Harl Pease

On December 7, 1941, the 19th Bombardment Group was an impressive example of American military power and industrial capability.  The big four-engine B-17 "Flying Fortresses" could make long-range strategic bombing raids to drop tons of bombs on a distant enemy.  Three squadrons were based in the Philippine Islands, two of them (19 bombers) at Clark Field on Luzon and the remainder (16 bombers) farther south at Del Monte Field on Mindanao.  Shortly after noon on December 8 (ten hours after the Pearl Harbor attack), only one of the nineteen bombers based on Luzon remained.  Before the air-war in the Pacific even began the Far East American Air Force had been cut in half.

The 19th Bombardment Group (Heavy) began arriving in the Philippines in October 1941 when the first squadron of B-17s were flown to their new duty station at Clark Airfield on Luzon.  In November two more flights arrived bringing the Group to a strength of three-dozen bombers, and making it the largest 4-engine American bombing force outside the United States.  Among the pilots who ferried the bombers to their new airfields in the Pacific was Lieutenant Harl Pease, Jr.

The 24-year-old officer was born and raised in Plymouth, New Hampshire, where his father was a well-known car dealer and his mother played the organ in the church he had attended in his boyhood.  Following high school Pease enrolled at the University of New Hampshire, graduating with a degree in Business Administration in the spring of 1939.  On September 29 he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps.  He earned his wings at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas, the following year on June 21.  Permanent duty followed with assignment to the 19th Bombardment Group's 93rd Squadron at March Field in California. 

On May 31, 1941, airmen of the 19th Bombardment Group piloted a flight of B-17s from Hamilton Field near San Francisco to Hickam Field in Hawaii.  The aircraft made the 2,400 mile flight in 13 hours and 10 minutes.  It was the first-ever mass flight of land-based aircraft to an overseas base.  For his role in that mission, Lieutenant Pease was awarded the Air Medal.

Throughout the summer the 19th Bombardment Group opened an "aerial highway" across the Pacific, then in October relocated to the Philippine Islands.  Lieutenant Pease's 93rd Squadron was based out of an airfield in the middle of the Del Monte Pineapple Plantation on the southern island of Mindanao, while the other two squadrons operated out of Clark airfield on Luzon.

Within hours of the December 7 attack at Pearl Harbor the 19 bombers at Clark Field were airborne.  They returned to the airfield at noon to refuel and arm for a bombing attack against Formosa.  Meanwhile bombers based out of Del Monte were airborne and flying north to provide cover for Clark Field.  By the time these arrived over Manila Bay it was too late; eighteen of the nineteen Flying Fortresses based out of Clark were lying in ruin on the ground. 

The heroes of the early air-war in the Pacific seemed to be found most often in fighter pilots like Lieutenant Boyd Buzz Wagner who became America's first ace of World War II going man-to-man against Japanese fighter pilots.  For the men who flew the lumbering B-17s the mission assignments may have lacked such glamour, but they were certainly not without equal risk...or valor.  The day after the attack at Clark field the pilots of the 19th Bombardment Squadron began reconnaissance and bombing missions against the Japanese invasion force.  Three or four B-17s were put together from the wreckage of multiple bombers at Clark.  On December 10 Captain Colin Kelly bombed a Japanese ship steaming with the invading enemy army towards Aparri.  Then he valiantly tried to repulse enemy Zeroes on his return flight home.  His death and the loss of his bomber only five-miles from Clark Field was one more crushing blow to the American Army Air Force in the Far East, but it gave our nation its first air hero of the war.

Four days later a flight of six B-17s were dispatched from Del Monte to attack Japanese invasion forces in the harbor of Legaspi.  One of the five was piloted by Captain Hewitt T. Shorty Wheless from Texas.  (As a child he had been nicknamed Nun by his classmates because he was so small that there was "scarcely none of him at all.")  It was destined to be the biggest single raid against the Japanese so far in the war, but it was a mission that seemed doomed to failure from the start.  The lead bomber piloted by Lieutenant Jim Connally blew a tire during takeoff and was forced to remain behind while his five comrades flew north.

En route  Captain Wheless' B-17 developed engine trouble and fell behind as the formation passed through a storm about 200 miles out of Del Monte.  The remaining bombers proceeding to target, but only half-an-hour from Legaspi one of them was forced to turn back due to engine problems .  Before the attack commenced the lead bomber under Lieutenant Coats, who had replaced Lieutenant Connally back at Del Monte, was also forced to turn back by a faltering engine.  Only two of the original B-17s remained to conduct the mission, each dropping their bombs on a line of enemy transports, then withdrawing through a screen of enemy fighters.

The enemy was now on full alert but that did not deter Captain Wheless, who was still struggling at the controls of his lagging bomber and trying to complete his mission.  What happened next was recounted three weeks later in a radio broadcast back in the United States:

"By the time (the B-17) arrived over the target, the other four* Flying Fortresses had dropped their bombs and stirred up the hornet's nest of Japanese Zero planes.  Eighteen of these Zero fighters attacked our lone Flying Fortress.  Despite this mass attack, our plane proceeded on its mission. "As it turned back on its homeward journey, a running fight between the bomber and the 18 Japanese pursuit planes continued for 75 miles.  Four pursuit planes of the Japs attacked simultaneously at each side.  Four were shot down with the side guns.  During this fight the bomber's radio operator was killed, the engineer's right hand was shot off, and one gunner was crippled, leaving only one man available to operate both side guns.  Although wounded in one hand, this gunner alternately manned both side guns, bringing down three more Japanese Zero planes. While this was going on, one engine in the American bomber was shot out.  Out of 11 control cables, all but four were shot away.  The rear landing wheel was blown off entirely, and the two front wheels were both shot out. "The fight continued until the remaining Japanese pursuit ships exhausted their ammunition and turned back.  With two engines gone and the plane practically out of control, the American bomber returned to base after dark.  The mission had been accomplished.  The name of that pilot was Captain Hewitt T. Wheless. "I hope he is listening." January 1941 Radio Address President Franklin D. Roosevelt *Actually, prior to Cpt. Wheless' arrival, only 2 of the other bombers reached target to drop their bombs.

When Captain Wheless managed to nurse his crippled bomber back to Mindanao for a crash landing, ground crews counted more than 1,000 holes in his Flying Fortress.  For his courage in completing his mission, then fighting an out-of-control bomber all the way back to Del Monte, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.  Any bomber that made it home, no matter how badly shot up, was a needed asset.  Somehow the ground crews would find a way to patch it up and get it back in the air, or in the worst of cases, at least find serviceable parts for other bombers.  On the day that Wheless nursed his own crippled bomber home the 19th Bombardment Group had only 14 aircraft remaining of its original thirty-five.

The fate of the Philippines was now obvious to all.  Japanese troops were landing at the north end of the island and sweeping south.  It was only a matter of time before the valiant war being waged by the Philippine Scouts, a few Americans, and some Philippine reservists on the Bataan Peninsula, would be crushed.  It was equally obvious that the American bomber force could not operate in the enemy-controlled skies around Luzon, and that even the airfield far south at Del Monte was vulnerable.  On December 17 those bombers of the 19th Bombardment Group that had survived the first ten days of the war were flown further south to operate out of Batchelor Field, 45 miles south of Darwin in Australia.

 

 Rescuing A General 

Back in the Philippine Islands things continued to worsen as the Japanese invasion force overwhelmed the north side of Luzon and pushed south.  On January 1, 1942, Manila fell.  On the Bataan Peninsula the forces under America's oldest active-duty general, 59-year-old Jonathan Wainwright, struggled valiantly to stem the onslaught while awaiting the promised reinforcements from the United States.  Amazingly they stopped the Japanese advance at the Abucay line and held it for 12 days. 

General Wainwright's boss, General Douglas MacArthur, directed his army from inside the Malinta Tunnel on the fortified island of Corregidor.  Meanwhile plans were underway to slip Philippine President Manuel Quezon out of harm's way via submarine.

--On January 25 the Japanese invaded the Solomon Islands. 
--On February 15 Singapore fell.  
--On February 19 Japanese aircraft attacked Darwin, Australia. 

 Three days later the U.S. submarine Swordfish prepared to take President Quezon and his family out of the now-endangered Island of Luzon, to San Jose on the island of Panay.  General MacArthur loaded some of his own family's personal possessions in the hold of the sub in a footlocker addressed to the Riggs National Bank of Washington.  His instructions were that it should be held until claimed by his "legal heirs".  The top American general in the Pacific had chosen to remain at Corregidor.

As the popular Philippine President reluctantly boarded the submarine Swordfish for evacuation he removed his signet ring and placed it on MacArthur's finger.  "When they find your body," he told his old friend, "I want them to know that you fought for my country."  Remaining on the island with General MacArthur was his wife and 3-year old son.

On the day after President Quezon departed, a cable arrived at Corregidor from Washington, D.C. advising MacArthur to proceed south to Mindanao and then to fly on to Australia.  General MacArthur balked.  Despite the man's oft-argued character flaws, Douglas MacArthur was no coward.  Indeed the man had earned six Silver Stars in the First World War and been nominated for (but denied) a Medal of Honor for actions early in the century in Mexico.  This ordered departure came from the President himself, after he had agreed with Army chief General George C. Marshall that the death or capture of MacArthur on Luzon would be the final straw in a series of bad news reports coming in from the Pacific war.

Unable to refuse to obey an order from the President himself, MacArthur reportedly wrote up a letter of resignation with the intent of becoming a civilian volunteer to the army on Bataan.  His Chief of Staff, Major General Richard Sutherland, argued against the concept.  He pointed out the closing lines of the President's cable...that MacArthur was to leave Corregidor for Melbourne "where you will assume command of all United States troops."  MacArthur's departure was not a retreat, Sutherland pointed out, but the first step in defeating the Japanese.  The forces on Luzon were pitifully small in the face of the massive force pushing south under Japanese Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma.  MacArthur was NEEDED in Australia in order to build and lead the army that would ultimately drive the enemy out of the Philippine Islands.

In the end General Sutherland's logic swayed MacArthur, and he set in motion a plan to extricate himself, his family, and key members of his staff from Luzon.  Had he departed the previous day with President Quezon, it would have been a simple matter.  The departure now became far more complex.

Back at home the American media was reporting on events on Luzon. Their stories that left no other conclusion than that the Philippine Islands were lost to the enemy.  The only unknown element was how long the defenders could delay the inevitable.  These same newspapers speculated that General MacArthur would be whisked out of Luzon before the end came.  In Japan the war planners took note of these stories.  As had the American President, they realized the psychological blow the death or capture of MacArthur would have on the already battered American psyche.  An entire destroyer division was immediately dispatched to prevent MacArthur's evacuation.  In Japan, Tokyo Rose filled the airwaves with her own speculation...that MacArthur would be captured within a month.

The nearest submarine was the Permit which could not reach Corregidor before March 13.  MacArthur was running out of time and turned to a most unconventional escape measure.

In the early days of World War II the Navy's MTBs (Motor Torpedo Boat later called PT Boats) were an unglamorous duty assignment for any officer who yearned for his own ship.  The small 70-foot, plywood speedboats were viewed as courier craft, not fighting vessels.  All that changed in the opening days of World War II thanks to a swashbuckling young lieutenant named John Duncan Bulkeley.  As commander of MTB Squadron 3 in Manila, Bulkeley had a command that consisted of six boats, each crewed by about a dozen men.  From December 8 to March 11 these flimsy craft became the fighting navy of the Philippine Islands.  For his heroism and leadership Bulkeley would earn the Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross, TWO Distinguished Service Crosses and two Silver Stars.

Bulkeley's MTBs established a solid record of accomplishment in their early defense of the Philippines, which had not gone unnoticed by General MacArthur.  By March the Squadron was down to four badly scarred and battle-worn boats, but MacArthur believed they could somehow ferry him safely out to Mindanao.  On March 11 MacArthur turned command of the Philippine Forces over to General Wainwright, then boarded Bulkeley's PT-41 along with his wife and son.

When the squadron pulled away from Corregidor at sunset it carried some of the most important military leaders and specialists on the island.  Bulkeley later noted:  "Rank made no difference.  Washington had ordered MacArthur to bring out the most valuable of his men, and so they were all specialists--there was even a staff sergeant, who was a technician, along with us, while thirty-odd generals were left behind on Bataan.

Those who were left behind may not have envied those who were attempting to break out in Bulkeley's small PT boats.  With Japanese planes scouring the area for any sign of an escape attempt, with enemy patrols increased to all-time highs around the islands, and with a destroyer division steaming their direction, many at Corregidor set MacArthur's chances of escape at fifty-to-one.

The plan called for Bulkeley's fast-moving PT boats to carefully wend their way through the myriad of small islands that stretched out between Manila Bay and Mindanao, traveling only at night to avoid detection from the air.  Once the boats reached Mindanao MacArthur and his party would travel inland to Del Monte Airfield to fly on to Australia.  Before departing Corregidor on March 11 MacArthur phoned his air chief, Major General George Brett in Australia, to order that three B-17 Flying Fortresses be flown to Del Monte Airfield on March 13 to meet him.

The story of MacArthur's breakout from Corregidor was published before the end of that same year in a book titled They Were Expendable. This was subsequently made into a movie starring Robert Montgomery as Lieutenant Bulkeley (called Brickley in the movie) and John Wayne as his second-in-command.  After 35 hours of skilful maneuvers throughout 560 miles of enemy infested waters, Lieutenant Bulkeley arrived at Mindanao on the morning of March 13. 

The subsequent accounts of that mission reveal it to have been fraught with danger. Close calls were encountered from both enemy aircraft and adverse weather throughout nearly every mile.  The accounts detail how many of the Army passengers were seasick to the point of near unconsciousness.  A Navy admiral who escaped in Lieutenant Robert Kelly's PT-34 told the skipper of the small wooden speedboat, "I've sailed every type ship in the navy except one of these MTB's, and this is the worst bridge I've ever been on.  I wouldn't do duty on one of these for anything in the world--you can have them." 

"At 6:30 (a.m.) we sighted the light on the point at Cagayan's entrance (on Mindanao).  We slowed to let the 41 boat lead the way, as it had the channel charts." "General (William F.) Sharp, commanding officer of the island of Mindanao, was down there to meet us, and as soon as we could see the pier we woke up General MacArthur.  He shook the salt water out of his gold general's cap, flipped it on his head--somehow it always lands at a jaunty angle, seems to go with his cane--and looked around with his jaw set--a fine figure of a soldier. "Then he said to me, 'Bulkeley, I'm giving every officer and man here the Silver Star for gallantry.  You've taken me out of the jaws of death, and I won't forget it." LtCdr John Duncan Bulkeley They Were Expendable

If MacArthur was well pleased with Lieutenant Bulkeley, he was not so happy with General Sharp.  Mindanao's army commander lined the route from the harbor where MacArthur stepped off PT-41 to the airfield at Del Monte with soldiers, advertising the General's presence to any Japanese pilot flying overhead.  

 

Too Young To Fly

Two days earlier General MacArthur had departed Corregidor in a battered, 70-foot plywood speedboat to traverse more than 500 miles of sometimes open seas, waters controlled by the enemy and patrolled from the air.  Having endured all that, one might have thought the General prepared for anything.  He was not, however, prepared for what happened at Del Monte Airfield when he arrived with his entourage to board the B-17s he had requested for the flight to Australia.

In his own account Lieutenant Bulkeley hinted at the problems by writing:  "We arrived on the thirteenth (of March).  Four flying fortresses from Australia were supposed to have met the General.  One cracked up on take-off, two came down in the Australian desert, and the one which finally arrived had supercharger trouble and had to turn around and go back without any passengers, so MacArthur didn't get away until the eighteenth.

MacArthur biographer William Manchester provided a little more detail, noting:  "The best (General) Brett could do was to send one of his old Fortresses (to Del Monte). Ground crews lugged away the movable trees which camouflaged Del Monte's crude airstrip, and the plane coughed and wheezed down in a wobbly landing.  The General (MacArthur) took one look at it and radioed blistering messages to Washington about 'consigning the whole party to death.'  He demanded 'the three best planes' available."

The bottom line was that, just as Lieutenant Bulkeley's PT boats were battle-torn and capable of continued missions only through the courage and ingenuity of their crews, the B-17s that were now flying missions out of Batchelor Field in Australia were in equally bad condition.  Most were remnants of the 19th Bombardment group that had survived the action at Luzon and relocated to Australia the previous December.

In the interim they had been flying bombing and reconnaissance missions out of Batchelor Field, thanks to the diligent efforts of the ground crews which patched up the holes and found ways to keep the propellers turning.  Since arriving south of Darwin, few of them had made the 1,400 mile flight back to the Philippine Islands.  On January 26 an LB-30 and a B-24 had managed to fly into Del Monte to deliver an emergency request for medical supplies.  A second such mission was flown on February 3rd. 

 

On March 11 as General MacArthur was boarding PT-41 at Corregidor, three battered but patched up B-17s departed Batchelor Field to fly additional medical supplies to Del Monte.  One turned back and another reportedly crashed.  The remaining B-17 was piloted by Lieutenant Harl Pease, whose own Flying Fortress was being held together with "bailing wire and bubble-gum". 

Under the dim lights that cautiously marked the airfield at night he came in for a landing, despite the fact that he had no brakes.  After a bumpy landing he offloaded the needed supplies, then boarded several stranded technicians to fly them out of harm's way and back to Australia.  He was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroism in completing this dangerous mission, one made all the more hazardous by the lack of brakes and a badly war-damaged bomber. 

Two days later Lieutenant Pease was one of three (some accounts say four) B-17s dispatched under orders from General Brett to meet General MacArthur and fly him to Australia.  One of these was forced to turn back due to mechanical malfunctions.  Captain Henry Godman's B-17 was unable to complete the flight, crashing in the sea near Mindanao with the loss of two of his crew.  (Captain Godman was later awarded the DFC for this mission.) Again, only Harl Pease remained to fly into Del Monte, where General MacArthur waited with his family and staff.

The ground crews back in Australia had done their best to repair Pease's bomber after his mission two days earlier, but he was now experiencing hydraulic problems that challenged his landing at Del Monte.  Aviation historian Peter Dunn gives an account not previously included in the writings of Bulkeley or Manchester:  "(It) had to be ground looped to stop it in time.  This did not impress MacArthur, and he was even less impressed when he saw the young pilot of the B-17, 1st Lt. Harl Pease, slide out of the forward hatch of the aircraft.  MacArthur was reported to have muttered, 
     'He's only a boy'."

"After that, MacArthur just absolutely refused to fly with Pease," recently recounted Dick Graf who flew into Del Monte three days later to finally evacuate MacArthur.  "Pease unloaded his cargo, filled his plane with technicians trying to get out of there, and flew back without MacArthur.  The general simply didn't want to have anything to do with the beat-up old bomber." 

It was then that MacArthur contacted General Brett to demand the "three best planes" available be dispatched to Del Monte immediately.  Ironically, these B-17s came from the Navy's inventory and were part of its task force at Townsville, Australia.  On March 14th they were absorbed into the 19th Bombardment Group as the 40th Reconnaissance Squadron.   Three days later three of these B-17s departed Townsville to carry supplies to Del Monte.  Until they landed  none of the pilots or crew were aware they would be returning with General MacArthur.

Lieutenant Harold Chaffin's Flying Fortress was forced to return due to mechanical problems, but two of the big bombers managed to land at Del Monte shortly before midnight.  Captain Frank Brostrom's lead aircraft made the trek despite an overheated supercharger.  He gulped coffee while the mechanics worked quickly to repair the defect.  Overloaded with General MacArthur, his wife and son, and several key staffers, Brostrom managed to become airborne in the early morning hours to fly to Darwin.  Behind him flew the second B-17 piloted Captain Lewis and his crew of seven, including radio-man Dick Graf.

"One thing I don't think anyone has ever mentioned," Mr. Graf said in the recent phone interview from his home in Australia, "is that we had a stowaway.  Everyone on the crew knew it, he snuck into the tail section.  The interesting part is, when I went to the B-17 Fiftieth Reunion in Seattle in 1985 I was visiting with a member of Lieutenant Brostrom's airplane and found out they had a stowaway too.  Two unauthorized men made it out on that flight.  I guess, someone might have said they were deserting in the face of the enemy.  But there was nothing more they could do at Mindanao.  I guess we kind of though it was ingenious...stowing away to get out of there.  We never told anyone, not even the crews of the other aircraft...until 1985."

The following day Lieutenant Chaffin's repaired B-17 managed to reach Del Monte and safely return to Australia with the remainder of MacArthur's staff.  From then on very few Americans made it off the island before the Japanese took control.  Two Navy PBYs managed to evacuate about 50 key persons from Corregidor in the early spring, and one aging B-24 affectionately called Old Bucket of Bolts made nocturnal runs into Del Monte prior to its fall.

On April 9th the Bataan Forces under Major General Edward King surrendered and were forced into a horrible captivity, prefaced by the infamous Bataan Death March.  Two days later Brigadier General Ralph Royce led a force of B-25s in a series of three bombing missions out of Del Monte.  The targets were Japanese positions at Nichols Field near Manila and at Cebu City.  During the Royce mission the attack on Nichols Field was conducted by three B-17s of the 19th Bombardment Group.  One of them was flown by Lieutenant Harl Pease, the daring young man that General MacArthur had refused to fly with.

In retaliation the Japanese launched a major assault on Del Monte, destroying one of the B-17s (probably Pease's bomber) and damaging the other two.  When enemy ground forces were within 24 hours of Del Monte General Royce ordered his aircraft back to Australia, leaving Pease and his crew behind.  In the last week of April five submarines evacuated what personnel they could from the islands.  One report indicates that the Seadragon left with four officers and 20 enlisted men of the 19th Bomb Group...including Harl Pease.

On May 6 General Jonathan Wainwright sent a cable from his headquarters at Corregidor to Washington, DC:

"There is a limit of human endurance and that limit has long since been passed.  With out prospect of relief, I feel it is my duty to my Country, and to my gallant troops, to end this useless effusion of blood and human sacrifice.  With profound regret and continued pride in my gallant troops, I go to meet the Japanese commander. Goodbye, Mr. President."

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: As is the case in any major wartime activity, dates, places and chronology become muddled with time and retelling.  The exact chronology of the B-17 missions to rescue General Douglas MacArthur, the dates aircraft arrived at Del Monte, the number flown, etc. are different in various accounts.  The best information is perhaps derived from the DFCs awarded to the five pilots and their crewmembers who flew those missions.  They are: 1LT Harl Pease for his flight on March 11, 1942 when he landed without brakes Capt. Godman for his Flight on March 13 when he crashed in the sea off Mindanao 1LT Bostrom for his flight of March 17, 1942 to fly General MacArthur to Australia Capt. Lewis for this same flight to evacuate MacArthur's staff 1Lt Chaffin who made a similar flight the following day after repairing his B-17 The above indicates that Lt. Pease must have flown into Del Monte TWICE, once on March 11 when he landed without brakes and again two days later when MacArthur witnessed his landing after he experienced hydraulic problems and refused to fly out with him.  Perhaps there may have been only one flight. If so it would have to have been on March 13.  Dick Graf is firm in recounting that Pease indeed landed at Del Monte on March 13 while MacArthur was waiting and that "MacArthur refused to fly out with him.  I never met Pease myself, but we all knew that story."

Of the B-17s that conducted the bombing mission against Vunakanau Field at Rabaul on the morning of August 7, 1942, only one did NOT return.  Two Flying Fortresses reached their airfields with a casualty among the crew from the running battle over New Britain with the Japanese Zeroes.  The B-17 with tail number 41-2617 was one that should never have been included in the mission.  It crashed on New Britain near the confluence of the Mavlo and Powell rivers where a group of natives found the bodies of seven of the airplane's 9-man crew.  These were buried behind a kiln in a Christian mission where they were located after the war, and exhumed in 1946 for burial by their living comrades.  They were finally last laid to rest on their home soil, with full military honors.

Two of the stricken bomber's crew had managed to bail out to safety, only to be captured by the Japanese.  

On April 30, 1942, Father George Lepping, a Catholic Missionary in the South Pacific, was taken prisoner at Bougainville by the Japanese.  Five months later he was transferred to a prison camp on Rabaul.  There he found five American airmen, one of whom was Sergeant Chikowsky, a crewman from Harl Pease's last flight.  Another of the American prisoners was the man the Japanese called "Captain Boeing" because he had once piloted a Boeing B-17 bomber.  That man was Captain Harl Pease, well respected by fellow prisoners and captors alike, for he was a man of strength and integrity. In the 1980s Father Lepping's wrote the final chapter in the life of Harl Pease when he recounted meeting Sergeant Chikowsky and Captain Boeing in that prison camp on Rabaul.  He also told how on the morning of October 8, 1942, the two survivors of B-17 #41-2617  were taken into the jungle with a work detail consisting of two other American and two Australian prisoners.  Their task consisted of digging a shallow grave wherein all six unarmed prisoners were buried after their execution by sword.  The returning Japanese murderer told Father Lepping, "You go tomorrow." Fortunately that night American B-17s bombed the camp, wounding the Japanese leader who had made the threat.  His replacement didn't know that Father Lepping was marked for similar murder and he survived the war to finish the story of Captain Harl Pease.

 

 

Special Acknowledgement:

The author is please to express sincere appreciation to Mr. Dick Graf for his invaluable contribution to this story.  Mr. Graf was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross as the radio man on the B-17 piloted by Captain Lewis when it flew into Del Monte Airfield on March 17, 1942 to fly Douglas MacArthur and his staff from the Philippines to Australia.  Mr. Lewis graciously granted a detailed phone interview from his present home in Australia in the preparation for this story.

Kenneth Walker Reprimand, or a Medal?

For Additional Study We Highly Recommend Peter Dunn's Australia At War Website

Sources:

 

Cerasini, Marc, Heroes: U.S. Marine Corps Medal of Honor Winners, Berkley, 2002
Frisbee, John L., "Rabaul on a Wing and a Prayer", Air Force Valor, Vol. 73, No. 7, July 1990
Manchester, William, American Ceasar: Douglas MacArthur, Dell, 1983
Manning, Robert, Above and Beyond, Boston Publishing Company, Boston, MA, 1985
Meilinger, Col. Phillip S., Airmen and Air Theory, AU Press, Maxwell AFB, AL 2001
Murphy, Edward F., Heroes of World War II, Pesidio, 1990
Thomas, Lowell, These Men Shall Never Die, John C. Winston Company, Philadelphis, 1943
White, W. L., They Were Expendable, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1942

 

Part II - World War 2 Wings of Valor Home Page Introduction Day of Infamy When America needed Heroes Pay Back The Tokyo Raid Harl Pease Too Young to Fly MacArthur Kenneth Walker  Reprimand or Medal Hamilton and Craw The Banker & The Soldier Airmen on the Ground  Jack Mathis Bombardier Brothers Snuffy Smith You don't have to be a saint To Become a hero. Sarnoski & Zeamer 1 Plane - 9 Heroes TWO Medals of Honor John C. Red  Morgan Medically Unqualified Morally Determined  The Ploesti Raid  When Heroes Filled the Sky  Ralph Cheli  Leadership by Example Sacrifice by Design Neel Ernest Kearby The First Top Gun Raymond Wilkins The Last Survivor Forrest Vosler  Blind Determination  James H. Howard  "I seen my duty and I done it!"  Lawley, Truemper,  & Mathies  Coming Home the Hard Way Ed Michael Until the Last Man Comes Home Leon Vance Burden of Command David Kingsley  The Ultimate Sacrifice Donald Pucket  Darrell Lindsey  Richard Bong  Horace Carswell  Robert Femoyer  Gott & Metzger  Frederick Castle  Thomas McGuire  William Shomo  Henry Red Erwin The Courage to LIVE Raymond Knight

A Very Special Thanks to Author/Historian Barrett Tillman for his special assistance and creative support in the development of this series. Part I World War One Coming in November 2006 Part III US Air Force

 

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