0
on
------
.........._
__
o o
v
· n ,
Eve
y
o
y: -
Just a
fi
hter, bomb ran re onnaissance
pilots
a e
b
iefe , so al o
e
artim travelers
briefed be o
e
tti g forth on certain flights.
1
h
e j u t made one on
hich I believe they give you the
longe
t
and most elaborate briefing of all.
hether-
it ·s regar ed as the most hazardou, I doubt. But
her
i
the
toy•
On all over-ocean jaunts an officer gives
you
a t
enty or thirty minut
talk
on how to don and
then
automat·cally inflate you
e
e
t;
how to get;
i to
he rub er lif boat so you'll no
al
s ·1
out
n to t ·.
; t
e use of
he s il, ho
i
t
d
up on the
two
p
.
rdl
;
o
to
p
fro
bin
tipp
over
n a
torm;
u
0
th
n
vi
tio
boo
.
f
n
,
a
·nto
i
kin
t
r·
t
of
t
th
r
0
i
0
io
in
i
e
-.t.
t
C
th
oi 1
.
ror
fo
t
ill
n
l.
1
0
2-
of
p
s
•
pla
s
;
a
n
d
,
· th
cial emph
i ,
the
com
fo
to
derive
rom
e din
th
or
i
tur
as
you
flo
a
t
fur
a
ys
aero s
lonely
seas.
But
thi
briefing
ere
eived
e t
far
beyond
that -
n
f
ot more
than t,ice
as
f
a
r. For
e
ere
flying out of ch·na, over enemy
territory,
to an island
in the
ac·fic
Ocean. A trip from deep in Asia, in
N
a
tionalist C
h1n , across
regions held
by
the Japs,
and
then on
out into the broad Pacific. For r
e
asons of
security Io course am no
allo ed to
say
from exaotl7
he e
e
took off, nor
here we landed. But
the brief-
in
it
a
o
ne
th
t
would
make your hair stand on
end.
And
.
en
o
ver, in
im
inati n
you
er
in
a
J
p
pr
ison
camp.
'Jha
t'
how det iled
and
vivid
it
was.
In
a
mud
hut,
w·th
a
the
.
tched
.
..
oof,
on
the
edge
of
t)l
a
B-29
bomber
8
r1p
th
t
ur B-29
no
lon
r
nee
0
u
they
h
ve
fi
5
.u
h
ne r
t
J
no
th
·
ty
of
u
s
C
1
e
tog
h
fo
oar
i
g
0
1 n
or
i
ight
OU
•
-
3-
In
our party
w
re twelve
youn
g
airmen
w
o
had
been
shot
down b
the Jap
s
,
an
•ho,like
some
of Doolittle's
..
men on that
fir
t
Tokyo
raid,
were
rescu din the nick
of time
by
Chin
es
e
guerrillas.
Another
a
a brawny
Texan, a Major, who
had been on a hazardous mission
behind the enemy lines.
He
had been visiting spots in the
coastal China ~reas where reports had come ·n from
loyal
Chinese, of Jap planes show down. Engineering
information was
what the
llajorhad
been after --
new
Jap
designs of motors, fuselages, instl"llmcnts and so on.
Also in the group was a General in command of certain
air operations in Indi
a
and China. He was hearing
this brief
ing
for
the first
ti
~
0
•
The
flig
ht, we were told, would be more hazardous
than
flying
over
"The Bump,• because of the
crossings
of
enemy
te
ritory
as
well
as
lofty mountai
ns
,
also
over
a
co
as
t infe
s
ted by
J
ap smal
l cr
aft
,
an
d
a
sea
where
,
re um
bly
the
Yika
do
'
s
ubmarines
ar
st
ill on
t
he
prowl.
-4
-
T
b
f
rie ing
officer
had a pronounc d
Bahvabd
accent
th
a
t sound d etr
nge
indeed thee in that
ut ermost corner of Ching [ai-Shek'
realm.
First
he told us that e were sworn to secrecy
for
the period before the
flight,
and
that until that
moment
no
one
had been told what r~ute we
•ere
to take.
Be never did give us the
details
on
that. It won't be
.,
long until the Jape
are chased
out of their Horth-south
corridor.
And
.
when
that
t
itne oomes the
briefing
wi.11
be briefer.
The Lieutenant from
Harvard, the briefing
offi~er, look his job
quite
seriously. And so did
we~
The boys who bad
been
down behind enemy
lines
and !fhO
had
m
a
de
long
overland
journey,
and
who
were
still showing
the
signs
of their experience,
had
no
desir to repPat th~
experience.
For
the
first
ten minutes we were
told
about
the m
o
untain
ranaes we wer
to c
-
oss.
By
the
ay, a lar e part
of China
·s
made u
of
moun ain r
a
n
were
-
5-
told about
th
tribe
s
-
-
and
hen
you
get
into
the mount
a
in
fa
tn
es
of
Chin
a
you
discover that
the peopl
fr qu
ntly
are
n
ot Chinese
a
t all. Also,
we
learned
a
lot
about
ho
to
survive in the · ngle.
After th
a
t h
jumped
~
~l
the
way
acros
s
to the
Pacific. In connecti
o
n
with
this he gave us the usual
over-ocea
advice, with the final admonition that the
Ckptain of the plane
as to
be in absolute command,
that above all we must never hurry or we might lose
our own lives and take others down
ith us.
And th n
he
came
t~
the moat important part,
the discourse on what to do if forced to bi.1 out
over one
of the enemy-occupied sections of China.
Of
course,
th
re
are still large areas of taat country
held
by
the
Ja
s.
He went into gr at detail,showing
us
where
this
might
happen. And he brought out maps
on
cloth that each of us
1
as to
rarry
in an
emergen,y
jungle v
st
. The
vests
each
contained
a
place for
a
revolv
er
,
amunition, compa
s
,
kni~e,
a
"
P
ojntea Talkee"
-
6-
book
with
a
lot of
useful
sentences
both in nglish
and
Chine
se
,
plu~
the
answers as well;
al
s
o waterproof
match boxes, conc
en
tr
a
ted food, mo
sq
uito repellant~
Atabrine, eulpha
rugs
for open wounds, morphine,
and a lot of other things to cheer you up as he
exhibited them.
By
then my imagination was running riot.
Be told u
we must stay away from
all
soldiers
be~ause
of
the difficulty of distinguishing Chinese
a
nd Japanese from a distance. Also
never go near a
town. Be said a small gift would often work magic
.
and
he related the story
of
a fighter pilot who had
bailed out.
He landed in a rice paddy, walked over
to the first Chinese farmer he saw and handed him his
pocket
knif
e
,
as
a present -- whereupon he
got
back to
his base
in
four
days.
We were
advised to carry cigar ttes
in water-
p
.
.
oof p
ac
k
ges,
b ca u
se
they
r
e
worth
their eight in
gold as glfts.
Be
sa"d
th
a
t
instead
of
shaki
n
g two
-
7-
or
three
ou
t
of a
p
ck and offering
on
e
t
a Chinese,
the
better
ay
is to tak
e
one
out and
h
a
nd it to him,
ceremon·ously.
That
way
it'
s
a
g
ift.
The other
way
the man
must take i
out
himself, and
thereby he
"loses face.•
On and on he went; and
not
in a perfunctor7
manner.
By
the
time he
as through he had us
captured by the Jape. And then he told us
how to answer
those who interrogate prisoners, thus to avoid the Rip
third degree and the water torture; how
we mtg
t
be
rescued; and
so
on. It included all the
advice
you
could imagine, all but the tip to keep one bullet --
in case.
After the briefing we were allowed to talk to
0
no one.
We
were ma
r~hed out to the plane. With a
tremendous roar
of
the four engines we taxied to one end
of
the
old B-29 strip, and in a few
m
oments
.
e
were
off
·n
to
the ni ht,
bound for
an ·
land in
the
a
cific,
one of the many
i
s
l
ands
now
held by our
people,
but not
-
8
-
the i
s
l
and f
r
om
h
ere
I
am
br
oadca
s
t
i
n
g
this morning.
The
r
e
were
t
hree p
i
l
o
J
s on b
o
a
rd,
s
o the strain
of t
he lo
n
fli
g
ht
o
u
ld
not
be t
o
o great on
ny one
m
an.
Th
e
chief
p
ilo
t
c
ame
b
a
c
k
to m
e af
t
e
r we had
climbed to a
grea
t
h
eight,
o our crui3ing level.
Be
introduced bi self,
a
ying: "I beli ve we
w
ere born in
the
same town,
Greenvil
l
e, Ohio.
My
name is so-and-so.•
"Oh
yes,"
I
replied, "you must be
the
~ephew
of
tbe
Laura so-and-so that
my
Yother used to talk about.
I
guess
that ma
k
es us cousins!"
W
hereupon he insisted
that I occupy the buni, a spare, just back of the
cockpit, a bun
k
that on a more ordinary flight would be
used
by
one of the co-pilots.
But not on this trip.
I've
reached the age no
where I don't turn down little
opportunitie
s
of
t
hat sort. So, taking a couple of
sleepin
g
pi
lls
m
y
w
if
~
had
g
iven me just a
s
I
was
starting on
t
h
i
s
air journey round the glo
be
, anl
w
ith
a
cou
si
n
f
rom Gr
e
envil
l
e, Ohio,
a
t the con
t
rols,
I sle
pt
r·
g
ht th
roug
h
t
h
e nig
h
t
. Wh
en I
lo
oke
d out in
-9-
the
mornin ,
t
h
ere
•
e
·
e
r
e
circling
over a tropical
island.
We
h
ad
crossed the mountain ranges,
the Jap
occupied
territory,
and
hundreds
of
miles
of
he
Pacific,
and were
at
our
destination.
It
as
that
easy.
Of
cour
se
, if you were to fly over Jap guns
it
might
be different, or if a couple of engines went
out.
I have told about this night flight because
ii
isn't being done often, or hasn't been. But it ia
much like many
of
the long night bombing missions that
your eons and brothers and husbands go on in this part
of
the
world.
And
now,
so long, and all the
ay back to
America, an
the NBC in New York.
--o- -
I
n.
In ano hr
br·111
.
nt
a
~•
h
i io
u
s
op
ration,
he
land
d a
lar
fo
rce
of
Au
tr
an i
nf
·
ntry
with
sup
ortin
rm
on
B
o
rn
n
i
h
t
a
---
--
Ameri
n
and
ustr
l
ian
, he
put ashore
shock
tro
o s o f t e
Ninth
ustralian
i
v
·
ion,
ny of them
are
veterans
of
Tobruk,
El
Al
mein
end
e•
Guinea. The
meric
n
•
rshi
s
re fro
th
United States seventh
ith
all
these, he had
a
capacious umbrella of
allied bombers and fighter planes.
The operation began, of course, with
a
sweeping bombarduent froa
h
e
~vy
e
naval guns and
boaber
planes which cleared the
way.
They razed to the ground
all Japanese installations on the be
a
ches.
The
diggers
pushed ashore
at a quarter past nine Sunday
orning.
At
one
place,
the island of
nara,
in
Brunei B
y,
there
as
no re
i
t
a
nce
at all.
But another
force
landed on
the
island
of
Labuan in the same
w
a
te
s.
There the
,
Japs
p
ut up
a fi
ht. But the Australians had no
difficulty
n
seizing
Victoria
town,
ab
uan
on
and
the
airdrome.
I
T
0
r
·
din
on
the
inl
na
C
p
on
'
0
0
i
Th
C
t
r
d
the
of
00
ic 1
Y,
advancing no
fe
e
than
four
ho
n
a
to
d
.
Ci
y
re
ort
d
e
only
t
el
il
fro
Brundi
i
elf.
Dou
1
8
cArthu
led
h
i
nva
ion
ith h m
e 1·
.
l
u ena t Ge
r 1
ir
Leslie
Moreshead
,
com
anding
the
ustr 1·an
Cor
,
jor General
Frederic
oodin, co
andin
the
N"nt1
Division
,
and
our on General George t·nney, c mma
ing officer
of the
far Eastern
ir Forces.
·
The
1g thing
bout th·s is ha
the
Brunei
ha
an abundance of oil
,
rubber, coa
,
lumber, iron and oth r mate ials. The
by
is large
enou
h to accommodate innumerable sh· s of all sizes.
Ma
rthur also report that o
u
r operations
from ba
nth Pbili
ine
have already
p
ctically
e
t
y
11
J
n. e
hi
ping in the
o
th Chin
Sea
.
Fr
no
on
,,,.
h 11 be able to cu
al o th ir ov
m
an
of
com
'
u ication a
d
route
of escape in Indo-
China
and
1
y .
-
I
---
A
--
i
n
-
a,
,
b
al
-
-o
tte
t
of
the
t
o
t
ro
th
a
i
tro
the
r'\
nt
h
D
s·
foothold
Oil
0
V
n
n
on
t
so
he
t
_
r
r
o f t
J
pane e defen e
line o
th
cl
Th
also
_
tured three
o
tpost
of
the
e te.rn
nchor of
·
t
line.
They
used
eve
,
ryt
ing they
had, satch
,
1 bomb
.
,
orta
le
flame thro er
,
flame-
throwing
ta
ks
and grenades
•
......
o
,
.......
•rhe
Ja
.
s counter-attacked fiercely
h.alf
a
dozen t·~e, but
were
thrown b
ct
just as
often.
- LTP.1945.06.11i.pdf
- LTP.1945.06.11ii.pdf