Uncategorized – History, at Random

Random Flights II: Aviators from NARA’s Photo Collection of Aviators – Hank Greenberg, Grover C. Hodge, Jr., Ben Kuroki, and Harvey J. Scandrett. Plus, Eugene W. Roddenberry.

The “second” post comprises photos from NARA RG-18 PU, this time of specifically aviators who served in the United States Army Air Force of World War Two…

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Hank Greenberg (Henry Benjamin Greenberg)

“Nicknamed “Hammerin’ Hank”, “Hankus Pankus”, or “The Hebrew Hammer”, was an American professional baseball player and team executive. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily for the Detroit Tigers as a first baseman in the 1930s and 1940s. A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and a two-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award winner, he was one of the premier power hitters of his generation and is widely considered as one of the greatest sluggers in baseball history. He had 47 months of military service including service in World War II, all of which took place during what would have been prime years in his major league career.”

A candid shot of Hank Greenberg in NARA RG-18 PU.

Here’s an official Army Air Force photo of Greenberg, image 69033AC (A2336). Caption? “Captain “Hank” Greenberg, famous baseball personality, pauses a minute before continuing through the chow line at a 14th Air Force base in China.” The actual date of the photo is unknown, albeit text on the photo card states, “Orig. 4×5 neg rec’d 27 August 1946 from 14th Air Force thru AAF Historical Office.” However, VintageDetroit states that Greenberg reenlisted in the Army seven weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, “…accepting a position as a sergeant in the Army Air Force, and a few weeks later he finished officer training school and was commissioned a first lieutenant. He stayed in the uniform of the United States military for the next three and a half years. His last position was in the China/India/Burma Theater of Operations where he scouted bombing targets for B-29s. In all, Greenberg served 47 months in the service during World War II, the longest tenure of any ballplayer.”

Hank Greenberg, at Wikipedia

Hank Greenberg, at FindAGrave

Baseball Reference

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Video

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, at Keith’s (Mr. Sports Historian) YouTube channel

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Grover Cleveland Hodge, Jr.

Of the five aviators whose images are presented in this post, the names of two – Hank Greenberg (above) and Gene Roddenberry (see below…) – are known to a lesser or greater degree by the general public, while knowledge of another – Ben Kuroki – is probably limited to WW II aviation buffs, historians of American aviation, and scholars of Japanese American history. But, here’s a fourth personality – or much more aptly and succinctly phrased, a person – knowledge of whom is probably limited only to historians of aviation, those knowledgeable about Canadian history, and (especially?) students of wilderness exploration and outdoor survival: First Lt. Grover C. Hodge, Jr.

Lt. Hodge was the pilot of B-26B Marauder 41-17862, otherwise known as “TIME’S AWASTIN”, an aircraft of the 440th Bomb Squadron of the 319th Bomb Group, which crashed near Saglek Bay, Labrador on December 10, 1942, during a planned flight from Narsarsuaq, Greenland to Goose Bay, Labrador. The plane’s compliment of seven crewmen (including Hodge) survived the crash-landing entirely uninjured. But alas, they did not survive.

A few links to information about this story are given below.

Grover C. Hodge, Jr., at FindAGrave

B-26B 41-17862, at Aviation Safety Network

Here’s the accident report for B-26B 41-17862: Accident Report 43-12-10-501. Note that relatively little of the report focuses on the fate and experience of the crew between the time they crash-landed, and, their discovery by an Eskimo several months later. Instead, most of the document is comprised of descriptions of flight activity on December 10, and, weather conditions.

Grover C. Hodge, Jr.’s Diary, at B-26.com

Saglek Airport, at Wikipedia

Crash in the Wilderness, at The DEWLine

Clarence Simonsen has done extensive research about the loss of 41-17862, his lengthy write-up exploring the event in great detail, with tact and sensitivity. He presents the intriguing (and haunting) possibility that Janssen, Josephson, and Nolan may actually have survived their life-raft journey along the Labrador coast, landed in the vicinity of Nain, and hiked into the Canadian wilderness for an unknown distance. Well, we’ll never know. His essay about 41-17862 is “Smilin’ Jack and the “Twin Engine Queenie”, while his blog is “Preserving the Past II – 50 Years of Research About Aviation“)

Oyster, Harold E., and Oyster, Esther M., The 319th in Action (Records of the 319th Bombardment Group as Recorded by Lieutenant William B. Monroe, Jr., Public Relations Officer, and Others), 1976

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Here’s the Historical Record card for B-26B 41-17862. The aircraft was received by the Army Air Force on August 24, 1942.

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Here are images of three of TIME’S AWASTIN’s crew members. For those who already know this story (and others who have yet to become familiar with it), Janssen and Josephson (with Sgt. Charles F. Nolan, a passenger) left the crash site in the aircraft’s life raft on December 23, in search of help; in search of anything. The three men – alluded to just above; their fate yet and perhaps forever unknown – were never seen again. Their names are engraved upon the columns of the East Coast Memorial, in Manhattan.

Co-Pilot: 2 Lt. Paul W. Janssen, at FindAGrave

Tribute page by Mrs. Bernice Ulrich, at National WW II Memorial

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Navigator (Bombardier): 1 Lt. Emanuel J. Josephson, at FindAGrave

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Gunner: Cpl. James J. Mangini, Jr, at FindAGrave

Corporal Mangini remained at the crash site with Lt. Hodge, Cpl. Galm (radio operator), and Sgt. Weyrauch (flight engineer).

Tribute page by Mrs. Lorraine Suter, Cpl. Mangini’s sister, at National WW II Memorial

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Here are links to FindAGrave biographical profiles for the three crewman for whom photographs are unavailable:

Cpl. Frank L. Galm, at FindAGrave

Sgt. Charles F. Nolan, at FindaAGrave

Sergeant Russell Weyrauch, at FindAGrave

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The below image, probably taken by Lt. Josephson, shows three unknown aviators standing before an B-26, at an unknown location.

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These two topographic maps, prepared by the Mapping and Charting Establishment, Canadian Department of National Defence (both 1968 editions) are (upper map) “Cape Uivak – Fish Island – Labrador North District (14L/7.8, Edition 2)”, Newfoundland, and (lower map) “Hebron – Labrador South District (14L/2, Edition 1)”, Newfoundland. The scale of the maps is 1:50,000 and the contour interval 100 feet.

Though I haven’t digitally “connected” images of he two maps to one another via Photoshop, you can see that the lower image, showing Hebron, is geographically continuous with and therefore cartographically “connected” to the upper image. As such, what immediately stands out is that a fjord – the Iterungnek Fjord – lies between the peninsula where Hebron is situated (in the “lower” map) and the peninsula where Cape Saglek and Saglek Airport are situated (in the “upper” map), 41-17862’s crash location being in the vicinity of that present-day airport.

As is immediately obvious, though the straight-line “as the crow flies” distance between the Saglek Lighthouse, south-southeast to Hebron, is a little over 20 miles, that relatively short distance does not at all reflect the topography, the nature of the intervening terrain, or especially – when those two factors are weighed in combination – the obvious lack of any direct path between the crash site and Hebron. Also, given the snow cover when 41-17862 crashed in mid-December, the safest (a very relative term) route between the crash site and Hebron would probably have involved following the highly irregular coastline east and south, along the Labrador Sea. Even if this could have been done, such a journey would have entailed the crew hiking a distance far, far beyond a mere 20 miles, and finally, finding some way to cross the Iterungnek Fjord to reach – on the adjacent peninsula – the village of Hebron.

So, even in the very best of circumstances… If the crew definitely knew their position; if they were all uninjured (well, they were uninjured to start; that’s true); if they were in good health (they seemed to have been in good health, to start); even if they had wilderness training and experience in outdoor survival during winter months in the Canadian North, the prospect of reaching Hebron – in the dead of winter over snow-covered terrain, or, along an icy coastline – would I think have been far more daunting than initially apparent from viewing small-scale maps of the area.

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Dating from November of 2010, here’s a song; a ballad – with kind of an air of Gordon Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (in which you know the outcome of the story beforehand, wish that the outcome would have been entirely different, yet are still “drawn” to the story by its haunting and symbolic nature…) about the crew of “TIME’S AWASTIN”, by Ellis Coles, at the YouTube channel of Traprocker123. The song is based upon the diary kept by Grover Hodge from October 15, 1942 through February 3, 1943, while its title, “Diary of One Now Dead”, may (?), have been inspired by the title given to the diary transcript as published in The 319th in Action, in 1976, where Hodge’s diary comprises the final section of the book: “DIARY (BY ONE NOW DEAD).”

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Ben Kuroki

“The only American of Japanese descent in the United States Army Air Forces to serve in combat operations in the Pacific theater of World War II. He flew a total of 58 combat missions over Europe, North Africa, and Japan during World War II.”

Here’s Ben Kuroki’s quite candid image in NARA RG 18-PU.

In 1985, Ben’s recollections of his experiences in the 20th Air Force appeared in Chester Marshall’s The Global Twentieth – An Anthology of the 20th AF in WW II. A complete transcript of Kuroki’s essay, as well as its accompanying photo, showing Kuroki in the tail gunner’s position, follows…

THE STORY OF DETERMINATION BY A JAPANESE-AMERICAN TAIL-GUNNER

By Ben Kuroki, Tail Gunner 484th Squadron, 505th Bomb Group

Preface

Ben Kuroki was the only Japanese-American to fly combat missions with the Army Air Force in the Pacific Theatre of War during World War II. And he did it only by sheer determination and persistence – going all the way to the top to get permission. A personal letter to him from Secretary of War Henry Stimson struck down the Air Force regulation prohibiting Japanese-Americans from flying combat missions in the Pacific thus allowing Ben to remain a B-29 crew member.

“Influential friends went to bat for me and I was granted an exception which allowed me to be accepted in the 505th Bomb Group as a tail gunner on a B-29,” Ben said. “Army intelligence officers twice tried to remove me from my crew before we departed the U.S. for the Pacific, making it necessary for me to show my special letter from Secretary of War Stimson.”

In preparing this article, I asked Ben if we could publish the letter from the Secretary of War along with his story. Ben replied: “Much to my dismay, I let my daughter use it in an art exhibit at the University of California at San Diego, and since then, we have not been able to find it.”

Chester Marshall

Here’s Ben’s story:

When I returned to the United States after completing thirty missions in B-24’s in the European Theatre, I was sent to Santa Monica, California for rest and recuperation. Because of a few discriminatory actions against me soon after arriving there, I decided to go to any length to get into B-29’s and the Pacific War.

At Santa Monica I was asked to appear on an NBC radio program featuring the noted singer Jenny Simms. My appearance was cancelled because NBC officials said the Japanese-American issue was too controversial. Later, I was in Salt Lake City, and a man refused to share a taxi with me, saying, “I won’t ride with no damned Jap!” This happened while I was in uniform and wearing the Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster and other ribbons.

When my assignment came through placing me in the 48th Bomb Squadron, 505th Bomb Group, 313th Bomb Wing, I was a happy soldier again. I was assigned to a B-29 crew as tail gunner. After training at Harvard, Nebraska, we were scheduled to deploy to Tinian Island in the Marianas where we would join in the great air assault then in progress against the Japanese homeland.

Aerial combat was not new to me. I had completed thirty missions – the twenty-five required plus five – as a tail gunner with the 409th Bomb Squadron of the 93rd Bomb Group in Europe. The 93rd Group, the first B-24 Group to be stationed in England, was known as Ted Timberlake’s “Flying Circus.” One of our toughest missions was the historic low-level attack on the Ploesti oil refineries in Romania. That one still makes the hair rise on the back of my neck!

For my upcoming Pacific tour, I was assigned to Crew Number 84-10 as tail gunner. Other members of my crew were: 1st Lieutenant James Jenkins, airplane commander; 1st Lieutenant Harold B. Wilson, pilot; 1st Lieutenant Joseph Pope, navigator; 2nd Lieutenant Kenneth Neill, bombardier; M/Sergeant Paul Hughes, flight engineer; S/Sergeant Warren Sheck, radioman; Sergeant William Shaffer, radarman; S/Sergeant Bernard Endler, central fire control; Sergeant Jerome Karnoff, right gunner; and Sergeant Leroy Kirkpatrick, left gunner.

We named our plane “The Honorable Sad Saki,” which was a sort of take off on the names of the “Sad Sack” cartoon character and a Japanese drink.

My most unforgettable experience came soon after we landed in Tinian. The ground crews had arrived on the island earlier, and rumors were rampant of enemy stragglers infiltrating the camp. Few of our GIs had previously been in combat, and they were extremely trigger happy. After dark they would open up with their carbines and rifles at the slightest noise, sending bullets whizzing all around the camp. The next day they would find dead pigs and other domestic animals that belonged to the natives. These animals, crunching around in the nearby cane fields, triggered a lot of gunfire from our “protectors” and caused us to fear for our lives. Since I was of Japanese ancestry, I was so worried that one of the trigger happy GIs would take a shot at me that I was afraid to even go to the latrine after dark, preferring to anxiously wait for the sun to rise. I felt that I deserved the Purple Heart for bladder damage!

The rumors also indicated that some enemy stragglers were wearing GI uniforms so I stuck real close to my other crew members – even in chow lines during the day.

During the first couple of weeks when the trigger-happiness was at its worst, I actually felt safer when I was flying combat missions over enemy targets. Although the Japanese anti-aircraft fire and fighter opposition were lighter than I had encountered over Europe, no mission was a milk run. When my buddies kidded me about being my bodyguards back at the base, I sorta got even when we were airborne by joking, “You guys had better be good to me, because if we get shot down, you’ll need my help. I’ll even bring you rice and fish heads.”

Ben and his crew completed 35 missions against the Japanese homeland making him one of the elite few who accomplished the feat of completing a combat tour of duty in both the European Theater of operation and the Pacific Theater of operation.

Here’s Ben Kuroki in Army Air Force photo +58171AC (A39047): JAPANESE “AMERICAN TAIL GUNNER OVER TOKYO – American born Japanese T/Sgt. Ben Kuroki, Hershey, Nebraska, a tail gunner with 30 ETO missions, is interviewed on Tinian after completing his 27th mission in the Pacific, by T/Sgt. Hal Brown, Bakersfield, Calif., combat photographer for Gen. H.H. Arnold’s official Army Air Forces weekly radio show, “The Fighting AAF”. Kuroki wears Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters.”

Ben Kuroki, at Wikipedia

Ben Kuroki’s Family Tree

Ben Kuroki, at FindAGrave

Air and Space

American Air Museum in Britain

Ben Kuroki’s Bloot Chit, at National Museum of American History (Behring Center)

And, Chester Marshall’s book…

Marshall, Chester, The Global Twentieth – An Anthology of the 20th AF in WW II, Apollo Books, Winona, Mn., 1985

Here’s a snippet of what is (presumably?!) a much lengthier interview of Ben Kuroki, via the National Japanese American Historical Society.

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Gene Roddenberry (Eugene Wesley Roddenberry)

“Television screenwriter, producer and creator of Star Trek: The Original Series, and its sequel spin-off series Star Trek: The Animated Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Gene Roddenberry, long before the advent of Star Trek, in his photographic portrait from NARA RG-18 PU. Note the white-ink label at the bottom of the photo with the abbreviation “(42-G) KF”. Though I think (?) that would imply graduation from Class 42-G at Kelly Field, Roddenberry actually graduated with Class 42-G at Goodfellow Field, San Angelo, Tx. …

… and, via Army Air Forces Collection, here’s the front cover of his class graduation book, CAVU, Class 42-G, Goodfellow Field, San Angelo, Tx. …

… where his portrait appears on page 69.

As described at Pacific Wrecks, Roddenberry served in the Southwest Pacific with 394th Bomb Squadron of the 5th Bomb Group, eventually retiring from the military with the rank of Captain.

On August 2, 1943 he piloted a B-17E Flying Fortress – 41-2463, “Yankee Doodle” – which crashed on takeoff from Guadalcanal or Espiritu Santo, with the loss of two crew members, Sgt. John P. Krueger and navigator 1 Lt. Talbert H. Wollam. The aircraft can be seen below in Army Air Photo Photo 22847AC (A45620). Caption follows:

“B-17E – “Yankee Doodle”

“Members of a heavy bombardment squadron in the South Pacific have a novel method of chalking up their victories. On the noses of their B-17s they paint Jap flags to indicate planes shot down. Some have downed as many as 15 zeros.

Miniature destroyers or cruisers or transports signify a ship of that class officially sunk. The torpedoes indicate the number of striking missions in which the plane has had a part. A striking mission in the combat area is an attack on a specific enemy target.

Standing under the nose of their Flying Fortress, these two men [names unknown] of the ground crew pause to pose for the Army photographer in the South Pacific. These men are extremely proud of their planes and their victories. Note the string of shells for the machine gun in the nose.”

“Rec’d 1/9/43 thru Director of Photography from South Pacific Theater. Copied 2/16/43.”

Gene Roddenberry, at Wikipedia

Gene Roddenberry, at FindAGrave

Pacific Wrecks

B-17E 41-2463 – 13th Air Force, 5th Bomb Group, 394th Bomb Squadron, (Lost August 2, 1943)

Roddenberry.com

Talking About Gene Roddenberry, at Television Academy Foundation

Internet Movie Database

Memory Alpha Fandom

Internet Speculative Fiction Database

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Harvey Jackson Scandrett

“The sun glinted off the fuselages of the silvery Mustangs and from my vantage point, they seemed to stretch to the horizon to the front and sides of me. Between 350-400 miles north of Iwo we ran into a gigantic weather front with a solid squall line of cumulonimbus clouds blocking our path. These immense thunder-heads were too high for us to surmount. After we had circled for some time looking for holes without finding a trace of any, I heard Col. Scandrett say over the radio “Proceed with the mission; I take full responsibility.” At this my heart stopped and I know that I was not alone.”

“I realize now that Scandrett had to make a difficult decision without benefit of accurate weather information. He gambled and lost everything.” – Leonard A. Dietz, July 6, 1986

Enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1940, graduating from Randolph Field as a fighter pilot. By 1945, commander of the Headquarters Squadron (Deputy Group Commander) of the 506th Fighter Group. On June 1, 1945, commander of the three 7th Air Force Fighter Groups (15th, 21st, and 506th) assigned for B-29 Superfortress escort mission to Osaka, Japan. One of the 24 7th Air Force P-51 pilots lost that day.

One of the links below will take you to a PDF with the names of the 24 pilots lost on this mission, as well as the three other pilots who – having parachuted over the Pacific Ocean – were rescued. The list also includes aircraft serial numbers and MACR numbers for the aircraft flown by the 24 pilots who didn’t survive. The only similar incident that I’m aware of from the European Theater involved the loss of eleven P-51B Mustangs and pilots – no survivors – of the 363rd Fighter Group (five from the 381st Fighter Squadron, and six from the 382nd) over the English Channel on March 4, 1944, almost certainly caused by a combination of pilot inexperience and (very) bad weather.

Regarding 7th Air Force P-51 losses on the June 1, 1945, mission, unfortunately, aircraft nicknames and plane-in-squadron numbers are known for only a few of these P-51s (and this, it seems, only from private photographs!), for MACRs filed for 7th Air Force fighter losses did not record such information. To be specific, the “space” for aircraft nicknames in such MACRs doesn’t include the individual planes’ actual hand-painted-and-sometimes nose-arted nicknames, the simple and generic word “Mustang” appearing in that data field instead. (?!?)

Missing Air Crew Report 14653

Harvey J. Scandrett, at FindAGrave

Harvey J. Scandrett, at Pacific Wrecks

7th Air Force P-51D Pilot Losses – June 1, 1945

P-51D 44-72607, Madam Wham-Dam / 550 – 7th Air Force, 506th Fighter Group, 458th Fighter Squadron (Lost June 1, 1945), at Pacific Wrecks

506th Fighter Group – Iwo to Japan

506th Fighter Group – 1 June 1945 Black Friday

A book! (A good book, at that…)

Lambert, John W., The Long Campaign – The History of the 15th Fighter Group in World War II, Sunflower University Press, Manhattan, Ks., 1982 (see pages 121-126)

A magazine (…from years ago…)

Blake, Steve, “The 363rd Fighter Group in WW II – Part I”, Fighter Pilots in Aerial Combat, Summer, 1982, Number 5 (pp. 15-22)

A Helldiver From the Deep: A Crashed SB2C Dive-Bomber Retrieved From the Coastal Waters of Japan

The Army Air Force’s institution of Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs) to track Army Air Force personnel and aircraft lost on operational missions was an impressive way of collating and organizing a variety of information – from a range of sources – towards the central goal of resolving the fate of its missing aircraft and personnel. These documents were certainly effective in their immediate and direct mission, both during and after the war. However, what was almost certainly neither anticipated nor appreciated at the time – how could it have been? – was the usefulness of MACRs in the future. Commencing with the declassification of these documents in the early 1980s, families of servicemen, veterans themselves, and aviation and military historians were able to use them to research historical events and solve aviation mysteries from four decades prior.

In that sense, the documents proved their worth for two generations.

When I first began researching MACRs, I assumed that the WW II Navy generated similar documents, to track its own missing aviation personnel. As I quickly learned, no such system of documents was created. Instead, information about missing WW II Naval aviators is found in the Navy’s Casualty Files. As described in the National Archives’ finding aid for these documents, they,

“Contain lists, radio messages, and correspondence relating to casualties (both combat and accidental), sustained by particular naval organizations or during particular actions or events. The records include notification received by BUPERS (Bureau of Personnel) that an officer or sailor is a casualty, preliminary reports on the status (confirmed casualty or missing), ultimate disposition of the case (sometimes a finding a year or more after the event of presumptive death), and indication of notification of next-of-kin. Some cases include considerable detail about the events surrounding the casualty and the efforts made to locate or determine the status of the individual involved. Other cases simply include lists, such as names of the crews, of those casualties sustained by major combat vessels, or other naval units.”

The fundamental difference being, with MACRs, a researcher works with a single document on microfiche, or digitally, via Fold3.com. With Navy Casualty Files (well, a least at the United States National Archives!), a researcher can work with the original document. And because of that, sometimes – ironically – you can find something as startling as it is unexpected.

Case in point, this posting.

As part of a project to identify WW II Allied POWs of the Japanese who – as members of the USAAF, USN, USMC, RAAF, RNZAF, and RAF – were captured after their aircraft were shot down during operational missions in the Pacific Theater – and who had the good fortune to return home at the war’s end – I discovered the photographs which appear in this post.

They are of a US Navy SB2C Helldiver dive-bomber of VB-82, of the USS Bennington, which was recovered intact (albeit in separate parts! – airframe and engine) from the coastal waters of Japan, as part of the postwar investigation into the fate of the aircraft’s crew. Happily; fortunately, both the pilot and radio-operator / gunner survived ditching and captivity, and returned to America after their liberation from the POW Camp at Ofuna (Shinjku), Japan.

Their aircraft was an SB2C-4E, Bureau Number 20593, number “26”. The plane was shot down during an attack against warships in Hiroshima Bay on March 19, 1945.

As described in the War Diary of the USS Bennington for that date,

Receiving word that units of the Japanese Fleet were at anchor at Hiroshima Bay and Kure Harbor, STRIKE ONE BAKER was launched, amid a grand scramble among pilots to decide who should be the lucky ones to make the flight. Thirty-eight (38) aircraft from the BENNINGTON joined with an equal number from the HORNET plus smaller groups from the BELLEAU WOOD and SAN JACINTO. The flight proceeded to Hiroshima Bay in search of the elusive enemy and sighted two or three BBs, one CL, a number of DDs, and various ships of the train. Attacks were made on one “Yamato” class BB, several DDs and cargo types.

DAMAGE INFLICTED

One (1) battleship “Yamato” class, four (4) destroyers, one (1) Sugar Able Love, and one (1) Sugar Able Baker were damaged.
Two (2) radar stations and one (1) coastal defense position on Otada Shima were damaged in strafing attacks.
On the west coast of Shikoku Island, two (2) trains were strafed and the engines hauling both were destroyed.

LOSSES

Lieutenant Donald Doris WORDEN, (A1), USNR, File No. 125994 of 16-18 138 Street, Flushing, L.I., New York, and his radio gunner BROWN, Clifford A., ARM 3c, USNR, 826 27 71, of 44 Mercer Street, Hamilton Square, New Jersey, were last seen in their rubber life raft in Hiroshima Bay after making a water landing as a result of damage to their airplane, SB2C-4E, Bureau No. 20593, by AA fire while making a dive bombing attack on a Jap battleship. Lieutenant WORDEN and BROWN have been declared “missing in action.”

Oddly, the serial given for Donald Worden is incorrect. It should be 0-130061.

And, in the Bennington’s Action Reports covering March 14 through April 30, 1945 (“Operations against Southern Kyushu Area, Kure Area (Honshu) and Nansei Shoto area in support of the Invasion and Occupation of Okinawa Gunto”):

19 March 1945

1 Baker (15 VF, 11 VB, 12 VT), 0647-0941, together with flights from other carriers and task groups was assigned the mission of attacking the main Japanese battle fleet at its home base. The BENNINGTON Group in the face of severe AA fire attacked a YAMATO Class battleship, four destroyers and a large tanker all underway in HIRSOSHIMA BAY. Three hits with 1000 lb. SAP bombs were scored on the battleship – one being confirmed by photographs, three destroyers were damaged by near misses with bombs, rockets and strafing, and three hits and a miss with 500 kb. Bombs were scored on the tanker. One VB was severely damaged by AA and made a water landing South of the Bay. The pilot, Lt. D.D. WORDEN, USNR, and aircrewman C.A. BROWN ARM2c are listed as missing in action.

Due to my unfamiliarity with Japanese geographic terms or the Japanese language in general (!) I’m unable to actually identify – using on-line maps – the location where Lt. Worden ditched 20593. However, knowing that the aircraft landed some-where in Hiroshima Bay, I’ve included a Google Map as a general guide to that locale.

The above is the account of the loss of the SB2C from the American side. What is particularly noteworthy in the Casualty File is its coverage of this incident from the vantage point of five Japanese witnesses, the hiring and interaction with the Japanese salvage team, technical details of the Helldiver based on a description of the salvaged wreckage, and above all, the four photographs of the plane that were – and are still – included with the report. (Unfortunately, the plane’s identification plate was not found in the Casualty File!) A transcribed version of the Casualty File is available, below:

Report of Investigation of Unidentified SB2C Helldiver by Legal Section GHQ, SCAP (SB2C-4E crewed by Lt. Donald D. Worden and ARM 3C Clifford A. Brown)

The four photographs appear below. All were scanned at 600 dpi to ensure high resolution. Though the staples (1947 vintage staples, at that!) in the last two images are rather obvious, I’ve decided not to “crop” them out of the scans, so viewers can get a complete impression of the “character” of the original photos – and thus the landscape in the images.

A view of 20593 from the front. Captain Hacker is presumably standing in the cockpit. Note that ARM Brown’s opened parachute, still intact after two year’s submersion, laying upon the right wing; Seaweed has become attached to the underside of the wings and elevators, the fabric of the latter, and also the rudder, shows damage to fabric incurred from combat, or, when Lt. Worden ditched the plane.

And, a nice view of 20593 from the rear. Damage to the tailplane is clearly visible. Note that the radio-operator / gunner’s twin thirty-caliber machine guns, pointing to the left rear, are still present. The white arrow denoting VC-20 can be seen on the starboard aileron.

Captain Hacker holding the Helldiver’s cowling, while the plane’s Wright R-2600-20 Cyclone sits forlornly nearby. The propeller was not found during recovery.

The “back-seater’s” canopy is missing (probably having been jettisoned prior to ditching), while the rear-canopy sections of the turtleback are partially folded. Note that the number on the cowling is “89”, while that on the tail is “26”.

An overall view of 20593. Not quite in focus, but still quite interesting. ARM Brown’s parachute was first found in the rear cockpit, and then placed upon the starboard wing.

* * * * * * * * * *

The fate of the wreckage of 20593 is unaddressed in the VB-82 Casualty File. The aircraft and its engine may have served as raw material for tools, household furnishings, or workplace implements for nearby inhabitants. Or, the wreckage may eventually been sold for scrap. Ironically, precisely because it was intact when recovered, there are likely now – seventy-one years later – no traces of the plane still remaining at the site of its recovery. Like the overwhelming majority of military aircraft of all nations, once the machine served its purpose, it passed out of existence.

Well, machines can be replaced. The men who fly them cannot be.

What of the two airmen who crewed 20593?

Among SB2C aircrews shot down in combat during the Second World War, there were eight other instances where both crewmen of this two-seat dive-bomber – pilot, and, radio-operator / gunner – survived capture and captivity. They are:

June 15, 1944

VB-2, SB2C-1C, Bureau Number 261

Lt. Daniel T. Galvin (California), and ARM 2C Oscar D. Long (Greenville, S.C.)

POWs at Ofuna

February 16, 1945

VB-12, SB2C-4E, Bureau Number 20308

Ensign Charles H. Brown (Kingwood, W.V.), and ARM 3C Donald J. Richards (Fort Lauderdale, Fl.)

POWs at Ofuna

March 18, 1945

VB-82, SB2C-4E, Bureau Number 20555

Lt. Carlyle Newton (Connecticut), and ARM 1C Edward G. Curtin (Washington, D.C.)

Newton: POW at Ofuna; Curtin: POW at Omori

March 19, 1945

VB-10, SB2C-4E, Bureau Number 20971

Ensign Robert Brinick (Detroit, Michigan), and ARM 3C Crawford H. Burnette (Douglasville, Ga.)

POWs at Ofuna

VB-82 (Worden and Brown – in this post)

VB-83, SB2C-4E, Bureau Number 20702

Lt. Eugene J. Tougas (Jacksonville, Fl.), and ARM 1C Charles J. Richardson (?)

POWs at Ofuna

July 18, 1945

VB-83, SB2C-4E, Bureau Number 20684

Ensign Ernest W. Baker (Richmond, Va.), and ARM 3C Walter L. Owens (Chicago, Il.)

POWs at Ofuna

July 28, 1945

VB-86, SB2C-5, Bureau Number 83246

Lt. JG Joseph D. Brown (Baltimore, Md.), and ARM 2C Frederick C. Lockett (Ardsley, Pa.)

POWs at Ofuna

VB-94, SB2C-4E, Bureau Number 20946

Lt. Joseph G. Costigan (?), and ARM 3C Warren E. Collins (Essex County, N.Y.)

POWs at Ofuna

The names of Donald Worden and Clifford Brown appear (as do those of seven other airmen) in the list of returned prisoners in the USS Bennington’s Cruise Book. Both were imprisoned at Ofuna (Shinjku) POW Camp, in Tokyo.

Presently, my information about Brown is limited to the entry for him in Combat Connected Naval Casualties of World War Two, which lists his wartime next-of-kin as his father, Mr. Amos Stanley Brown, of 44 Mercer St., Hamilton Square (Mercer County), New Jersey.

More information is available about Donald Worden. Navy Muster Rolls list him as having been stationed – in December of 1941 and February of 1942 – at the Naval Reserve Aviation Base at Kansas City, respectively. By March of 1942, he is listed at the Reserve Naval Aviation Base in New Orleans.

Notably, he was the recipient of the Navy Cross. His award citation, dated 9 July 1945 and available at Military Times, states,

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Donald Doris Worden (NSN: 0-130061), United States Naval Reserve, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Bomber and Division Leader of four planes in Bombing Squadron EIGHTY-TWO (VB-82), attached to the U.S.S. BENNINGTON (CV-20), on 19 March 1945. On that date, Lieutenant Worden engaged in an eleven plane attack against a new enemy battleship and its destroyer-cruiser screen near the Naval Base at Kure, Japan. He dove his aircraft and maneuvered his division with skill and aggressiveness in a closely coordinated dive bombing attack on this force, his determination and able airmanship contributing vitally to the damage scored on the battleship by repeated direct hits and near misses. His attack was driven home in the face of extremely intense and accurate anti-aircraft fire from the battleship, its nine screening destroyers and cruisers and from surrounding shore batteries, and in spite of his own plane being struck before his dive. His courage and daring were at all times in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

Combat Connected Naval Casualties of World War Two lists his next-of-kin as his wife, Evelyn Louise Worden, her wartime address being 1860 Southwest 10th Street, in Miami, Florida.

Further information is available about Lt. Worden, but it reveals a future – post-1945 – that one wishes had been far different.

After surviving being shot down and captured by the Japanese – a fate from which many Allied airmen did not return – and spending the next half-year as a POW, Lt. Worden remained in the Navy, rising by the early 1950s to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

He was killed in an aviation accident only eight years later.

As reported by the Kansas City Times in that newspaper’s issue of December, 1953:

FLIER DOWN IN PACIFIC NAVY PLANE WITH TEN ABOARD IS LONG OVERDUE

Lieut. Milton Kay Walsh, Son of Mrs. E. L. Walsh. 2 East Sixty-Second, Is a Crew Member

Kansas City Times

December 22, 1953

The navy announced yesterday that a Kansas City man was aboard an R4D transport plane which disappeared Sunday in the Guam area of the Western Pacific while on a flight looking for another plane, lost since Wednesday. He is Lieut. Milton Kay Walsh, 30, husband of Mrs. Betty Kerr Walsh, Palo Alto, Calif., formerly of Kansas City. His mother, Mrs. Edward L. Walsh, lives at 2 East Sixty-second street. Ten crew members were on the plane, which has not been heard from since it went out to look for the other craft. Lieutenant Walsh attended Southwest high school and Junior college before he enlisted in the navy in World War II. He has been in the service eleven years. In World War II he was a flier based at Attu in the Aleutians. He has a 5-year- old daughter, Peggy Jean Walsh, Palo Alto. A sister of the lieutenant, Mrs. E. Albert Aisenstadt, lives at 1204 West Sixty-seventh street. His wife’s parents are Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Kerr, 1120 East Seventy-fifth street terrace. Others listed as being on board the transport: Lieut. Comdr. Donald D. Worden, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Ralph Worden of Stewartsville, Mo.; Kenneth John Schmitz, chief aviation machinist’s mate, son of Mrs. Mary Helen Schmitz. San Diego.; Thomas Theodore Lillie, chief aviation electronicsman, son of Mr. Ernest Lillie of El Reno, Ok.; William Boykin Jenkins, aviation machinist’s mate, first class, son of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Jenkins, Atlanta.; Hollis Mimhell Burks, parachute rigger, first class, son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Mitchell Burks, Huntsville. Ala.; Edward Frank Geis, aviation elecronicsman second class, son of Mr. and Mrs. John E. Geis, Dos Palos, Calif.; Marion Leon Carpenter, aviation machinist’s mate, third class, son of Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gordon Carpenter. Bessemer City, N. C.; Billie Edward Hall, aviation machinist’s mate, third class, son of Mrs. Everett Hall, Amarillo, Tex.; Douglas Anthony Anderlini, airman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Louis Anderlini, St. Louis.

This story was also reported in the Lewiston Tribune in its December 27 issue (found at the Google News Archive):

Navy Plane Found in Volcano Crater

Lewiston Tribune

December 27, 1953

GUAM (AP) – A search team Saturday found the wreckage of a big Navy plane that disappeared last Sunday while looking for another lost Navy plane. They said there were no survivors of the 10 crewmen aboard.

The wreckage of the R4D8 was found in the crater of an extinct volcano on tiny Agrahan Island 380 miles north of here.

The searchers said it apparently had crashed into the cloud capped 3,166-foot cone without warning.

The search for the first missing weather plane was called off by the Navy at noon Saturday.

A very detailed account of the incident appears at the website of VJ-1 / VW-3.

R4D8, Bureau Number 17179, was assigned to Naval Air Station Guam, and was lost while searching for PB4Y-2S 59716 of VJ-1 (Weather Squadron One), which went missing on a, “low level typhoon penetration on Typhoon ‘Doris’ on 16 December 1953.”

A comprehensive account by Max Crow concerning the loss of 57916 and her nine crewmen (who were never found) as well as Skytrain 17179, is available at the Weatherplane Down website. The website includes a list of the Privateer’s crewmen and an aerial photograph of Agrihan Island.

Remarkably, a photograph of R4D8 17179, via Cheryl Davis, is present at the Aviation Safety Network website, and is shown below.

Lieutenant Commander Worden, born in 1921, is buried at Stewartsville Cemetery, in DeKalb, Missouri. Though FindaGrave denotes his date of death as December 20, 1983, viewing a “full-size” image of his military grave marker shows that the marker is indeed correctly engraved as 1953.

* * * * * * * * * *

And so, a very brief tale of one airplane and two men, the fate of one reminiscent of the epigraph to John O’Hara’s 1934 novel, Appointment in Samara, itself based on an ancient Babylonian Tale.

They have passed into history – as do all men and all things – but perhaps this brief account is enough to remember them, at least for a time.

References

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

Stern, Robert, SB2C Helldiver in Action, 1982, Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., Carrollton, Tx.

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

Combat Connected Naval Casualties, World War II, by States: U. S. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, 1946, Government Printing Office, Washington, District of Columbia.

Finding Aid, for “Casualty Branch / Casualty Assistance Branch of the Personal Affairs Division – United States Navy” – “Ship, Stations, Units and Incidents Casualty Information Files, 1941-45 and 1950-60” (MLR Entry 1024) (Records Group 24), from the National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland.

Casualty File for VB-82 at United States National Archives. Location: Records Group 24, Entry 1024, Stack Area 470, Row 55, Compartment 6, Shelf 7.

Aviation Safety Network Data File for R4D8 17179, at

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19531220-1&lang=de

Aviation Safety Network Photograph of R4D8 17179, at

http://aviation-safety.net/photos/displayphoto.php?id=19531220-1&vnr=1&kind=PC

Bureau Numbers for SB2Cs for Baker, Charles H. Brown, Joseph D. Brown, and Costigan, from Aviation Archeology.com, at

http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/

Donald D. Worden biography at FindAGrave.com, at

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=worden&GSfn=donald&GSmn=d&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=111220523&df=all&

“Flier Down in Pacific Navy Plane with Ten Aboard is Long Overdue”, in Kanas City Star for December 22, 1953, at website of Newspapers.com, at

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/58954007/

Navy Cross Citation for Donald Doris Worden, at