Profiles in Courage: George H.W. Bush and the Chichi Jima Incident

By the summer of 1944, continuous successes against the Japanese placed Allied forces on the doorsteps of its mainland. Convinced an invasion of Japan was necessary for a final victory, military commanders began planning for an amphibious landing on the strategically located Iwo Jima, roughly 575 miles from the Japanese coast. Once in the hands of the Allies, Iwo Jima would be a perfect place where B-29 bombers, damaged over Japan, could land without returning all the way to the Mariana Islands retaken from the Japanese after brutal fighting on Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. It would also serve as a base for escort fighters that would assist in the bombing campaign. 

In June 1944, Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher's Task Force began naval ship bombardments and air raids against Iwo Jima in preparation for an amphibious assault. One hundred and fifty miles north of Iwo Jima was Chichi Jima, another target of multiple bombings beginning in June 1944 and ending September 1944. These earlier raids and those prior to the landing on Iwo Jima on February 3, 1945, the total number of ship barrages and air raids were among the longest and most intense of the Pacific theater.

On Chichi Jima, the 25,000 Japanese operated a Naval Base, a small seaplane base, a weather station, and various gunboats, sub-chaser, and minesweeping units, as well as relay communications and surveillance operations from two radio relay stations atop its two mountains. While destroying the supply and repair operations were key, one of the primary targets was the destruction of the radio relay transmitter.

At 7:15 am, on September 3, 1944, four Avengers were launched from the USS San Jacinto, to join four Hellcats from the USS Enterprise. Each of the fighters carried four 500 pound bombs. Twenty-year-old Lieutenant Junior Grade George H. W. Bush was one of the Avenger pilots.

When the aircraft arrived over Chichi Jima shortly after 8 am, they began attacking designated targets. Bush was the third pilot to dive on the radio tower transmitter. After nosing over into a 30-degree dive, Bush lined up on the target when his Avenger plane was hit by antiaircraft fire, engulfing it in flames. He continued unto the target and, with his visibility blinded by the smoke, released his bombs. All four made direct hits on the radio tower. Flying away from the island, his burning plane lost power. He radioed his crew, Radioman Second Class John Delaney and gunner Lieutenant Junior Grade William White, to "Hit the silk!"

Wanting to get a few more miles away from the island, Bush stayed at the controls as long as he could allowing Radioman John Delaney to bail out only to die when his parachute failed to open. Ltjg William White went down with the aircraft.

When Bush jumped over the side of his aircraft, the slipstream caught his lanky frame and sent it crashing into the tail of the Avenger. His head grazed the starboard elevator, and his parachute snagged on the tail and ripped. With a few torn panels, the chute plummeted too fast, dropping Bush hard into the ocean. Only slightly bruised from the fall, he waited for four hours in an inflated raft, while several fighters circled protectively overhead until he was rescued by the lifeguard submarine USS Finback. For the next month, he remained on the Finback and participated in the rescue of other pilots. (Photo is Bush's rescue by submarine crew members)

Several other American flyers on the same bombing mission were also shot down, and those few who survived were captured by Japanese soldiers and held prisoners on Chichi Jima Island.

As the date for the February 3, 1945, amphibious invasion on Iwo Jima grew closer, bombing intensified over Iwo Jima and nearby Chichi Jima. During these bombing operations, more than one hundred American airmen were shot down over and around the Bonin Islands. Still, American submarines were able to rescue only three of them, including future U.S. President George H. W. Bush. Most of the others died with their aircraft or succumbed to the cold waters off Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima. Only a few were captured and taken to Chichi Jima as Prisoners of War. That brought a total of nine American airmen known to have been captured. Then they seemed to disappear from the face of the earth.

When the war was over, records from a top-secret military tribunal were sealed, the lives of eight of the nine aviators were erased, and the parents, brothers, sisters, and sweethearts they left behind were left to wonder. James Bradley - author of "Flags of our Fathers" - set out to solve the almost sixty-year mystery on what happened to the aviators (Photo of Admiral Kunzio Mori during his war crimes trial in Guam). 

In his pursuit to find the answers, Bradley conducted a massive search of eye-witnesses in American and Japan, combed through untapped government archives containing classified documents, and finally a trip to Chichi Jima itself to try to find out what really happened to the eight missing POWs. The ninth aviator was released at the war's end in 1945.

His primary source for the truth kept secret until little over a decade ago were the records of the war-crimes trial of Gen. Yoshio Tachibana and Japanese officers in his command at Chichi Jima. The fascinating, unbelievable findings uncovered from his search are contained in his 2006 book, "Flyboys: A True Story of Courage." (Photo shows Gen. Yoshio Tachibana signing the surrender of the Bonin Island chain in September 1944)

In late 1945, as part of Japanese war crime trials, a 20-man Marine Police Force, led by Col. Presley M. Rexes, was specifically detailed to probe the whereabouts of American pilots that bailed out over the Islands after their aircraft were disabled during bombing missions. He discovered what he was looking for in the records of General Yoshio Tachibana war crime trial in 1947. International Journal of Naval History also helped complete the details on what happened to the eight missing aviators.

According to the investigation, by mid-1945, due to the Allied naval blockade, Japanese troops on Chichi Jima ran low on supplies and were starving, so Tachibana's senior staff turned to cannibalism. In August 1944 and February/March 1945, in what came to be known later as the "Ogasawara Incident," Tachibana - a notorious sadistic, alcoholic commander - issued an order that all American prisoners of war (downed aviators) be killed. Lt. Col. Kikujima and Capt. Noboru Nakajima clubbed, bayoneted, beheaded and mutilated the eight American airmen. Not only the ones who bailed out over the island but those who landed offshore and were picked up by Japanese patrol boats. (Photo is the beheading of a captured Australian commando operating behind enemy lines).

Per an account in Time Magazine, two of the prisoners were beheaded in a public ceremony, and their livers immediately cut from their bodies, roasted and served as an appetizer to visiting Senior Japanese Navy Officer during a Sukiyaki party. The Japanese Navy officers subsequently reciprocated by hosting a party where they butchered and served their own American POW's. Other parts of the airmen's bodies were boiled as meat for stew.

The names of the eight aviators executed are:

Navy Aviation Radioman Jimmy Dye, from Mount Ephraim, New Jersey
Navy Pilot Floyd Hall from Sedalia, Missouri
Navy Aviation Radioman Marve Mershon from Los Angeles, California
Marine Pilot Warren Earl Vaughn from Childress, Texas
Navy Aviation Radioman Dick Woellhof from Clay Center, Kansas
Aviation Gunners Grady York from Jacksonville, Florida
Navy Aviation Gunner Glenn Frazier from Athol, Kansas
Navy Pilot Warren Hindenlang of Foxboro, Massachusetts. 

The ninth aviator, Navy Pilot William L. Connell from Seattle, Washington, was held as a Prisoner of War until the end of hostilities in September 1945. This photo taken of then 88-year-old Connell in 2012 was the day he jumped out of an airplane for the first time since he was shot down at age 20 and parachuted into the hands of the Japanese.

In 1946, 30 Japanese soldiers were court-martialed on Guam on charges of executing prisoners. However, as cannibalism was not covered under international law at the time, Gen. Tachibana, Major Sueo Matoba, Admiral Kunzio Mori, and Capt. Yoshii were charged with "prevention of honorable burial." The four, plus a fifth officer, were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. All of the enlisted men were released within eight years.

The execution and cannibalism of American POWs at Chichi Jima was not an isolated incident. Many written reports and testimonies collected by tribunals indicate that Japanese personnel in many parts of Asia and the Pacific committed acts of cannibalism against Allied prisoners of war. In many cases, this was inspired by ever-increasing Allied attacks on Japanese supply lines, and the death and illness of Japanese as a result of hunger. According to historian Yuki Tanaka, "Cannibalism was often a systematic activity conducted by whole squads and under the command of officers."

Perhaps the most interesting detail about the execution and cannibalization of the eight aviators was the fact that George H.W. Bush narrowly escaped the same destiny. But what if he hadn't? Inexorably, the history of America's presidential and foreign policy would have been dramatically different.

Battlefield Chronicles: Korea - The Forgotten War

Calling the war in Korea, the "forgotten war" has been part of the American lexicon since 1951. However, why it was called that in the first place is not completely understood. To understand how the words and, more importantly, how its meaning became part of our national mentality, one must first appreciate the history of what was occurring on the Korean peninsula before, during, and following the war.

Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the closing days of World War II in 1945 when the Allies split the former Japanese colony along the 38th parallel, with the north administered by the Soviet Union and the South by the United States. Over the next few years, the Soviets and the Americans gradually withdrew their forces, and the two Koreas were all but "forgotten" as the world focused on Germany, Eastern Europe, and China's civil war and revolution.

That all changed the early morning hours on June 25, 1950, when North Korean troops stormed across the38th parallel and invaded South Korea, catching the greatly outnumbered and ill-equipped South Korea's forces off guard and throwing them into a hasty southern retreat. American and other Allied troops still located in Korea also withdrew to the south, setting up blocking and delaying positions until they reached the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. The most famous of these blocking stances was Task Force Smith on July 27, 1950, at the Battle of Osan, approximately 20 miles south of Seoul. North Korean troops and tanks eventually overwhelmed American positions, and the remnants of the Task Force retreated in disorder to the south.

The United Nations quickly condemned the invasion and demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities and for North Korea to withdraw its armed forces back above the 38th parallel. When the North Koreans failed to comply, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on June 27, 1950 recommending that its members provide military assistance to South Korea.

Although he did not want to find the United States embroiled in another war, President Harry Truman soon agreed to send American forces into action. On July 7, 1950, the U.N. Security Council recommended that all U.N. forces sent to South Korea be put under U.S. command. The next day, General Douglas MacArthur was named Supreme Commander of all U.N. Forces in Korea.

By early August 1950 the weakened Allies had been pushed all the way back to the Pusan Perimeter, a defensive line around an area in the southeastern corner of the Korean peninsula. Throughout August and into September, the Americans and their counterparts fought off attack after attack from the North Koreans, barely preventing them from advancing any further. The first reinforcement to arrive by ship in the Pusan Harbor where the Army First Cavalry Division and U.S. Marines stationed in Japan. Other U.N. troops arrived as well, allowing the Allies to take the offensive.

Wanting to crush North Korean forces not only near Pusan but elsewhere in South Korea, MacArthur devised an audacious plan to land troops behind the enemy lines at Inchon - about 100 miles south of the 38th parallel and 25 miles northwest from Seoul. In that way, his forces could attack the North Koreans from both directions.

Initially, MacArthur's proposal met with resistance when other senior American military leaders - mostly Navy officers - criticized the plan as too risky, pointing to a variety of challenges associated with landing at Inchon, including the narrow port-channel and extreme tidal changes. MacArthur argued that these factors would mean the North Koreans wouldn't expect the Allies to attempt an amphibious landing at the poorly defended Inchon.

MacArthur received the official go-ahead for the Inchon landing, and beginning on September 15, 1950, American-led U.N. forces converged on the North Korean army from the north and the south, killing or capturing thousands North Korean soldiers and disrupting their supply lines. All along the Korean peninsula, the now disorganized units of the North Korean army were trying to hold on while others quickly retreated back over the 38th parallel.

General Douglas MacArthur ordered troops to pursue the retreating North Koreans further into North Korea while sending other U.N. force southeast and to recapture Seoul, which they succeeded to do by September 26, 1950, following bitter, deadly house-to-house fighting.

By early October 1950, American and South Korean forces advanced deep into North Korea, destroying North Koreans units and sending them further into retreat toward the Yalu River, which separates North Korea from Communist China. On October 19, the North Korean capital of Pyongyang was captured.

McArthur then pushed American troops further north toward the Yalu River. Chinese leaders threatened to intervene in the conflict if U.N. forces continued north or crossed the border into China. McArthur felt confident the Chinese were bluffing and would never enter the war. It was a miscalculation that ultimately helped get him fired by Truman.

In late November, as record subzero temperatures blew in by cold northern winds, a massive force of 300,000 Chinese troops crossed into North Korea undetected and joined the demoralized North Korean forces. 

In brutal freezing cold-weather fighting, the outnumbered U.N. forces, surrounded by North Koreans and Chinese, began withdrawing from the Chosin Reservoir and other footholds along the further stretches of North Korea. The complete breakout from the Chosin Reservoir took a few weeks before some U.N. forces reached Hungnam's port facilities and evacuated by ships. Other badly depleted U.N. forces rapidly retreated towards the 38th parallel.  

In early January 1951, the Communists recaptured Seoul, only to have the Allies reoccupy it again in March. By May 1951, the communists were pushed back to the 38th parallel, and the battle line remained in that vicinity for the rest of the war as the U.S. and North Korean armistice negotiators, neither willing to surrender an inch of bloody worthless frozen ground, took their own sweet time dawdling in the comfort of a heated "peace tent" at the abandoned village of Panmunjom.

On July 27, 1953, after two years of bitter back and forth negotiation and three years of war that killed about 600,000 soldiers on both sides and as many as 2 million civilians, military leaders from China, North Korea, and the United Nations signed an armistice that ended the fighting and established a 2.5-mile-wide demilitarized zone to serve as a buffer between the two Koreas.

Korea remains divided along the 38th parallel with North and South Korea still making threats against each other, raising nuclear-tipped spears, conducting "training exercises" and firing "stray rounds." Every day, communist and anticommunist forces - including Americans - stare each other down across no man's land and conduct reconnaissance and security patrols along the most heavily fortified space in the world. Nearly every day, the media reminds us about the tensions between the two Koreas, which are perhaps worse today than when the U.N. sent troops there 62 years ago.

Isolated North Korea continues to be ruled by a one-family dictatorship currently led by its erratic and immature Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, who and in the tradition of his father and grandfather, uses the nations meager resources on military might. In contrast, his enslaved people continue to starve to death.

South Korea, however, has grown into the eight wealthiest nation in the world, and Seoul's quality of life in 2013 was found to be higher than that of New York City, London, or Melbourne but slightly lower than Tokyo and Paris.

So why is the Korean War Korea still referred to as a "police action," "the Korean conflict," and "the forgotten war," when in fact, it was inescapably a real, hard slugging, miserable war where millions died and many more suffered from the hostilities? And why in spite of its significance of being the first shooting war of the Cold War, pitting democracy to communism?

Here are some of the reasons given for why it gained the label "the forgotten war" and continues to be referred to in that manner by many.

Nestled snugly between the storied glory of the last "good war" - Second World War and that twelve-year nightmare known as Vietnam - the Korean War is mostly forgotten because very little was accomplished according to some. They point out that neither side won nor did they lose it since they never signed a permanent peace treaty, so both sides are technically still at war.

Another theory goes something like this: it was fought in a remote, backward country of no vital, strategic interest, and it ended in a deadlock "the kiss of death for national pride and war memory. What contradicts that idea, however, is the Korean War Veterans Memorial dedicate to the spirit, sacrifice, and commitment of the men and women who served during the Korean War.

Dedicate on July 27, 1995, the 42nd anniversary of the armistice that ended the war; it is in Washington, D.C.'s West Potomac Park, southeast of the Lincoln Memorial and just south of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. There are 38 infantrymen statues scattered across an open field to symbolize the 38th parallel. 

Perhaps the one theory that makes some sense on how the forgotten war idea came into being was put forth by Melinda Pash in her book "In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation: The Americans Who Fought the Korean War," which examines this significant but neglected war.

She wrote: Korea has been called a "Forgotten War" since at least October 1951 when U.S. News & World Report gave it that moniker. In reality, Americans did not so much forget the Korean War as never having thought about it at all. When the war first broke out, people worried that American involvement would usher in the same type of rationing and full mobilization that had characterized World War II. That failed to occur, and within a few months, most Americans turned back to their own lives, ignoring the conflict raging half a world away.

Newspapers continued to report on the war, but with the entrance of the Chinese in late fall 1950 and the resulting stalemate in late 1951, few Americans wanted to read or think about Korea despite the nearly two million Americans serving in Korea. 

No doubt, many of our citizens - mostly because it is so well entrenched in our psyche - will continue to "forget" or ignore the Korean War and its veterans. Yet on so many levels, this shows general disrespect for those American patriots who bravely fought in a bitter Vietnam war where 54,246 died, and another 103,254 were injured. Then, of course, there are the 7,140 POWs and the 8,117 U.S. troops still officially missing in action. Don't families of those who died deserve the honor of knowing their loved one died in a real war and not a forgotten one?

Six Days on Marble Mountain

Eleven miles south of Da Nang stands five small, forested marble and limestone mountains bounded by a river on the West and separated by Highway One. Like silent sentinels guarding the coastline, the five are known collectively as Marble Mountain. The highest of these mountains, closest to the beach, is Nui Thuy Son or Kim Son, where several Buddhist temples and shrines have occupied open areas among the steep rocky surfaces for hundreds of years. 

Deep caves meander through the interior in a vast, connecting network of tunnels. At the entrance of some caves are statues of Buddha. Occasionally North Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers hide in the caves to rest or reorganize following a battle. Yet in spite of the inherent danger of sharing the mountain with the enemy, Army and Marine recon and observation teams routinely maintain a watchful eye over American units dotting the coastline below. Two of these units, MACV SOG's CCN's Forward Operational Base (FOB) 4 and C Company of the 5th Special Forces Group, share a strip of beach just north of the mountain. 

On August 21, 1968, a team from CCN, Spike Team Rattler, begin a long, arduous trek up the rugged face of Nui Thuy Son in search of a worthy place to set up a listening and observation post overlooking the basin. The team, seven Chinese ethnic Nung mercenaries led by team leader Special Forces Sgt.1st Class Ames and squad leader Staff Sgt. Larry Trimble, move methodically, expertly up the mountain until they reach an overhang among the rocks. Without a word spoken, a hasty defensive perimeter is established. Ames and Trimble look down the cliff at a small clearing hidden by foliage and rocks. This is a perfect place for an observation and listening post with a panoramic view of two Marine outposts, their CCN compound, C-Team Headquarters, and other units below.

Satisfied no enemy are in the area, ropes are thrown down, and one-by-one team members carefully ease down the craggy, weather-beaten face of the cliff, quietly setting into what will be their lair for the next few days. As dusk turns to night, no enemy has yet been seen or heard. The same is true the following day. What the team doesn't know is elite NVA Sappers, and VC units are quietly hiding in caves below, preparing for a major assault on American units on the coast. 

Sometime after midnight on August 23, 1968, the team is alerted by the sounds and sights of explosions and green and red tracers lighting up the darkness - the NVA and VC are attacking the two Marine outposts. Trimble grabs the radio, desperately trying to contact the Marines but fails. Quickly changing the radio frequency, he calls his CCN compound just as they too are attacked. Spike Team Rattler has no choice but to helplessly watch in horror at the certain death and destruction unfolding before their eyes. But within minutes, they too are under heavy attack by enemy soldiers. 

In one section of the perimeter, the enemy mounts a ground attack, threatening to overrun the team's position. Trimble hands the radio to Ames and rushes forward to organize a defense from the assaulting enemy. In the midst of throwing grenades and laying down continuous fire on the advancing enemy, a Nung points out a nearby enemy mortar dropping rounds on the CCN compound. Raising and firing a M79 rocket launcher, Trimble destroys the mortar position. Enemy fire becomes more sporadic as flares coming from the basin, light up the darkness, casting eerie shadows on the mountain and the fierce fighting below.

Fifteen minutes after the initial attack on FOB 4 and the C-Team, a Spectre AC-130 gunship arrives over the battle area, hosing down the attacking NVA and VC with a steady stream of deadly fire from its 25mm Gatling-type rotary cannon. The fight continues inside the CCN compound, small arms fire and satchel-charges explode everywhere as the enemy, and Special Forces soldiers fight hand-to-hand in deadly combat.

After what seems like forever, the rising sun from the South China Sea pushes back the shadows on the beach as surviving NVA and VC escape along the South China Sea beach.

In the growing daylight, the terrible bloodbath is overwhelming for both battle-harden warriors and those with little or no experience in war.

But the fighting is not over for Spike Team Rattler.

Wanting to check how vulnerable the team might be, Trimble and several of the Nungs leave their perimeter only to run into an enemy patrol. Following a short firefight, with Ames and the other Nungs from inside the perimeter providing covering fire, a second enemy 82mm mortar is captured along with other enemy equipment and documents. A helicopter flies out and takes the enemy equipment and documents. Ames accompanies the documents back. Some shots are fired at the hovering helicopter just before it climbs away. Trimble, the only American on the ground, is now the team leader. Among the captured papers was a detailed plan for a second attack on the Marine amphibious unit, which was thwarted. 

Still surrounded on the mountain, Trimble learns from his interpreter the Nungs intend to sneak through the enemy lines and return to the compound. Refusing to abandon his post, the Nungs leave him behind. But moments after leaving, a firefight erupts, bringing them running back to Trimble. With no hope of escaping and too much enemy fire for a helicopter extraction, the team stays put.

That night the enemy tries twice to overrun the perimeter only to be turned back by the team's ground fire and gunships firing danger-close to the team's perimeter. So close, the team is peppered by shrapnel, flying rocks, and debris. One Nung is so severely wounded in this fight; he surely would have died if not for Trimble, a trained medic, stopping the bleeding.

On the morning of August 24, a relief helicopter drops in supplies to the beleaguered team as it reorganizes for a breakout. A Special Forces Hatchet platoon is dispatched to assist in the breakout but has to retreat after taking heavy casualties from an enemy determined to prevent Spike Team Rattler's escape. Miraculously, that night is quiet. (Photo is Trimble carefully surveying the area)

In the morning, when a helicopter flies in to evacuate the wounded, it receives no enemy fire, nor were any enemy spotted. Trimble and the remnants of Spike Team Rattler hold out for another day to ensure the enemy is gone. But none were seen. It seems the NVA and VC have left the mountain.

On August 26, 1968, Spike Team Rattler managed to make their way off the mountain on foot, leaving behind six days of hell none will ever forget. (Photo shows Trimble at base camp)

Eighteen American Special Forces warriors and over 80 indigenous mercenaries were dead, with scores more wounded. It was the deadliest attack on U.S. Special Forces in history. According to CCN members, had it not been for Trimble knocking out the enemy mortar, many more would have died. And so grateful for capturing documents that thwarted the attack on the USMC amphibious unit, the Marines threw a spur-of-the-moment celebration for Spike Team Rattler on their return.

Neil Thorne, a MACV SOG historian, and researchers served 11 years with the Virginia and West Virginia Army National Guard as a Light Infantry Scout. His particular interest is working with the recovery of lost and missing recognition for members of Special Operations from recently declassified Vietnam War operations

Who is He?

Who is he?
You sit at home and watch,
Sipping a refreshing cold iced tea.
The news comes on and then you hear,
The All-Star game is drawing near.
Then you see a far off land,
Where men are dying in the sand.
A frown appears across your face, 
You are tired of hearing about this place.

Who cares about Vietnam across the sea? 
It's far away and doesn't concern me,
You'd rather hear the Beatles play,
Than learn about the world today.
But stop and think a moment or two,
And ask yourself,
Does this concern you?



It's great to be alive and free,
But what about the guy across the sea?
He's giving up his life for me
So I can live under liberty.
Instead of fighting at my front door,
This guy who lives in filth and slime,
How can he do it all the time?

He's about my age so why should he care
About a war someone else should share.
You call him vile names and make fun of his cause,
Yet he is always first to win your war.

You lucky guy, you laugh and sneer,
Because you never really known fear.
This young man faces death each day,
But he's always got something funny to say.



No mail again,
Again a twinge of sorrow,
Oh what the hell there's always tomorrow.
The morale is low, the tension is high,
Some even break down and cry.
He wants to go home and see a loved one.
He works all day and stands guard all night.
He's tired and sick but continues to fight,
The college crowd thinks he's a fool,
But that's what makes him hard and cruel.

You don't appreciate what he will do,
Like giving up his life for you.
He sacrifices much yet he has nothing in return,
So just that you can stay in school and learn,
No parties and dances for this young man,
Until he comes home again.

The days are hot and the nights are too,
What wonder a cold can of beer can do!
He dreams of cold beer and a thick juicy steak,
When someone shouts, 
We've got a hill to take.

Some will be heroes because they are brave,
And others will get a reef on their graves.
You'll recognize him as he walks by,
There's a saddened look in his eye,
He walks so proud yet looks so mean,
He's called the world's greatest fighting machine.
No wonder he's proud,
He's a United States Marine. 

Lester Atherden was killed in Quang Ngaia on March 4, 1966 
View tributes on to this brave young man here: 
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=38139810

Military Facts and Legends: First WW II Aircraft Crew to Reach 25 Missions

In 1917, and 1918, the United States government issued Liberty Bonds to raise money for our involvement in World War I. By the summer of 1940 when it appeared the United States would be drawn into World War II, bonds again were being sold as a way to remove money from circulation as well as reduce inflation. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the bonds became known at War Bonds.

To promote selling the War Bonds, rallies were held throughout the country with famous celebrities, usually Hollywood film stars, sports personalities, and war heroes such as John Basilone and Audie Murphy. Famous American artists, including Norman Rockwell, created a series of illustrations that became the centerpiece of war bond advertising.

Although the U.S. Army Air Force sent its individual war heroes to War Bond rallies, it preferred sending 10-man heavy bombers crews. That because the American public knew heavy bomber crews faced death on every mission with only one in four chance of actually completing their tour of duty; that's an average life expectancy of only eight weeks. So dangerous was flying heavy bomber combat missions, the USAAF had a policy that when an aircrew wrapped up 25 missions, it was deemed to have "completed their tour of duty." The War Department would then bring the bomber and its crew home to conduct nationwide promotional tours to sell war bonds to help fund the war effort.

According to decades of World War II aviation history, the crew of the "Memphis Belle" became the first B-17F Flying Fortress crew to complete 25 missions following a strike against Kiel, Germany. She and her crew were promptly sent home to the United States to join the War Bond selling tours.

A 1944 documentary film was produced detailing its exploits, and in 1990, a Hollywood feature film entitled the "Memphis Belle" perpetuated its glory for decades. The problem was, the "Memphis Belle was not the first heavy bomber to survive 25 combat missions. Nor was she the second. She was the third.

The first to complete 25 combat missions was the crew of B-24 Liberator named "Hot Stuff" dropping bombs on Naples, Italy on February 7, 1943 - three-and-a-half months before "Memphis Belle" flew her 25th mission. "Hot Stuff" and her crew went on to fly five additional missions before she and her crew were recalled to the United States, where they were scheduled to go on a War Bonds Tour.

In early May 1943 as the crew prepared for their flight to the States for their War Bonds publicity tour, they got a call from the office of Lt. General Frank M. Andrews, Commander of the European Theater of Operations, asking if he could hitch a ride back to the States. Andrews, an experienced, instrument-rated pilot, bumped the normal co-pilot off the plane and flew in his place. Also aboard were Andrews' staff and four clergymen. Five other crewmen were bumped to make room for Andrews and his entourage.

The first refueling stop before heading out over the Atlantic was scheduled for Prestwick, Scotland, but the crew decided to fly directly to their second refueling stop at Reykjavik, Iceland. Closing in of Reykjavik, they ran into snow squalls, low clouds, and rain. After several landing attempts, "Hot Stuff" crashed into the side of 1,600-foot-tall Mount Fagradalsfjall, near Grindavik, Iceland. Upon impact, the aircraft disintegrated except for the tail gunner's turret, which remained relatively intact. Of the 15 aboard, 14 died. Miraculously the injured tail-gunner, Sgt. George Eisel survived the crash. Because his leg got tangled up in heavy wreckage, he couldn't move. Twenty-four hours later, he was rescued and the bodies recovered.

In 1945 Camp Springs Air Base in Prince Georges County, Maryland, was renamed Andrews Field in Gen. Andrews honor. It has since been renamed Joint Base Andrews.

The "Hot Stuff" and her crew were soon forgotten.

"Hell's Angels" a B-17F Flying Fortress became the first 8th Air Force B-17 to complete 25 combat missions in June 1943. At the end of their tour, the crew of "Hell's Angels" signed on for a second tour and continued to fly, going on to fly 48 missions, without ever turning back from their assigned target. The aircraft was returned to the states on January 20, 1944, for its own publicity tour.

Since 1943 Word War II aviation history considered the "Memphis Belle" as the first heavy bomber to reach the 25-mission mark. Eyewitnesses and early documents tell a different story: 

"Hot Stuff" was the first B-24 crew and the first heavy bomber to complete 25 combat missions on February 7, 1943.

"Hell's Angels" was the first B-17 crew to complete 25 combat missions on May 13, 1943.

Coming it third place was the "Memphis Belle," which completed 25 combat missions on May 19, 1943. (Photo is a jubilant "Memphis Belle" crew following their 25-mission)

So why did the U.S. Army Air Force promote the "Memphis Belle" as the first heavy bomber to fly 25 combat missions?

According to Warbird News, our government was anxious to report uplifting and inspiring stories of the war that would capture the American public's imagination. For the USAAF it was heavy bombers crews that successfully reached 25 combat mission in defiance of actuarial norms. Because the "Memphis Belle" hit that momentous milestone without a crewman's death made her the likely candidate to be first to return home for a War Bond tour.

Americans, for better or worse are conditioned to respond to a happy ending, especially when it goes against all probability.