MARCH1967

INTERESTING shot of the Taj Mahal, taken in 1944 by W. ). Thompson with a Kodak Bantam.

2 EX-eEl ROUNDUP

SElCONDCLASS postage paid at Laurens, Iowa.

Neil L. Maurer __Editor

3

2nd Troop Carrier• Only recently have Ibeen made aware of theEx.CBI Roundup, and nowwould like to subscribe. Ifyou have any issues deal-ing with the 2nd TroopCarrier Squadron, I wouldalso like to purchase them.

MAX L. FISCHER,Colonel, USAF,Robins AFB, Ga.

508 Port Battaliono Came to India with the508th Port Battalion to APO465, Calcutta, and workedKing George's Docks. Gen-eral Cheeves went on to es-tablish a Base Section Bandand show something to theBritish. From this threedance groups were formed,to play for GI and officersocial functions. I was thedrummer for the "JiveBombers," the large groupwho p lay e d importantfunctions including radioprograms over VU2ZU. I ama member of the BuffaloBasha, employed at the newBuffalo Post Office, WilliamStreet facility. Here wehave about 10 ex-CBlersemployed. Of course yoUwill hear phrases in Hin-dustani, and sounds likethe boys are tog-ether again.

STANLEY RATAJCZAK,Buffalo, N.Y.

Men From Mars• Am a part of the 508thPort Battalion and the 124Cavalry, which is betterknown as the replacementsfor Merrill's Marauders andthe Mars Task Force of CBl.We were called "Men FromMars" by the Japanesearmy who served in thatarea. In Burma we werethe Mars Task Force.

REV. T. J. HART,Mason, Ill.

1967 CBI Reunion• Am looking forward toseeing everyone at the 1967CBI reunion. Will be com-ing from Bangkok.

LOUIS POUDRE,APO San Francisco

March, 1967

Ex-CBt RoundupLaurens, Iowa 50554

SUBSCRIPTION RATEForeign: $5.00 per Year

$9.00 Two Years

Direct All Correspondence to

Vol. 22, NO.3

$4.00 per Year$7.50 Two Years

P. O. Box 125

Ex-CBI ROUNDUP, established 1946. is a reminiscing magazinepublished monthly except AUGUST and SEPTEMBER at 117South Third Street. Laurens. Iowa. by and for former membersor U. S. Units stationed in the China-Burma-India Theater dur-ing World War II. Ex-CBI Roundup is the official publicationof the China-Burma-India Veterans Association.

Please Report Change of Address Immediately!

Letter FROM The Editor ...

• Too many copies of Ex-CBI Roundup are being re-turned to us by the Post Office Department marked"unknown," "no such number," "moved-left no ad-dress," etc. Each copy returned costs us a dime; notmuch, of course, but it adds up! In addition, there isthe cost and inconvenience of trying to locate the cor-rect address, sending additional copies, etc. PLEASEmake sure the address you give us is one where yourmagazine will be delivered to you-is complete andaccurate-and notify us promptly of any changes.

• Cover picture is an aerial view of the terminalbuilding at Karachi Air Base in June 1945. Anyonevisiting Karachi today would certainly recognize thebuilding from this U.S. Air Force photo.

• Although we have not received any information fora story on it, we understand plans are almost completefor the 1967 CEl Reunion to be held August 2-5 inCincinnati, Ohio. We suggest you make plans now tobring your family to the big event this year . . . justbecause you've missed those previously held is no rea-son for not being present in 1967! You'll enjoy itthoroughly, so come on to Cincinnati.

• Once again we would like to welcome a number ofnew subscribers, plus many who have "returned to thefold" l?-fter several years absence. We hope you enjoyevery Issue.

MARCH, 1967

To the Editors

4

RAY SMITH,Metuchen, N.J.

Japanese Howitzer• Regarding the story inOctober 1966 issue, "CohnHas Japanese Howitzer,"this was no doubt true ex-cept in one respect. Thehowitzer was taken by the1st Air Commandos, not the2nd as the story indicates.I was there a few daysafter it was captured. StarnRobertson, who has thephoto, can confirm this.

CHRISTOPHER MARION,Jr.,

Port Jervis, N.Y.

Dhobi WaHah Basha• In the recent electionheld by the WashingtonState Dhabi Wallah Basha,China. Burma - India Vete-rans Association, the fol-lowing officers were cho-sen: Commander, KennethSpillman of Everett; vicecommander, Dr. Scott S.Jones of Tacoma; judgeadvocate, Russell Waldo ofSeattle; provost marshal,Elisha Morgan Jr. of Seat-tle; and finance officer, LeeBakker of Seattle.

LEE BAKKER,Seattle, Wash.

80th Fighter Group• Enjoy all issues. I hopeto give you some articlesfrom 80th Fighter Group,88th Fighter Squadron.

FELIX ANTEDOMENICO,Stamford, Conn.

EX.CBI ROUNDUP

ROCCO PERNETTI,Los Banos, Calif.

780 E.P.D.• Served with the 780E.P.D.; we spent time in allthe theaters, but mostly inChina. Our outfit has are.union every two years. LastJuly 4 weekend we had itin Dallas, Tex. The nextone will be held in Detroit,Mich., the weekend of July26 and 27, 1968. I enjoyeve r y copy of Ex-CBIRoundup and look forwardto it.

letter carrier in Santa Bar-bara, Calif. He was withthe Malaria Control Unit atOndal-R. C. Edwards. Ibelieve he was a corporalthere.

the Korean War I hadheard quite faithfully fromRalph McCune, bet t e rknown as Oakie. He had al-ways said that if there everwas another one he wasgoing to head for the hills.I thought he had untilabout a year ago when Imade it a point to stop inat Eufala, Okla., to see ifI could find him. I discov.ered that he is now livingin Kansas City, Mo., mar.ried and the father of five.If you were in Ondal youwill remember Oakie, hewas in charge of the in-coming mail section at APO690. Another old Ondal wal-lah is now retired from theArmy and working as a

WATERFALL near Gaya, India, with swimming hole below wasa popular phlCC for Americans who were stationed in that area.Photo by Ray Heath.

CBI Reunion• Had a great time in St.Louis (at 1966 CBIVA Re-union) ... Cincy should beanother great get-togetherthis coming August. Hopeto see all the gang in Cineythis year.

JERRY LAROTONDA,Beacon, N.Y.

30Sth Service Group• It has been quite sometime since I dropped you anote so thought I had bestget busy with some newsthat might be of interestto a few from the old 305thService Group at Ondal ...plus some of the surround-ing bases. Since the end ofthe War and the start of

_______________________ To the Editors

LILY PONS is shown here with C. H. Hansen, during hervisit to CBl.

Famous Couple• A feature of your Febru-ary, 1967 issue on Page 17about Andre Kostelanetzand his beautiful and tal-ented Lily Pons by ClydeH. Cowan, brings to mindmy personal contact withthis famous couple. Thetime was sometime during1945, I believe, or it couldhave been late 1944, as timehas dulled exact dates, andthe place was the Chinaterritory at .a little knownplace called, "Yunnani."The writer was a formerCBI Agent with the C.LD.,assigned to the Air Force,and s pen t considerabletime in the entire CElTheater at all possible lo-cations. The memorable oc-casion mentioned abovehappened when I was as.s i g ned as combinationguard and general serviceboy to Andre Kostelanetzand Lily Pons. This choiceduty was performed overabout a ten day periodwhen many shows andmuch travel occurred. Theutmost respect was quickly

developed for this mostgracious and humble cou-ple. Mr. Kostelanetz wouldquickly whip together amost effective group of mu-sicians from the base wherethe show was being put onand one would think theyhad worked together foryears. Only true talent anddedication could ever ac.complish this feat. MissPons, on the other hand,small of stature but greatof heart, would proceed toput on a truly wonderfulperform a nee. Performingmany times in extremeheat, blowing dust and un.der the most adverse condi-tions but always giving herall to everyone present.They performed many timesfor small and isolatedgroups at locations thatwere not called for in theircontract. These were finepeople as I distinctly recallthat they did not insistupon all of the statesidecomforts wherever the ywent that most of the otherSho-Biz people insisted up.on in their travels. I recall,

with. fond memory, thatevenmgs after the showswere completed that I usedto sit with this gifted cou-ple and an associate oftheirs by the name of FrankPaxton, outside of theirtent, and they would spinmany yarns about theirnative lands and Miss Ponsoften reiterated her desireto return to France. Theirzest and zeal for auto.graphing anything present.ed to them was unbeliev.a~le. I recall many occa.slOns when, after a longand tiring show, they wouldsit in the hot sun and windout in the open, with th~GI's lined up a block longand three abreast to haveeverything from mat c hbook covers to rupees auto-graphed by these famouspeople who never uttereda word of complaint. Theland of clay, mud, rats,coolies, tea, beetle nuts,rain, tigers and wogs wasmuch more enjoyable andricher for the presence ofpeople like Lily Pons andAndre Kostelanetz.

Co H. HANSEN,Owatonna, Minn.

Chief Master Sergeant• James N. Brown of Mc-Guire Air Force Base is oneof 17 candidates for the po-sition of chief master ser-geant in the US Air Force.The top 17 were pickedfrom commands across thiscountry and abroad. Thegroup went to RandolphAir Force Base in Texaswhere a special board wasto pick three to go on toWashington, D.C.; in Wash.ington the top three were tobe interviewed by Gen.John P. McConnell, AirForce chief of staff, whowould make the fin a 1choice. Brown, 45, a nativeof Massachusetts, has along list of qualificationsfor the post going back to1941 when he joined theAir Force. During WorldWar II he served with the14th Air Force in the China.Burma-India Theater.

(From an article in theNewark, N.J., Star Ledgersubmitted by Ray Smith,Metuchen, N.J.)

MARCIl, 1967 5

Light Plane SquadronsBACKTO

BURMAWhile t'Ummaging through a box of World

War Two mementoes in my basement I cameupon a sheaf of faded yellow papetS writtentwenty years ago by a good friend and c01m'ade.lf7aldw J. Thompson. As I read these wordswritten so many years ago in far-off Burmamany memories came flooding back to me. Namesand places long forgotten suddenly became fami-liar a/(ain. It seemed as though I could againfeel the surge of a Stinson L-S around me asI made d short field take-off out of some Ion/(-forg'Ouen strip hacked out of the Burma jungle.The taste of K rations and British cigarettesbe,ame real again. It was as if the hot Burmasun was again baking me brou'n one minute andtorrential monsoon rains were engulfing me thenext.

To the best of my knowledge this story hasnever appeared in print so I will do my bestto copy these faded pages as they were writtenso long ago by my friend and hope that theywill bring as many nostalgic memories back tothe men of the CBI and the First Air CommandoGroup as they did to me.

This is the story of the light plane squadronsof the First Air Commando Group in their secondcampaign in Burma after the famous glider in-vasion of the year before and for lack of anyother name I call this story "Back to Burma."

Ex-T /Sgt. John E. WhitakerL-Pilot

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The British forces drove hard out ofImphal forcing the retreating Japs downthe Valley to Palel, back into the greenhell of Burma. Ghurka divisions fromNepal wicked with their Kukiri. Darkskinned Sikhs from the Punjab withblack beards and white turbans slash-ing through dense bamboo and giantfern. Black Suwali from South Africagrinning and sweating in the damp heat,all driving the tenacious Jap back.

From Palel up over the eight-thousand-foot forbidding Chin Hills, down into thelush Kabaw Valley where herds of wildelephants fed and yellow tigers hunted,these men walked always on foot forthere were no roads, only narrow ruttedoxcart trails deep with mud during themonsoon and clouded with dust in thedry season.

The jungle untouched resisted anddragged them back. Leeches clinging totheir legs spilled blood. Ticks broughttyphus. Mosquitoes carried malaria. Wa-ter, dangerous with cholera, had to beboiled and chlorinated. Yet the menfighting on fell from snipers' bullets,tripped on booby traps and were bombedand strafed by Zeros.

Their sick and wounded came withthem on litters carried by weary men,

T/SGT. W. J. Thompson of the 165th LSquadron, 1st Air Commandos.

EX-CBl ROUNDUP

-------- Back To Burma

T /SGT. John' E. Whitaker of the 166th LSquadron, 1st Air Commandos, with his plane,"Mrs. Whit," at Synthe, Burma.

too tired now from long marches, twentymiles on Christmas, twenty five on NewYear's. Food and medical supplies cameby air, Eoating down on white chutes.But something had to be done with thecasualties needing immediate surgery,which was not available in the disease-ridden jungle front lines.

This is the story of the evacuation ofthose injured and sick snatched from thejungle in small unarmed single engineplanes. It is the Diary of the 165th Liai-son Squadron, a unit of Colonel Cochran'sfamous First Air Commandos. It is thestory of the amazing Stinson "L-5" am-bulance airplane with its 185 horsepowerengine and the intrepid daring sergeantpilots who flew them.

Constantly harrassed by ground fireand enemy fighters, these specialists inlow jungle flying hurled over trees drop-ping short into rough narrow stripshacked out of the thick undergrowthloaded to capacity with ammunition, foodand medical supplies. Quickly exchang-ing their cargo for stretcher casualtiesthey staggered off barely able to clearthe trees on their way back to the corpshospitals.

It is recognized that had it not beenfor the speedy evacuation of casualtiesand the transportation of important ma-teriel and personnel by these lightplanes, not only would many woundedand diseased soldiers have died in thejungle. but their drive south would havebeen delayed by many long months.

The outstanding job done by these fly-ing jeeps, their pilots and ground crews,has been attested to by letters of com-mendation from such men as GeneralStopford, Commanding E.A.C.

This is also the story of the camp life,the fun and tragedies of the men of the165th light planes and a tribute to thosewho died in the line of duty.

ACTIVATIONFrom April to September northern Bur-

ma is beaten incessantly by warm rains,

MARCH,1967

its few oxcart trails become impassable,mobile equipment operations and com-bat operations slow down to a walk.

During the monsoon the British Forcesmade very little progress. But by Sep-tember first when the 165th Squadronwas activated the rains had let up andour Commanding Officer, Capt. V. L.Ulery, of Newark, Ohio, immed.iately.or-ganized a refresher program sImulatmgactual combat conditions expected in ourforthcoming campaign.

The previous operation under ColonelCochran had pretty well beaten up whatfew "L-5's" remained. His glider inva-sion into Broadway and the rough flyingalong the old Ledo road had left itsmark on these sturdy litlie ships, there-fore it was necessary to start with allnew equipment.

From September first to the fifteenththe engineering department was a bee-hive of activity. Massive trucks andtrailers unloaded crate after crate con-taining the new Stinson stretcher ships.Bulldozers and road building equipmentoperated by pilots and mechanics gradedtaxiways and parking revetments. Cranesoperated by other crews lifted the newcrafts from their crates and held themsuspended while wings and landing gearwere attached and rigged according tospecifications preparatory to being testflown by these same men, who were bothpilots and mechanics. ,

The ocean voyage and subsequent ex-posure to salt water plus the period ofopen storage during the monsoon hadleft its mark on these ships in rust andcorrosion. This required refinishing andreplacing parts and all wiring in manyinstances.

Despite the need for all available menon the engineering line an emergencycall came for twelve pilots to leave im-mediately for Karachi, across India, toassemble and ferry back twelve morecraft.

During this period a rigid flying pro-gram continued with flyable ships con-

JAPANESE locomotives shot up by 1st AirCommando fighters.

7

Back To Burma _

stantly in the air day and night. Groupsot curious natives watched with amaze.ment while low flying aircraft, withtrailing equipment, snatched messagesfrom the ground. Others stalled over highbarriers into the ground rolling only afew feet before coming to a full stop,then with an unbelievably short run theywould rise vertically over high obstacles.Tight "V" formations circling over thefield released supplies from bomb rackson their wings.

On September twelfth our programwas again interrupted by word that aglider had broken from the tow ship andwas forced to land about 100 miles northof our field. Sergeants Crosby and Kemphwere assigned to fly two glider pilots andsnatching gear to the spot. After orien.tation the two light planes located thedowned glider, sized up the situation andmade a short field landing in the ricepad die beside it. The gear was set upbut the C.47 tow ship failed to locatethe field and it was necessary for thelight planes to return the next day witha smoke pot. A successful snatch wasmade after two passes and the glider intow returned home.

Forced landings seem to come inbunches in the light plane .)utfits. Sgt.John Whitaker of Osage, Iowa, on a localflight was forced down by engine failureand successfully landed on the GrandTrunk Road. Sgt. Fessler of Detroit, Mi.chigan, discovering fire in his radioequipment also set his ship down. Whitonly two hundred yards away rushed toFessler's aid with his fire extinguisherand smothered the blaze. Immediate reopairs allowed Whit to take off from the

highway but Fessler's ship, which haddamaged its wing tips on the trees, wastowed back.

The next day a glider pilot flying lowover the officers' barracks in an "L.5"struck a power line tearing loose onelanding gear. With the crash crew stand.ing by, he brought it in on one wheeland held the damaged gear off theground until the ship had almost cometo a complete halt. Although the shipwas badly damaged neither occupantwas injured.

During the last week of Septemberwhile we were brushing up on naviga-tion, meterology and completing a coursein Jap phychology and physiologicalcharacteristics, we were visited by theBrass. General Stratemeyer flew in for atwo hour inspection. Later in the dayGeneral Ferguson, who worked with theCochran group in the last operation,dropped in. He spent the evening in theN.C.O. Club and the last campaign wasrefought all over again with the helpof many a glass of Carew's SmoothBooze.

By September twenty sixth all leavesand passes were canceled and our out.fit was alerted. A thorough checkup wasmade of all clothing and equipment,arms and ammunition were issued andthe training program was brought to aclose. While waiting for orders to leave,the old men, who had' been in the pre.vious campaign, warned the new menof the hardships and dangers encoun-tered in combat. The new men belittledthe stories eminating from their first ex-perience and created a spirit of rivalrythat later developed into keen competi-

PORTION of the evacuation strip at Mawlaik, Burma, where light planes were kept busyduring November action.

8 EX.CEl ROUNDUP

_________________________ B•.•ack To Burma

ENEMY dead after action at Meiktila.

tion in flying ability and navigationalskill coupled with a race to see whowould evacuate the most casulties.

We expected the order to leave at anyhour, everything seemed to be in readi-ness, but during the final check on theplanes one was discovered to have arusty thrust bearing. Engineering wentwild. The bearings were removed andan immediate wire was sent for newparts. The Sub Depot shipped them backby air express and in three days everyship was back in condition.

BURMA BOUNDOn October sixth the first flight of

eight ships, battling adverse weatherconditions, made the 500-mile trip toPalel in the Imphal Valley where theyquickly established camp and started op-eration with British Forces, who werepreparing to drive the Japs out of theChin Hills.

By October fourteenth when our sec-ond flight left India the Japs had beencleared from Tamu and a base estab-lished at this captured enemy strip in theKabaw Valley.

British gun crews sat in the deep ele.phant grass on both sides of the fieldand swiveled their 20 mm cannon muz-zles toward the blue sky, ready for theenemy planes that had been raiding nearby. Telephone communication was es-tablished and contact was maintainedwith the radar station day and night.

Although tired from the day's flyingwe quickly dug in and camouflaged ourplanes under the jungle trees.

Every evening was spent in improv.ing our camp; a generator was installedand lights strung to the mess tent, whichwas blacked out at night and used as aplace to read and write. A narrow streambehind our area provided a good place forMARCH,1967

tired crews to swim and wash clothesbut deep craters and shattered treesalong the path reminded us that thiswas no mere camping trip.

In spare moments many of the menroamed through the nearby woods locat.ing enemy supply dumps and returningwith electric wire, Jap ammunition andrifles. Our camera men took pictures ofJap graves and burned trucks. Many gasmasks lay strewn on the ground whereretreating troops had evacuated hastily,but well-prepared defense positionswarned us that our enemy would be dif.ficult to defeat.

Army and Navy engineers searched fordesign information, dismantled wreckedJap planes in adjoining revetments.Many of these fighters and bombers wereoutdated types destroyed by our fightersduring the previous campaign.

KATE AND YELLFor security reasons the small strips

were given code names. Kate and Yellrepresented Khampat and Yazagio where

GOLDEN-DOMED pagoda at Pagan, silhou-etted against the Burma sky.

9

Back To Burma _

field medical stations cleared casualtiesfor air evacuation. Khampat only fifteenminutes south by air was cut off by im-passable flooded roads and our stretcherships barely were able to land and takeoff from the hastily prepared swampystrip. By laying burlap on the groundwe successfully ferried all the patientsback to Tamu and from there larger shipsflew them into Imphal.

Yell was a narrow strip thirty five min-utes south on the banks of a windingriver. Here the British were held up bya strong Japanese force and desperatelyneeded heavy artillery. A call was sentto our squadron for help. Several lightplanes were loaded with 37 mm cannons.They extended from the rear cockpit outthrough the front window and were se-cured to the engine cowling. A few min-utes after delivery, these guns were inaction and the Jap was driven back.

While flying low along the fifty milebullock cart road betwen Tamu and Yell,we could see bombed wrecks of 120American trucks which the Japs hadcaptured at Rangoon and used in theirdrive north. British fighters were rapid-ly destroying all enemy mobile equip-ment. Herds of wild elephants and blackwater buffalo that grazed peacefully bydeep water filled bomb craters wereannoyed by the' constant drone of ourengines.

During the heat of this battle Africanengineers had continued to enlarge thestrip in Yell and it was now ready tohandle single and twin engine cargoships. This was the signal for us to moveour mobile headquarters forward.

On November fifth, our moving day,a red alert had us out of bed before sun-rise. Spits took off and patrolled thearea while we stayed near our fox holes.By 0700 hours the fighters were return-ing and we relaxed our worry over thelight planes which were lined up for abeautiful strafe job. As the last Spit

"TERRY'S TAVERN," the NCO club at Asan-sol, the group's rear base in India.

10

THIS L-5 piloted by Sgt. Crompton crashedat Schwega.

landed a lone Oscar on his tail swervedto one side and cleared his guns into ourships. Then sighting a B-25 mediumbomber, riddled it with explosive bulletsand left it blazing. As the Jap fightergrew smaller in the distance anti.air-craft fire filled the sky with a red net-work of tracers, but the raider escapedover the trees.

Hardly had the last of our camp rolledto a dusty stop at Yazgio when an ur-gent message came from Tiddim that sixhundred typhus cases needed evacuationimmediately. This trip had been leveledon a high mountain ridge where Indiantroops had fought desperately over awinding road known as the ChocolateStairway. This flight called for a steadyclimb to 8,000 feet and through a narrowcloud-filled pass, where we would oftensee the misty shapes of returning cargoships. As we broke out of the clouds onour first trip, fighter cover mistaking usfor enemy aircraft peeled off to the at.tack, but fortunately recognized us be-fore firing.

At dusk we were in the chow line tiredand hungry. Above Lt. Eng circled fora landing and we could see his winglights passing over the trees. Near theend of his landing run over the roughunlighted field the right wing of his C-64struck another ship and tore off. Gaso-line poured on the hot engine and burstinto flame, Eng and Sgt. Cambill tum-bled from the front cockpit with minorburns on face and hands, through theemergency side door Comb ie, Eastwood,Center and Franklin ran flaming fromthe ship. Simon, enveloped in flames,fell by the ship and died. After first aidwith blood plasma, the burned men weretransported six miles over the world'sworst road to the Belgian Congo Hospi-tal where Eastwood died at midnight.

The next morning we finished settingup camp, digging latrines and visitingthe Burmese village, where our souvenirhunters traded cigarettes and gum forJap rupees. One radio man traded abeaten up clock for 1500 rupees, which

EX.CBI ROUNDUP

------------- B,ack To Burma

normally would be equivalent to $500.Due to a shortage of gasoline all fly-

ing was shut down at noon and thewhole squadron was able to attend fu-neral services at the Belgian Congo Hos-pital for the boys who had burned todeath in the UC-64.

Early the following morning C-47'swere dropping gas in two gallon con-tainers, jeeps sped over the rough fieldgathering up the cans and deliveredthem to crews, who had to separate therusty water from the gas through filtersand pour eighteen cans, by hand, intoeach ship. This slow process used upthe remainder of the morning. Afterchow all the ships were back in the airon their flights to Tiddim and Makou.

As the ships returned clouds of dustboiled up so thickly that the unfortunatelate pilots, choking from dust, were com-pelled to make several passes whilefeeling for the strip, practically on in-struments. -

When the ships were parked, a gen-eral stampede was created in a rush forthe river where the cool water washedaway the layers of Burma dust.

AIR RAIDSunrise of the 8th found us awaiting

enemy action for Hurricanes were har-assing the Jap Infantry just eight milessouth at Kyogan. Our camp was sur-rounded by Ghurka troops and boobytraps. One land mine set off by a hyenahad everyone on edge but the day re-mained uneventful until 4:00 p.m. whenJap fighters dove through the overcastand poured red hot incendiaries into thegas tanks of five cargo ships makingsupply drops. All exploded in flames ex-cept one which fortunately made a bellylanding. As the crew crawled from thewreckage they were strafed again andt.hree men were seriously wounded.

Another ship crashed this eventfulday. Sgt. Joe Sparrow enroute to Makouin an L-5 had an engine failure overthe only clear spot in miles of jungle.This was the first actual test of our new

OLD "Charlie 47" fuselage used for Opera-tions HQ at Palel.

MARCH,1967

crash harness, which saved his life. Asthe ship stalled in on its nose the bucklebroke but Joe suffered no more than asmall gash over his right eye.

Two pilots, Sgts. Warren and Howard,landed at Kyogen in a hail of machinegun and mortar fire. After casualtieswere loaded, these pilots using evasiveaction flew low through openings in thetrees and safely returned to Yell.

After these unfortunate incidents allunarmed ships were protected by fighter cover. Pairs of Spits, playing highover head, watched like Vultures daringany winged red circles to invade ourterritory.

SHIPS WITHOUT ENGINESThe increased tempo of battle called

for more men and materials to answerthis demand. Heavily loaded C-47s tow.ing giant CG-4A gliders appeared inlarge numbers on the scene.

At this point confusion had reachedits peak. Burmese laborers, working withbulldozers and scrapers, poured hot taron the strip in an attempt to settle thedust. This created a hazardous flyingcondition and it was necessary to con-struct a small parallel strip for our hos-pital ships.

Late afternoon of November the 12thPrivate Case stalled his glider in shortwith a 6,000 pound load and tore off thetail assmbly. Shortly afterward, a Lieu-tenant in another glider coming in hotcrashed into two more parked at the endof the runway, wrecking all three. Crewsworked most of the night cleaning thewreckage from the blacked-out runway.

The 13th proved to be a red letter dayfor our light plane squadron. Eightytyphus cases were carried out of Tiddimone at a time and requiring two hoursfor a round trip. This was accomplishedin addition to our regular flights to Maw-ku and Mawlaik on the Chindwin. Glid.ers coming in regularly with blanketsand medical supplies were snatched afew minutes later loaded with these cas-ualties and towed to rear base hospitals.

The speed of our work was aided bythe untiring efforts of Sgts. Duke, Man-ter, Phelan and Dudas, who disregardingheat and dust, kept busy from dawn tilllong after dark straining gas and reofueling the ships.

On the 16th, during this week of in-creased pressure when many pilots flewtwenty missions a day, Sgt. Cherry ofKlammath Falls, Oregon, hit Mawlaikstrip five feet short, striking a ditchwhich whipped him on his back andbrought him to a skidding stop. Luckilyneither he nor his African replacementwere injured although the ship was atotal washout.

Fifteen miles south of Mawlaik the

11

________________________ Back To Burma

British were held up in a fierce battlewith the Japanese, who held strategicmountain positions and whose heavyguns were inflicting many serious casu.alties among the Indian troops. Fivestretcher ships were dispatched to runthe gauntlet of fire over the enemy posi-tions to a short leveled rice paddy nearthe village of Nanzalein and evacuatethese wounded. This began a continuousstream of traffic between Nazi and ourfirst and station. In appreciation for ourwork the British tommies brought Jap.anese guns, flags and bayonets to thesouvenir hunting pilots.

By November 20th all casualties wereremoved from this area and our shipswere badly in need of reconditioning sopreparations were made to return to In-dia. This completed our first operationin the Kabaw Valley and the outstand.ing work accomplished by our squadronbrought a special letter of commenda-tion from General Stopford.

RECONDITIONINGPilots from the 166th started arnvmg

to replace us and by Nov. 27th our wholesquadron was back in Asansol, India.During this month while ships were be-ing overhauled and our guns and equip-ment reconditioned the men were givenpasses to Lucknow, Calcutta and Jamshe-pur, relaxing for the first time in monthsand enjoying good hotel accommoda.tions.

While we rested in India the Britishforces driving south had carried ourother squadrons to Inbaung and by theend of December we were again alertedfor our next trip to the jungle.

Noon of Dec. 28th found us lettingdown through a thick haze caused by

brush fires in the Chin Hills and soonour loose formation of 10 planes crossedour old base at Tamu. This strip hadbeen lengthened and heavy equipmentwas widening the road south to Man-dalay.

After spending the night with the 166that Inbaung, we took off for Kawlin, ournew base of operations, arriving at 10:30a.m. Our trip had been uneventful withthe exception of one L-5 becoming lostafter it had broken formation betweenAsansol and Tezgon. Lt. Harmon, thepilot, set it down in a rice paddy nearthe holy Ganges River and with his pas.senger, Wm. Johnson of Quakertown, Pa.,succeeded in finding an English.speak.ing Indian, who helped them layout anew course to Tezgon.

Kawlin was a captured airfield wellconstructed but the Japs had used aRube Goldberg device to destroy therunways. It consisted of planting 100 lb.aerial bombs in the middle of the stripswith their noses just showing above theground; above this they erected a tripodof bamboo, tied a brick at the apex, setfire to the string holding the brick, thecord burned through, the brick hit thebomb and everything blew up leaving adeep crater.

Bulldozers and Indian troops had filled.in these holes and C.47's were alreadyusing the main runway. The EngineerSappers had de-mined a grassy revet.ment in which we set up camp usingfour-man British tents. The adjoiningtaxiway became our land strip.

At the briefing the next morning ourmedical officer, Capt. White, warned usto keep out of the jungle which was in-fested with poisonous snakes and typhusticks, not to mention booby traps left

WRECKAGE of a Japanese Zero is inspected by Allied engineers in Burma.

12 EX.CBI ROUNDUP

--------------- Back To Burma

BRITISH ambulances at evacuation strip atInbaung, Burma.

by the Japs. All swimming was forbiddenand atabrine tablets were taken daily.

BURMA TRADERSergeants Sutton, Courley and Lieto

made the first 20 minute run to Zee,where South African troops had leveledoff a 900 foot strip in four hours. Bur-mese villagers immediately appearedwith chickens and eggs to trade for clothand tobacco. A drop chute was worthfour hens and each returning plane add-ed to our growing poultry farm. The vil-lage headmaster helped our cause bypresenting more for the evacuation ofone of his tribe that had been woundedby an exploding mine.

Lt. Rosenberg, our intelligence officer,was going wild trying to keep our situa-tion map up to date. Rapid advance hadleft pockets of Japs all around us and re-ports continually kept coming in fromthe forward strips stating that attackswere being made from the rear and bothflanks. Heavily armed Ghurkas keptconstant watch guarding our perimeterexpecting night raids at any time.

New Year's Eve found us in the sackearly after a long hard day, but ourdreams of home were rudely shatteredby heavy machine gun. and rifle f~recriscrossing the clear mght sky WIt)1flaming tracers. Always on edge we hItthe fox holes fully expecting a groundattack, only to find that revelers wereprematurely bringing the new year in.

Two strips, Tin and Ben, were openedalong the Mandalay Railway. Sgt.Thompson, seeing a break in the wea-ther started for Ben with a formationto pick up four surgical cases. Five min-utes out on the return trip the weatherclosed in.

Because Sergeants Walling, Pattersonand Reynolds were following directly be-hind, Thompson was unable to turn backto the muddy strip. The sergeants with

MARCH, 1967

their heads out the side windows flewlow following the winding tracks throughhills and across rice fields back to thebase.

Due to this ever-changing weather ourregular supply drops had been interrupt-ed and now our cooks, Sgt. Porter andBaily had tried the last of the 37 dif-ferent ways to prepare carped ~illy. I?e-termined to change our dIet, Lr. Jorgm-son and Sgt. Crosby flew to Zing withtrading material and successfully nego-tiated for 35 hens. After loading the bam-boo coops no room was left for Jughead.Because of Jap patrols in the area it wasdangerous to leave an unguarded manon the strip so after a few grunts andgroans both 'men squeezed into the singlefront cockbit and took off for home. Afew minutes out rough air broke opena coop chickens flew everywhere. Hold-ing on' for dear life as the ship landed,Jug was unable to brush off the roostersperched on his head and shoulders. Forsupper on the evening of the 4th, wehad all the chicken and dumplings wecould eat.

Despite continuous bad weather wewere able to evacuate 60 casualties outof Mun, 75 miles south, near Shwebo.Capt. Ulery, who was promoted to Maj?ron the 5th led us to another new stnpcalled Kar:gyi where the British heavyguns could be seen pounding the Japbunkers along the traeks. By Jan. 9thwe were carrying casualties from sev-eral small strips to Ye-U which was be-ing prepared for our new base of oper-ations.

In spite of the fact that Oscars hadraided Ye-U the day before, by 9:30 a.m.of the 10th with the aid of transports ourcomplete camp had been moved to thishot spot.

YE.UEarly the next morning heavy ack ack

brought us out of our sacks and intothe freshly dug fox holes. A lon~ Japraider was driven off after droppmg a

BRITISH anti-aircraft crew in the elephantgrass near a light plane strip.

13

remarkable flying ability, the two pilotsagreed to allow him to fly the ship backto a large strip near Ye-U. In the brief-ing it was agreed that Flynn would landfirst and take the mechanic in to a safelanding. Radio contact was maintainedconstantly during the return flight, butas Flynn pulled over to the side of therunway, Jimmie, the novice, had landedwith his in close formation, wheeling theship around like an expert.

Due to the heavy fighting aroundShwebo, a key railroad center, our mainstrip became a beehive for the cargoships. These ships with a high landingpriority forced Lts. Miller and Tuck tocircle for over an hour in their UC.64.Checking the gas supply, they decided toattempt a landing on our small strip.Miller came in on a long slow approachbut as he cleared the trees, his rightwing dropped. He poured on the coal butthe ship had lost its flying speed andfell to the ground tearing loose the en.gine. Just as the wing dropped, Sgt.Goodfellow called for Doc. White, ourflight surgeon, and they both broke intoa dead run for the falling ship. They ar-rived a few seconds after the crash andseparated Miller and Tuck from thewreckage. Sgt. Snyder, the supply man,smothered the smouldering wreck withan extinguisher, preventing fire. After athorough examination 'it was found thatMiller received a slight head injury, andTuck, a deep gash near the ankle.

THE ROAD TO MANDALAYAt 6:30 on the 22nd of January, our

1st Sgt., Jim Ferry, had us all out ofbed and packing for our move to Shwebo.Jeeps and trucks led by Lt. Red Nelsonstarted on the 50 mile bomb cratered road,but somewhere on the way he made thewrong turn nearly. crossin.g into ~apterritory. Our operatIOns offIcer, wornedover the safety of the men, sent Sgt.McManama in an L-5 to spot and directthe convoy. The string of trucks wassoon located and guided safely to ournew base. This strip. on the banks ofthe city canal, nestled in the shadow ofa giant golden pagoda. Here we ate ahasty "K" ration lunch, hopped into ourplanes and were off, while the groundcrew finished setting up the camp.

The British had hacked out a narrowstrip on the Irrawaddy named Abe; thiswas not only difficult to get in and outof but the Japanese 105's were shellingit'reg-ularly. When Buck Garrett and Wil-ly P. Jones dropped in one afternoon,they found Abernathy lying under a jeepcovered with dust. A conversation hadjust begun between the three men whenit was interrupted by a terrific explosionand flying debris that drove them allinto the nearest fox hole. Though sub.

EX.CHI ROUNDUP

Back To Bunna, _

string of bombs and destroying a near.by canal.

On the 12th we began a large scaleevacuation of seriously wounded battlecasualties from Onbauk near the Ira.waddy. This long captured enemy stripwas busy handling our light planes andUC.64's beside the regular large cargoships.

All was going well until 10:00 a.m.,when a squadron of Oscars screamed inon the tree tops shooting down two C.47'sin the traffic pattern. At the same timeanother 47 cleared the ground and pul.ling up his wheels and behind him Lt.Simon, loaded with casualties in hisC-64, was hauling it off the ground.When the first of the raiders appearedfor the second pass, Simon cut thethrottle, locked the brakes, released theemergency door and herded his cargo intothe nearest ditch. As the last Oscarpoured hot lead into the C.64 and C-47,Simon stood up emptying his pistol at theenemy. During the raid two Oscars de-tached themselves from the squadron andput on an airshow over the field. Whenthe all clear signal was sounded we hadlost three C.47's but the C-64, though fullof holes, could be repaired.

On our regular trips the next morning,we brought Sgt. Weed into Onbaukwhere he remained several days gettingSimon's 64 in shape to fly out. Otherships were making shuttle runs to Bud-alin picking up typhus cases.

One afternoon Flynn and McNameewere at Budalin loading two jaundicecases when one of our ships dropped intoa perfect landing. To the amazementof all, two mechanics climbed out andasked if they were in Shwebo. After reocovering from the surprise at seeing twountrained men fly the plane, they let thelost mechanics know that five minutesmore would have brought them overenemy lin e s. Approaching darknessforced a quick decision on what to do.Since the mechanics had demonstrated

SACK TIME is acquired by Sgt. T. ]. Crosbyamid elaborate surroundings, somewhere inBurma.

14

------------------------,Back ToBurmajected to such experiences daily, none ofour men or ships was hit.

On the 24th of January, Sgt. McNamee,with a flight of four ships and twocamera men, was dispatched to Abe toevacuate surgical cases. When the boyslanded they were informed that the pa.tients were being made ready for thejourney, but wouldn't be on the strip forabout an hour. Always eager for a chanceto trade for souvenirs, the pilots, Mc-Namee, Flynn, Thompson and Crosbyhopped a jeep and started down to theIrrawaddy. As they arrived on the banksof the river,' they were greeted by a hailof Jap mortar fire, one shell landedabout 50 yards away injuring two BritishTommies. The Indian troops, hardened tothe thunder of battle, continued to trans-port troops, supplies and mules in smallflat. bottomed boats across the river toa beach head they had won the nightbefore. All this activity was carried onwithin sight of the enemy, and certain-ly within machine gun range. Seeming-ly with an air of indifference the officersand men talked and joked, drank tea,and carried on their work as heavy artil.lery lobbed shells over both sides. Thisatmosphere was contageous for the pilotswho wandered around trading for Japflags and pistols while Chris and Pete,the photographers, covered the scenewith their cameras.

Evacuation continued normally for twoweeks from all outlying strips exceptAbe. Jap artillery had its range andwould wait for several ships to land,then open up with everything they had.To solve this problem, we built a newstrip just out of range and called it"Little Abc."

On the morning of the 26th a flightled by Sgt. Protz took off to evacuatebattle casualties that had accumulatedat Sade, a small strip sixty miles southof our base. The flight zoomed over thefirst aid station giving the ambulancesthe usual signal to high-tail it down tothe strip. As the volunteer field serviceboys arrived, wheeling their cargo of

PLANE flown by Sgc. Cherry of KlammathFalls, Ore., landed a mite short at Mawlaik,Burma.

MARCH, 1967

shattered war victims carefully over therough roads, they assisted the pilots inthe transfer of the casualties from theambulances to the planes. Sgt. Horton,first in line to take off, checking his en-gine carefully, but as he gained speedon the take-off run, his engine suddenlysputtered and quit. Horton, kicking every.thing in the cockpit and with a violentmaneuver, successfully managea to guide!"tis plane from its path leading directlymto the center of several parked planesloaded with casualties. Although Horton'sship locked wings with Casey's and wentcareening off end over end into a deepgully, his quick thinking and disregardfor personal safety saved several shipsand men from complete destruction.

All went well until February firstwhen after a good supper of steaks andhot biscuits at "Jungle Jug's Corned BeefJoint," we tried to sleep. The clear moon-light night, ideal for a bombing raid,kept us on edge and mysterious planesdrove us to fox holes twice before morn-ing.

Near Mandalay the Irrawaddy madea large bend and the British troops hadfanned out for miles along its banks.Almost daily we would get calls to gointo new strips, Daw, Don, Ted, and AI.Our planes, flying hard day after day,began to show the need for major re-pairs.

Twenty minutes out (}n a regular runto Allagappe Sgt. Flynn in a flight ofeight ships was contacted by Jumbo, ourradio station, reporting a squadron ofenemy fighters between Bap and ourhome base. Flynn immediately contactedall other ships in the flight and droppeddown to tree. top level. As the formation,now flying below the trees, approachedthe small field at Allagappe, they weresignaled by red flares to get out of thearea. The pilots realized that victims ofburning phosphorous bombs, with bodiesswathed in oily bandages, needed theattention that only a rear base hospitalcould provide. They decided to chance alanding. Flynn, in his L-5, assumed thejob of traffic control while circling overthe field. He kept the flight on the treesand away from the strip, then directedone ship at a time to land, pick up acasualty without cutting the engine andget right out. In a matter of minutesafter the last ship departed, this enemyformation strafed and bombed the littlefield causing great damage.

On February 12th two flights of the164th arrived to replace us and twodays later our whole squadron was backin India, for another month of well de.served rest.

PAGAN CITY OF PAGODASDuring this period most of the men

left on furloughs or went to rest camp

15

Back To Burma, _

while all equipment was being recondi-tioned. Colonel Gaty, Group Commander,flying a P.47 fighter on a lone raid, dis-appeared over enemy territory and allhope for his return was abandoned. Sgt.Bailey, our capable cook, was rushed tothe hospital seriously ill from a bloodclot near the heart.

On March 13th all men had returnedfrom their passes and half the squadrontook off for Synthe, by way of Fennyand Hay, our operational bases acrossthe Bay of Bengal. The remainder of thesquadron followed the next day and im-mediately took over the job started bythe 166th.

Sgt. Johns, flying low on a return tripfrom one of our front line strips, wasseriously wounded by Jap machine gunand rifle fire. Johns somehow managedto keep his plane in the air and headedfor home. Twenty miles from Synthe, thesergeant, weak from the loss of blood,and realizing that he could no longermove the controls, made the supremeeffort. He mumbled into his transmit.ter, "L.5 crash landing on road southof Sin, send ambulance to pick up badlywounded stretcher case." When the am.bulance arrived with the flight surgeonand crash crew, they found Johns un.consious with a machine gun bullet ineach leg. The battle casualty, thoughshaken up by the landing, had not beenhit. The plane was in the air the nextday after a few minor repairs were made.

Major Woods, our Liaison Officer, fly.ing as observer, returned from a recontrip with a rifle bullet in his right leg.These experiences kept the "L" pilotschanging their tactics from day to day.Sometimes it was necessary to fly at3,000 feet to escape ground fire, but whenJap zeros were around, they were forcedto hug the tree tops.

Synthe was only fifteen minutes fromMytche, on the Irrawady. Directly acrossthis broad river lay the ancient religiouscity of Pagan, with its 5,000 pagodas.The Japanese, realizing our hesitancy todestroy temples, had made this a strongpoint of resistance even going to thepoint of placing snipers in the spires ofmany temples.

A continuous stream of supplies flowedinto Mytche in preparation for a rivercrossing. Just before dawn one morning,several barge loads of troops startedacross the river. About mid.stream theirengines quit leaving them helpless inthe face of withering machine gun fire.As the boats drifted down stream, rescuecrews picked up the survivors andbrought them to our waiting stretcherships.

The next attempt to cross the river wasmade under the cover of darkness em.ploying four of our UC-64's. These un-

16

armed ships with props in low pitchroared back and forth over the enemypositions drowning out the sound of out-board motor boats carrying hundreds ofBritish troops to the opposite banks. Bydawn a bridge head was secured and theJaps were beating a hasty retreat fromPagan, the city of Pagodas.

THE SIEGE OF MEIKTILAMajor Ulery, just released from the

hospital after a long serious illness, ar.rived on April 1st, to notify us of his reoturn to the States and to introduce Capt.Davis, our new Commanding Officer.

The next morning Sgt. Crompton flewto Shwega for a report on the numberof casualties ready for evacuation. Cattlecrossing the runway forced him to pullup and go around. While turning sharp-ly at 75 feet to avoid the trees his shipstalled and crashed to the ground. Britishsoldiers pulled him from the wreckageand administered first aid. Sgt. Cherry,arriving a few minutes later, flew himback to our base, and after careful ex-amination he was returned to India.

One hour's flight from Synthe, lay theimportant key city of Meiktila. A smallBritish division filtering through theenemy lines captured this strategic Japheadquarters and tenaciously tried tohold it.

From a short strip in the center oftown, all of our ship!> were busy shut-tling their hundreds of casualties backto Mytche. This section was occupied byJaps every night and recaptured by theBritish each morning. The large fieldwas surrounded by enemy patrols thatmade continuous raids each day. Fiercefighting continued with Jap heavy artil.lery pounding constantly.

Even when the British controlled thelarge airfield, Jap mortar fire broughtdown ships entering the traffic pattern.For several days cargo ships unable toland parachuted their supplies to the iso.lated troops.

A report from the British that the mainairstrip was once again in their hands,

THIS 1st Air Commando P-47 was shot upby ground fire and didn't quite make it backto the base.

EX.CBI ROUNDUP

------------------ Back To Burma

PART of the' bridgehead at Myitche Burma,where the British crossed the Irawaddy.

brought loaded C-47 cargo ships to thescene. Meanwhile the Japs had onceagain counter. attacked, seizing the con.trol tower and one end of the strip. Theenemy flashed green lights to the 47'swho immediately lowered their wheelsand landed. A C-45 with VIP on boardhad rolled to a stop when the Japs?pened up with an anti-tank gun knock-mg out the two 47's now in the parkingarea. The pilot of the 45 poured on thecoal and went screaming down the bomb.cratered taxi strip. Without slowingdown he turned -onto a parallel runwayand escaped with only a few bullet holesin the fuselage, and a badly shakencrew.

While this fierce struggle continued,troops and armored vehicles pouredacross the Pagan bridgehead and foughttheir way down the long dusty road tothe besieged city. Sherman tanks led theway blasting out all Jap opposition asthey cleared the way. The siege of Meik-tila had ended.

ONWARD TO RANGOONLetse, near the Chauk oil fields was

miles away and on our side of th~ Ira.waddi. Here fanatically fighting Japs re-fused to be driven out. Each night aBanzai charge on British positions litteredthe grou~d with Jap dead, each dayheavy artIllery shelled these same Bri.tish positions. The casualties, resultingfrom this activity, were evacuated by ourstretcher planes. Pilots had to veer firstto the right and then to the left to avoidvultures, attracted by decaying Jananesebodies on the approach to this battIeground.

The afternoon was hot, the strip wassandy and soft and high coconut treesthreatened every take-off; these condi-tions irritated the tired pilots. Sgt. LemDavis, in the Letse parking area, wasentering time in his form when a cloudof sand filled the front cockpit. This wastoo much; the sergeant jumped out ofhis plane blowing his top at McCormick,

MARCH,1967

who unable to utter a word, pointed toa 75mm dud lying at his feet. Pale andshaking the pilot returned to Synthe andshut flying down for the day.

Storm clouds gathered each day andon April 9th a strong wind blew up des.troying six of our gliders. Early everyevening we were forced to tie down ourplanes and seek cover for once againthe monsoon had taken over.

Between storms, we followed the Bri.tish to Natmauk, flying so far from ourbase that we often returned with our gasgauges on the red line. To speed up~vacuation ~e would crowd two patientsmto the smgle back seat. Rain hadbeaten up our props so badly that Lane,Stawiski, Howard and all the other me.chanics redoubled their efforts to keepour ships flying often working throughstorms and well into the night.

By April 23rd the 166th Squadron ar.rived to replace us and to continue work.ing with the British on their drive toRangoon. L-5s from this squadron werethe first to land in this sea coast city.As the last of the 166th arrived we werepacked and started for India, shippingall heavy equipment by C-47. The longclimb over 10,OOO-foot mountains andacross the green fields of Burma andIndia was accomplished safely and onthe 25th everyone rested once again inour rear base at Asansol, India.

At the end of the first week in Juneall three light plane squadrons wereback at Asansol and thus ends the storyof the second campaign in Burma bylight planes of the First Air CommandoGroup. Many of the older men were reoturned to the States shortly after thisand by the end of the year the wholegroup was back in the States.

-THE END

Roundup $300Binders

Postpaid

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17

~C ra 1[.]L>ATELIN -'-','

News dispaubes from re~ent issuesof The Ca/rulta Statesman

MADRAS-Daniel Hailey Walcott, 36.year. old American national, and hisFrench colleague, Jean Claude Donze,have been sentenced to a maximum offive years rigorous imprisonment each forentering India with forged passports andfor committing various other offencesunder the Defence of India Rules andthe Foreigners Act. Main charges againstthe two men were that they entered Indiathrough Meenambakkam Airport underthe assumed names of Barry PhillipsCharles Comyn and Stephen ThomasLam and thus deceived the airportchecking officer, and that they used falsepassports .as genuine knowing them tobe forged.

RAJT<:OT-A recent survey of some Cal-cutta hospitals showed that nearly halfof wound infections were caused by "in-sanitary" blankets.

DELHI--India's elephant population isbooming-thanks to the ban on shoot-ing them and the stoppage of Kheddaoperations. Forest officials report seeingunusually large numbers of calves trail-ing elephant herds in several forests."The day is not far off when some waywill have to be found to introduce fam-ily planning among elephants," a spokes-man for the Inspector-General of Forestssaid recently. Elephants are found inKerala, Mysore, Madras, Assam, Tripura,West Bengal, Orissa and U.P.

BOMBAY-The Maharashtra Govern.ment's proposal to set up a film city onthe lines of Hollywood is expected totake concrete shape in the near future.

SRINAGAR-As part of its plan tomake Kashmir Valley safe against reocurring floods, the State Government hasprepared a scheme to tame the turbu.lent, treacherous Pohru River whichjoins the Jhelum at Doabgah a few milesfrom Sopore in the north of the valley.The Pohru River, when in spate, bringsin its wake not only sufferings for thepeople living along its banks but alsowashes down huge quantities of silt,boulders and shingle which choke theJhelum. Meanwhile as many as 25,000people are now working d a i I y instrengthening and raising the river'sbanks,

CALCUTTA-Dredging for Haldia Port'sconstruction has begun, and tenders havebeen submitted for construction of the

18

dock. Next stage will be placing of or-ders for loading and unloading equip.ment.

PATNA-Geologists, mining and me.chanical engineers and top executives ofBihar's Public Health Engineering De.partment are in a race against time inan attempt to provide enough drinkingwater to more than 10 million peopleand their livestock before the onset ofsummer. All available sources of waterhave been drying up. A massive program.me for drinking water supply, the big.gest ever in the country's long historyof recurring drought, has been launchedin the six districts of Pal am au, Hazari-bagh, Gaya, Shahabad, Monghyr andBhagalpur where severe shortage ofdrinking water has been forecast.

DURGAPUR-The DVC's thermal powerstation at Durgapur has three chimneysat present, indicating the addition to itof a third unit. This unit, with a gen-eration capacity of 140 MW, brings thetotal installed capacity of this stationto 290 MW and of the entire DVC powersystem to 921.5 MW.

NEW DELHI-The incidence of foodadulteration is the highest, at 51 per cent,in Rajasthan, according to official sta.tistics. Of the 9,069 food samples ex-amined in the State in six months, asmany as 5,865 were found adulterated.Rajasthan is closely followed by Mahar.ashtra with 49 per cent and Madhya Pra.desh with 48 per cent of adulterated foodsamples. About 140,000 food sampleswere examined in 12 states out of whichmore than 48,000 were found adulterated.The Government realized more than Rs23 lakhs as fines by starting prosecutionsunder the Prevention of Food Adultera.tion Act of 1954 during the period.

NEW DELHI-Mrs. Indira Gandhi saidrecently that this year India's popula.tion had crossed the 500 million markand called for steps to increase thepeople's awareness of their responsibili.ties in checking the country's populationgrowth. She called for the need to per-suade more and more voluntary organi-zations and medical practitioners to co.operate with the family planning cam-paign.

CALCUTTA-Altogether 275 p e 0 pIewere reported to the Police as missingduring one month and 330 in the next.Of them, 211 were traced by the MissingPersons Squad and other agencies while145 returned home on their own and 202people were traced by their relatives.

NEW DELHI-The Central Road Re.search Institute is exploring possibilitiesof reducing road building costs by mix-ing bamboo pulp into the usual con-struction mixture of soil and cement.

EX.CBI ROUNDUP

The los Angeles of India

Bombay Is Humming DynamoBeacon Journal.Los Angele3 Times

BOMBAY-With 4.5 million inhabitants,Bombay is only India's second largestcity. But if Calcutta is India's New York,this is its Los Angeles, a humming dy.namo made up of Parsees, Maharash.trans, Goans,"; South Indians and othermigrants from all parts of the country.

This cosmopolitan metropolis is amongother things a thriving port, the meccaof a giant film industry, and a seat ofuniversity scholarship.

It is the home of some of India's lead.ing personalities. It is the political ba~eof V. K. Krishna Menon, who once treat.ed the Uniteo Nations to hours of fieryoratory, and of his successor as India'sdefense minister, Y. B. Chavan. as wellas of S. A. Dange, the leader of the pro.Moscow Indian Communist party.

Business of every kind is transactedhere in a big way. Twenty.story apart.ment houses are rising on Malabar Hilland at night the neon advertisementsglow all along the broad arc of MarineDrive.

The city has good restaurants, espressobars and night clubs. It also producessome of the country's most vigorous jour-nalism, and the afternoon papers printthe latest stock exchange prices.

The construction boom still has a longway to go to overtake the influx of newarrivals, however. Thousands live incrude tents and shacks in over-crowded,unhealthy gullies. For many thousandsof others the sidewalks are home.

There is food aplenty to be found at atime when other regions of India arethreatened by famine. Food stalls over-flow with fresh vegetables, fruits andcanned goods, and fish is abundant inthe markets. It is not the city but thecountryside that lacks nourishment. Vil.lages even a few miles inland lack re-frigeration to benefit from the abun-dance hauled in every day and nightfrom the Arabian Sea.

During the 9 a.m. rush hour the scenedowntown is one of cars, taxis and fleetsof bright red double-decker buses. Halfa dozen railroad stations disgorge thou-sands of commuters from the suburbswho join the army of clerks, secretaries,assistant managers and directors whoman the banks, insurance companiesand department stores.

Bombay is worlds apart from NewDelhi, that effete creature of the Britishwhere government employees pedal dain.

MARCH, 1967

tily to work on their bicycles aroundmidmorning.

Bombay has barged into the Twenti-eth Century, although the plumbing maystill leak. New Delhi, in contrast, givesan impression of wishing time wouldstand still, preferably in an age whereVictorian niceties and moral victoriescounted for something.

It is hardly surprising that the latePrime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru is reoported to have looked on this noisy,brawling, competitive metropolis ~ithsuspicion. For him it was somethIngapart from real fabric of Indian life.

Bombay has its problems as well asits small glories. One of these is law andorder.

This city used to enjoy th.e reputatiC?nof possessing the. b~st pollce fo~ce ~nIndia. Recent statlstIcs show a rIse Incrime that challenges that reputation.

Prohibition, although recently liberal.ized has brought with it the naggingproblem of bootlegging. Police estimatethere are 15000 illegal stills in Bombay,which means almost one still for each ofBombay's 17,000 policemen.

Under the liberalized system, justabout anyone over the age of 40 cannow get a permit for consumption of al.cohol. Most of the 50,000 permit holde~do not have the means to pay for theIrliquor quota, however, so a l?t of liql!-0r,including fabulously high. prIced foreIgnbrands finds its way into the blackmarket operated by the owners of do-it.yourself bars. -THE END

Tell All YourFriends About

Ex-CBIRoundup

19

BHOW ANI JUNCTION. By John Masters.Ballantine Books, New York. December 1966.Paperback, 95c.

Back again with a new publisher comesthis exciting tale of India in the midstof civil war preceding independence. Theauthor writes colorfully about the British,the Indians and the plight of the Anglo-Indians caught between two worlds.

CHINA: THE OTHER COMMUNISM. ByK. S. Karol. Hill & Wang, New York, N.Y.January 1967. $6.95.

This book is based on a trip to Chinamade by the author early in 1965, ac-companied by photographer Marc Riboudwho had previously visited China in 1957and who contributed 32 pages of photo-graphs to the book. The author, a Polish.born journalist, had served in the Sovietarmy and then spent time in Soviet jailsand labor camps. He has included inthis book a historical interpretation ofhis experiences, which included visits tocommunes, farms, factories and histori.cal developments.

CHINESE SCULPTURE, BRONZES, ANDJADES IN JAPANESE COLLECTIONS. ByYuzo Sugimura, with English adaptation byBurton TVatson. East-TVest Center Press, Honolu-lu, Hawaii. November 1966. 17.50 L

A presentation of some of the finestexamples of Chinese art from collectionsin Japan. Many of the pieces have neverbefore been seen in the West.

MORE LIVES THAN ONE. By CharlesBracelen Flood. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston,Mass. February 1Cl67. $4.95.

A new novel by the author of "LoveIs a Bridge," in which Harry Purdick isone of thousands of young Americanscalled back into service and thrown intobattle at the outbreak of the Korean War.He was captured by the Chinese, errone-ously reported killed in action, and heldincommunicado for resisting his captors'attempt to brainwash him.

THE LAST MANCHU: The Autobiographyof Henry Pu Yi, last Emperor of China. Editedby Paul Kramer. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York,N. Y. February 1967. $5.95.

Although better for specialists in FarEastern history than for the generalreader, this is the amazing story abouta living link between China's feudal pastand her enigmatic future. Henry Pu Yi,last Manchu emperor, was puppet rulerof Manchuria during the Japanese occu-

20

pation, then prisoner of the Russians,and finally, after brainwashing by theChinese Communists, became a docilecitizen of Red China. His youth, spent infantastic and stifling luxury in Peking'sForbidden City, and his life under theChinese Communists are the most inter-esting parts of the story.

THE NEW FACE OF BUDDHA. By JerroldSchecter. Coward-McCann, Inc., New York, N.Y.February 1967. $5.95.

A study, by the chief of the Time-LifeTokyo bureau, of the rise of Buddhismas the new political force in SoutheastAsia. The author offers the only avail.able explanation of the dynamics ofBuddhist political power, running ram-pant in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand,Japan and Burma, and an illuminatingstudy of the Asian character.

CORREGIDOR: The Saga of a Fortress. ByJames H. and William M. Belote. Harper &Row, New York, N.Y. Jalluary 1967. $6.95.

An overall military history of theAmerican resistance on Corregidor and afull account of the Rock's fortification.Without devoting much space to the in.dividual agonizing human stories of thedefenders, it does generally describe thefour months of siege, the years beforethat of inadequate American prepara-tion, and the American recapture of theRock in February 1945. The heroic de.laying stand of American and Philippinefighters on Corregidor ~urprised the Jap.anese, slowed their advance, and knockedout of action one whole .Japanese divi.sion. This may have gained time to saveAustralia from Japanese invasion.

THE ADVENTURES OF LI CIlI; A ModernChinese Legend. By Humphrey Ez/ans. E. P. Dut.tOil & Co., Inc., New York. N.Y. February 1967.$4.95.

Li Chi, according to the author, is alegendary 20th century folk hero of theChinese people, a peasant artist, whoseartful connivings enable him to survivethe most outrageous pressures and de-mands of the Communist regime andalways come out on top. These stories,based on tales supposedly circulatedsecretly in China today, show Li Chi athis most inventive and earthy best, al.ways on the side of the masses againstbureaucracy.

THE PHANTOM OF THE TEMPLE. By Rob-ert vall Gulik. Charles Scribner's SOliS, New York,N. Y. February 1967. $3.95.

Another Judge Dee tal e of detection inancient China. This is a spooky, evengrisly tale of a double murder and de-capitation, a missing girl name::'! Jade.and stolen gold hidden in a desertedtemple supposedly haunted by a phan-tom woman. The author, incidentally, isnow the Netherlands ambassador toJapan.

EX-CBI ROUNDUP

________________________ To the Editors

21

Sookerating Picture• Your magazine givesmany hours of pleasure.The picture of Sookerating(January, 1967) brings back

NATIVE with a Himalayan bear and flea-bitten monkey, put-ting on shows on the streets of Calcutta, India, in February1945. Photo by C. Jacobson.

many past memories of theChinese Staging Area atAPO 466. Chinese troopsdestined for Ramgarh andfor the N.C.A.C. units atMyitkyina would arrive, beprocessed, fed, and kept inthe camps for short periodsof time. Proud of their newclothing they would startout with T-shirts and under.drawers with the Indian is.sue sun helmets, goingnorth to the BramaputraRiver to try to find theirway back to China in thedirection they had come byairplane. Of course theywere intercepted by theChinese MPs and broughtback to camp to await theireventual destination.

HOMER G. WHITMORE,Rochester, N.Y.

trouble. Wreckage indicat-ed that the plane had comedown in a shallow glide,clearing a rise in some pas-tureland, had crossed aclearing and crashed intothe trees beyond. VanLiere, a field examiner forthe Federal Aviation Agen.cy, had just completed 25years as a flight instructor.He had trained and licensedmany pilots. The Van Lieresare survived by two sons,Randy, 18, and Stephen, 15.

(From a newspaper clip-ping submitted by FloydN i f 0 n g, Winston-Salem,N.C.)

142nd Hospital• Was browsing throughsome 1953 Roundups andcame across some articlesconcerning the 142nd Gen-eral Hospital, Calcutta. Thisbrought back a few memo-ries as I was a patient thereduring the Christmas holi-days, 1945. I also recallFather Timothy Whalen,the Catholic chaplain at the142nd who celebrated mid.night mass on ChristmasEve. Wonder if any ex-142nd wallahs might knowthe present whereabouts ofFather Whalen. He was afine chaplain.

HOWARD GORMAN,Sonora, Calif.

Andrew H. Van Liere• Andrew Hen ry VanLiere, 49, one of the firstpilots to fly the Hump, andhis wife Mary Jean wereboth killed January 4 in thecrash of a private planenear Winston. Salem, N.C.Van Liere, chief flight in-structor for Northern AirService at Grand Rapids,Mich., and his wife wereflying south to attend afuneral at High Point, N.C.,and it is believed theirplane developed engine

MARCH,1967

Tokyo Raid Survivors• Survivors of the firstraid on Tokyo in WorldWar II will hold their silover anniversary r e u n ionApril 13 to 15 in Oakland,Calif. The reunion willbring together the Air Forcemen who flew with Gen.eral James H. Doolittle onApril 18, 1942, in the firstraid on Japan. Of the 80men who took part in theraid, 55 are still alive and10 are still in uniform. Thereunion is being sponsoredby the Alameda Naval AirStation (Civilian Employ.ees) Association. Also tak-ing part will be the citiesof Oakland and Alameda,the chambers of commerceof both cities and the Portof Oakland,-' General Doo-little was born in Alameda.

(From a newspaper clip.ping submitted by RayKirkpatrick, San Francisco,Calif.)

Commander'sMessage

by

Joseph T. Nivert

National CommanderChina- Burma- India

Veterans Assn.

Dear CEl Friends:Midway in my term of office, I cannot

help but wonder about how much pro-gress was made by CBIVA? I know thatmuch effort was put forth by many in-dividuals including myself and by sev.eral bashas who helped to spread thegood word about our organization. Thisfine effort is certain to bring good re-sults.

The problem which faces me for thesecond portion of my term is, how canwe do better? This will take the coop-eration of everyone including our new-est members. Our most vital need is forthose veterans who love the organiza-tion and those who are willing to givetheir leadership talent for our good cause,without the promise of personal gloryor material reward. Each of us muststrive for new blood, new members, whoin turn will help us grow greater. Thefact remains that our present member.ship is our only source of energy in anyeffort we make to implement our CBIVAprogress. The good that we hope toachieve in the future must be controlledby the interested members of today. Ifthis sounds like a plea, you are correct.Won't you try to get at least one newmember today?

I quote a message from Past Com-mander, Charles Mitchell, Eau Gallie,Florida. "It's a sad situation-More andmore I seem to be getting into the fatalrut of getting ahead, while I continue toget away from the things I've held sodear in the past. The CBIVA always hasbeen the closest thing that I have andI seem to be spending less time on its

This space is contributed to the CBlV A byEx-CBl Roundup as a service to the manyreatlers who are members of the Assn., of whichRoundup is the official publication. It is im-portant to remember that CBlV A and Roundupare entirely separate or~ani7;ations. Your sub-scription to Roundup does not entitle you tomembership in CBlV A, nor does your member.ship in CBlV A entitle you to a subscription toRoundu;. You need not be a member of CBlV Ain order to subscribe to Roundup or vise vers".-Ed.

22

survival. One of my resolutions is to getat least ten men started into somethingthey've been missing for twenty years."

January 14th was indeed a happy dayfor Tillie and I had the happy opportun-ity to visit with those wonderful peopleof Buffalo, N.Y., basha. Their hospitalityis something to behold. We were treatedas royalty and we express our sincerethanks to the group for a happy week-end. The purpose of the visit was for theannual installation of officers. My con-gratulations to Commander Albert C.Taylor and to his entire staff of officers.On January 21st, it was a similar eventwhen it was my honor to install the of-ficers of my own Mahoning Valley Basha.James DeChristefero is the new Comman-der with another fine slate of officers toassist him. With this leadership bothbashas are sure to prosper. Both 'eventswere dinner meetings and both were at-tended by two dozen fine CEl people.Should one note the lack in attendanceyou better believe there was no lack ofenthusiasm and fun. They were occas-sions to be remembered.

Other Basha Commanders recentlyelected and installed were Henry WoodChicago basha and C. J. Wipfli, St. Loui~basha. My best wishes to both and mayyour terms of office be most successful.

George Tabak, Struthers, Ohio, passedon an up-to-date roster of the 3477thM.M. Ord. group. Some of this group areNational members and, some have at.tended past reunions. Many subscribe tothis magazine. Upon suggestion, a formletter will be sent to the entire 3477thmembership with the hope that theymay be reunited in Cincinnati, Ohio thisyear. By using the power of sugge~tionthis group expects to have the largestsingle unit delegation at the reunion andextend their challenge to any other CElgroup. This same courtesy is extendedto all readers of Ex-CBI Roundup. If youpossess a roster of your overseas unitand would appreciate any help in gettingthe gang together, please write me. Someeffort could bring wonderful results andhappy reunions with old friends.

Earl Mountbatten returned to IndiaBurma, Ceylon and Singapore early thi~year to film a 13-part biographical doc-umentary on his World War II days asSupreme Allied Commander SoutheastAsia. This could bring interesting TVwatching for all CEl-ers in the nearfuture.

1967 CBI REUNION

CINCINNATI. OHIO

AUGUST 2-5, 1967

EX-eBI ROUNDUP

________________________ To the Editors

MOWING the grass on the Maidan, Kingsway, New Delhi,in 1944. Photo by Ben Brannon.

CROSSES in cemetery at Kunming, China, mark graves of Amer-icans killed in action. Photo by Milton Klein.

tress in Bihar. Father De-Munter's address is P. O.Sitagarha, Hazaribagh Dis.,Bihar, India. I am sure thatany funds sent would beof great help in the aIle.viation of aistress in theRamgarh-Hazaribagh area.Major Fink of Milwaukeehas already joined me inassisting Father De Mun-ter. Additional help fromthe old APO 627 groupwould be appreciated.

EDWIN B. GREEN,Westwood, N.J.

Col. Jack L. Pope• Military graveside ritesfor Lt. Col. Jack L. Pope,43, director of plans at theAir Force's Tactical Fight-er Weapons Center at NellisAFB, Nev., were held Jan.21, 1967, at Phoenix, Ariz.Colonel Pope, who died atLas Vegas, Nev., was anaeronautical engineer i n ggraduate of the Universityof Arizona in 1961. Hestarted his military careerin 1942 and flew P51s inthe China-Burma-India warzone where he was award.ed the AiD Medal with anOak Leaf Cluster. Born inIndianapolis, he was acommand pilot with morethan 5,000 flying hours. Awidower, he is survived bya son, Phillip, and a sister.

(From an item in theArizona Republic, Phoenix,Ariz., submitted by WalterDeBlair, Phoenix, Ariz.)

he breeds Santa Gertrudiscattle. He served eightyears as a member of theTexas House of Reprsenta-tives, was named "Out-standing Con s e rv a t ionRancher" in 1958 and wasone of the five outstandingyoung Texans selected byTexas Jaycees the sameyear, and has won varioushonors in recent years.

(From a story in theHouston Chronicle submit-ted by Robert E. Nesmith,Houston, Tex.)

Famine in Bihar• A recent communica-tion from Fr. G. De Munter,former chaplain at Ram-garh, tells of near famineconditions and great dis-

Now in Vietnam• M. Sgt. Eliner L. White,a CBI veteran from Newark,N.J., is serving as fire chiefat Pleilm Air Base in Viet-nam, where he is a mem-bel' of the 633rd CombatSupport Group. His outfithandles about 40 aircraftemergencies a month. Hehas had 25 years service inthe Air Force, and has beenat about every base in thecountry. During World WarII he belonged to the 490thBomb Squadron, the famous"skull and crossbones" out-fit based in India that wonthe tag of "Burma BridgeBusters" for knocking outvirtually all bridges underJapanese control in India.

(From an article in theNewark, N.J., Star Ledgersubmitted by Ray Smith,Metuchen, N.J.)Mr. South Texas• Dolph Briscoe Jr., Uvalderancher, banker, civic lead-er and former state legis-lator, recently received the"Mr. South Texas" awardat the annual President'sLuncheon of the GeorgeWashington's Birthday Cel-ebration Association in La-redo, Tex. Briscoe, son ofa prominent sou t h w estTexas rancher and wool-mohair farmer, served inthe China-B u rm a-I n d i aTheater during World WarII. He has gained nationalrecognition for soil conser-vation work on his 100,000acre Catarina Ranch where

MARCH,1967 23

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