Random Flights III: Aviators from NARA’s Photo Collection of Aviators: Edward J. Czarnecki and Carl G. Planck, Jr., from Quentin Reynolds’ “70,000 to 1”.  Plus, Raymond K. Hine

Books leave impressions.  Maybe this is by virtue of a book’s very subject matter; perhaps it’s because of an author’s literary style; possibly this arises from a book’s symbolism and message.  And maybe, just maybe, it’s a matter of “age”:  That is, the chance intersection between the era symbolized by a book’s year of publication, and, your “own” age as a reader of that book.

I think this was so for me when I first read Quentin Reynold’s 70,000 to 1 in the late 1960s.  Among the many books in my father’s library (the number seemed innumerable to me at the time, though in retrospect it was hardly so!), more than once I carried 70,000 to 1, Gene Gurney’s Five Down and Glory, or, William Green’s Famous Fighters of the Second World War (specifically, volume I of Famous Fighters; I discovered Volume II some years later) – to elementary school, where – whenever free time permitted, I immersed myself with curiosity, wonder and not-a-little-awe, within a past that that only recently – just a little over two decades previously – had passed.  After all – so yes, this “dates” me – this was in the late 1960s, only two and a half decades after the end of the Second World War.  

As so, in 70,000 to I, I read with wonder about the experiences of Sergeant Gordon Manuel of the B-17 Flying Fortress Honi Kuu Okole, incorrectly noted in the book – as I discovered later! – as Kai O Keleiwa.  As you can appreciate from Justin Taylan’s book review of 70,000 to 1 at Pacific Wrecks, author Quentin Reynolds combines themes of military aviation, escape and evasion, and wilderness survival, to create a contemporary, fast-paced version of Robinson Crusoe.

A particularly inspiring aspect of the book was Reynold’s account of how Manuel met, and was eventually rescued with, American fighter pilots Owen Giertsen, Edward Czarnecki and Carl Planck.  Those names must have left an impression upon me:  In 2014, as I reviewed the photos in Photographic Prints of Air Cadets and Officers, Air Crew, and Notables in the History of Aviation – NARA RG 18-PU, I was more than intrigued to discover Czarnecki’s and Planck’s portraits:  “So, that’s who they were!” 

Their pictures appear below.

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But, first (!) here’s the cover of the first (1946) hardback edition of 70,000 to 1, which features art by Miriam Woods.  (You can view this and other aeronautically themed book art, and many other examples of cover art from books and pulp-fiction magazines, at my brother blog, WordsEnvisioned.  (* Shameless plug *)

Here’s Quentin Reynolds.  Specifically, Quentin James Reynolds.

Quentin James Reynods, at Wikipedia

Quentin James Reynolds, at FindAGrave

Gordon R. Manuel, at Pacific Wrecks

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Second Lieutenant Edward John Czarnecki

431st Fighter Squadron, 475th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force

Edward J. Czarnekci, at Pacific Wrecks

P-38H 42-66948, at Pacific Wrecks

Edward J. Czarnecki, at FindAGrave

Here’s an official WW II Army Air Force Photograph of Lt. Czarnecki and two other fighter pilots, undated image 59978AC (A48682). Caption: This trio of P-38 Lightning pilots knocked down five Japanese Zeros in engagements near Wewak, New Guinea on August 16 and 18, 1943, when more than 200 enemy planes were destroyed.  They are, left to right: Capt. William Walderman of Santa Monica, Calif.; 2nd Lt. Edward Czarnecki of Wilmington, Del.; and 1st Lt. Jack Mankin of Kansas City, Mo.  Their count: Walderman, one; and two each for Czarnecki and Mankin.”

MACR 1235 for P-38H 42-66849 and Lt. Planck, missing on October 23, 1943.  These digital images were scanned from paper photocopies which were themselves made from a fiche copy of the MACR.    

Edward Czarnecki’s name appeared within a list of military casualties published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on November 28, 1943.  Since northern Delaware and southern New Jersey were (still are) within the Inquirer’s primary geographic area of news coverage (…not that I actually r e a d the Inquirer…I don’t…but that’s off topic…), the names of military casualties from Wilmington, Delaware, the vicinity of Camden, New Jersey, and southern ‘Jersey “in general” not uncommonly appeared in the newspaper.

Old Newspapers

The image below shows “setting” of the above article:  Page 2.  Unlike The new York Times, where WW II casualty lists – regardless of length – appeared several pages well “into” the body of the newspaper, WW II casualty lists in the Inquirer always appeared or at least commenced on the paper’s first or second pages.  As the war progressed and casualty lists inevitably became longer, the “first” part of most lists would typically appear “below the fold” on the newspaper’s front page, and continue a few pages into the body of the paper.  

The timing of publication this particular list is actually typical of the appearance of most WW II casualty lists in the (then) print news media:  There was usually (usually…) about a month time lag between the date on which a serviceman was killed, wounded, or missing in action, and the appearance of his name within Casualty Lists released by the War Department.  Thus, a little over one month transpired between Czarnecki’s shoot-down on October 23, 1943, and his name’s appearance in the Inquirer on November 28.  

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First Lieutenant Carl G. Planck

9th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force

Here’s Lt. Planck in an official Army Air Force (undated, but obviously (!) pre-November 1, 1943) photo (122747AC (A32518)).  Caption: “A member of the United States Army Air Force fighter squadron that destroyed seventy-two Japanese planes in aerial combat in New Guinea from June 1, 1942 to January 8, 1943 shortly after the fall of Buna Mission, is shown here.  He is Second Lieutenant Carl G. Planck, 8 Sutherland Avenue, Charleston, South Carolina, with one confirmed victory.”

MACR 1016 for Lt. Planck and P-38H 43-2387, missing on November 1, 1943.  Akin to the MACR for Lt. Czarnecki, these digital images were scanned from paper photocopies, made from fiche.  

Carl G. Planck, at Pacific Wrecks

P-38G 43-2387, at Pacific Wrecks

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First Lieutenant Raymond K. Hine

339th Fighter Squadron, 347h Fighter Group, 13th Air Force

Operation Vengeance – the aerial interception and killing of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto by P-38 Lightnings of the United States army Air Force (specifically, the 339th Fighter Squadron of the 347th Fighter Group) on April 18, 1943 – has continued to be the subject of a vast amount of attention, commentary, and study.  I myself first learned about this story in the Ballantine Books’ paperback Zero, by Masatake Okumiya, Jiro Horikoshi, and – a h e m – Martin Caidin, where the story is covered in Chapter 20.  Appropriately headed “Admiral Yamamoto Dies in Action”, the events of that day are presented from both (primarily) the Japanese, and (secondarily) the American vantage points.  Therein, in terms of American losses, is found the simple statement, “Our pilots shot down Lieutenant Ray Hine’s P-38; and, we verified later most of the fifteen P-38s which returned to Guadalcanal were badly shot up.”  Regardless of the degree of accuracy in the account given in Zero, I was struck by the irony – for lack of a better word – of Hine being the only American pilot not to have returned from the mission.  And then, years later, I found his photograph in NARA RG 18-PU.  “So, that’s who he was…”       

This portrait of Raymond Hine was taken at Kelly Field on September 29, 1941.  Two additional portraits of him (one of which also appears at Pacific Wrecks) at can be found in his biographic profile at FindAGrave.  

1 Lt. Raymond K. Hine, at FindAGrave

1 Lt. Raymond K. Hine, at PacificWrecks

1 Lt. Raymond K. Hine, at Historynet

Random Flights IV: Aviators from NARA’s Photo Collection of Aviators: One Day in August – Lieutenants Voorhis H. Day, Robert M. Stultz, and Arthur Sugas, August 17, 1943

In the nearly eight decades that have ensued since 1943, a huge amount of literature – popular, professional, and academic – has been devoted to 8th Air Force’s Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission of August 17, 1943.  Perhaps this has been inevitable, given the gravity and significance of the loss of sixty B-17 Flying Fortresses incurred during the “Mission Number 84”.  It would seem that most such literature has focused on the events of the mission from vantage point of the tactics and strategy of heavy bombardment.

However, another aspect of the Mission 84 – certainly recorded; certainly noted; certainly in the historical record – was the loss of three P-47 Thunderbolts of the 56th Fighter Group.  As described by Martin Middlebrook in The Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission – American Raids on 17 August 1943:

“The Americans suffered some casualties.  In the 62nd Squadron, Lieutenant Voorhis Day and his wingman, Lieutenant Robert Stultz, were seen to go down on some of the Messerschmitt 110s and, although their voices were heard happily talking about a possible success for Day, neither was seen again by their fellow pilots.  It is probable that both were caught by German single-engined fighters.  ‘Daisy’ Day’s friends later tried to secure for him the credit for shooting down two Messerschmitt 110s, but confirmation of this was not granted by American authorities.  The third American casualty occurred in that part of the 63rd Squadron which had remained aloft, the officer leading two flights of P-47s preferring to stay as high cover well above the battle – much to the annoyance of the other pilots in those fighters.  These American fighters were then ‘jumped’ by two German planes coming down from an even greater altitude and the P-47 of Lieutenant Arthur Sugas was shot down.  Lieutenant Harold Comstock promptly attacked and shot down one of the Germans but was later disgusted to be fined £5 by his flight leader for breaking formation without orders.  Comstock says, ‘My very first enemy aircraft destroyed had cost me twenty bucks!  I was sorry to have seen my friend Sugas go down but I have to be honest and say that the elation of my first success was by far the uppermost emotion at that moment.  I didn’t know he was dead; I really thought he would get out.’  Lieutenants Sugas, Day and Stultz, all original members of the 56th Fighter Group when it came to England, died.  Their P-47s crashed between Liege and Maastricht.  Five German pilots from three different Luftwaffe units claimed these American fighters.”

These three pilots were lost in the following aircraft; recorded in the following Missing Air Crew Reports:

1 Lt. Voorhis H. Day, 62nd Fighter Squadron: P-47D 42-7891, LM * M, in MACR 264

1 Lt. Robert M. Stultz, 62nd Fighter Squadron: P-47C 41-6398, LM * H, Joan L. Sullivan, MACR 263

1 Lt. Arthur Sugas, 63rd Fighter Squadron: P-47C 41-6372, UN * S, MACR 265

Something a b o u t the loss of these pilots – three fighter planes and three men, versus sixty bombers and some six hundred men – reminded me of a literary trope not uncommonly found in association with works of literature (typically fiction, but not always fiction) related to military history, pertaining to losses, casualties, and the deaths of soldiers, as viewed through the vastly larger scope of any randomly chosen day’s events.  To the effect that, “Our losses were light today.  We only lost ‘so-and-so’ number of men.”  Maybe so, but not so “light” if you’re one of that number. 

And so, when I reviewed the portraits in the collection Photographic Prints of Air Cadets and Officers, Air Crew, and Notables in the History of Aviation – NARA RG 18-PU, at the United States National Archives, and discovered images of Day, Stultz, and Sugas, a bell of recognition rang quietly within my memory. 

So, these images appear below.  

I’ve included links to the three pilots’ biographical profiles at FindAGrave, and for Day and Stultz, have included images of the German Luftgaukommando Reports reporting the shoot-downs of their planes.  These reports aren’t the (perhaps?) more well-known “J Reports”, but instead AV (Amerikaner Vorgaenge [“American Incident”]) reports: AV 245 / 43 for Day, and, AV 374 / 43 for Stultz; there doesn’t seem to be one for Sugas.  I’ve also included several Buffalo city newspaper articles about Voorhis Day, found via Tom Tryniski’s Fulton.History website.    

Notably, the Wikipedia entry for the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission mentions the loss of two Spitfires of Number 403 (RCAF) Squadron.  These aircraft, both Spitfire IXs, were on afternoon Ramrod 206 to Ghent, Belgium.  Aircraft MA615, piloted by F/Sgt. Graham Milton Shouldice, collided with aircraft LZ997, piloted by F/Lt. W.C. Conrad, DFC.  MA615 crashed into the sea, but Conrad was able to bail out successfully.  Evading capture, he returned to England via Spain by October 10, 1943.  Other Fighter Command losses that day were Mosquito VI HX826 of No. 25 Squadron (both crew POWs), Typhoon 1B DN553 of No. 182 Squadron (pilot killed), and a Spitfire IX of No. 341 Squadron (fate of pilot unknown). 

And so, the portraits. 

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First Lieutenant Voorhis H. Day

Voorhis H. Day, at FindAGrave

Amerikaner Vorgaenge (AV) Report AV 245 / 43

Note that at the time of the filing of this report, Voorhis was unidentified.

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Army Air Corps To Train Youth

Buffalo Courier Express

October 27, 1939

Old Newspapers

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Buffaloian Graduated From Army Air School

Buffalo Evening News

April 26, 1940

Digital Newspaper Archives of US & Canada

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Day-Zimmerman (wedding)

Buffalo Evening News

June 4, 1942

Digital Newspaper Archives of US & Canada

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4 From WNY Killed; Buffaloian Flying In Asia Shot Down

Buffalo Evening News

February 24, 1944

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In The Nation’s Service

by Betty Harries

Buffalo Evening News

April 1, 1944

Digital Newspaper Archives of US & Canada

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First Lieutenant Robert Mark Stultz

Robert M. Stultz, at FindaGrave

Amerikaner Vorgaenge (AV) Report 374 / 43

Note the English-language translation, below.

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First Lieutenant Arthur Sugas

MACR 265

While circling bombers over Ans approximately 30 FW 190’s made a head on attack on the bombers.  I was flying Postgate White 4, and Lt. Sugas, Postgate White 3.  Two FW-190s closed in on us at about 29,000 feet, and started firing.  I tried to contact Lt. Sugas over the R/T, but was unable to reach him.  I broke into the E/A and dove down.  This was the last I saw of Lt. Sugas.  I do not believe he followed me down.

George A. Compton

2nd Lt., A.C.

Arthur Sugas, at FindAGrave

References

Franks, Norman L.R., Royal Air Force Fighter Command Losses of the Second World War – Volume 2 – Operational Losses: Aircraft and Crews 1942-1943, Midland Publishing, Limited, Leicester, England, 1998

Middlebrook, Martin, The Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission – American Raids on 17 August 1943, Penguin Books, London, England, 1985 (pp. 259-260)