Our Squadron history records that at Fairfield, the courtesy and service given our men was very poor.  However the nice mess hall and food as well as the final briefings tended to balance the negative stuff mentioned above.  Auxilliary fuel tanks were installed in the cargo compartment of all the C-46’s.  There were some shots and medical exams and even wills were executed.  On the night of October 21st, Col. Bell, Group Commander and Major James Bowen, Group Operation’s Officer, piloted the first ship on our overseas flight.   The 2nd plane was flown by Frank Hescock.  Their destination was John Roger’s Field on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands.  The next night, the 22nd, 6 more planes took off and on the 23rd, 8 more headed west.  Due to strong headwinds, not one of the 8 plane group made it to John Roger’s, but were forced to opt for closer landing strips . They had exhausted most of their fuel.  They gassed up and flew on to John Roger’s.

     These flights took from 16-18 hours and even with the auxilliary fuel tanks, it made for some "white knuckle" flying.  Each plane had aboard an A.T.C. Navigator which certainly made the pilots more at ease but when the fuel gauges indicate almost empty tanks, it can get hairy.  Some landed at Hilo on the "Big Island."  The remaining 4 planes at Fairfield-Suisun waited until October 31st before leaving due to bad weather.

     The stay at John Roger’s took about 3 days.   Some planes had the auxilliary fuel tanks removed in order to haul supplies to islands enroute.  The men made trips to Honolulu and, of course, Waikiki Beach.

     From Oahu, the planes took off for Christmas Island.   This became the first experience landing on a coral island.  Every courtesy was extended to the transient crew members at Christmas Island.  The next morning they flew to Canton Island and noted that there was only one tree growing on the entire island.  Again they were treated well.

    The following day, the planes took off but now to two different destinations.  Some went the northern route to Tarawa and the other the southern route to Nandi in the Fiji Islands.  Those that arrived at Tarawa were treated well and an exceptional amount of service and consideration was extended.   They received a tour of the island pointing out the Japanese positions, guns and emplacements.  At Nandi, on the southern route, they received also every courtesy, the high point being invited to a beautiful Officer’s Club.

     Then, on to New Caledonia where living quarters were only "fair" and it was comparatively an unpleasant place.

     The northern route planes flew to Guadalcanal where the A.T.C. was entrenched.  Their snobbishness was noted.  The next day was the continent of Australia and to Townsville.  The crews had expected conditions to be similar to the U.S.  This was not the case.  In fact, there was a sort of quaintness about it and Townsville looked like an old western town as seen in the movies.

     Some of our planes stopped at Brisbane with cargo and then on to Townsville.  The ships were taken to a depot to be checked over after the long flight.  The crews were warned at Townsville that they should remove all personal things or anything of value from the plane.  Even clocks in the plane should be removed. There were thieves around and nothing was safe.  However, the thieves did succeed in stealing some articles out of our planes and this angered Col. Bell to the point of where he demanded restitution from the authorities at the base.  Somehow most of the stolen items were returned.  The groups that arrived at Townsville later had 24 hour guards by the aircraft which solved the problem.  Then we were ordered to fly up to Nadzab, New Guinea.  When arriving at Nadzab, we reported to the Combat Replacement Training Center where we went through Jungle School and received briefings on the Southwest Pacific area.  After a week there, we were ordered to fly up to Biak and were temporarily attached to the 375th Troop Carrier Group until a suitable area could be found for us to set up living quarters.  We were now a part of the 54th Troop Carrier Wing under Brig. Gen’l. Prentiss.

  Lt. Curtis H. Krogh, 7^th Combat Cargo Squadron, 2nd Combat Cargo Group.   From his manuscript  '7th Combat Cargo Squadron History'  2nd  Combat Cargo Group, 54th Troop Carrier Wing, 5th Air Force'.   

    I am looking for former members of the 3rd Combat Cargo Group,  1st, Combat Cargo Group, 2nd Combat Cargo Group and the 4th Combat Cargo Group.  In fact I would like to hear from anyone who flew over the Hump during WW II, or flew any Combat Cargo Missions at any time (Berlin Air-Lift, Korea, etc)

Please e-mail comment, suggestions, corrections,etc to: bill@comcar.org

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