
Mrs. Geraldine J. (Grinberg) Lauer (wife) (12/20/17-2/11/82), 3001 Paseo St., Kansas City, Mo.
Mr. and Mrs. Meyer (7/97-?) and Sarah (Margolis) (1899-?) Lauer (parents) (Or … was father Joseph Lauer?)
4225 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago, Il.
American Jews in World War II – 107, 213

Remis, Isadore Harold, Pvt., 523506, Purple Heart
27th Marine Regiment, 2nd Battalion, E Company
Wounded in Action
Born Kansas City, Mo. 5/15/26 – Died 8/20/04
Mr. and Mrs. Abe (3/4/02-6/18/66) and Fannie (Plutzik) (12/3/06-3/18/59) Remis (parents), 2124 East 38th St., Kansas City, Mo.
American Jews in World War II – 215

Siegal, Norman Abraham, Pvt., 931139, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart
5th Engineer Battalion, Headquarters and Service Company
Wounded in Action
Born Chicago, Il. 12/26/11 – Died 11/51
Mrs. Sylvia (Vitz) Siegal (wife) (10/26/13-6/28/81), 5946 West Washington Blvd. / 6842 Clyde Ave., Chicago, Il.
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob and Lena (Kessler) Siegal (parents)
Draft Card lists name as “Norman A(initail only) Siegal”
American Jews in World War II – 116
United States Navy

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United States Navy

Fighter Squadron VF-12

(Via Wikipedia, here’s the insignia of VF-12 from 1943 through 1945.)

On February 25, 1945, among the nine F6F-5 Hellcat fighters of Navy Fighter Squadron VF-12 on the USS Randolph, which embarked on a fighter sweep mission to airfields in the Tokyo Bay area was the aircraft (Bureau Number 72329) piloted by Lt. JG Norman Wesley Sandler (0-113013), of Des Moines, Iowa…

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Norman W. Sandler’s portrait from the 1938 yearbook of Roosevelt High School (via Ancestry.com)

(.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)

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…armed with HVAR rockets instead of bombs, the planes struck hangars at the Hokoda Airfield, and, a radar station at Iso Saki, east of the Mawatari airfield.

As described in the Squadron’s Aircraft Action Report, adverse weather hindered planned operations during the mission: “Cloud cover was 1/10 throughout the mission, lowering to 3000-foot base at Mawatari airfield.”  No Japanese planes were observed to be airborne, few were found on the ground, and no anti-aircraft fire was seen, the latter making the loss of Ensign Sandler – based on information in the Aircraft Action Report – a mystery.

Lt. JG Sandler’s wingman Ensign J.M. Finley, who’d followed Sandler into a diving attack on Hyakurigahara Airfield, had just pulled out of his dive when he noticed Sandler’s Hellcat tumbling “like a belly tank” toward the ground.  The aircraft’s tail was detached, and was about 150 feet behind, above, and to the left of the fuselage of Sandler’s fighter.  After turning to avoid the detached tail section, Ensign Finley noted an aircraft burning in a location where the main body of Sandler’s F6F would have struck the earth, though he didn’t actually see Sandler’s fighter crash.  Finley specifically noted that Sandler’s dive angle was not excessive, with (visual) evidence suggesting that Sandler’s tail section was lost during or immediately after the Ensign’s pull-out.  Sandler was not seen to have parachuted from his Hellcat.

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If I have my geography correct (!), think the former Hyakurigahara Airfield, the wartime base of the Hyakurihara Naval Air Group, is the site of the present Ibaraki Airport – 茨城空港 / Hyakuri Air Base: specific location Shimoyoshikage, Shirakawa-mura (Ogawa-cho), Higashiibaraki-gun, Ibaraki-ken.

This map shows the present Ibaraki Airport – 茨城空港 / Hyakuri Air Base (circled in red) in relation to Tokyo.

This closer look shows the facility itself, with the civilian airport to the west of the paired runways and the air base to the east.

Same scene, different view: An air photo of the above.

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Though I’m not aware of F6F losses being associated with structural failure of the aircraft’s tail section (for example, an early problem in the history of the Hawker Typhoon), in this case the possibility can’t be dismissed, particularly given the absence of anti-aircraft fire.

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A VF-12 Hellcat on the flight deck of the USS Randolph in 1945.  

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This image, “box art” for Eduard’s 1/48 plastic model of the late F6F “Dash 5” Hellcat (kit number 8224), a nice depiction of a pair of VF-12 Hellcats in action over Japan, clearly displays the squadron’s horizontal white-stripe fin and rudder, white ailerons, and, plane-in-squadron number on fuselage side and cowling.  

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From Fighters – Forum Maquettes Avions & Helicos, this photo shows the “real” #32 and other VF-12 Hellcats on the deck of the Randolph.  Unfortunately, VF-12’s Aircraft Action Report doesn’t list the individual plane-in-squadron number of Lt. JG Sandler’s missing Hellcat, only the plane’s Bureau Number.  (The original source of this picture isn’t listed, though I suppose it’s an official US Navy photo.)    

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A review of Aviation Archeology’s database and FindAGrave reveal that Ensign Finley was shot down on April 8, 1945 (in F6F-5 72295) during an attack against Wan Airfield on Kikai Shima.  Parachuting at sea, he drifted in his life raft for five days before being rescued by a PBM.  His survival was the subject of an article in Air-Sea Rescue Bulletin No. 128 (of June 12, 1945; see page 28), published by the Coast Guard’s Air-Sea Rescue Agency.

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Born in Des Moines on December 20, 1919, Norman W. Sandler was the son of Nathan (1/28/96-12/3/62) and Belle (Klimosky) (3/6/96-12/19/84) Sandler, of 909 Polk Boulevard.  He was the husband of Geraldine (Krum) Sandler (later Wolk) (11/29/23-5/20/04) and father of Karen Blair.  The recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, and Purple Heart, his name can be found on page 127 of American Jews in World War II.

Lt. JG Sandler’s name appeared in Casualty Lists released on 3/10/45 and 3/15/46.  On December 19, 1948, Lt. JG Sandler was buried at Glendale Jewish Cemetery in Des Moines.  This image of his matzeva was taken by Katie Lou, who researches cemeteries and memorials in Polk County, Iowa.

References

Books

Dublin, Louis I., and Kohs, Samuel C., American Jews in World War II – The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom, The Dial Press, New York, N.Y., 1947

Combat Connected Naval Casualties, World War II, by States: U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, United States Navy Office of Public Information Casualty Section, Washington, D.C., 1946

Sites on the Web

National Diet Library Digital Collection of Japan, Aircraft Action Report No. VF12#12 1945/02/25 : Report No. 2-d(53): USS Randolph, USSBS Index Section 7 (文書名:Records of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey ; Entry 55, Security-Classified Carrier-Based Navy and Marine Corps Aircraft Action Reports, 1944-1945 = 米国戦略爆撃調査団文書 ; 海軍・海兵隊艦載機戦闘報告書) (課係名等:Intelligence Branch ; Library and Target Data Division) (シリーズ名:Aircraft action reports (carrier-based aircraft))

VF-12 Insignia (“Artwork by anonymous friend of VF-12 – Photographed by Hymmolaya”), from Wikipedia entry for VF-12.

F6F Hellcat of VF-12 on deck of USS Randolph (color image; Unknown photographer; “Part of U.S. Navy photo 80-G-K-5339 from the collections of the Naval History Center”), from Wikipedia entry for VF-12.

Fukubayashi, Toru, Allied Aircraft and Airmen Lost over the Japanese Mainland During WW II, at POW Research Japan

Fukubayashi, Toru, Allied Aircraft and Airmen Lost over the Japanese Mainland During WW II, Records for Tobu (Kanto and Koshinetsu) Army District, at POW Research Japan

Soldiers from New York: Jewish Soldiers in The New York Times, in World War Two: May 4, 1945 – United States Navy – Naval Aviator Saul Chernoff – II [Revised post…!]

[First created on April 6, 2022, this post has now been updated … read on! …

As you can read just below – as the very “opening line” of this post, “Sometimes, it is a good thing to be wrong.” 

I penned that sentence as a result of having received – to my happy surprise and great appreciation – information and numerous photographs about Lt. JG Saul Chernoff, as a result of the appearance of the December, 2021 post Soldiers from New York: Jewish Soldiers in The New York Times, in World War Two: May 4, 1945 – United States Navy – Naval Aviator Saul ChernoffFrom Donna and Susan, Lt. JG Chernoff’s nieces, this material transformed their uncle’s identity from that of a mere “name and serial number” to a person with a fully three-dimensional life in history, and has been the basis for “this” second post, which was created in early April of 2022.

With that, Donna has clarified an aspect of their Uncle’s story about which was a little “off” – geographically speaking, that is.  This pertains to the photograph of Saul and his sister Lillian.  The correction appears below, in the same dark red text as used for this – and the preceding – paragraphs.  Scroll on down!…]

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Sometimes, it is a good thing to be wrong.

My recent post about Lt. (jg) Saul “Sonny” Chernoff, an F4U Corsair fighter pilot in Navy fighter squadron VBF-85, who scored three aerial victories on May 4, 1945 and was killed in action almost a month later, concluded on this ambiguous note:  “I have no further specifics about Lt. (jg) Saul Chernoff.  Perhaps he crashed at sea, just off the Ibusuki Seaplane Base; perhaps somewhere on the Satsuma Peninsula.  To the best of my knowledge, he was never a POW.  Even if he had been captured, his chance of survival to the war’s end, even during these closing three months of the Pacific War, in the context of the fate of Allied fliers captured by the Japanese, would only have been about 1 in 2.” 

I also noted – in lieu of other information – that, “Saul Chernoff’s name appears on page 288 of American Jews in World War II, where he is listed as having been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, and Purple Heart.  His name also appears in both volumes of the 1946 publication Combat Connected Naval Casualties of World War II.  In Volume I, his name appears on page 99 as being “Missing in Action or During Operational War Missions”, while in Volume II, his name can be found on page 12, where he is listed as “Reported in California as Missing”.”

And there, I supposed, things would remain: That nothing more would be known about Lt. (jg) Chernoff besides the appearance of his name in military records from a war – the Second World War – that ended nearly eighty years ago. 

After all, time has a way of carrying – sometimes gently; sometimes abruptly; always irrevocably – recollections of the past to horizons beyond the grasp and memory of man.  So as for Saul Chernoff the person, nothing more, I thought, would ever be known.

And so, if sometimes it is good to be wrong, this is one such time…

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Not long after the post appeared, I was more than startled to be contacted by Susan, Donna, Sandra, Nancy, and Larry, Saul Chernoff’s nieces and nephew.  Though fate never gave them the opportunity to know their uncle personally, awareness of his “place” in their family had never been lost, and continues to this day.  Perhaps, the memory of man (and, the memory of a man) can more strongly defy the grasp of time than we might imagine.  

As a result of Susan and Donna’s efforts, and especially Susan’s fine job of image scanning, this follow-up post includes images of the Chernoff family, and, Saul himself.  Also included are images of photos and documents from other sources.  Through these, it’s possible to have a glimpse of Lt. (jg) Chernoff as a pilot, and simply, a person.

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First, from the Jackson – McKane Family Tree at Ancestry.com, this image shows Saul’s father Morris in a Denver Park in 1917.  My knowledge of military aircraft surpassing my familiarity with automobiles by several order of magnitude (!), I don’t know what kind of car this is.  But, well, it is a car.  (That’s a start!)

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The next ten images of Saul and his family are Susan’s ultra-high-resolution scans of family photographs.

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Morris Chernoff and his children in 1926:  Three-year-old Saul and his five-year-old sister Lillian stand on the running board of their father’s car, somewhere in Los Angeles.  

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Saul and Lillian, with their parents Sima and Morris, some-unknown-where in the Los Angeles area, during the late 1930s.     

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The next three images – the first, below, of Saul and Lillian, and the latter two only of Saul – were taken on the same day and same location.  The obvious clues:  Saul wearing the same striped shirt in each picture, each picture sharing the same background with an advertising banner for a realtor, and, the overall lighting conditions.  The words “Holly Vista” on the sign pertain to a neighborhood in San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles.

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Donna’s update: “You guessed that the pictures of Saul with his sister/our mom and with his model plane were taken in San Bernadino, based on the sign that said Holly Vista.  But if you look in the background of the pic of Saul and our mom, you’ll see a sign for Schwab’s Pharmacy.  Their house was located across the street from Schwab’s on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, on the edge of the Sunset Strip.  It’s a pretty iconic place; read about it here: A Look Back: L.A.’s Schwab’s Pharmacy Was More Than A Drugstore.”  

Well, that was interesting!  As a sometime movie-buff, I’m certain that I heard in passing “of” Schwab’s Pharmacy over the years, but I had little knowledge of its historical and cultural significance.  And so, even just a brief perusal of the Internet revealed an abundance of information and photos of Schwab’s, let alone the personalities connected to it.  Though this fascinating topic lies far beyond the scope of this blog, here are three representative images of Schwab’s, and, its present (former, really) location on Sunset Boulevard.  

A high-resolution image of Schwab’s storefront, taken some time before 1949. 

Schwab’s in the early 1950s, uploaded to Pinterest by Betsy Thompson.  This image appears to be a frame from an 8mm or 16mm movie, or, a 35mm Kodachrome slide.  To the right of Schwab’s is Googie’s Coffee Shop, designed in 1949.

Schwab’s (on the right) and adjacent businesses, in the 1930s. 

According to Wikipedia, “Schwab’s was closed in October of 1983.  On October 6, 1988, the building was demolished to make way for a shopping complex and multiplex theater.”  A May, 2022 Oogle Street view of Schwab’s former location appears below.

From the YouTube channel of NASS Video Restoration, in the video “California 1952, Sunset Blvd: Hollywood to Sunset Strip in color [60fps,Remastered] w/added sound”, Schwab’s and Coogie’s are visible at the right center from 8:27 to 8:35.   

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And so, back Saul’s story…

“Builds Models”

It seems that the event prompting the three above photos was Saul’s proud display of a powered model airplane, of which he was the builder, as indicated in the class yearbook for the Hollywood High School class of 1940…

…which indicates the interest that eventually led him to become a fighter pilot.

As for Saul’s model, it’s interesting to note that at least in terms of the popular culture of the ’30s, the phrase “airplane model” typically denoted flying, powered model aircraft, constructed of balsa and other light-weight material.  This was a some two decades before that phrase connoted non-flying (very non-flying!) models constructed from kits comprised of injection-molded polystyrene pieces, and intended purely for static display.  We’re talking some years before the advent of Monogram, Revell, AMT, MPC, Jo-Han, Renwal, Pyro, Lindberg, Aurora, Hawk, and the many plastic kit manufacturers that have come and gone, as well as the few – like Tamiya – that have survived and grown, or – like Airfix – reemerged phoenix-like, over the past few decades.

Saul’s airplane, still under construction (note that only the upper side of the wing leading edges are “skinned”) appears to be powered by a one-cylinder engine, with a control mechanism or fuel tank in the center of the fuselage. 

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Since, sadly, any and all documents about Saul’s aviation training and military career no longer exist, nothing is known about the location and occasion of the following photo, which “speaks for itself”, or more aptly put, “shows for itself”:  Saul is seated in the rear of a biplane.  I don’t know if – in light of his interest in aviation – Saul attained a pilot’s license before WW II, or, his aviation training occurred solely in the Navy.  But, I think this photo suggests the latter, for it looks like he’s wearing attire and equipment associated with military aviation.

As for the type of aircraft this is, I have no idea.  I was unable to find any images of this aircraft in either United States Navy Aircraft since 1911, or Navy Air Colors, suggesting that it’s a civilian aircraft.  Key identifying features are the radial engine, all metal fuselage with cylindrical front section, and a sort of notch in the lower wing near where it joins the fuselage.  

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Location and time completely unknown, I guess that this image shows Saul’s pilot training class … at the inception of training?  In any event, Saul is fourth from right, in the second row…  

…and here he is in close-up.

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A step forward in time:  Again undated; again names unknown; again location unknown, Saul has progressed further in training.  On a sunny day, a Grumman F4F Wildcat serves as a backdrop for Saul (p r o b a b l y rear row, second from right) and seven other pilots.

While the clothing and equipment worn by the pilots is largely the same, note the square pouches attached to the Mae Wests (life vests) worn by Saul, and the pilots to his right and left.  These are Life Jacket Dye Marker packets, which were used (still used today) by aviators or naval personnel lost at sea, to assist searchers and observers in rescue ships and aircraft to more easily pinpoint their location from a distance.  When opened, a Dye Marker packet releases a fluorescent bye that imparts a brilliant green color to water adjacent to the release point – in marked contrast to the shades of blue and gray typically associated with the sea – thus facilitating spotting a person’s location from either distance or altitude.  Used by flying personnel in both the Army Air Force and Navy, and the air arms of other Allied nations, there were variations in the design and markings of the packets (I guess the operating instructions were very simple, anyway), but the general appearance was consistent through the war.

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One version of the below image, of the pilots and enlisted men of VF-85 as seen in December of 1944, appears in my first post about Lt. JG Chernoff, where it’s taken (and improved a little via Photoshop) from the War History of VF-85 at Fold3.com.

However, this copy this of image – as seen in this post – is of greatly (really; vastly) higher resolution, contrast, and overall quality.  Susan scanned it at a resolution of 600 dpi.  (It’s big – 6 MB.)  The fact that a copy of this photo remained in the possession of Saul’s family suggests that other individuals in the picture received their own copy.  

Saul is tenth from left in the second row from the front, directly to the left of the F4U’s lowermost propeller blade. 

The name of the men in the picture are listed below.  

Front Row (sitting)

Ens. Bean, Roy N.
Ens. Hatfield, Elvin H.
Ens. Siddall, Frank S.
Ens. Edwin, Norman L.
Ens. Kirkham, Charles N. (KIA June 2, 1945)
Ens. Noel, Richard L.
Lt. Cdr. Gilmour
Lt. Cdr. Ford, Warren W.
Lt. Cdr. Roberts
Lt. Tilton, Eugene B.
Ens. Lawhon, David W.
Ens. Dunn, John C.
Ens. Bloomfield, Robert A.
Ens. Solomon, Leonard E.
Ens. Egolf, James O.
Lt. Irgens, Donald L.
Lt. (jg) Lamphar
Ens. Huber, Joseph A.

Second Row

Lt. (jg) Blair, George M.
Lt. (jg) Robbins, Joe D.
Ens. Moos, Kennard “A.”
Lt. (jg) Edwards, (William H.?)
Ens. Moore, John H.
Ens. Meltebeke, Raymond L.
Lt. (jg) Callan, Allie W.
Lt. (jg) Nichols, James B.
Lt. Wollum, Donald G.
Ens. Chernoff, Saul
Ens. Shinn, William G.
Ens. Marr, William H. (KIA June 2, 1945)
Ens. Clark, John G.
Lt. (jg) Sovanski, Lawrence
Ens. McCraken, Billie R.
Ens. Fuog, Howard W.
Ens. Yirrell, Francis
Lt. Goodnow, Robert G.
Ens. Loeffler, John D.

Third Row

Lt. (jg) Webster, Bayard
Lt. Fuller, Roy A. (KIA June 2, 1945)
Ens. Kling, Nelson P.
Ens. Kennedy, Harold R. (KIA June 2, 1945)
Ens. Pierce, James W.
Lt. Vickery, Arthur E.
Ens. Bruening, Floyd W.
Lt. (jg) Black, James B.
Lt. (jg) Horne, Hugh R. or Joseph S.
Lt. (jg) Whitney, Robert C.
Lt. (jg) Horne, Hugh R. or Joseph S.
Ens. McPhee, Duncan C.
Ens. Harrington, Henry M.
Ens. Clarke, William “R.”
Ens. Meyers, Donald E.
Ens. Fitzgerald, Louis A.
Lt. (jg) Spring
Lt. (jg) DeMott, Richard W.
Ens. Sabin, Donald G.

Enlisted Men (on Wing)

Schmidt
Goessling
ART 1C Curry, Roland H.
AMM 2C Thompson, Claud W.
AMM 1C Stransky, Lloyd J.
AMM 2C Kusmer, Erwin L.
AEM 1C Lewis, Frank H.
AM 1C Callahan, William J., Jr.
ACMM Young, Kenneth D.
ACRM Wright, Wilbur T.
Y 1C Hager, Franklin T.
AMMP 1C Brackett, William A.
AMM 3C Keegan, Joseph J.
PR 2C Kinner, Wilbert K.
AOM 3C Tanner, Charles L.
AOM 1C Richardson, William L.
ACOM Klein, Irving

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As mentioned in the first post, Saul was married.  His wife, Georgette Dorothy Kamm, resided with her family at 139 Main Street, in Northport, Long Island, New York.

Searching on Ancestry.com yielded her graduation portrait from the yearbook of the 1943 class of Northport High School…   

…while here’s a low-resolution close-up of her portrait.  

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Here’s the couple’s wedding announcement, from the Northport Journal of October 6, 1944, found via FultonHistory.

CHERNOFF-KAMM

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Kamm of 628 East Main Street announce the marriage of their daughter Georgette Dorothy to Mr. Paul [sic] Chernoff, Ensign, U.S.N. Air Corps on last Sunday, October 1.

Ensign and Mrs. Chernoff will make their home in Hollywood, Calif.

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With Georgette wearing her wedding ring, the married couple pose for a photo, probably in the Los Angeles area.

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On March 8, 1946, about nine months after Lt. (jg) Chernoff was killed, the Northport Journal carried the following news item, also via FultonHistory:

The Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross for action over Okinawa and Iwo Jima have been awarded Lieut. (jg) Saul Chernoff, USNR, who has been missing in action since June 21, 1945.  His wife is the former Miss Georgette Kamm, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kamm of Main Street, who is at present [still, in 1946] with her husband’s people in California.

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The image below, at at SAS – Special Aircraft Service (digital aviation art) posted by “Lagarto” on May 19, 2019 – shows the Ibusuki Seaplane Base under attack by United States Navy aircraft on April 16, 1945.  If you examine the picture very closely, you’ll see an SB2C Helldiver dive-bomber banking to the right, in the upper center of the image.  Five aircraft, possibly Kawashini H8K “Emily” (二式大型飛行艇) Type 2 Large-Size Flying Boats, are visible on the concrete apron at the lower right center of the picture.  

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Of the six VF-85 / VBF-85 pilots killed in action on June 2, 1945 during the squadron’s air battle with N1K2-J fighters of Japan’s 343rd Naval Air Group, Saul was the only pilot whose body was recovered, and who thus has a place of burial.  This document, from the Casualty File for VF-85 / VBF-85, covers his recovery and identification, his Corsair evidently having crashed somewhere near the Ibusuki Seaplane Base, perhaps in the vicinity of Uomidake Peak.  Though the document indicates that searchers found the wreck of his Corsair, unfortunately, the specific location is not given.     

The page is transcribed below. 

November 8, 1948

Report of Investigation Division, Legal Section, GHQ, SCAP.

Remains of Lt. CHERNOFF recovered and identified.
Investigations, conducted to date, indicate no atrocity involved in the death of the pilot concerned in this case.  Case closed.

Chernoff – Saul – Presumed Dead to Determined Dead

Reference: Reports of William R. Gill, dated 22 April 1948 and 21 February 1948.

DETAILS:

At Tokyo:

Previous Investigation Division Reports indicate that according to information received from Graves Registration, Unknown X-779 has been identified and confirmed by the Office of the QM General as Lt. Saul CHERNOFF, USNR.

Lt. CHERNOFF’s remains were recovered at Kagoshima-ken, Kumotsuki-gun, Neshime-machi, by Graves Registration team and was [sic] reinterred at the U.S. Cemetery in Yokohama.  The remains have been listed as Unknown X-779 prior to identification, and have been investigated under Graves Registration Case History No. 610.

Graves Registration report further stated that the Engine Number of the recovered plane coincides with the plane, piloted by Lt. CHERNOFF and dental charts also compared favorably.  Investigations conducted by this office indicate that there has been no indication of an atrocity committed in the death of Lt. Saul CHERNOFF.

Copies of all reports written on cases concerning the Kyushu Area are directed to Inv. Div. File 1505 which is a central reference for the Kyushu Area plane crashes.

On another document…

February 17, 1948 Supplementary Determination of Death

The Japanese records and the records of this Bureau agree as to date and place of crash.  The search and recovery team investigating the crash cite noted the following numbers on the engine plate: “Pratt and Whitney Aircraft, Contract No. A/S/2344, Mfg. No. P-22541”.  This corresponds with the engine number of the plane in which Lieutenant CHERNOFF was flying. 

The Casualty File for VF-85 / VBF-85 is one of many such sets of documents covering US Navy WW II aircraft and aircrew losses.  It’s in NARA Records Group 24, specifically records of the “Casualty Branch / Casualty Assistance Branch of the Personal Affairs Division”. 

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Saul was buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on June 16, 1949. 

His mother Sima died just under one year later, and was buried alongside him.  They share the same matzeva, as seen in this image by FindAGrave contributor dml

In terms of military aviation history, with a natural focus on the design of warplanes, aerial combat strategies, aerial aces, victories and losses, camouflage and markings, military aviation heraldry, “nose art”, flying equipment, the sub-types and serial numbers of aircraft, and yet more (well, the subject is interesting) it seems that something quite fundamental is easily be lost: The fact that behind all these facets of tactics and technology is the impact of war, even upon the side of the victors.  The more one delves into the “human” side of conflict, this becomes all the more apparent. 

And so…  

The timing between Saul’s death in 1945, his 1949 burial, and his mother’s passing only one year further, was more than a mere coincidence. 

Saul’s sister Lillian related to her children that Sima’s passing was literally, “…of a ‘broken heart’, so in some ways she was another casualty of the war.” 

Lillian’s specifically recalled her mother’s reaction to the news of Saul’s Missing in Action status: “After my mother got news that my brother got shot down, she took off one day and she didn’t tell us where she was going, and what she did was on her own she went to San Diego to go on the boat that my brother had been on to see where he had slept.  So she was very very traumatized by my brother being killed.  And she really didn’t have any desire to go on.”

Saul’s father Morris died at the age of eighty, in 1970.  

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Born on May 24, 1925, Georgette remained in California.  In time she remarried.  She died in Alameda on September 2, 1994.

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In many, many (did I say many?) of my prior posts, I’ve made reference to or commented about the 1947 publication of the dual-books American Jews in World War II, one volume of which is a state by state compilation of the names of American Jewish servicemen who were killed or wounded in action, and / or received military awards.  These entries are based on information recorded on color-coded index cards by the National Jewish Welfare Board, which list a serviceman’s name, rank, branch of service, (sometimes) serial number, (some other times) theater of service, awards, next of kin, and residential or correspondence address.  Paralleling the example given for Major Milton Joel, here are the two cards filed for Lt. (jg) Chernoff:  One pertaining to his “Death in Action” status, and the other denoting his receipt of the Air Medal and Purple Heart.  

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This is the page (page 288) from Volume II of American Jews in World War II which lists Saul’s name: At bottom right, under “New York”, rather than “California”, reflective of his wife’s original residential address.

Here Are Some Books

Doll, Thomas E., Jackson, Berkley R., and Riley, William A., Navy Air Colors – United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Aircraft Camouflage and Markings – Vol. 1 1911-1945, Squadron/Signal Publications, Carrollton, Tx., 1983

Dublin, Louis I., and Kohs, Samuel C., American Jews in World War II – The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom, The Dial Press, New York, N.Y., 1947

Green, William, Famous Fighters of the Second World War, Hanover House, N.Y., 1958 (Kawashini Shiden pp. 111-116)

Green, William, Famous Fighters of the Second World War – Volume II, Doubleday and Company, Inc., Garden City, N.Y., 1969 (Chance Vought Corsair pp. 79-92)

Sakaida, Henry, and Takaki, Koji, Genda’s Blade – Japan’s Squadron of Aces 343 Kokutai, Classic Publications, Surrey, England, 2003

Swanborough, Gordon, and Bowers, Peter M., United States Navy Aircraft since 1911, Funk & Wagnalls, New York, N.Y., 1968

Young, Edward M. (Illustrated by Gareth Hector), F4U Corsair vs. Ki-84 “Frank” Pacific Theater 1945, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, England, 2016 

Specific Reference Works – No Author Listed

Combat Connected Naval Casualties, World War II, by States, United States Navy Department Office of Information, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1946

A Bunch of Websites

History of Bomber Fighting Squadron Eighty-Five, at VBF85.com

Fighting Squadron Eighty-Five – May 15, 1944 – September 25, 1945, at VBF85.com

VBF-85 Cruise Book, at VBF85.com

Morris Chernoff’s Scrapbook, 1916-1938, at University of Denver Archives

Holly Vista, at Neighborhoods.com 

Aircraft Action Reports, Reports of Air Operations, War Diaries, and War Histories – at Fold3.com

VF-85 / VBF-85 Aircraft Action Report (Fighter Sweep over Airfields at Kagoshima, Chiran, and Izumi, Kyushu, Japan) – 2 June 1945

USS Shangri-La Report of Air Operations against Kyushu, Japan

USS Shangri-La War Diary – Report of Air Operations Against Kyushu

USS Shangri-La War History

War History, VP 13, 12 7 41–10 1 44 & War History, VPB 13, 10 1 44–12 21 45

Soldiers from New York: Jewish Soldiers in The New York Times, in World War Two: Edmond J. Arbib – July 12, 1945 [Updated post…  “New and Improved!”]

[This post first appeared on April 30, 2017.  Now in 2022, five years later, it’s been updated.  In its original form the post only covered Army Air Force ferry pilot Captain Edmond J. Arbib, notice of whose death in a domestic training flight on July 12, 1945, appeared in The New York Times the following July 18.  The post now covers incidents involving four other Jewish servicemen on that same July Thursday, part of a larger (lengthier) project of updating and expanding my other posts covering American Jewish WW II casualties reported upon in The Times.]  

Even if “the war” in Europe had by the second week of May, 1945, ended, the war still continued:  One airman was lost during a training flight in the European Theater, and two others in the Pacific Theater.  The fourth Jewish soldier, Gunner Solomon Rosen, from Essex, England, having survived for three and a half years as a prisoner of the Japanese, died in Borneo.

Further details about these four men appear below…

On Thursday, July 12, 1945 / 3 Av 5705

– .ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. –

Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím

May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

Notice about the death of Army Air Force Ferry Pilot Captain Edmond J. Arbib was published in the Times on July 16 and 18, with his obituary appearing on the latter date.

Captain Arbib, a member of the 5th Ferry Group of the Air Transport Command, lost his life while piloting Douglas A-26C Invader 44-35799.  With 1 Lt. John W. Thomas (of Craighead County, Arkansas) as a pilot-rated passenger, his aircraft took off on a demonstration training flight from Love Field, in Dallas, Texas, and crashed northwest of Grand Prairie.

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Veteran Air Force Pilot is Killed in Texas Crash

Capt. Edmond Joseph Arbib, Army Air Forces, 27-year-old veteran ferry pilot, was killed at Love Field, Tex., when his airplane crashed last Thursday, the War Department has informed his family here.  Descended from Jonas N. Phillips, an American Revolutionary soldier, and from Henry Marchant, a signer of the Articles of Confederation, Captain Arbib was born in New York, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Rene S. Arbib [Rene Simon Arbib; 4/11/90-7/21/47], his father being a native of Cairo, Egypt, and his mother the former Miss Sylvia Phillips.

He enlisted in September, 1941, as a private in the ground forces of the AAF.  In October, 1942, he received his wings.  Captain Arbib ferried planes to every war theatre and served in the China-Burma-India theatre for nine months, making eighty-eight round trips over the Himalayan “hump”.

He held the Distinguished Flying Cross with three bronze stars, the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters and a Presidential Wing Citation.

Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Harriet Brodie Arbib; his parents and a sister, Mrs. Harold Bartos.

Amidst advertisements for women’s clothing, Southern Comfort, and Gene Krupa (in an “air-conditioned” setting, no less – well, we are talking 1946 after all) Captain Arbib’s obituary appeared on page 13 of the Times.


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Born on January 23, 1918, Edmond was buried at the Beth Olam Cemetery, in Cypress Hills, Ridgewood, Queens.  Note that his obituary calls attention to his descent from Jonas Phillips (1736-1803) and Harry Marchant. 

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Here are images of the Army Air Forces Accident Report (46-7-12-5) covering the loss of A-26C 44-35799. 

This is the report’s first page, which includes nominal information about the incident: date, time, and location, and, background flight experience of the crew members.

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Here’s the bulk of the Report’s text.  Though it was determined by accident investigators that the port engine was feathered and not operating and insufficient power could be attained in the starboard engine to maintain flight, at the time of the crash, the specific cause of these mechanical problems couldn’t be established with certainty. 

A normal take-off was reported to have been made at Love Field, and a landing was executed several minutes later at Hensley Field.  ***  Members of the aircraft maintenance crew, who were standing by near the take-off runway, report that they observed black smoke emitting from both engines during the take-off run.  The crewmen also reported that it appeared that both engines were “sputtering, sound like they were loaded up”, and not developing full power.  As the aircraft passed them, the left engine is said to have been shaking violently, and acceleration seemed inadequate for normal take-off.  ***  As smoke was still emitting from the engines, the left engine appeared to “cut out”.  *** 

Inspection of the wreckage revealed that the left propeller was in full feathered position. 

Full consideration has been given to the experience and qualifications of Captain Arbib, and it is felt that normal preflight engine run-up was satisfactory, or flight would not have been attempted from Love Field.  The fact that the engines were reported to function normally on occasions, while checking unsatisfactorily at times, has been considered, however the exact nature and cause of the reported loss of power can not be determined.  Exact time that the aircraft was on the ground at Hensley Field, prior to take-off, could not be determined, however it was found that considerable taxiing was necessitated and there was a delay in take-off due to congested traffic.  Whether or not a pre-flight power check was run prior to the take-off is not known.

All facts and findings, as set forth above, have been reviewed and it is the opinion of members of this Aircraft Accident Investigating Board that reported engine functions indicate that both engines were “loaded up” on take-off, due possibly to excessive rich mixture.  Though it was found that the left propeller was feathered, it is believed that a similar malfunction was experienced in both engines, and that sufficient power could not be attained in the right engine to sustain single-engine flight.

It is concluded that take-off power failure, of this nature, could be fore-seen and avoided by the execution of a normal pre-flight power check and the proper manipulation of power controls.

It is recommended that the importance of pre-take-off power checks be stressed, regardless of the condition of aircraft engines, and that special attention be given to engine run-up and power checks after extended ground operations, which might be conducive to “loading up” of engines.

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The Report also includes this letter to the Post Safety Officer, which goes into detail about Captain Arbib’s experience an proficiency, concluding that, “Captain Arbib’s ability as a pilot and his flying record was considered above average by the undersigned.

16 July 1945

TO: Flying Safety Officer, Post

FROM: Flight Training Office

SUBJECT: Captain E.J. Arbib, information concerning

1.     Captain Edmond J. Arbib was assigned to Transition on personnel memorandum number 148 – 23 June, 1945, as a pursuit A-26 instructor.

2.     The above mentioned pilot was given an instructor’s flight check ride in B-25 ship and was found highly satisfactory.  This pilot had one thousand (1000) hours first pilot time – five hundred (500) hours of which was in C-46s, one hundred hours in B-25s, one hundred (100) hours in B-24s, eighty (80) hours in P-38s, and two hundred and twenty (220) hours single engine pursuit.  Subject Officer was formerly a check pilot on B-24 type aircraft at Romulus, Michigan and held a white instrument card with two hundred and fifty (250) hours instrument time.  Pilot was not involved in any accident due to pilot error.

3.     Captain Arbib was given an original A-26 check at this Station on 13 May, 1945.  After the original check, Captain Arbib spent twelve (12) hours on A-26s under the supervision of the Pursuit Flight Commander.  This time consisted of extensive single engine work, both on take-offs and landings – practically all landings were completed under the supervision of an A-26 instructor or the Flight Commander.

4.     Captain Arbib’s ability as a pilot and his flying record was considered above average by the undersigned.

/s/ A.E. Probst
A.E. Probst
1st Lt., AC
Pursuit Flight Commander

A TRUE COPY
Wilbur G. Shine
WILBUR G. SHINE

Captain, Air Corps

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United States Army Air Force

12th Air Force

Though the war in Europe had ended, Army Air Force training missions continued regardless.  On July 12, during a simulated dive-bombing mission of an airdrome at Augsburg, and, a simulated strafing mission of buildings at the Ammersee (Ammer Lake), First Lieutenant Fred B. Schwartz (0-2057031) was killed when his P-47D Thunderbolt fighter, aircraft 42-26718 (squadron identification letter “C” or “O“) struck the surface of the Ammersee and sank.  The incident was reported in Missing Air Crew Report 14953.  

A member of the 522nd Fighter Squadron, 27th Fighter Group, 12th Air Force, Lt. Schwartz, born on May 6, 1924 in McKeesport, Pa., and was the son of John and Lillian (Gelb) (10/13/93 – 1/3/83) Schwartz of 628 Petty Street.  His sister was Velma Feldman, who in 1945 resided at 1629 Cal. Avenue, in the White Oak section.  

His name appearing on page 550 of Volume II of American Jews in World War II, Lt. Schwartz had been awarded the Air Medal and two Oak Leaf Clusters, suggesting that he’d flown over 10 combat missions prior to the war’s end.  He is buried at the Luxembourg American Cemetery at Plot H, Row 4, Grave 47.  

As well as in MACR 14953, information about this incident can be found at Aviation Safety Net, and, the 12 O’Clock High Forum.  The story of the plane’s loss and eventual recovery and salvage was reported upon by Gerald Modlinger in the Augsburger Allgemeine on April 16, 2009 and June 5, 2010, though as of now – 12 years later, in 2022 – those two articles, the latter including a picture of the salvaged P-47, are behind paywalls.  (Oh, well.)  But – ! – when I first researched this story some years ago, these articles were still openly available and I was able to copy and translate them.  So, they appear below, accompanied by an air photo of the Ammersee.  

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Here’s the shoulder-patch of the 12th Air Force…

…while this image of the emblem of the 522nd Fighter Squadron is from Popular Patch.com.

Here are two representative depictions by illustrator Chris Davey of 522nd Fighter Squadron Thunderbolts, as seen in Jonathan Bernstein’s P-47 Thunderbolt Units of the Twelfth Air Force.  A single letter on the mid-fuselage serves as a plane-in-squadron identifier on these otherwise simply marked aircraft.  

This painting is of P-47D 42-26444, “Candie Jr.“, “E“, flown by Lt. Robert Hosler, in December of 1944…

…while this painting shows P-47D 44-20856 “BETTY III“, “O“, of 1 Lt. Robert Jones, as the aircraft appeared in early April of 1945.  

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Pilot Rests in Cemetery in Luxembourg (“Pilot-ruht-auf-Friedhof-in-Luxemberg”)

When a quiet solitude had entered Lake Ammersee in November, a lonely watercraft was sailing on the lake.  An American explorer was viewing sonar for an aircraft that crashed shortly after the end of the war.

Gerald Modlinger
April 16, 2009

Diessen – When a quiet solitude on Lake Ammersee arrived in November, a lonely watercraft was on the lake.  An American explorer was viewing sonar for a plane that crashed shortly after the end of the war, and especially for the pilot who was killed.  Aerospace researcher Josef Köttner from Diessen has now researched that the pilot who he has been looking for has been resting in a US military cemetery in Luxembourg for decades.

Bob Collings, director of the company, emailed last November when he told how moving it was when members of the family were given certainty about the mortal remains of their fathers and grandfathers who had been killed in the war.  The search campaign on the Ammersee also returned to a request from the descendants of the missing US soldier.  At the same time, the courthouse also issued the necessary permits for the exploration.

In order to clarify the fate of the pilots killed in the crash of the P-47 Thunderbolt on July 12, 1945, however, the elaborate search action would obviously not have been necessary.  After an Internet investigation and a request from the US Air Force, 79-year-old Köttner is clear about the incident and the fate of the killed pilot.

The crashed P-47 Thunderbolt was piloted by Fred B. Schwartz, a member of the US Air Force’s 522th Fighter Squadron.  This unit was stationed in Sandhofen near Mannheim in the summer of 1945.  From the accident report and the reports of pilots of other combat aircraft it is clear that on 12 July 1945 at 9:40 am, four P-47 Thunderbolt machines from Sandhofen flew to a practice site on an airfield south of Augsburg and then aimed at a row of houses on the Ammersee as targets.  At about 11 o’clock an airplane’s propeller tips came into contact with the surface of the water.  The pilot had misjudged the situation.  The plane pulled up again, then fell to the water on the south-east of Lake Ammersee and sank after a few seconds without the pilot leaving the aircraft.  The remaining three P-47s still circled around the crash site for some time and then returned to their base.

Meanwhile, a boat had arrived at the crash site, but at that time the plane had already sunk in the water, at a point where the lake is about 45 meters deep.  A buoy was installed as a marker.

Afterwards a company from Regensburg was assigned to recover the wreckage of the aircraft.  There is nothing else to read in the accident report.  On an American website, on which the overseas soldiers’ residences are listed, Köttner finally found himself in search of the fallen Lieutenant Fred B. Schwartz.  The pilot, who came from Pennsylvania, found his final place of rest at the military cemetery in Luxembourg.

In the meantime, nothing has been known about the findings gained during the days-long search on the Ammersee.  “We are also surprised that we have not heard anything at all,” said Wolfgang Müller, the courthouse’s spokesman yesterday regarding the Lieutenant.  Furthermore, the employees of the water authority would be interested in the findings of the Americans about the conditions on the bottom of the lake.

Without giving any details, Bob Collings and Bob Mester had told the search company Underwater Admiralty Sciences (UAS) about the wreckage of cars, boats and craters their sonar had encountered.  Whether or not they found the plane they were looking for, remained open.

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The P-47 Was Already Salvaged in 1952 (“Die P-47 wurde schon 1952 zerlegt”)

Gerald Modlinger
June 5, 2010

Diessen – The aircraft search by an American company one and a half years ago at the Ammersee was probably not only with regard to the unfortunate pilot, but also with regard to his aircraft from the start without certainty.  The underwater archaeologist Lino von Gartzen from Berg reports in the magazine Flugzeugclassic that the airplane wanted by the Americans already 1952 from the Ammersee had been salvaged.  Previously, Lachen avocational researcher Josef Köttner had already shown that the pilot who had been killed on July 12, 1945, has been lresting in an American military cemetery in Luxembourg for decades.

This picture shows the salvage of the P-47 Thunderbolt near St. Alban in the spring of 1952.  The American search team arrived 56 years too late to find it still.

Photo: 1952 Ludwigshain / Collection of Gartzen

This Wikimedia Commons image of the Ammersee is by Carsten Steger.

Aerial image of the Ammersee (view from the south)

The fact that there are probably no more aircraft in the southern Bavarian lakes today is mainly due to Ludwiging, a native of Inning, who reported on Gartzen in October 2009 in Flugzeugclassic.

Ludwigshain (1920-2009) had been trained in the Second World War by the Navy in Norway as a salvage dredger.  One needed such people among other things, in order to be able to lift airplanes, which were sunk by saboteurs in the harbor.  His knowledge remained useful to Hain after the end of the war.  With a partner he began to retrieve aircraft which had fallen into the Bavarian lakes.  When he had fished the lakes largely empty, he went to Lake Constance, where he died in the spring of 2009.

All metal was strongly sought in the 1950s

It is today the high antiquity of historical aircraft wrecks that arouses the interest in them, making after the Second World War the scarcity, especially in metals, of aircraft wrecks to worthwhile companies.  It was only in the early 1960s that such [wrecks] became gradually uninteresting, as the price of scrap metal fell sharply.

In southern Bavaria, Hain with his partner Schuster, among other things [found] a British Lancaster, a B-17, a Bf-109 and two P-47 Thunderbolts, besides various vehicles, boats, a mini-U-boat and heavy bridge parts, writes Gartzen, after a conversation he had had with Hain shortly before his death.

The eye-witnesses did not agree on the type of aircraft

Ludwigshain found one of the two American P-47 Thunderbolt machines taken from the Ammersee in the spring of 1952.  The Landsberger Tagblatt had already been mentioned by Rolf Haunz in November 2008 for this aircraft.  The Kaufbeurer spent his childhood in Diessen and was a witness to the spectacular flight of aircraft in front of St. Alban.  Haunz said at the time that it must have been a P-47.  However, other people who saw children as the plane was landed could not confirm this with certainty.

According to Gartzen, “99.99 per cent” of Ludwigshafen’s photographs made it clear that in 1952 the P-47, which was sought again a year and a half ago, was taken from the Ammersee.  The serial number was exactly what the Americans were looking for.  The cockpit of the P 47 was closed, indicating that the aircraft pilot could not leave his machine.  In addition, the time of the salvage coincided with the identification of missing pilot Fred B. Schwartz in April 1952.

After the plane was pulled ashore, it was disassembled.  The parts were transported by truck and train.  Crashed airplanes were a real treasure in the 1950s: Gartzen knows of a case in which such an aircraft produced 25,000 marks. “That was the value of a family home.”

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United States Army Air Force

5th Air Force

Though combat missions had ended for the Army Air Force in the European Theater, they would continue without respite in the Pacific for four more months.

On one such mission, – to destroy oil storage tanks at Toshien, Taiwan (formerly Formosa) – B-24M Liberator 44-50390 “Becomin’ Back” of the 528th Bomb Squadron, 380th Bomb Group, piloted by Major Kenneth E. Dyson, was struck by three or four bursts of 90mm anti-aircraft fire.  Of the plane’s 11 crew members, there would be six survivors.  Second Lieutenant Eugene Stark (0-2024001), the bombardier, would not be among them.  He was seen to bail out by T/Sgt. Edward Treesh, the flight engineer, but was not seen afterwards.  The plane’s loss is described in MACR 14921.        

The son Martin and Julia (10/27/98-7/21/90) Stark, of 950 Aldus Street in New York City, Lt. Stark would be the recipient of the Air Medal, 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, and Purple Heart, indicating that he’d completed between five and ten combat missions.  His name appeared in official casualty lists on August 8 and October 3, 1945, and can be found on page 453 of Volume II of American Jews in World War II.  

The plane’s crew consisted of:

Dyson, Kenneth E., Major – Pilot (Killed – Not recovered)
Muchow, Robert Leonard, 2 Lt. – Co-Pilot (Rescued)

Flanagan, Michael J., Jr., 1 Lt. – Navigator (Killed – Buried at sea)
Stark, Eugene, 2 Lt., Bombardier (Killed – Not recovered)
Bongiorno, Thomas G., F/O – H2X Navigator (Killed – Not recovered)
Treesh, Edward Oren, T/Sgt. – Flight Engineer (Rescued)
Nagel, Lawrence J., T/Sgt. – Radio Operator (Rescued)
Latta, William E., S/Sgt. – Gunner (Rescued)
Heffington, James C., S/Sgt. – Gunner (Killed – Not recovered)
Wood, Albert W., S/Sgt. – Gunner (Rescued)
Dalton, Maurice G., S/Sgt. – Gunner (Rescued)

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This image of the 528th Bomb Squadron insignia is from the MASH Online military clothing and insignia store.  

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The Missing Air Crew Report for the plane’s loss includes detailed eyewitness statements by all six survivors – 2 Lt. Muchow, S/Sgt. Latta, T/Sgt. Treesh, S/Sgt. Dalton, T/Sgt. Nagel, and S/Sgt. Wood – of which S/Sgt. Dalton’s is by far the longest and most detailed.  Notably, the only survivor from the front of the plane was Lt. Muchow.  The last of the survivors to be rescued, he was picked up from the sea by a Martin PBM Mariner.  Here’s his account of the loss of “Becomin’ Back“:

528TH BOMBARDMENT SQUADRON (H) AAF
APO # 321

19 JULY 1945.

EYEWITNESS DESCRIPTION OF CRASH

On July 12, 1945, we were on a mission to Toshien, Formosa to knock out some oil storage tanks in the northeast corner of the town.  We were lead ship of the second squadron.  Instead of making the planned bomb run, Major Dyson asked the H2X Operator for a direct heading to the target from that position which we later found out to be north of the prescribed bomb run and directly over a battery of 90mm anti-aircraft guns.  After starting on the bomb run I could see a solid barrage of ack-ack about a mile in front of us and at out altitude.  It appeared at the time that our evasive action was insufficient an then we were hit. 

I remember only one burst close in on the left side of the plane.  This burst shattered the pilot’s window, injured Major Dyson, shot out the auto-pilot and burst the hydraulic lines in front of my feet.  I immediately called the engineer and asked him to check the leaking gas.  I then asked Major Dyson how bad he was hit.  I could see he had superficial cuts about the face and he added that his left arm or side was hit.  The blast had blown off his earphones and mike and he was very dazed.  I was dazed enough that the one burst is all I recall, later I found out we received three or four. 

I switched to “D” Channel and tried to contact the submarine, to no avail.  I finally switched to “B” Channel and contacted a fighter plane who in turn gave me the sub’s position.  I looked back then and the leaking gas in the bomb-bay looked like a solid sheet of rain.  The fumes had penetrated the plane and we were all affected to a certain degree.  We had the side windows open up front so were lucky in that respect. 

I asked Sgt. Wood to get me the navigator and when I finally made him look my way he just laughed in my face.  H was like a drunk from the gas fumes and so too, were the others on the flight deck.  This, helped account for the dazed reactions of all of us. 

All this time Major Dyson just sat with a dazed expression on his face, said nothing, and flew the ship by instinct, I thought, than from realization, of the situation.  Or ordered us to bail but we were too close inshore and continued to the submarine.  Several times I took the ship and turned it back toward the sub when Major Dyson turned back toward Formosa.

The ship was running okay from the recordings of the instruments and our main worry was losing an engine.  We were headed toward the sub and loosing altitude at about three hundred (300) feet per minute.  We were hit while at about 13,000 feet.  The first man bailed out at about 10,000 feet and I bailed out at about 8,500 feet.  I was the last man to leave the ship.  Before Lt. Flanagan bailed out he told me he was going.  I asked if all had bailed and ‘chutes opened and he said they had.  I left soon after he did and thought Major Dyson would follow me.  After my ‘chute opened I saw the ship just before it hit the water.  It had apparently lost an engine and gone in on a wing.  The men on the sub said it started burning before hitting the water, then blew up. 

The following was taken from the Log of the U.S.S. Cabrilla (SS-288), the submarine that picked us up. 
July 12
1140, received word that plane was going to be ditched. 
1145, sighted seven ‘chutes in the air.
1210, picked up Dalton, M.G.
1212, picked up Wood, A.W.
1302, picked up Flanagan, M.J.
1331, picked up Treesh, E.O.
1400, picked up Latta, W.E.
1404, picked up Nagel, L.J.
1422, picked up Muchow, R.L.
1640, buried Lt. Flanagan, M.J. at sea, Goron Bi, Formosa, baring 036 T, distance fifteen (15) miles

Robert L. Muchow

ROBERT L. MUCHOW,
2nd Lt., Air Corps,
Co-Pilot, 528th Bomb Sq.
380th Bomb Gp (H).

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This image of the nose art of Becomin’ Back can be found at the website of the 380th Bomb Group (the “Flying Circus“), in the historical profile of B-24M 44-50390.

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Here’s the 1945 map from MACR 14921 showing the approximate location of the loss of Becomin’ Back

…while here’s a 2021 Oogle Map showing the crash location, based on longitude and latitude coordinates as listed in the MACR.

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United States Army Air Force

20th Air Force

During the early evening hours of July 12, 1945, the 20th Air Force’s 16th Bomb Group incurred its first combat loss.  This happened during the start of a night mission to “Kawasaki”, the name probably meaning the city of Kawasaki, in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.  At approximately 1935 to 1940 hours K (kilo)* time, not long after taking off from Guam, three of the four engines of the 16th Bomb Squadron B-29 42-63603 ran away, and, the engines’ propellers could not be feathered. 

As the aircraft descended rapidly from 4,500 feet, aircraft commander Lt. Milford Berry ordered his crew to bail out.  Though it will never be known if Lt. Berry himself escaped the descending plane, all other crew members in the B-29’s forward section left the airplane.  

In the rear crew compartment, all crew members left their bomber with the exception of right blister gunner S/Sgt. Harold I. Schaeffer and tail gunner Sgt. Philip Tripp.  

Of the eight men known to have parachuted from their B-29, only three survived: pilot 2 Lt. James Trivette, Jr., bombardier 1 Lt. Rex E. Werring, Jr., and left blister gunner Sgt. Clarence N. Nelson.  Four of the other five crewmen were never found.  However, Sgt. Tripp’s body was recovered; he is buried at Forest Dale Cemetery in Malden, Massachusetts.    

Among the crew members of 42-63603 was Sergeant Morton Finkelstein (32977132) the bomber’s flight engineer.  Born in a placed called Brooklyn on June 22, 1925, he was the son of Edward E. (1/30/01-5/21/83) and Rose (Lubchansky) (1900-1/24/85) Finkelstein, their family residing at 32 Joralemon Street. 

His name appeared in casualty lists published on August 15, 1945 and April 21, 1946, and can be found on page 309 of American Jews in World War II, where he is recorded as having received the Air Medal and Purple Heart.  Like the other four missing crew members, his name can be found in the Tablets of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.  

(Kilo Time Zone is often used in aviation and the military as another name for UTC +10.  Kilo Time Zone is also commonly used at sea between longitudes 142.5° East and 157.5° East.)

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This image of Sgt. Finkelstein, at the archives of the National Museum of the Pacific War, at Fredericksburg, Texas, was uploaded to FindAGrave by Chris McDougal.  

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Here’s the Record of Casualty for Sergeant Finkelstein, completed by Chaplain Bernard J. Gannon and provided to Major David I. Cedarbaum.  This document is from the Honor Roll in the Cedarbaum Files (Folder 5) at the American Jewish Historical Society.  

As stated in the Record of Casualty:

“The plane in which Finkelstein was riding was commanded by Lt. Milford A. Berry.  At least a portion of the crew bailed out.  Finkelstein is known to have left the plane.  The plane had three run-away engines and exploded a few feet above the water.  Three men were recovered, one body [Sgt. Tripp] was buried at Saipan the identity of which was known.

It is understood that prayers for soldier’s safety were included in your service at the 73rd Air Service Group Chapel, 15 July 1945.”

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A symbolic matzeva for Sgt. Finkelstein appears in this image by FindAGrave contributor Mary Lehman.  It’s located at Mount Golda Cemetery in South Huntington, New York.

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The crew of 42-63603:

Berry, Milford Audrain, 1 Lt. – Aircraft Commander (Last seen in aircraft)
Trivette, James, Jr., 2 Lt. – Pilot (Rescued)

Rollins, K. Warren, 1 Lt. – Navigator (Last seen bailing out)
Werring, Rex E., Jr., 1 Lt. – Bombardier (Rescued)
Ameringer, Irving W., 2 Lt. (Last seen bailing out)
Finkelstein, Morton, Sgt. – Flight Engineer (Last seen bailing out)
Lynch, Robert E., Sgt.  (Last seen bailing out)
Schaeffer, Harold I., S/Sgt. – Gunner (Right Blister) (Last seen in aircraft)
Nelson, Clarence N., Sgt. – Gunner (Left Blister) (Rescued)
Tripp, Philip Gregory, Sgt. – Gunner (Tail) (Killed (see Cederbaum report)

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A flying, bomb-carrying, world-spanning hippo is the central motif of the insignia of the 16th Bomb Squadron, in this image from Pinterest, uploaded by Nikolaos Paliousis.  

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Here’s a partial transcript of post-war “fill-in” Missing Air Crew Report 15373, which covers the loss of 42-63603:

Time and position of bailout: 1934K, 12 July 1945, approximately 80 miles north of western tip of Orote Peninsula, Guam.  Coordinates:  14-36 N, 114-25 E.

The aircraft acted properly during take-off (1940 K) and climb.  After leveling off at 6,200 feet, RPMs were reduced but No. 1 engine remained at 2400.  The Airplane Commander reduced the RPMs of No. 1 engine to 2000 with the feathering button.  Almost immediately however it increased and went wild.  The Airplane Commander hit the feathering button but it had no effect, so he pulled the throttle back, told the Bombardier to salvo the bombs and headed for Guam.  On the turn, No. 3 engine started building up and again the feathering button was ineffective.  The Airplane Commander gave the order to prepare to ditch.  Almost immediately, No. 4 engine ran away and the order to bail out was given.  The altitude was about 4500 feet, and the aircraft was dropping at about 1000 feet per minute.  The Pilot took over the plane was the Airplane Commander fastened his parachute and one-man life raft.  The Pilot rang the alarm bell and called the left scanner and tail gunner on the interphone. 

The airplane commander attempted to transmit on VHF channel, but it appeared to be dead.  He then switched to Channel A.  Bombardier reported that Pilot was not getting out on this channel.  Also, no word has been received of receipt of any message by any aircraft or ground station.

Bail out:

Exit through forward bomb bay:

The Navigator and Radio Operator went out first (order unknown), and their chutes were seen to open by the Bombardier who was third out.  The Radio Operator hesitated but left sometime between the time the Bombardier and Pilot bailed out.  The Pilot was next out and saw one chute open just before he left the airplane.  With the exception of the Airplane Commander, the front of the airplane was clear when he left, and the altimeter indicated 500 feet.  No difficulty was experienced in leaving the hatch.  The Bombardier and Pilot put their hands along the edge of the bulkhead door and dove out in one motion.

Exit through rear bomb bay:

The Right Scanner had been briefed to bail out first and was fully geared and ready to go.  The Left Scanner motioned him out but he (Right Scanner) “looked blank”.  The Left Scanner then asked him to step aside so he (Left Scanner) could go out, thinking that by so doing the Right Scanner might gain confidence.  The Right Scanner stepped aside, still mute, and the Left Scanner dove out the pressure bulkhead door.  The Right Scanner was never seen to leave the airplane. 

Altitude and time for Bail Out:

Between 1500 feet and 500 feet.  Time interval approximately 1 ½ minutes between first and last man.

Like some other MACRs for B-29 crews whose members were rescued after parachuting over, or ditching in, the Pacific Ocean, the document accords much attention to the many factors involving aircrew survival, in terms of bailout procedure, safely parachuting, use of a one-man life raft (in terms of deployment, inflation, and how-to-actually-successfully-get-into-the-raft in the first place), physical and psychological factors involved in survival at sea, and, attracting the attention of searching vessels and aircraft.

What’s notable about the bailout from 42-63603 is that this occurred at about 7:40 at night (civilian time).  Given that sunset in the Kilo Time Zone on July 12, 1945 would have occurred at 8:30 P.M., the crew would have had less than an hour of light before the arrival of total darkness.  At sea; alone.

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Akin to the Oogle map illustrating the loss location of Becomin’ Back, this map shows the loss location of B-29 42-63603.

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This cutaway image from Boeing’s B-29 Maintenance and Familiarization Manuel (HS1006A-HS1006D) shows the interior arrangement of a B-29’s forward crew compartment.  The location of the flight engineer’s station, on the right side of the compartment, is directly behind the co-pilot. 

This panoramic 360-degree-view, at 360Cities, gives a high resolution, clear view of the B-29’s front crew compartment.  Upon going to the link you’ll arrive at a view of the interior of a B-29’s forward crew compartment, facing forward.  Rotate the view 90 degrees to the right (use the right arrow), and you’ll see the flight engineer’s station with it’s small myriad of dials and switches, as well as throttle leavers.  

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The following diagram, from the XXI Bomber Command Combat Crew Manual, specifically Section XII – “Emergency Procedures” – depicts the sequence by which the members of a Superfortress crew were to bail out of their bomber during an in-flight emergency.  

In the nose, the bailout sequence was: 1) bombardier, 2) flight engineer, 3) co-pilot, 4) navigator, 5) radio operator, and 6, pilot.  Escape could be made through a hatch in the cockpit floor situated directly above the nose wheel (by definition, necessitating that the nose wheel be lowered), or, through the bomb bay, the latter option requiring that the crew compartment to be depressurized so that the bomb bay could be accessed through a circular hatch.

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British Army

Died while Prisoner of War

The fact that four of the five servicemen mentioned in this post were aviators, all members of the United States Army Air Force, is a coincidence of the timing of July 12, 1945.  The war in Europe had ended on May 8 (or May 9, in the former Soviet Union), and combat, as such, was now only occurring in the Pacific Theater.  Along with Captain Arbib, Lieutenants Schwartz and Stark, and Sgt. Finkelstein, the fifth (known) Jewish soldier who was a casualty on July 12 was – as mentioned in the “intro” to this post – a member of the British Army.  Probably captured during the fall of Java on March 12 1942, he was Gunner Solomon Rosen (1827101).

Born in 1914, he was the husband of Henrietta Rosen, of Heathway, Dagenham, Essex, and the son of Sam and Annie.  A member of the 78th Battery, 35th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, he arrived in Singapore aboard the ship Nishi Maru on September 14, 1942, and then in Kuching, Borneo, aboard the Hiteru Maru on October 9 of the same year. 

It was there that he died, in tragic irony only a little over one month before the end of the Second World War.  Then again, more than a few POWs of the Japanese succumbed to illness, starvation, mistreatment, or appallingly worse, through and even after the last day of hostilities in the Pacific Theater of War.  (Such, as…)  

Gunner Rosen, whose name appears on page 148 of Volume I of Henry Morris’ We Will Remember Them, is buried at the Labuan War Cemetery, in Malaysia; Plot N,C,6.  His name appears in the Roll of Honor – Java Index.  

Gunner Rosen’s matzeva, with the Hebrew abbreviation .ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. (Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím – May his soul be bound up in the bond of life) inside the Magen David, appears in this photo by FindAGrave contributor GulfportBob.

References

Bernstein, Jonathan, P-47 Thunderbolt Units of the Twelfth Air Force, Osprey Publishing, Long Island City, New York, N.Y., 2012

Dublin, Louis I., and Kohs, Samuel C., American Jews in World War II – The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom, The Dial Press, New York, N.Y., 1947.

Mireles, Anthony J., Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945 – Volume 3: August 1944 – December 1945, McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, N.C., 2006

Morris, Henry, Edited by Gerald Smith, We Will Remember Them – A Record of the Jews Who Died in the Armed Forces of the Crown 1939 – 1945, Brassey’s, United Kingdom, London, 1989

Rust, Kenn C., Twelfth Air Force Story, Historical Aviation Album, Temple City, Ca., 1975

No Specific Author Listed

XXI Bomber Command Combat Crew Manual, A.P.O. 234, May, 1945 (reprint obtained via EBay)

Jonas Phillips (wikipedia), at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Phillips

Soldiers from New York: Jewish Soldiers in The New York Times, in World War Two: May 4, 1945 – United States Navy – Naval Aviator Saul Chernoff

My prior posts about Jewish military casualties on May 4, 1945, have covered men who served in army ground forces, the United States Army Air Force, United States Marine Corps, and United States Navy.  However, I’ve retained one last name; one last identity; one last biography … for this “last” post.  The reason being, the sheer abundance of information about the man in question: Lt. (jg) Saul “Sonny” Chernoff of the United States Navy.

There are some vague parallels with the fate of 2 Lt. Wallace Franklin Kaufman, whose “story” has been the basis for this group of posts: 

Kaufman was shot down on May 4, 1945, and survived as a POW of the Japanese, until he was murdered on the following May 24 – three weeks later.  

Chernoff, too, was shot down (during aerial combat with Japanese fighters) on the same May 4, an event depicted – below – on the cover Edward M. Young’s F4U Corsair vs. Ki-84 “Frank” Pacific Theater 1945After rescue, Lt. (jg) Chernoff resumed flying combat missions. 

One June 2, 1945 – almost one month later – he was shot down (again) during aerial combat with Japanese fighters (again). 

Sadly, that time he did not survive. 

A chronicle of the events of both days from the Spring of 1945 follows below.  But first, some biographical information:

Born in Los Angeles on January 11, 1923, Saul Chernoff – his given name was originally “Saule” – was the son of Morris (9/2/90-2/4/70) and Sima (Gorelick) (1/15/93-6/11/50) Chernoff (parents), and brother of Lillian.  The family lived at 456 North Gardner Street, in Hollywood, California.  

Married, Saul’s wife was Georgette Dorothy (Kamm) Chernoff, who resided at (or originally hailed from) 139 Main Street, in Northport, Long Island, N.Y.  Another relative may (?) have been A Mr. B. Oxhorn, who resided at 854 South Harvard Boulevard, in Los Angeles.

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This is the only good photograph I’ve thus far been able to locate of him.  From Ancestry.com (like everything else…but I digress), this is Saul’s graduation portrait from the Hollywood High School Class of 1940 Yearbook.  

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Completely unlike Major Milton Joel, other than a very (very (v e r y)) brief funeral notice in the Los Angeles Times in 1949, substantive information about Saul’s pre-war wife, and military training, is thus far unavailable to me.  (That is, assuming it’s survived some-unknown-where across a span of nearly eight decades.)  Thus, I’ll “jump” directly to his service as a fighter pilot in Navy fighter Squadron VBF-85, alias the “Sky Pirates”.  

The squadron emblem of VBF-85, portraying a sword-wielding one-eyed pirate holding the reins of a descending lightning bolt, set against a murkily moonlit, starry night-time sky, appears in several variations.  This version, also manufactured in cloth form during WW II for use as a jacket patch, is mentioned at VBF-85 as having been used as a decal actually placed about the Squadron’s F4Us, at least relatively early during the Squadron’s combat service.

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Probably (?…) taken in December of 1944, this image, from the War History of VF-85 (via Fold3), shows the squadron’s officers and enlisted men posed in front of an F4U.  Names of personnel, left to right, are listed below. 

Front Row (Sitting)

Ens. Bean, Roy N.
Ens. Hatfield, Elvin H.
Ens. Siddall, Frank S.
Ens. Edwin, Norman L.
Ens. Kirkham, Charles N.
Ens. Noel, Richard L.
Lt. Cdr. Gilmour
Lt. Cdr. Ford, Warren W.
Lt. Cdr. Roberts
Lt. Tilton, Eugene B.
Ens. Lawhon, David W.
Ens. Dunn, John C.
Ens. Bloomfield, Robert A.
Ens. Solomon, Leonard E.
Ens. Egolf, James O.
Lt. Irgens, Donald L.
Lt. (jg) Lamphar
Ens. Huber, Joseph A.

Second Row

Lt. (jg) Blair, George M.
Lt. (jg) Robbins, Joe D.
Ens. Moos, Kennard “A.”
Lt. (jg) Edwards, (William H.?)
Ens. Moore, John H.
Ens. Meltebeke, Raymond L.
Lt. (jg) Callan, Allie W.
Lt. (jg) Nichols, James B.
Lt. Wollum, Donald G.
Ens. Chernoff, Saul
Ens. Shinn, William G.
Ens. Marr, William H.
Ens. Clark, John G.
Lt. (jg) Sovanski, Lawrence
Ens. McCraken, Billie R.
Ens. Fuog, Howard W.
Ens. Yirrell, Francis
Lt. Goodnow, Robert G.
Ens. Loeffler, John D.

Third Row

Lt. (jg) Webster, Bayard
Lt. Fuller, Roy A.
Ens. Kling, Nelson P.
Ens. Kennedy, Harold R.
Ens. Pierce, James W.
Lt. Vickery, Arthur E.
Ens. Bruening, Floyd W.
Lt. (jg) Black, James B.
Lt. (jg) Horne, Hugh R. or Joseph S.
Lt. (jg) Whitney, Robert C.
Lt. (jg) Horne, Hugh R. or Joseph S.
Ens. McPhee, Duncan C.
Ens. Harrington, Henry M.
Ens. Clarke, William “R.”
Ens. Meyers, Donald E.
Ens. Fitzgerald, Louis A.
Lt. (jg) Spring
Lt. (jg) DeMott, Richard W.
Ens. Sabin, Donald G.

Enlisted Men on Wing

Schmidt
Goessling
ART 1C Curry, Roland H.
AMM 2C Thompson, Claud W.
AMM 1C Stransky, Lloyd J.
AMM 2C Kusmer, Erwin L.
AEM 1C Lewis, Frank H.
AM 1C Callahan, William J., Jr.
ACMM Young, Kenneth D.
ACRM Wright, Wilbur T.
Y 1C Hager, Franklin T.
AMMP 1C Brackett, William A.
AMM 3C Keegan, Joseph J.
PR 2C Kinner, Wilbert K.
AOM 3C Tanner, Charles L.
AOM 1C Richardson, William L.
ACOM Klein, Irving

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Friday, May 4, 1945

(22 Iyyar 5705)

I first learned “about” Lt. (jg) Chernoff by happenstance, while reviewing Casualty Files pertaining to Allied aviator POWs of the Japanese, as well as Navy War Diaries, at the National Archives in College Park – a few (some? several?!) years back.  Within records for VF-85 / VBF-85, I discovered the squadron’s Aircraft Action Report that was filed for a Combat Air Patrol mission near Okinawa on May 4, 1945, during which the squadron shot down thirteen Japanese aircraft for the loss of two F4Us.

The squadron’s victories comprised:

Five “Type 93 twin-float advanced trainers“: The Yokosuka K5Y intermediate trainer / floatplane (九三式中間練習機), which went by the Allied reporting name of “Willow”.  Though a biplane, the K5Y was still a viable kamikaze weapon, as attested to by the destruction of the USS Callaghan on July 28, 1945, the last Allied ship to be sunk by a kamikaze attack.    

Three “Petes“: The Mitsubishi F1M reconnaissance floatplane (零式水上観測機), otherwise known to Allied pilots by the reporting name “Pete”.

Five “Zeke 52s“: The well-known Mitsubishi A6M (零式艦上戦闘機) carrier fighter, otherwise known – and very well known – as the “Zero”.  (Still known in 2021 and beyond? – That’s another topic entirely.)

These aerial victories were credited as follows:

Lieutenant Lawrence Sovanski: Two Petes
Lieutenant Jack Sidney Jacobs: Two Petes
Lieutenants Sovanski and Jacobs (shared): One Pete
Ensign W.R. Green: Two Petes
Ensign M.M. (Marvin M.?) Fogarty: One Pete
Lt. (jg) David W. Lawhon: Two Zeke 52s
Lt. (jg) Saul Chernoff: Three Zeke 52s.  (Which, may well not have been Zeke 52s after all, as will be revealed below…)

The Squadron’s Aircraft Action Report, prepared by ACI Lt. J.E. Curby, is so well written, flowing so well as a historical and “action” document, that it would be redundant for me to summarize it.  So instead, a transcript of the Report immediately follows this composite image of the Report’s first two pages:

Comparative performance of own and enemy aircraft:

The type 93 trainers could not evade the Corsair.  Speed no more than 150 knots.  Very little protection.

Pete was more maneuverable than Corsairs, but easily overtaken by Corsair.  Could turn inside Corsair.

Zeke-52 could not dive away from Corsair.  Apparently had very little armor for wing tanks since they burned readily.

Twelve VF-85 fighters were sent out on patrol C.A.P. north of Okinawa to intercept any Japanese planes coming from Kyushu.  The planes were vectored out at 0842 to a large bogey.  The engagement which followed was the first for the day fighters of VF-85.

The engagement was divided into two parts.  One third of the planes led by Lieut. J.S. Jacobs, USNR, engaged type 93 seaplane intermediate trainers and “Petes” while the other two thirds fought with Zeke52s.

The Petes and trainers were contacted about seven miles north of Iheya Jima.  The trainers were armed with bombs, but none were observed on the Petes.  The Japanese were apparently on a suicide mission against shipping targets in the Okinawa area.

Lieut. Jacobs saw one of our destroyers under attack by a “Nick”, and as he turned in to attack, the Hick dove into the destroyer before he had an opportunity to fire.  He then observed, with his wingman, Ensign W.R. Green, USNR, about eight seaplanes low on the water.  Lieut. Jacobs immediately attacked, and splashed a twin float seaplane.  He later identified this plane to be a type 93 seaplane intermediate trainer.  Lieut. Jacobs then sighted another one heading for a destroyer and he got a 45 [degree] deflection shot.  It burst into flames but continued into the destroyer.

During this time Ensign Green obtained hits with a full deflection shot on another trainer which began to burn and landed on the water.  Lieut. Jacobs then strafed it and was followed by Lieut. Lawrence Sovanski, USNR, who caused it to explode.

Ensign Green then got on the tail of a Pete and splashed him with a short burst.  A few seconds later he was on the tail of another Pete which he splashed in short order.

Lieut. Sovanski, with his wingman, Ensign M.M. Fogarty, USNR, had also been busy attacking the trainers as soon as they were sighted.  Lieut. Sovanski made on pass at a trainer and scored hits, but failed to splash him.  He then spotted the plane wounded by Ensign Green and Lieut. Jacobs and exploded it.  Just then another Bogey of about eight planes was sighted.  Lieut. Sovanski pulled up and made a stern approach on a 93 trainer.  He burned it with a short burst and it exploded.  He then followed another one but had to hold his fire while another Corsair passed out of his sights; however, a second or two later he opened up and the trainer exploded.

Ensign Fogarty, meanwhile, made a flat side, full deflection run on a Pete.  It burned, hit the water and exploded.

During this entire melee there were fighters from the Yorktown attacking these groups of bogies.

While the above engagement was in progress, Lt. (jg) J.D. Robbins’ (USN) division was engaging some 12 – 16 planes, Zeke-52s, fifteen miles north of the other encounter.  This group was tallyhoed at 17,000 feet.  The flight had been at 22,000 feet.  Unfortunately, the 20mm cannon in three planes in Lt. (jg) Robbins’ division froze up and they were forced to retire from the engagement.  Lt. (jg) Saul Chernoff, USNR, and Lt. (jg) F.S. Siddall were both shot down at this time.  They were both rescued and are in good shape. 

Lt. (jg) Chernoff’s plane was the only one which had all guns operating.  He soon learned that there were two groups of Zekes, the first one consisting of 16-20 planes and the second also consisting of 16-20 planes.  His story is best told in his own words.  (It should be mentioned that he had no intimation that his fellow pilots were having difficulties with their guns, and had left the scene of battle.)

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Continuing with the Aircraft Action Report, here is a transcript of Lt. (jg) Chernoff’s account of the engagement, which appears in the Action Report as a typewritten document:

OKINAWA – Angels 20

4 May 1945

At approximately 0845 we were vectored out on a heading of 030 degrees.  No speed was given and when a request for information was asked, a report was given that the bogey was 40 miles at angels 15.  We went on vector for about ten minutes when Ensign E.L. MYERS, USNR, my wingman, spotted the bogeys behind us and above.  I immediately gave him the lead and followed. 

About a mile from the bogey which appeared to be a large group of Zekes in two formations, Ensign MYERS pressed home his attack.  I don’t believe he saw the second formation as he made his attack on the first group.  I saw he would be in a bad way from the second group, so made an attack on them.  It was a low side attack, coming from underneath.  I don’t believe they saw me as no evasive action was taken.  I gave a short burst to the lead plane and his port wing came off and he spun in.  Still coming up, I gave a short burst to the second plane and he blew up.  I skidded to one side and came down in another run on two more planes.  They started evasive action, making a hard turn to port.  I fired about three bursts and the second man and he, also, blew up.  I closed on the first but couldn’t turn inside of him.  At that time I looked behind and saw three Zekes on my tail so immediately did a split “S”.  Going down I was hit and my engine was smoking very badly and oil completely covered the windshield.  My oil pressure started dropping and then my prop governor went out.  Using my throttle, my R.P.M.s went as high as 5000, and when I cut it off it still read about 3500.  I was followed down to about angels ten by one Zeke who then broke off and left, climbing back up. 

I made several radio transmissions and tuned on my IFF to emergency.  Two fighters from VF-85 drew alongside me and I then made a water landing.  I couldn’t determine the direction of the waves so made a landing between them.  I put my flaps down and held off until my airspeed indicator read 60 kts.  There was quite a jar but I didn’t receive any injury.  My life raft, which I had loosened in the air, fell to the bottom and I couldn’t get it out, so jumped into the water with just my Mae West.  Both planes did a marvelous job of directing L.C.S.-11 to my position which was about 4 ½ miles south-east of Yuron Shima.  They were relieved by another flight of four planes from VBF-85.  After two and a half hours I was picked up.

My mistakes:

1. I forgot to jettison my belly tank.
2. Landed cross wind.
3. Let raft fall to bilge.
4. Jumped into water before inflating Mae West.

S. CHERNOFF

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The Aircraft Action Report does not include a parallel statement concerning the shooting down and survival of Lt. (jg) Siddall.  In any event, Siddall was flying F4U-1D 82746, and Chernoff F4U-1D 82542.  

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This Oogle map shows the approximate location – indicated by Oogle’s emblematic red pointer – where VF-85 intercepted the Japanese attacking force, based on latitude and longitude coordinates listed in the Aircraft Action Report.  The location can be seen to have been approximately 50 miles east of Radar Picket Station 4.  

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But, wait, there’s more…!

Though Lt. (jg) Lawhon and Lt. (jg) Chernoff claimed two and three Zeke 52s, respectively, there is a high probability that this was a case of misidentification, for the Japanese fighters may have been Nakajima Ki-84 Hayates of the 60th Shinbu-Tai (60th Special Attack [kamikaze] Unit (Dai 60 Shinbu-tai / (第六十振武隊).  This clarification comes from Edward M. Young’s F4U Corsair vs. Ki-84 “Frank” Pacific Theater 1945, where it is stated:

On May 4, Maj. Michiaki Tojo, commanding the 103rd Hikō Sentai, led a formation of Hayates from his own unit and the 102nd Hikō Sentai that were charged with escorting a mixed Special Attack airplane formation consisting of Ki-27 “Nates,” Ki-43 “Oscars,” Ki-84 “Franks” and two Ki-45 “Nicks” (Type 2 Two-seat Fighters) to Okinawa.  More “Oscars” from the 65th Hikō Sentai also participated in the mission. 

That same morning VF-85 sent up three divisions on CAP north of Okinawa.  Flying at 20,000ft, Ens. E.L. Myers, wingman to Lt. (jg) Saul Chernoff, saw a formation of what he identified as 12-16 “Zekes,” and Chernoff ordered him to take the lead.  The other members of the division found that the 20mm cannon in their F4U-1Cs had frozen and had to break off the attack.  Chernoff continued, seeing that the Japanese aircraft were in two formations, one higher and one lower.  He decided to attack the higher formation on his own in order to protect Ens. Myers, even though he would be attacking from below.  Another division of VF-85 was climbing rapidly to help.  Chernoff came in on what he identified as a formation of “Zekes” and opened fire with his cannon, knocking the port wing off one airplane.  He fired on a second, which blew up under his fire, then came down to make a run on two more fighters, firing three bursts at one that blew up (these may well have been “Franks,” as the 60th Shinbu-Tai lost three that day and the escort force lost eight). 

As he tried, and failed, to follow the second fighter through a turn, Chernoff noticed three “Zekes” coming down on him from above.  Maj. Tojo had been watching the Special Attack airplanes targeting what he thought was a group of US Navy cruisers and destroyers when he saw two Corsairs come into view below him, one behind the other.  They were firing on the Special Attack airplanes, and apparently did not see him.  The second Corsair, apparently flown by Lt. (jg) F.S. Siddell [sic], came within range and Tojo immediately opened fire and sent it down smoking.  Chernoff did not see Tojo closing behind him, the Ki-84 pilot opening fire and hitting the Corsair’s engine, which began to smoke badly and covered the windscreen with oil.  Chernoff did a split-S to escape, but his Corsair was finished.  Major Tojo was not sure how badly he had damaged the two Corsairs, but wisely did not follow them down.  Chernoff and Siddell were badly hit, but both made water landings and were rescued.  With an experienced pilot at the controls and an altitude advantage, the Hayate had shot down two Corsairs in under a minute. 

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This brief moment in time has been imagined and depicted in a painting by aviation artist Gareth Hector.  Mr. Hector’s composition forms the “bottom half” of his dual cover montage for Mr. Young’s book, issued in 2016 by Osprey Publishing, one of the (thus far) 122 books comprising Osprey’s Duel series.  The cover of Mr. Young’s book, viewable at 96 dpi resolution c/o Mr. Bezos.  

Mr. Hector’s painting depicts Saul – moments after having previously downed three Ki-84s (not Zeke 52s) – diving away in his burning Corsair after having been attacked by Major Michiaki Tojo.  Clearly shown on Saul’s F4U are the white lightning-bolt wing and tail markings of VF-85.  

The caption parallels the excerpt quoted above:  “On May 4, 1945, Maj. Michiaki Tojo, commander of the 103rd Hikō Sentai, led a formation of 30 Ki-84s from the 101st, 102nd and 103rd Hikō Sentai as escorts for a mixed formation of Special Attack airplanes sent to attack US Navy vessels off Okinawa.  The Ki-84s had to zigzag above the slower bomb-laden kamikaze.  Near the island of Iheya Shima, northwest of Okinawa, the formation spotted several American ships and the Special Attack airplanes began their final dives.  Flying above and monitoring the attack, Maj. Tojo suddenly saw two F4U Corsairs below him, intent on intercepting the Special Attack formation.  One Corsair turned to the right and came into firing range.  Apparently unseen, Maj. Tojo opened fire and sent the F4U down smoking.  The leading Corsair, probably flown by Lt. Saul Chernoff of VF-85, also turned to the right and failed to notice the Ki-84s above until Maj. Tojo was in a position to open fire, hitting Chernoff’s engine.  The naval aviator dove away, with his Corsair smoking badly, and successfully ditched.  Chernoff was rescued, only to be killed subsequently on June 2, 1945 when VF-85 clashed with the N1K2-J “Georges” of the 343rd Kokutai over Kyushu.  (Cover artwork by Gareth Hector)”

(Given the way that Mr. Hector’s has depicted this aerial engagement in such a vivid, detailed, well-imagined yet entirely realistic manner, and his composition’s fortunate availability at very high resolution, I took his work one [small] step “beyond” (- quite intentional pun -) and – rather than simply nominally include it within “this” post – retouched it using Photoshop to remove the “upper” half of the montage and eliminate text from this “lower” half, simplifying the scene and giving it a little bit more “oomph”. )

You can view fourteen examples of Mr. Hector’s work at his website, Gareth Hector Military Art, while fifty books featuring his cover illustrations can be viewed here, at Osprey Publishing.  His work is characterized by a visual perspective that captures action at – or just before – its height, a use of lighting and illumination that have an optimum balance, and, an near photographic attention to detail.

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From VBF-85, this photo shows three (plus a wingtip) F4Us, probably in the vicinity of Hawaii, marked with the squadron’s emblematic white lightning bolt on tail and wingtip…  

…while this illustration, by Don Greer (via WarWall) appearing on the cover of Jim Sullivan’s F4U Corsair in Action, provides a much clearer view of VF-85’s / VBF-85’s squadron markings.  Though individual plane-in-squadron numbers are painted on the tail and cowling, unfortunately, these are not recorded in Aircraft Action Reports.  Note that the aircraft carries the Sky Pirates squadron insignia below the cockpit; this insignia reportedly appeared on the squadron’s Corsairs less frequently as the war progressed.  

________________________________________

________________________________________

Almost one month later, on Saturday, June 2, 1945 (22 Sivan 5705), Lt. (jg) Chernoff was no longer among the living.    

– .ת. נ. צ. ב. ה –
תהא נפשו צרורה בצרור החיים

What happened?

…thirty-two Corsairs from VF-85 / VBF-85 were tasked with a fighter sweep mission to the Chiran, then Kagoshima, and finally, Izumi airfields on the island of Kyushu.  Prior to returning to the Shangri-La and while rendezvousing over Kagoshima Bay (Kagoshima-wan; 鹿児島湾), a radio request was received to provide high cover for an air-sea rescue operation for three downed F6F Hellcat pilots (two from the USS Ticonderoga and one from USS Yorktown) who’d ditched in the bay.  As the Corsairs orbited the area in the vicinity of the Ibusuki Seaplane Base, they were attacked from above by what was estimated to have been 20 to 30 (actually 23) Japanese fighter planes.  The planes were described as a mixture of Franks [Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate; キ84 疾風, “Gale“], Jacks [Mitsubishi J2M Raiden; 雷電, “Lightning Bolt], Oscars [Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa; 隼, “Peregrine falcon” / “Army Type 1 Fighter” 一式戦闘機], and Tojos [Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki; 鍾馗, “Devil Queller”], and even the Judy [Yokosuka D4Y Suisei; 彗星, “Comet” dive-bomber], but in reality the only enemy aircraft encountered by VF-85 / VBF-85 were all N1K2-J Shiden-Kai (紫電改 – “Violet Lightning – Modified”) fighters of the elite 343rd Naval Air Group, which was commanded by Captain Minoru Genda.  The 343rd was comprised of (this quote is from Wikipedia, but okay, it’s valid), “…the best surviving ace fighter pilots the Imperial Navy had at the time.”  

The result?  Well, as aptly stated in the opening paragraph of the Shangri-La War History, “2 June was the one disastrous day for the squadron.”  VF-85’s prior encounters with Japanese warplanes were limited to kamikaze aircraft, as recounted above for the mission of May 4, 1945.

By day’s end, VF 85 / VBF 85 suffered one pilot killed on take-off at the mission’s start, two pilots killed outright in combat, three pilots who ditched (two after their aircraft had been damaged by anti-aircraft fire and / or enemy aircraft; one from lack of fuel) but did not survive to be rescued.  Two pilots managed to return to the Shangri-La in damaged Corsairs, of which one aircraft may (?) have been junked.

The 343rd Naval Air Group lost two pilots in the battle.

As for the three Hellcat pilots floating in Kagoshima Bay?  They were all rescued, as was the complete crew of a seaplane that was lost early in the air-sea rescue effort.

Of VF 85 / VBF 85’s losses, Lt. (jg) Saul Chernoff was the second pilot to have been killed:  He was shot down – “jumped” – outright, at the start of the 343rd Naval Air Group’s attack, after breaking away from his Section Leader in order go to independently attack a Shiden fighter, an action which was noted (though Chernoff’s name isn’t mentioned, the implication is obvious) in VF-85 / VBF-85’s Aircraft Action Report.

The above summary is a distillation of information in documents filed by VF-85 / VBF-85, VH-3 and VPB-13 (the two squadrons involved in the air-sea rescue for the three downed Hellcat pilots), the Shangri-La, histories of VBF-85 and VF-85 published at the war’s end, and, Henry Sakaida and Koji Takaki’s history of the 343rd Naval Air Group, Genda’s Blade, published in 2003.  

The information in these sources is as interesting as much as it is well-written.  Rather than “pick and choose” snippets from these documents, the text is presented below in full…  (Gadzooks.  Veritably, again there I go making another really long post!)  My additional commentary appears inside brackets, italicized, in maroon font.  [Just like this.]

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First, I’ll begin at the “end”, with post-mission comments by the Air Group Commander, in the USS Shangri-La War Diary – Report of Air Operations Against Kyushu:

Comments of Air Group Commander

Fighter Sweep Over Kyushu

Pilots must learn to stay together. In our first real fighter sweep the desire to kill as many Japs as possible caused new pilots to become dispersed. They knew better and admitted it later. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any way of learning this lesson except by experience.

The Japs still have some first class pilots and airplanes. Prior to these sweeps this group had encountered only Kamikaze pilots who offered no real opposition. This, plus rumors that the Jap air force was definitely low on good pilots, gave us an erroneous appreciation of the situation such that we were greatly surprised in our encounter. The Japs flew tight formations, executed well-timed coordinated attacks and retained an initial altitude advantage. Their initial attack was made through high overcast at 22,000 feet indicating apparent radar control. Some of the planes out dived Corsairs at well over 400 knots IAS and were able to make tight turns in those dives.

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Second, from the Shangri-La War History:

2 June was the one disastrous day for the squadron. A fighter sweep was ordered against airfields on Kyushu. The weather was worse than terrible and added to that the nearest field was over 300 miles away. It was necessary to fly on instruments a good deal of the time to the target and over an hour on the return trip.

The sweep first attacked Izumi airfield where Lieut. L. Sovanski, USNR, Lt. (jg) N.L. Edwin, USNR, both had their planes damaged by flak. The next sweep attacked Chiran airfield, however, in both cases few aircraft were observed. In the meantime, two pilots from the Yorktown were downed in Kagoshima Wan. Comdr. W.W. Ford, USN, took charge of aiding them. A Coronado attempted to land near one of the pilots, but on landing damaged its propeller rendered the plane useless. Another Coronado orbited the area. A Dumbo (PBM) finally arrived and rescued the downed pilots and also the crew of the Coronado.

During this time the high cover for the downed pilots was jumped by Franks, Jacks, Oscars and Judys, [a statement to this effect is repeated in further documents] all first line planes piloted by experienced pilots.  [Though the Ki-43 Hayabusa would serve throughout the duration of the war, by 1945 it had been superseded in performance, armament, and other features by later Japanese fighters, such as the Ki-84 Hayate.]  Lt. (jg) W.R. Clarke, USNR, shot down one Jack and one Oscar, and Lieut. G.M. Blair, USNR, damaged a Jack. However, the enemy took heavy tool on our fighters. Lieut. R.A. Fuller, USNR, was shot down by antiaircraft fire over Ibusuki auxiliary seaplane base. Lt. (jg) Saul Chernoff, USNR, was shot down by an enemy plane. The planes of Lt. W. Atkinson, USNR, and Lt. (jg) H.R. Kennedy, USNR, were so badly damaged that they had to make forced water landings. Lt. (jg) C.N. Kirkham, USNR, orbited Lt. (jg) Kennedy in the hope of effecting his rescue and remained with him until he, too, was forced to make a water landing due to lack of fuel. All three pilots were in their rafts, but due to the foul weather none of the pilots were recovered. Lt. (jg) C.N. Kirkham, USNR, has been recommended for the Navy Cross for his heroism.

In addition, two other planes were so badly damaged they had to be jettisoned and one plane was forced to ditch near a destroyer due to lack of gasoline.

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Lieutenant (jg) Saul Chernoff was shot down in the attack over Ibusuki. Lieutenant Wallace Atkinson, Jr. – struck by Japanese fire in the same encounter – crashed with his plane near Kuchino Shima. Flak bursts off the Ibusuki seaplane base sent Lieutenant Roy A. Fuller into the sea.

Two other pilots who failed to return had managed to survive the dynamic air battle but were lost enroute to the ship. When Lieutenant (jg) Harold R. Kennedy was unable to keep his plane in flight because of previously sustained damaged, Lieutenant (jg) Charles N. Kirkham – while orbiting the position where his comrade had fallen – ran out of gas and landed in the water. Neither was recovered.

In addition, there were two plane losses without personnel casualties. One pilot was picked up when his fighter was forced down at sea by fuel exhaustion. Another managed to fly his F4U back to the carrier for a landing despite severe damage by enemy fire, but the plane was cannibalized and jettisoned over the side.

The squadrons of Air Group 85 took a great deal more than they gave that day. Against the quick surprise blows of the Japanese, their own retaliatory punches seemed vainly ineffectual. For the gallant fight which they waged and the heavy casualties which they suffered they extorted a disproportionate toll of two planes downed, one probably destroyed and one damaged.

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Third, from the History of Bomber Fighting Squadron Eighty-Five:

Black Saturday for Fighting Squadron EIGHTY-FIVE. The day started out with a 0500 CAP, Irgens’ and Whitney’s divisions. At 0600, CAG Sherrill led a fighter sweep on Kyushu airfields. The weather was extremely bad – the worst we had ever operated in – and the nearest field was over 300 miles from the force.

The hop got off to a bad start when “Bill” Marr, VBF, went in on take off. He was lost when he tried to swim to a destroyer that was picking him up. “Bill” Clarke took off and filled in GAG’s division.

The strike group consisted of 32 planes and the divisions were led by Comdr. Cherrill, Comdr. Ford, Lieut. Comdr. Hubert, Lieuts. Fuller, Sovanski, Blair, Callan and Jacobs.  [That’s eight sections; I guess 4 planes per section?]  The sweep went in over the coast of Kyushu at about 9,000 feet. The first attack was on Chiran Airfield, a partial attack in which only three divisions participated. A rendezvous was made and the group headed for Kagoshima and Izumi Fields in Northern Kyushu. Again another partial attack was made on Izumi, most of the divisions maintaining their altitude to carry out the flight instructions of getting the Jap planes that might be in the air.

At Kagoshima Field, a flak barrage damaged the planes of Larry Sovanski and “Red” Edwin. A retirement was made from this field to Kagoshima Wan, where two Yorktown pilots were in the water. Lieut. Comdr. Ford took charge of aiding them, establishing contact with the Dumbo planes.

The five remaining divisions were orbiting at about 8,000 feet. Fuller’s division was ordered to join the Captain to assist in the rescue – one Dumbo had crashed on landing and a second one was expected to arrive. In letting down, Fuller led his division in an attack against Ibusuki Auxiliary Seaplane Base. He was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed.

The four divisions remaining as top cover were then jumped by a group of some 20-30 Japs flying Franks, Jacks, Oscars and Tojos. [Similar to earlier statement.]  The enemy attack was unobserved until it was pressed home.  Sovanski, Callan, Kennedy, Edwin and Atkinson were hit in this attack and Chernoff was shot down. Kennedy was thought to have been wounded.

In the melee which followed, “Bill” Clarke shot down one “Jack” and one “Oscar” and George Blair damaged one “Frank”, Sovanski’s and Callan’s divisions retired as soon as possible and headed for the base. On the way, Kennedy made a rough water landing, but got into his raft. Kirkham stayed with Kennedy and attempted to effect a rescue. He remained until he ran out of gas and then landed beside Kennedy.

The rest of the group retired, about one and one half hours of the flight, back being on instruments. Atkinson lost all oil pressure and was forced to make a water landing. Toenges landed in the water beside a destroyer of the screen when he ran out of gas, and was immediately recovered. Kennedy, Kirkham and Atkinson were not recovered because of a storm which came up that afternoon. Sovanski’s tail hook ‘snapped on landing and Fitzgerald, who followed him aboard, made a two turn ground loop on the deck without getting a barrier.

____________________

Fourth, the Aircraft Action Report of VF-85 / VBF-85.  But (!) a caveat (!!):

Well, though I couldn’t find the Aircraft Action Report for VF-85 and VBF-85 at Fold3.com despite searches using a variety of key-words and time-frames (gee why am I not surprised?) I w a s able to find the Report in Japan’s National Diet Library Digital Collections, where it’s titled “Aircraft Action Report No. VF85#27 VBF85#25 CVG85#20 1945/06/02 : Report No. 2-d(64): USS Shangri La, USSBS Index Section 7“., under the “Level” 文書名:Records of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey = 米国戦略爆撃調査団文書 ; Entry 55, Security-Classified Carrier-Based Navy and Marine Corps Aircraft Action Reports, 1944-1945. 

And so, here is a composite image of the Report’s first two pages:

[Note the following statement at the bottom of the second sheet:]

COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE, OWN AND ENEMY AIRCRAFT.

Jack: Speed about same as Corsair, apparently well armored. Good diving characteristics, self sealing tanks, more maneuverable than Corsair.
George: Outdive and outclimb Corsair, appear faster.
Oscar: Turn inside Corsair.
Tojo: More maneuverable, dives faster.
Frank: Faster than Corsair, outdives and outclimbs Corsair.

[Despite mention of the Jack, Oscar, Tojo, and Frank, the only Japanese fighter encountered by VF-85 / VBF-85 on this mission was the N1K2-J Shiden-Kai (Allied code name “George”).  Though – at first glance – a striking example of misidentification, the assumption that other types of Japanese fighters had been encountered does makes sense, given the context and nature of the aerial engagement.  The main and common characteristics of these Japanese warplanes was that they were radial-engine, single-seat, low-wing monoplanes, having (except the Jack) a 360-degree-vision pilot’s canopy.  Thus, given the element of complete surprise incurred by VF-85 / VBF-85, the intensity of the aerial battle, and the fact that the Navy pilots were up against Japanese pilots of equal or greater combat experience, an error in identification was not at all surprising.]   

So, here’s the subsequent and substantial text of the report:

Aircraft Action Report – 2 June 1945

After a delightful breakfast of baked beans, well done toast, grape fruit juice and scrambled eggs, [interesting, how the Report starts with mention of breakfast, and ends with mention of lunch – see below!] 29 fighter pilots from VF-85, 2 fighter pilots from VBF-85 and CAG-85 took off at 0600-I from the U.S.S. SHANGRI-LA, for a fighter sweep against airfields on Southern Kyushu. The sweep was under the leadership of CAG-85, Commander W.A. SHERRILL, U.S.N. The Fighting Squadron was led by Lt. Cdr. W.W. FORD U.S.N. Each plane carried two 150 gallon Universal wing tanks.

The sweep started off badly. Lt. (jg) W.H. MARR, A1, USNR., in one of the first planes to take off, crashed on take-off. He was able to get out of the plane and obtain a life raft, but just as he was about to be picked up by the guard destroyer he disappeared under the surface and was not seen again.

At the time of the launching the ship was approximately 400 miles from the farthest field to be attacked. The weather to Kyushu was poor with a ceiling varying from 300 to 400 feet and visibility from 50 feet to two miles. During most of the trip it was necessary to fly on instruments. A cold front was encountered on the way. The weather over the target areas was better than on the trip up, overcast 3000 to 4000 feet, visibility good.

The group hit Chiran airfield at about 0800, strafing planes in the revetments, many of which were believed to be dummies. Damage was not assessable. No planes were seen to burn. Moderate heavy and medium antiaircraft fire was encountered. Evasive action was taken and none of our planes were damaged. The heavy antiaircraft fire was accurate in altitude but not in deflection.

The group then effected a rendezvous south of Kyushu and proceeded to Kagoshima airfield. Some planes were observed around the perimeter of the field but attack was not made as the targets did not seem worth while.

Izumi airfield was the next target. The group orbited the field several times. Moderate medium antiaircraft fire was encountered, one of our planes being hit. One half the group searched the field and one division strafed the only plane observed on the field, a twin engined job. It did not burn but was seriously damaged. Empty three-sided huts near the runways were observed, indicating their use for covering aircraft.

While returning at about 0900 toward Kagoshima, a request was received to orbit two downed pilots in Kagoshima Wan. One was northeast of Ibusuki auxiliary seaplane base and one southeast of the same base. Commander SHERRILL and his division orbited the pilot in the northeast position and Lt. Cdr. FORD and Lt. Cdr. T.R. HUBERT, USN and their divisions orbited the pilot in the southeast position.

The weather began closing in and in a short while the ceiling was between 300 to 400 feet and visibility poor. The remainder of the fighters wore orbiting at approximately 8000 feet below a second overcast. There was another overcast at about 18000 feet.

Lieutenant R.A. FULLER, A1, USNR, and his division wore over Ibusuki auxiliary seaplane base when he observed some Emilies [Kawashini H8K seaplane] on the water. He was at about 4500 feet going about 180 knots. He asked for permission to strafe but was told to join in orbiting the downed pilots. He pushed over and after a very short time in his dive very accurate medium antiaircraft fire came up and hit him. He crashed in the bay. The rest of his division pulled out of the dive and acted as cover for the orbiting planes.

At approximately 0920 two PB2Ys arrived, one of which made a landing in Kagoshima Wan to rescue the downed pilot [Koeller] in the southeast position. He tore off his port wing float and lost his port outboard propeller upon landing, and was unable to take off. A second PB2Y orbited over the same area. Finally, at about 0930 a Dumbo PBM landed successfully and picked up the pilot and the crew of the PB2Y. Enemy planes were reported over the orbiting aircraft. Commander SHERRILL and his division climbed to 4500 feet, then to 8000 feet. Zekes and Tojos attacked from about 10000 feet from 12 o’clock high, then fell back to 6 o’clock and established section weaves. None were hit.

Three Tojos made a run from 2 o’clock on CAG who was on the starboard side. His wingman, Lt. (jg) J.C. DUNN, Al, USNR., turned into the Tojos and got a good burst head on. The Tojo smoked and some flame was seen coming from the engine wall. He dove into the clouds and was not observed again. Five or six other planes made section runs on CAG’s division but caused no damage. After each pass the enemy joined up for another pass.

At about this time Jap pilots in Franks, Oscars, Tojos and Jacks, [again] approximately between 20 to 30 in all, began attacking from 16,000 foot.

Unfortunately, after the first attack several of our planes split up and had a hot time of it. The Japs were most aggressive and were experienced pilots. They made section passes and attacked only when they had the tactical advantage. However the Japs would not attack when they saw our planes in a defensive weave, even though they had altitude advantage and numerical superiority. Four Franks jumped Lieut. G.M. BLAIR’s division in an overhead pass. His division was at 8000 feet and the Japs attacked from about 14,000 feet, just below the overcasts. One Frank made a head-on pass on Lieut. BLAIR and pressed home its attack. Lieut. BLAIR finally had to break away to avoid colliding with him. Lieut. BLAIR scored some hits but did not seriously damage it. Lt. (jg) Saul CHERNOFF, Al, USNR., flying on Lieut. BLAIR broke off dive [sic] after a Jap. He was apparently jumped from above and was last seen burning and spinning through the overcast at about 4500 feet.

Lieut. BLAIR then tried to get some six or seven other planes to form a Lufbery circle and climb. After gaining about a thousand feet he discovered they had left him. He and his wingman then joined another division.

Lieut. CALLAN’s division was also attacked at this time by four Georges or Franks. Three of the planes in his division were damaged, one seriously, that of Lt. (jg) H.R. KENNEDY, Al, USNR., who subsequently was forced to make a water landing on his way home. Lt. (jg) C.N. KIRKHAM, Al, USNR., flew with him and remained, orbiting him in foul weather and was also forced to ditch when he ran out of gasoline. Neither has been recovered.

Lieut. L. SOVANSKI, Al, USNR., and his division were also jumped by several fighters. His plane was severely damaged (see picture). He was able to make it back to the ship, but with only 10 gallons of gas left at the time of landing aboard.

Lt. (jg) W.R. CLARKE, Al, USNR., after having become separated from CAG’s division after having first been jumped, found an Oscar below him. The Oscar was crossing in front of him. Lt. (jg) CLARKE turned after him and fired from 900 to 1000 feet. The Oscar made a shallow wing-over and then began to climb. Lt. (jg) CLARKE stayed on his tail and continued firing. Part of the Oscar’s cowling came off and it started down. It began burning and went through the overcast out of control enveloped in flames.

Lt. (jg) CLARKE then joined up on Lt. (jg) R.L. MELTEBEKE, Al, USNR., and Lt. (jg) H.W. FUOG, Al, USNR. They were at 4500 feet and observed a Jack about 500 feet above them. Lt. (jg) MELTEBEKE and Lt. (jg) FUOG made a head on attack, but did not damage the Jack. However, Lt. (jg) CLARKE, weaving, got on its tail and had no difficulty in catching it. He scored hits in the engine, cockpit and wing roots. The plane smoked and then burned and was in a radical angle of dive, out of control going through the overcast a short distance above the mountains when last soon. The pilot was seen to parachute.

About this time, 1100, the PBM was able to take off using JATO with its passengers. Lt. Cdr. FORD and the rest of the planes orbiting the Dumbo headed for home. After they had been on course about ten minutes the PB2Y which had remained in the vicinity called for help. Lt. Cdr. FORD turned back and when near the PB2Y was to _____ it had found refuge in the clouds and was safe.

After having stayed over Kyushu for more than an hour and a half longer than planned, the planes headed for home. The weather was terrible, necessitating instrument flying for over an hour. Ceiling was practically zero and visibility zero during this time. Lt. (jg) W. ATKINSON, Al, USNR, was forced to ditch due to loss at-oil pressure, the cause of which is unknown. Lt. (jg) R.F. TOENGES, Al, USNR., ditched near a picket destroyer when he had but 12 gallons of gas left. He had expended an abnormal amount of gas due to the buffeting of his two belly tanks, forcing him to use an excess power setting to maintain formation.

Finally the group returned to the ship after six and three quarter hours in the air in time for a hearty lunch of broth and crackers.  [Hmmm…  I just don’t know.  I think steak, potatoes, and pie would have been richly deserved.]

Lessons learned:

(1) Don’t orbit airfields when a/a is known to be present.
(2) Don’t leave your section leader to become a hero. [This is an obvious reference to Lt. (jg) Chernoff.]
(3) Don’t be taken in by decoys so as to be easy meat for a/a or enemy fighters.
(4) Don’t try to cover without obtaining sufficient altitude to prevent being jumped from above.
(5) If outnumbered or at an altitude disadvantage, immediately start defensive weave.  Japs apparently will not attack.

XIII. MATERIAL DATA.

Two Universal Wing Tanks on ono plane buffeted seriously, causing need for higher power settings. Gas consumption was thereby increased to such an extent that the plane was forced to ditch. Neither tank could be jettisoned.

Although every piece of radio equipment in plane Bureau Number 32290 was hit by 20mm fragments, it continued to operate satisfactorily.

REPORT PREPARED BY:
J. E. CURBY, Lieut. USNR. A.C.I.
APPROVED BY:
W.W. FORD, Lt. Cdr. USN, 6-8-45

____________________

Fifth, excerpts from Chapter 15 (“We learned some lessons today”) of Genda’s Blade, which covers the 343rd’s encounter with VF-85 / VBF-85.  The chapter incorporates excerpts and information from the Aircraft Action Report, as well as reminiscences from surviving Japanese and American pilots.  For brevity (me brief? – !) I’m limiting this excerpt to text pertaining to the Japanese side of the air battle:

… Capt Genda received word that a large group of enemy carrier aircraft had been spotted en route, heading for the southern tip of Kyushu where the Kamikaze airfields were located.

*****

Capt Genda was fully aware of the attacks on Chiran and Kagoshima, but he was not in a hurry to counterattack. “The enemy had overwhelming strength” he wrote in his memoir. “Formations of about 30 aircraft would come in, one after another, within a short interval.  It would not have been effective to have brought our squadron of only 20 or 30 aircraft in front of such large enemy waves, even though the Shiden-Kai group was the cream of the Naval fighter force.  If we hit the first enemy group, we would be surrounded and slaughtered by other groups that would follow in succession.  Therefore, I thought it would be advantageous for us to attack the enemy’s tail end group.  Upon departure following the raid, its formation would be disorderly and its pilots would be in a mood to hurry home.  It would take much more time for the preceding groups to come back to aid the tail end group being attacked by our fighters.”

At 08.45 hrs, Capt Genda decided to put his plan into action.  Lt. Keijiro Hayashi, newly appointed squadron leader of Squadron 407, was ordered to take charge of the interception.  His unit contributed eight fighters.  Flying under his leadership were Lt. Ryoichi Yamada of Squadron 701 with eight aircraft, and Lt. Masaji Matsumura from Squadron 301 with five aircraft.

Lt. Hayashi was a very capable leader and a veteran of the air battles at Balikpapan, Borneo.  A graduate of the Naval Academy, he was a classmate of S301’s Lt. Naoshi Kanno.  Capt Genda was favorably impressed with the new squadron leader.  Hayashi had been an ensign assigned as a navigator to the carrier Akagi when he crossed paths with the CO who was a staff officer of the 1st Fleet Hayashi later commanded S602 at Balikpapan, Borneo, before being transferred along with ten of his men to the 343 Kokutai in mid-May.  He was brought in to replace Lt. Yoshishige Hayashi who was killed in action against B-29s on 21 April.

Twenty-one Shiden-Kais took off at 08.45 hrs. Eight aircraft from Hayashi’s S407 and another two-division group were led by Lt. Ryoichi Yamada from Squadron 701.  A top cover flight of five aircraft was commanded by Lt. Matsumura.  It was airborne within minutes, with a mix of aircraft drawn from all three squadrons.

“It took about 30 to 45 minutes for our Shiden-Kais to reach the southern tip of Kyushu” wrote Genda. “During that time they reached an altitude of 6,000 to 7,000 meters.  I wanted our pilots to be in a good position when encountering the enemy aircraft.  This was ideal though we could not always do it like that every time, as I wanted.”

*****

Twenty-one Shiden-Kais finally arrived over Kanoya at an altitude of almost 6,100 m at 09.55 hrs local time.   he weather was fair and visibility was good.  The sky was virtually cloudless and there were no enemy aircraft to be seen as they approached Kagoshima Bay.  With no fear of being jumped from above, Lt. Hayashi wondered where the Americans had gone.  Suddenly, he saw them far below; 16 gull-winged aircraft heading south to the right of their direction of flight.

Lt. Hayashi, leading Squadrons 407 and 701, dived on the orbiting Corsairs of Cdr Sherrill’s group.  He worried that their excessive diving speed would cause them to overshoot their prey and negate the element of surprise.  But the Corsairs scattered as Hayashi’s formation came screaming down from twelve o’clock high, with a 2,000 ft altitude advantage.

“For a few minutes, we maintained discipline and organization, but soon there were sections and singles all over the sky,” recalled Blair. “My transmitter was out so I could not give any directions.  My wingman, John Moore, stayed right with me, but Chernoff, a substitute section leader, went off on his own to be a hero and was shot down.  [Interesting; almost a quote from the Action Report.]  Moore and I started for altitude and were immediately looking ahead on a Frank (?) section.  We both fired a short burst and at the last second, I broke under the leader, sure he was going to hit me.  I heard his engine as he passed overhead!  The Japs really knew the game.  They’d make section runs about four at a time, leaving eight or 12 above us as cover, and all of them would re-form after each pass.”

“It was a complete surprise attack,” recalled Genda. “The enemy aircraft had no means to cope with it.  Most of them were unable to enter into an ordinary dogfight.  Our Shiden-Kais glued themselves to the enemy’s tails or dived at them and destroyed one after another.  Enemy fighters flamed, wings flew off, and spiraled down…”

*****

The Shiden-Kais of Squadron 301, on cover duty, descended upon a group of eight Corsairs led by LCdrs Ford and Hubert. They were orbiting a downed pilot in the southeast position.  The Japanese believed that these Corsairs were not aware of the other group’s situation.  Genda wrote later. “If they had been alerted and joined in the combat the situation might have changed.  The 301st division rushed into the new group of eight Corsairs.  The fight was as one-sided as the first one.  Five of the eight were shot down.”

*****

On the credit side, Fighting Squadron 85 put in claims for two destroyed, one probable, and two damaged.  The day’s high scorer was Lt(jg) William R. Clarke with two victories, followed by Lt(jg) John C. Dunn with a probable, with a damaged each to Lt. George M. Blair and Lt(jg) Donald P. Grau.

On the Japanese side, two pilots failed to return – CPOs Eiji Mikami from Squadron 301 and Jiro Funakoshi of Squadron 701 [shot down by Lt. (jg) William R. Clarke].  So wild was this encounter, the 343 Kokutai claimed 18 victories, with Lt. Hayashi’s men claiming 13!  [18 victories?!  Not really; not at all.  Overclaiming – not at all uncommon in aerial warfare – in this instance, by a factor of 6.]

*****

During the year 2000, locals in Kagoshima Prefecture were cultivating land in the vicinity of Kanoya and found an aircraft machine gun.  They dug further and discovered a name chop (family seal) inscribed with the name “Mikami.”  Name chops are used by the Japanese to imprint the family seal on documents and letters.  This further confirms that Lt(jg) William R. Clarke hit CPO Jiro Funakoshi, who parachuted into the sea.  His bleached bones were found along the shores of Takeshima and his identity was confirmed by the name written on his life jacket.  He had no relatives and died alone.

____________________

Sixth and Seventh, here are documents pertaining to the rescue of one of the three downed F6F Hellcat pilots, Ensign Roy G. Kueller:

From the War Diary of VH-3:

RESCUE SQUADRON THREE
FLEET POST OFFICE
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

RESCUE OF TWELVE SURVIVORS – 2 June 1945

On 2 June 1945, Lieutenant DORTON and his crew in PBM-5, F-5, departed Kerama Retto at 0545 and were waiting to rendezvous with VF 20 miles east of Suwanose Shima in the northern Ryukyus when they intercepted a report of a fighter pilot down in Kagoshima Bay, southern Kyushu. They proceeded without VF cover and enroute heard a search plane give an ETA of 15 minutes at the position of the survivors.

Enroute, he intercepted a further message that the search plane in attempting this rescue had been damaged due to rough water and subsequently overturned. However, he continued into the bay and landed in 4-5 foot swells and into a 20-knot south wind a half mile off the enemy beach. He encountered anti-aircraft fire from shore batteries while both airborne and waterborne, but succeeded in taxing to the location of the downed personnel. With the original downed fighter pilot and the entire crew of the sunken search plane aboard, he made a rough water JATO take-off and returned safely to base.

The VF pilot was Ensign Roy G. KOELLER, of VBF-9 based aboard the U.S.S. YORKTOWN. He was hit in the right wing and engine by AA while strafing parked aircraft on Kanoya East airfield. He headed south and ditched at 0830 in the middle of the bay. He made a no-flap landing, hitting hard, and lost his raft before he could inflate it. About 20 minutes later, an orbiting VF dropped a wing tank and he clung to that until rescued.

The PB2Y, having intercepted the report of the VP pilot down, had landed in the middle of the bay at 1015. One large swell threw the plane into the air, the left wing dropped and the plane came down, losing the port float, and the port outboard propellor. The plane capsized 10 minutes later while taxing and the crew took to rafts being picked up 25 minutes later. Survivors were…

Lieutenant G.W. HEAD
Lieutenant (j.g.) H.S. MILLER
Ensign R. STRAUS
BAILEY, E.R., AMM2C
BRISLAUN, H.A., AMM3C
COTTELL, C.R., ARM2C
NURNBERG, C.W., AOM3C
WILLIAMS, C.E., ARM1C
JOHNSON, R.F., ARM2C
MYERS, D.N., AMM2C
…and…
COLLINS, C.H., AOM2C

R. P. WATERS, Jr.,
R. P. WATERS, Jr.,
Lieutenant Commander, A, U.S.N.R.,
Air Intelligence Officer.

__________

From the War History of VP-13 / VPB-13:

On 2 June while on a routine patrol along the southern coast of Kyushu, Lieut. George P. Yonkers, USN, and Lieut. George Head, USNR, intercepted radio voice transmissions from fighter pilots off the U.S.S. YORKTOWN who were returning to their ship after a strike in Kyushu. The conversations indicated that they were circling a downed pilot and calling for Dumbo assistance.

Lieut. Yonkers answered the call and learned that two fighter pilots were downed in Kagoshima Wan, a large bay approximately five miles wide and 18 miles long, located at the southern tip of Kyushu. The two PBYs were 30 minutes from the position and informed the fighters that they would lend assistance. When the Coronados arrived on the scene the YORKTOWN pilots informed them that the closest Dumbo plane was 40 minutes away, that they were very low on gas and could remain over the area for approximately 20 minutes more. An added complication was that the area was reported to be heavily fortified. Antiaircraft positions and enemy fighter fields were nearby and without the then existing cover of 35 fighters, rescue would be quite difficult. The downed flier was drifting toward the shore and action had to be taken then or never.

From the air, conditions looked favorable for a landing and at 1000I a decision was made to attempt to get the ladened plane down, rescue the pilot and get off the water without JATO assistance. Two dye markers gave the position of one of the fighter pilots and the 2Ys were informed that another was down 10 miles up the bay. Lieut. Head made an approach and touched the water at 31-17N 130-45E. Tide and wind were in opposite directions and the surface was choppy. Upon contact the plane bounced into the air and stalled out on the left wing. The left wing-tip float and No. 1 propeller were torn off and the fuselage buckled amidships but crew members were at ditching stations and no one was injured. There were 1900 gallons of gasoline aboard the plane. The bombs had been jettisoned.

Meantime, Lieut. Yonkers was circling the area to assure himself that the landing was successful and then intended to go on up the bay and make a landing near the other pilot.

Shortly after the landing a Dumbo PBM from VH-3 arrived on the scene and was given a complete picture of the situation by Lieut. Yonkers and the carrier pilots. In the water below Lieut. Head and his crew had abandoned the plane. Seven men were in a Mk 7 life raft, three were clinging to its side. WILLIAMS, C.E., ARM1C, swam to the side of the fighter pilot and was giving what assistance he could.

The light-weight, JATO equipped air-sea rescue plane circled close to shore, and benefitting from the PB2Y’s experience, landed in less choppy water.

Above the floating raft, gas-nervous fighter pilots wheeled in a protective circle and finally headed in the direction of their carrier hoping to have enough fuel to make a landing. Finally the PB2Y-5 was the only protection the stricken men and their rescuers had. As the last fighter faded into the clouds, enemy shore batteries lost their timidity and opened up.

Just in time the PBM’s engines roared, and four charges of JATO rocketed them into the air with the downed fighter pilot and the eleven man crew of the patrol bomber aboard. They were saved just 22 minutes after their plane had been abandoned. As the rescue plane made its getaway, Lieut. Yonkers made two bombing and strafing runs on the damaged plane leaving it in a sinking condition. When last seen the hull was sinking rapidly with its classified equipment, in from 80 to 100 fathoms of water.

____________________

The Toll

Here is a list of the six VF-85 / VBF-85 pilots killed on June 2, as well as information about Lieutenants Sovanski and Toenges (who returned to the Shangri-La in damaged planes), and, the three F6F pilots who were rescued.  Upon correlating aircraft Bureau Numbers and pilot names between those listed in the Aircraft Action Report, those associated with a set of twenty photos of two damaged Corsairs (see below…), and, Bureau Numbers and pilot names as listed at Aviation Archeology, there are discrepancies for the Corsairs flown by Atkinson, Kennedy, and Sovanski.  

Killed

Atkinson, Wallace Payne, Jr., Lt., 0-157866 – Enemy aircraft damage over Ibusuki seaplane base (affected oil pressure); forced to ditch near Kuchino Shima; Not recovered
VF-85 F4U-1D 82547 or 82751

Chernoff
, Saul, Lt. (jg), 0-347306 – Enemy aircraft over Ibusuki seaplane base

VBF-85 F4U-1D 82789

Fuller, Roy Arthur, Lt., 0-106132 – Anti-aircraft over Ibusuki seaplane base

VBF-85 F4U-1D 82298
WW II Memorial

Kennedy, Harold Ray, Lt. (jg), 0-337469 – Enemy aircraft damage (possibly wounded); forced to ditch near Kyushu en-route to Shangri-La; Not recovered

VBF-85 FG-1D 76540 or 82751

Kirkham, Charles Noble, Lt. (jg), 0-347317 – Ran out of fuel while orbiting Kennedy; ditched nearby; Not recovered

VBF-85 FG-1D 76528
WSU Magazine
WW II Memorial

Marr, William Howard, Lt. (jg), 0-338032 – Crashed into sea (spun in) on take-off from USS Shangri-La; drowned.  Pilot seen to get out of plane and into life raft.  Left life raft on approach of destroyer, but disappeared underwater about thirty-five feet from raft in an apparent attempt to swim to destroyer.

VF-85 F4U-1D 82371

Returned in Damaged Planes

Edwin, Norman Leon, Lt. (jg)
VBF-85 FG-1D 87843 (Listed in Aviation Archeology as having been lost 6/8/45 at Kyushu – a typo?)

Sovanski, Lawrence, Lt., 0-121394 – Damaged by anti-aircraft and enemy aircraft; landed aboard carrier and aircraft jettisoned; Recovered
VF-85 F4U-1D Listed in Aviation Archeology as 82547, but probably 82290. 
Born 9/8/15 – Died 3/16/00

Toenges, Robert Frederick, Lt. (jg), 0-337588 – Ran out of fuel en route back to carrier (high fuel consumption due to weather, and could not drop tanks); ditched; Recovered
VBF-85 FG-1D 76477
Born 11/22/23 – Died 11/3/06

Rescued

Head, G.W., Ensign (and 10 crew members) VPB-13, PB2Y-3 7132

Kueller, Roy G., Ensign, VBF-9 (USS Yorktown (CV-10)), F6F-5 78145

Scott, Frank Vaughn, Jr., Lt., VF-87 (USS Ticonderoga (CV-14)), F6F-5P 72853

Hershey, Merle Murray, Lt., VBF-87 (USS Ticonderoga (CV-14)) F6F-5 78633

____________________

One that made it back: Lieutenant Lawrence Sovanski’s damaged F4U-1D, aircraft number “1“, Bureau Number 82290, has just landed on the Shangri-La.  This picture, via VF-85, is from “… VBF-85 XO “Tex” O’Neill’s diary, thanks to his son Kevin O’Neill, and captioned, “Larry Sovanski brings Bernie’s plane back from Kyushu.  You should have seen the other side.”  The plane was subsequently jettisoned.  

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

__________

Also found in “Aircraft Action Report No. VF85#27 VBF85#25 CVG85#20 1945/06/02 : Report No. 2-d(64): USS Shangri La, USSBS Index Section 7“, here are four of the above-mentioned twenty 8 1/2″ x 11” images showing battle damage to two Shangri-La Corsairs after the mission: Aircraft F4U-1 87843 (“Repaired aboard ship.”) and 82290 (“Stripped and stricken from the roll.”). 

The Aircraft Action Report describes the damage to these two plane as comprising:

87843: “Left flap, 1 1/2 foot hole in left aileron, hits by a/a in oil tank.  Knocked out entire right aileron.”

__________

82290: “.50 caliber holes in fuselage, 40mm in root of wing panel, right outboard flap damaged by shrapnel, 1×1/2 foot hole in left aileron by 20mm, HE, below rudder, shrapnel in fuselage, propeller, and cowling.”

____________________

This series of Oogle Maps shows the scene of the action:

This map shows the southern tip of Kyushu, where Ibusuki (designated by the blue oval) in situated on the Satsuma Peninsula, in Kagoshima prefecture.

____________________

Oogling in for a closer view of the Satsuma Peninsula, here’s a topographic / geographic map of the location of the seaplane base, which is now the site of the Ibusuki Naval Air Base Memorial (指宿海軍基地記念館).  Chiringashima Island lies to the northeast.  

____________________

This is an air photo view of the above map, at the same scale.  In 2021, lots of restaurants and places to stay.

____________________

This photo, taken on May 12, 1945, shows Ibusuki Seaplane Base looking north-northeast.  This picture, discovered on EBay, is from a lot of four original photos (no longer available by 12/15/21 – I guess they were sold!) of bombing target photos of Japan, covering Kure Harbor and the Ibusuki Seaplane Base.  Note the Uomidake Cliffs to the left of the base and its access road, and Chiringashima Island to the northeast, which – in this 1945 view and still today, is connected to the mainland – specifically, the Tara Peninsula – by a stretch of sand, which may be known as (I don’t know Japanese, so this text is phonetic and simply taken from Oogle) the “Chiringashima Suna no Michi.”  

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This image of the Ibusuki Seaplane Base, looking southwest, is from Report of Air Operations Against Kyushu Airfields, and was photographed on March 18, 1945. 

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This painting by aviation artist T. Toshino, appearing as “box art” for the Hasegawa Corporation’s 1/32 plastic model kit of the Kawashini N1K2-J fighter, is a striking representation of this excellent fighter plane.  Toshino’s art appropriately depicts – for the purposes of this post – an aircraft of the 343rd Naval Air Group (note the “343” on the rudder), with the dual yellow stripes denoting a plane flown by a “commander”; this plane is depicted a little differently in Donald Thorpe’s book covering the camouflage markings of Japanese naval aircraft.  You can read much more about the floatplane-derived Shiden fighter at Arawasi – Wild Eagles, and (of course) Wikipedia.   

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And, from Sakaida and Takaki’s Genda’s Blade, here’s an image of the r e a l white 15.  Caption: “Shiden-Kai 343-A-15 at Matsuyama Airfield on 10 April 1945 just before Squadron 301 departed for its new base at Kanoya.  Lt. Naoshi Kanno frequently flew this aircraft.  As with other units, pilots of the 343 Kokutai flew aircraft on an availability basis.  Poor-quality fuel caused maintenance problems, making the assignment of individual aircraft to units impossible.  However, aircraft marked such as this were reserved for flight leaders.”  (Photo from K. Osuo)

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From Genda’s Blade, here are color profiles (by Shigeru Nohara and Thomas Tullis) depicting N1K2-Js of each of the 343rd Kokutai’s three squadrons, designated by Roman letters painted at the top of the aircraft’s rudders as “A” (301st Hikotai), “B” (407th Hikotai), and “C” and 701st (Hikotai), respectively. 

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Japanese Losses

Chief Petty Officer Eiji Mikami – Squadron 301
Chief Petty Officer Jiro Funakoshi – Squadron 701 (shot down by Lt. (jg) William R. Clarke)

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I have no further specifics about Lt. (jg) Saul Chernoff.  Perhaps he crashed at sea, just off the Ibusuki Seaplane Base; perhaps somewhere on the Satsuma Peninsula.  To the best of my knowledge, he was never a POW.  Even if he had been captured, his chance of survival to the war’s end, even during these closing three months of the Pacific War, in the context of the fate of Allied fliers captured by the Japanese, would only have been about 1 in 2.  

Lt. (jg) Chernoff was buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery / Beth Olam Cemetery,  in Hollywood, California, on January 16, 1949.  (Section 18, Lot 718, Grave G).   His burial announcement appeared in the Los Angeles Times on the same date. 

Saul Chernoff’s name appears on page 288 of American Jews in World War II, where he is listed as having been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, and Purple Heart.  His name also appears in both volumes of the 1946 publication Combat Connected Naval Casualties of World War II.  In Volume I, his name appears on page 99 as being “Missing in Action or During Operational War Missions”, while in Volume II, his name can be found on page 12, where he is listed as “Reported in California as Missing”.  

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And, another pilot…

In VF-85’s Aircraft Action Report for the mission of May 4, 1945, the name of pilot “Lieut. J.S. Jacobs” makes an appearance.  This man was Jack Sidney Jacobs (0-157472).  Born in Massillon, Ohio, on January 6, 1920, he was the son of Meyer and Eva Jacobs, and the brother of Gwendolyn and Leslie.  His family lived at 6820 Crandon Ave., In Chicago, Illinois. 

Like many American Jewish WW II servicemen – like innumerable other American Jewish WW II servicemen; as alluded to very frequently at this blog – his name never appeared in the 1947 book American Jews in World War Two.

The article below, by Jonah Meadows at patch.com, is apparently the only information about Jack Jacobs present on the Internet.  (Well, at least aside from genealogical information at Ancestry.com.)  Interestingly, note the statement, “One his most harrowing experiences was flying through a typhoon.  Twenty-two people were lost during that mission, including his best friend who was shot down.”  While obviously on no mission did VF-85 lose anywhere near that number of planes and pilots, given the nominal mention of a “typhoon”, the implication of the loss of many planes, and consequently many planes participating in the mission, this comment may actually be a reference – however inaccurately remembered and/or recorded – to the mission of June 2, 1945, which VF-85 / VBF-85 commenced with 31 aircraft.  

Jack Jacobs, U.S. Navy Veteran of World War II, Honoree

Jack was a student at DePaul University and was participating in the Civilian Pilots Training Program and had completed 30 hours of flight time.  The day after Pearl Harbor, Jack joined the U.S. Navy.  After completing psychological testing and physical training at the University of Chicago, Jack was one of Chicago’s Own, a group of seventy enlistees sent to a base in New Orleans for training and then to Jacksonville, Florida.  He was not immediately shipped overseas.  Jack was initially stationed in Pensacola as a flight instructor, training not only American pilots but even members of Britain’s Royal Air Force.  In March of 1945, Jack was sent to the Pacific with Air Group 85.  He was a Lieutenant Senior flying CV-38 [sic] otherwise known as Corsairs, and was a fighter pilot assigned to the Shangri-La, an SS [sic] Class aircraft carrier.  His group provided combat air patrols for 3 destroyers and Jack made 179 carrier landings.  During his service, Jack earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and five Air Medals.  One his most harrowing experiences was flying through a typhoon.  Twenty-two people were lost during that mission [error], including his best friend who was shot down.  Another time, he was returning to the Shangri-la and had only 6 or 7 gallons of fuel left but he was ordered to hold at 10,000 feet as enemy pilots had been spotted in the area.  He was then instructed to hold at 12,000 feet.  Then advised to hold at 30,000 feet.  While temperatures near the carrier’s deck surface were in the 70s, at 30,000 feet temps drop to 30 degrees below freezing.  He was wearing his nylon jumpsuit and began to experience the effects of hypothermia, he started to lose control of his plane but was able to communicate the emergency and his need to land immediately.  The fleet turned around – a protocol that was unheard of – he was able to land in practically making a vertical drop to the carrier deck.  Air Group 85 was part of the massive preparations for an invasion of Japan.  The Shangri-la was only 80 miles away from Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped.  Naval personnel aboard the carrier were only told about a “device the army had.”

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Here Are Some Books

Dublin, Louis I., and Kohs, Samuel C., American Jews in World War II – The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom, The Dial Press, New York, N.Y., 1947

Green, William, Famous Fighters of the Second World War, Hanover House, N.Y., 1958 (Kawashini Shiden pp. 111-116)

Green, William, Famous Fighters of the Second World War – Volume II, Doubleday and Company, Inc., Garden City, N.Y., 1969 (Chance Vought Corsair pp. 79-92; Nakajima Hayate pp. 125-132)

Sakaida, Henry, and Takaki, Koji, Genda’s Blade – Japan’s Squadron of Aces 343 Kokutai, Classic Publications, Surrey, England, 2003 

Thorpe, Donald W., Japanese Army Air Force Camouflage and Markings – World War II, Aero Publishers, Inc., Fallbrook, Ca., 1968

Young, Edward M. (Illustrated by Gareth Hector), F4U Corsair vs. Ki-84 “Frank” Pacific Theater 1945, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, England, 2016 

Specific Reference Works – No Author Listed

Combat Connected Naval Casualties, World War II, by States, United States Navy Department Office of Information, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1946

Nakajima Ki-84, Profile Books Limited, Windsor, Berkshire, England, 1982

History of Bomber Fighting Squadron Eighty-Five, at VBF85.com

Fighting Squadron Eighty-Five – May 15, 1944 – September 25, 1945, at VBF85.com

VBF-85 Cruise Book, at VBF85.com

List of Imperial Japanese Army air-to-surface special attack units, at Wikipedia

Aircraft Action Reports, Reports of Air Operations, War Diaries, and War Histories – at Fold3.com

VF-85 Aircraft Action Report (Target Combat Air Patrol over Okinawa) – 4 May 1945

VF-85 / VBF-85 Aircraft Action Report (Fighter Sweep over Airfields at Kagoshima, Chiran, and Izumi, Kyushu, Japan) – 2 June 1945

USS Shangri-La Report of Air Operations against Kyushu, Japan

USS Shangri-La War Diary – Report of Air Operations Against Kyushu

VH-3 War Diary

USS Shangri-La War History

War History, VP 13, 12 7 41–10 1 44 & War History, VPB 13, 10 1 44–12 21 45

A Spitfire in April – 2 Lt. Ernest Willy Rosenstein [Follow-up…]

You never quite know when a question will be answered.

Case in point:  Lieutenant Ernest Willy Rosenstein, a South African Spitfire pilot in No. 185 (and earlier No. 242) Squadron, Royal Air Force, and the only child of German nine-victory World War One ace Leutnant d.R. Willy Rosenstein.  Killed in action in north central Italy almost a month prior to the the Second World War’s end, two aspects of his final combat mission, described in my 2018 post Soldiers from New York: A Spitfire in April – Ernest Willy Rosenstein – II, have remained a mystery.

Where was he shot down? 

Where did his Spitfire fall to earth?

Part of this uncertainty arose from a letter received some years ago from the Air Historical Branch of the Ministry of Defence (Lacon House Theobald’s Road) concerning Ernest Willy’s last mission:

“Our records show that Lieutenant Rosenstein was the pilot of Spitfire MH892 which was on an air operation (dive bombing) of a methane gas plant at Fontana at about 1100 hours on the day in question.  His aircraft was seen to crash just west of the target.  

“Lieutenant Rosenstein was badly injured on the crash and he died in the local hospital a few hours later.  He was originally buried in a local cemetery, but after the war he was buried in a British Military Plot in a cemetery in Milan.

“Eyewitnesses stated that Lieutenant Rosenstein made a last-minute attempt to bail out, but apparently he was too low for his parachute to deploy properly.”

Where was (where is) Fontana?  I couldn’t find it on a map, whether print or digital.  

Similarly, the Squadron Summary of Events for No. 185 Squadron for the April 2 mission notes:  “Six Spitfires led by P/O L. Liversidge attacked METHANE Gas Plant at P.973903.  Bombed Compressor filling station scoring one direct hit and two near misses.  Compressor building was severely damaged.  Twenty-five strafing runs were made and numerous strikes were scored.  One aircraft piloted by Lt. E.W. Rosenstein burst into flame at the beginning of its bombing dive and dived straight into the ground and exploded.  No parachute was seen and no flak was observed.” 

Where was (where is) “Fontana”? 

Where was (what is) “P.973903”?  Is this even on a map?

So now in 2021, three years after the initial posts about Lt. Rosenstein, I’ve found – or more accurately, I’ve received – the answers to these questions.  They arrived from researcher Rolland Swank, who was also instrumental in providing me with information pertaining to Corporal Jack Bartman, a member of the United States Air Force who was murdered after being captured near the Tyrolean Alps, on April 20, 1945. 

Thanks again, Rolland!

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Here are the two communications I received from Rolland concerning Ernest Willy Rosenstein’s last mission.  Within this information lies the “key” to the mystery:  There was (is) no village of “Fontane“, but there most certainly was (is) a village of “Fontana“. 

Regarding the crash site for Ernest Willy Rosenstein.  The co-ordinates given in the squadron records is P.973903. This is a location in the North Italy Zone.  An explanation for the mapping system is here

The full co-ordinates would be vP973903 (North Italy Zone).  This translates to 44° 50′ 15” N, 10° 10′ 00” E.

On Google maps it is here.

You can see on the map that “Fontane” is just to the North East.

Another clue to the location of the crash is to look a where he was first buried.  Here is the link to information about his grave.

If you click on the “Concentration (1)” tab (link also here) – and look at the “Previously Buried at” column, you will see he was first buried in the Civil Cemetery Noceto.  Noceto is a town located about a mile or so south of the crash site.

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The echodelta.net website for map locations can be off somewhat as to exact locations.  They note (because of the math they use) sometimes locations can be off by 150 to 1000 meters.  However, you can look at the actual maps that they were using in Italy at the time.  Here is such a map with the grid system.  It shows Fontane in the lower right corner.

It looks like vP973903 is actually a located about where the Via Emila and Str. Nuova (named on Google maps) intersect.  Thus we should move the Red Google indicator 50 or so meters down and the 50 meters to the left.  The map shows two “star” symbols on either side of Str. Nuova.  A star symbol indicates a “Mill”.  [Thus, finally, an answer:  The location of vP973903 is in the village of Molinetto.]

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And so, using the places names, geographic coordinates, and maps provided by Rolland, I’ve been able to identify the probable location where Ernest’s fighter, Spitfire IX MH892, fell to earth.  Using a combination of Oogle Map Views, Earth Views, and Street Views, this is illustrated below.    

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However, rather than fully recapitulate Ernest Willy’s life story “here” (the original post “A Spitfire in April – II” can be found here), here are a few images and excerpts from that original post, to place “this” post in a clearer context.

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A formal portrait of Ernest Willy in his officer’s uniform.

.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím

May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

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Ernest Willy, seated in the cockpit of Naomes II, a Spitfire IX which he flew while assigned to No. 242 squadron RAF.  The aircraft carried the squadron code “LE * P”, buts its serial number is unknown.  Based on information in Ernest Willy’s Pilot’s Log Book and other sources, the image can be dated to July through mid-August of 1944.

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The insignia of Number 185 Squadron, Royal Air Force

Ara Fejn Hu” is Maltese to the effect of “Look where it is” or “See where he is

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Ernest Willy’s matzeva at the Milan War Cemetery in Italy (plot location V, A, 5) photographed by FindaGrave contributor and76.

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These two images, both via the National Archives, show No. 185 Squadron’s Summary of Events, and Operations Record Book (respectively) for 2 April, 1945.

“Six Spitfires led by P/O L. Liversidge attacked METHANE Gas Plant at P.973903.  Bombed Compressor filling Station scoring one direct hit and two near misses.  Compressor building was severely damaged.  Twenty-five strafing runs were made and numerous strikes were scored.  One aircraft piloted by Lt. E.W. Rosenstein burst into flame at the beginning of its bombing dive and dived straight into the ground and exploded.  No parachute was seen and no flak was observed.”

Air Ministry Squadron Operations Records

“Six Spitfires led by P/O L. Liversidge attacked METHANE Gas Plant at P.973903.  Bombed Compressor filling station scoring one direct hit and two near misses.  Compressor building was severely damaged.  Twenty-five strafing runs were made and numerous strikes were scored.  One aircraft piloted by Lt. E.W. Rosenstein burst into flame at the beginning of its bombing dive and dived straight into the ground and exploded.  No parachute was seen and no flak was observed.” 

Air Ministry Squadron Operations Records

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Here’s a small-scale Oogle Map showing Parma and Fidenza, with the position of Fontane circled in blue and Molinetto in red.  

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By way of comparison, here’s the United States Army Map Service 1944 (second edition) 1:50,000 map (Sheet 73-IV) of Fidenza, with the area of interest in the lower right corner.  Though Fontane is labeled, Molinetto is not.  

As mentioned by Roland, “The echodelta.net website for map locations can be off somewhat as to exact locations.  They note (because of the math they use) sometimes locations can be off by 150 to 1000 meters.  However, you can look at the actual maps that they were using in Italy at the time.  Here is such a map with the grid system.  It shows Fontane in the lower right corner.”

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Moving in closer.  Fontane is circled in blue, and the location of Molinetto in red.  The six-pointed-star at Molinetto represents a (grain?) mill.

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Here’s an Oogle map view of the same general area, showing the locations of Fontane and Molinetto, in blue and red respectively. 

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An Oogle Earth view of Fontane…  

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…and, an Oogle map showing the location of Molinetto.

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An Oogle Earth view of Molinetto…

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…and Oogling in for a even closer view of Molinetto.

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Now, we move from aerial views to earthbound views. 

This Oogle Street (highway?!) view looks west-northwest along Via Emilia (SS9), just before reaching the village of Molinetto.  Beyond and behind the six Mulmix grain siloes (and therefore not visible in the image) lies the Molino Testi home goods store, at 77 Via Emilia.  

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Having just driven past (virtually, that is) the six siloes and the Molino Testi store (both to the “right” of this image), we reach the Vini-Salumi Formaggi / Pasta Fresca (“Wines-Salami Cheeses / Fresh Pasta”) store, the one-story brick building in the center of this image.  Though this particular screen-shot dates to 2020, recent (2021) Oogle Street views reveal that this building is vacant, and, completely absent of any signs of ownership.  Albeit, it’s still private property.  

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Going a little farther along Via Emilia, here’s a closer 2020 view of the Vini-Salumi Formaggi / Pasta Fresca store.

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We are now within Molinetto and on Str. Nuova, which is oriented north-northeast.  In the center of this image, the Oogle Street View camera looks into a gravel access road or driveway between two apartment buildings.  Looking closely, it can be seen that this access road leads to (and ends) directly at the rear of the former Vini-Salumi Formaggi.  (Oogle Street and map views reveal that Str. Nuova cannot be reached by Via Emilia due to a fence at the intersection of these two roads.)  

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If you continue along Str. Nuova, you soon reach – just before coming to railroad tracks connecting Parma and Fidenza (and beyond) – Via Mulino Nuova, a short dead-end street oriented east-southeast.  Looking south-southwest from Via Mulino Nuova presents a view directly across a patch of farmland to the rear of the former Vini-Salumi Formaggi, which is in the very center of this image. 

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And so…  In light of Rolland’s observations, and, air photo and street views available through Oogle, the most probable location for the crash of Ernest Willy’s Spitfire is in the vicinity of the one-story building – the former Vini-Salumi Formaggi – at the intersection of Via Emilia and Str. Nuova.  If anything remains of the aircraft, it probably by now inaccessibly rests at a depth of several meters. 

But, even if just a small remnant of an era which is gradually being forgotten, I would think it still exists. 

Like, I hope – at least for now – memory of the pilot who flew it.  

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Acknowledgement

Thanks for your help, Rolland!

References

Matzeva of Ernest Willy Rosenstein (at FindAGrave)

Casualty List in South African Jewish Times

No. 185 Squadron, RAF – history (motto (Maltese): Ara fejn hu – “Look where it is”) (at Wikipedia)

No. 185 Squadron, RAF – emblem (at RAF Heraldry Trust)

Brent, Winston, 85 Years of South African Air Force – 1920-2005, Freeworld Publications, Inc., Nelspruit, South Africa, 2005

Martin, Henry J., and Orpen, Neil, South African Forces, World War II. Vol. 6, Eagles Victorious: The Operations of the South African Forces Over the Mediterranean and Europe, in Italy, the Balkans and the Aegean, and from Gibraltar and West Africa, Purnell, Cape Town, South Africa, 1977

South African Jews in World War Two, Eagle Press, South African Jewish Board of Deputies, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1950