John Carmichael Part 4

CALCUTTA

Once a month, one crew had the privilege of spending a week in Calcutta, for the meat run, as it was called. We flew fresh meats to different forward bases; but not our own. At night we could go into the city, and sometimes during the day, when we finished our meat haul early. Calcutta is a large city, and it has a nice large hotel right in the middle of it. We could get a good meal and sit on the upper terrace and look out over the city. Beggars were everywhere we looked. Cattle roamed the streets unattended, as they were sacred. We also saw a funeral there and the family had enough money to have the dead person cremated. There was a certain place set aside, near the riverbank, where they could do this. If the family had enough money to buy wood, they would place the body on top of this stack of wood, and set fire to the stack. By the time the stack of wood burned out, the body would be burned to ashes. The relatives would scoop up the ashes and scatter them in the river, which was the sacred Ganges River. This was a ritual of their belief. We had seen dead bodies lying along the riverbank at Agra, when we visited the Taj Mahal, as the families probably did not have enough money to have them cremated. The Vultures were picking their bones.

While there, one night, we borrowed a jeep from the motor pool, and drove to the "Black Hole of Calcutta". The Black Hole is an elaborate area of houses of ill repute. They had some White Russian as well as Indian “Women of the Night” that were supposed to be very beautiful. We looked inside the door of these houses; but never went inside. We were just curious. The entrances and walls were draped with beautiful silks, and various lighting arrays that made them look fabulous. No one was allowed inside unless they were looking for companionship, which we were not. There were guards at the entrances, to keep out browsers. It was quite an experience. The nightlife in Calcutta, centered on either the Black Hole or one of the hotels. The hotel had an outside dining area and a bar up on the terrace, as well as a dance floor, in the center of the dining area. Some of the permanently based men came there, with their wives and lady friends, and dined and danced. Most of the Indian women were not seen on the streets at night, and especially unaccompanied by a male.

We usually wound up in the dining room of this large hotel, or on the terrace, with a Gin Collins. Gin is the most popular drink there, and most plentiful. Liquors were scarce, and gin was plentiful. We could make a Gin Collins last for a long time, while we lounged there and watched the nightlife activities. Since we were flying every day, no one overindulged, and one drink was the limit. We just bought a drink in order to have a reason to sit and enjoy the scenery. We would go back to our barracks near ten o'clock in the evening, and get to bed, as we had to start flying at 7:00 A.M. That meant getting up at five a.m. every morning. Our plane would be loaded with the meats and food boxes we were to carry for that day.

If we were carrying beef, then they had the natives, whose religion allowed beef to be eaten, to load our plane. If we were carrying other than beef, then they had the ones with the religion that allowed lamb, and other meats to be eaten. It was a privilege to fly the meat runs, and break the monotony of flying into the combat zones. We only got one chance at it in the year we were in the CBI Theater of operations.

MYITKYINA

Before we came to the CBI, Japanese soldiers had taken over Burma and General Stilwell had told Chiang Kai-shek that Burma had to be re-taken before the war in China could continue to be supplied and won. Stilwell wanted to push the Japanese out of that part of Burma and China so that supplies could be shipped in to a Chinese port. This would speed up the movement of supplies since they would not have to be shipped into western ports, such as Karachi, India. Then they had to be moved slowly by rail and trucks across India to the airfields for movement by air over the “Hump” to China, and into Burma, over the Chin Hills. The flights over the “Hump” were at altitudes as great as 17,000 to 20,000 feet, and the turbulence was enough to tear a plane apart. It was necessary to take oxygen at those altitudes. *

CBI was considered secondary to the war in Europe. Chiang ki-Shek was being kept in the war because of the power of Lend Lease, and what it meant to China. Stilwell was concerned about the 300 Divisions of the Chinese armies, on the average 40 percent understrength, with the Commanders drawing pay for full strength and officers getting rich, men dying of malnutrition, malaria, dysentery, cholera, and the very sick being turned loose. Ammo and weapons were being sold, and Transport being used for smuggling. None was being used to transport troops, and Stilwell said that Chiang never went to look at his Army. He was very ignorant about the training, leadership and medical care of his troops. He had sent his son to see about the condition of his troops, and the son reported back to him that they were in very critical condition. He then came to see for himself and found the troops in terrible condition. The Communist troops under Mao Tse Tung were much more capable of fighting the Japanese, although they were not fighting. A large cache of 50,000 tons of weapons and ammunition was found by an American OSS unit, which the Central government had collected over the years for use in case of need in east China. Although the Japanese were nearing Kweichow, Chungking was trembling and the arms were still being stored. Chiang ki-Shek believed that if he retreated across the Salween River, there he could wait for the U.S. to finish the war.

Our outfit moved to Myitkyina, Burma, which had been occupied by the Japanese garrison before our troops cleared them out. The Air Base and camp lay beside the Irrawaddy River. We could get closer to the bases where the fighters and the airstrips were. Myitkyina is located in the north central part of Burma, near the China border. Also we were better supplied, as we were located next to the Ledo Road. The Ledo Road was built at the request of General Chiang Kai-shek in order to move supplies and arms faster to the war in China. The Ledo road would join the Burma Road at Bhamo when completed and then the Burma Road continued into China.

Since I later worked for MAPCO, I found out that one of our Vice Presidents, Dave Roach, was one of the engineers that built the Ledo Road. This was a great engineering feat, and Dave Roach was a very good and intelligent man. It was pure “Hell” trying to build that road. They had thousands of Indian, Burmese and other workers on it at a time. Their crews had to contend with mud, leeches and malaria. The heat and rains were unbearable. The Ledo road had to be cut out of heavy jungles, valleys and mountain wilderness where there was a thick coverage of trees. * The rain flooded so much of their progress and sometimes they could only build as little as three miles a day even in the dry season. During the year they received as much as 150 inches of rain, and as much as 14 inches of rain in one 24-hour period. The Monsoons stopped construction completely for quite a while, as the land was too muddy to have any construction done, and the torrents of water washed out some of what had already been built. All of this had to be rebuilt when the rainy season stopped. Bridges had to be built and re-built as the rains washed out what was already built. Many men died and were accidentally killed during the construction.

Tuchman said in her book that the war was won after we were sent into the CBI with our 100 C-46’s, and the additional fighter planes. We increased the movement of supplies from 1,000 tons a month to 45,000 tons a month by the end of the war. In other words, we were the major factor in winning that war by our entering it and supplying it by our air movements of supplies. After our Group arrived in Burma, the Ledo road was insignificant as far as moving supplies by road. The air movements were far superior and much more effective. The U S had promised to deliver 5,000 tons a month over the “Hump”, which they had never before achieved. Stilwell was really not too interested in fulfilling that promise, as he did not like to let Chiang ki-Shek dictate the way to fight this war. Chiang tried to demand things that Stilwell and his superiors were not ready to let him have. *

One day while at Myitkyina, I was surprised to have one of my favorite cousins, William Rogers, walk into our camp asking for me. I hadn't seen William in several years. He lived in Bellmead, a suburb of Waco, and I lived in Galveston. Being single at the time, he had worked as a bellhop at the Waco Hilton Hotel, for several years, and made good money doing it. The Hilton wanted him to return after the war; but he decided to do something else since he had married and was raising a family.

He had heard, by letter, from our Aunt Johnnie, that I was in Myitkyina, Burma. He was stationed at an infantry camp not too far north of Myitkyina. He hitched a ride on a passing truck, to come to see me. He had quite a bit of leisure time, which I didn't have, as I was flying every day. It was good to see someone from home. We had a nice visit, and brought each other up to date on our latest information of the folk’s back home. He stayed about a couple of hours, and then caught a ride back to his camp. I didn’t see him again until I returned from overseas, and he had bought a service station, and was also washing large trucks. He died of a heart attack some few years later, and I attended his funeral, in Waco. He was a very good person, and had a good wife and three children, all grown.

We were camped high above and on the bank overlooking the Irrawaddy River. Since Burma has been renamed Myanmar, the Irrawaddy River has now been renamed the Ayeydrwady River. I can’t pronounce it now. Our shower baths were above and next to the river. The river was well below us, and we had to pump our bath water out of the river. The rubber hose we used, from the pump to the river, was well below the surface of the river, with a screen covering the end. On several occasions, we would see dead Japanese soldier’s bodies floating down the river, on the surface of the water. This reminded us that we were in a war zone, and very close to the fighting.

We flew into Mandalay where there was a large concentration of troops, and fighter planes. The Japanese were trying to again penetrate Burma, and the Indian and English, along with the Burmese and Chinese, were fighting them back, with us trying to keep them supplied. Some of the soldiers, our allies, were Gurkha’s from the mountains of Nepal. They were the most fierce, and the most feared soldiers in the CBI theater. They wore a large curved knife, known as a Gurkha Knife, on their hips, and if they or anyone pulled this knife from its scabbard, the Gurkha had to draw blood with it before returning it to it’s scabbard. It was supposed to be your blood; but if not, he would cut his own self to draw blood, in order to live up to tradition. We were warned not to ask to handle these knives. It was said that the Gurkha’s would slip into the Japanese camps at night, undetected, and slit the throats of some of them, and return to their own camp.

We also flew some of the Chinese wounded back to hospitals, in China. On one trip, we were carrying a load of Chinese soldier’s back to China, and they were playing a deadly game of cards. I looked back at them and they were trying to open an escape hatch on the side of the plane, as the loser of the game had to bail out of the plane, without a parachute. I quickly put a stop to that before they carried it out. We just had a hard time figuring those people out. They did some odd things. They didn't have much regard for their lives, it seems. We had an opportunity to fly into Yunnan, China, to carry a number of their wounded soldiers back to China. While we were there, at Yunnan, we got a ride on a jeep, from some of our troops stationed there and rode into town. I remember driving through a huge arch, in a wall in the city. We also saw a lot of Junks, (fishing boats), on the river there. We didn’t get to stay long, as we needed to fly back to our base before night.

The people were typical of the many movies, about the people of China that we have seen over the years, that is, of those old days. Most were wearing the same old drab garb, as they wore for many hundreds of years before. There were plenty of rickshaws, and bicycles on the streets, and the narrow streets were crowded. It was on this return trip, that I was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat, actually watching the plane fly itself. Cox was in the back part of the plane, taking a nap, on my desk, and Starky was doing something in the rear of the plane. We were approaching a tall mountain, over the “Hump”, and I couldn’t get the plane up any higher or turn it from it’s course, as it was set on automatic pilot. I could not clear the mountaintop. I yelled out loudly, “Help”, and awakened Cox. He came running and grabbed the controls, took it out of automatic pilot, and turned it from it’s course. We barely cleared the mountaintop. I was scared. Cox passed it off with a laugh; but I think he also was scared a little. This was probably the highest we ever flew, as we normally didn’t fly at high altitudes, and were not equipped with oxygen, or oxygen masks for those altitudes.

The Air Transport Command flew over the “Hump”, using the larger C-54 transport planes. They had four engines, and could fly at higher altitudes than we could in our C-46’s. I presume that the other three squadrons of our Group were flying the “Hump” to the north of us, only a little farther south than the higher part of the “Hump”. We did not know where the other squadrons were located, as we were not told. We were fortunate to be flying into Burma. We were supplying the British and fighting the Japanese in Burma, and they were supplying the Chinese and fighting the Japanese in China. They flew over the “Hump”, into China, and we flew over the Chin Hills, in Burma. They had to fly at higher altitudes, which was actually smoother flying. They had trouble with icing on the wings and in the carburetors. We did not reach those altitudes in the Chin Hills. We flew at lower altitudes; but with much rougher flying than the Hump. The up and down drafts we experienced were far more severe over the Chin Hills.

In her book about the war in the CBI, Tuchman said that a large number of C-46’s and other planes in the ATC crashed while flying the Hump in the early stages of the war. She said that the C-46’s were in the war a long time before we ever arrived there. I did not know of any C-46’s in service there before we came to the war in the CBI. We lost only two planes in our squadron during the time we were over there. We never heard from the other three squadrons in our Group after we arrived in the CBI. They were stationed in other parts of the area where we were fighting. If they lost many planes or personnel we never heard of it. I can only suppose that all of the planes she claims were lost were mostly lost before our C-46’s arrived there. The one big thing that was important was the increase in tonnage of supplies and fuel after we arrived and started flying. They had never had enough movement of supplies until we started flying there. The C-46 airplane was much larger and could carry much more tonnage than the C-47 or the C-54 four engine planes. The planes could carry so much more by air and reach the area where the fighting was being done so much quicker. The Ledo Road was not as useful after we started flying in that area. The Ledo road was used for ground movements of troops and joined the Burma Road at Lashio, Burma, and the Burma Road continued into China from this point.

We flew into one of the forward bases at Lashio, and had to land between the British on one side of the airstrip, and the Japanese on the other side. They were shooting across the runway at each other during the daylight hours. We were lucky as the British had pushed them back into the jungle that day and we had all of that night to fix what we came to fix. I don't know how we survived some of the things we had to do. One of our planes had blown a tire on landing at this strip, and we had brought a large inflatable air bag jack and a spare wheel and tire, to mount on that plane. We also brought tools and an auxiliary power plant and air compressor, so we could inflate the air bag. We worked all of that night trying to lift the planes wing high enough to remove the old wheel and install the new one. The plane had run off the runway into a deep ditch next to the runway, and we had a very hard job getting it up and back on the runway. We borrowed a “Tug” from the British to pull it out of the ditch and onto the runway. Lucky for us, the two sides never fought at night.

The British invited us to supper, and I remember that strong, bitter, hot tea they were drinking. They boiled it in a large, aluminum kettle. It was awful tasting tea, and they added lemon juice in a very large quantity. It was also unsweetened. Ugh! They had heated the canned meats that we had carried to them and it was palatable. It was better than the cold K- rations that we would have had to eat. The British were very glad to have us bringing them supplies and they tried to show it. We almost always had to eat “C” rations and sometimes ”K” rations. When in camp, we had lots of Spam. We also had a plentiful supply of powdered eggs, and powdered milk, with canned bacon, slightly fried; but usually half raw, and that ever-abundant weevilly bread for our breakfasts.

We had to leave the plane at this base until we could fly in some pilots to fly it back to our base. I am surprised that it was still not blown up by the Japanese before we could fly it away. On another flight to another base, the runway was very short, and the tall trees were just off the end of it, on each end. As we approached for the landing, Cox cut back on the power and put the flaps down sharply, to slow the plane down and then he dropped the nose down. When we were almost down, he pulled back all the way on the stick, (control), and "pancaked" the plane to a landing. Cox was the best pilot I ever flew with, bar none. I was so lucky to have him and Starky for my team of pilots. After we unloaded our cargo, we taxied out to the end of the runway, revved up the engines to their maximum output, released the brakes, and started our take-off. We could not make a normal take-off, on this short runway, and with full power, as we neared the end of the runway, Cox lowered the flaps, pulled back sharply on the stick, and literally jumped the plane into the air, and over the tree tops. It was close; but that was the only way we could get the plane airborne at this landing strip. There were very few long runways in Burma, only at the larger bases, like where we were stationed at Myitkyina.

I think that Starky learned a lot from flying as Cox’s co-pilot. I flew at times with him as the acting pilot, along with another co-pilot, and he was almost an exact duplicate of Cox. All of the practicing shooting landings at Syracuse was paying off. We did a lot of this type flying due to the many mountains called the Chin Hills. The places where runways could be constructed were few and far between, and they had to be near places where native labor could be attained.

One of our other crew’s plane flew into this airstrip where we had changed the wheel and tire, and after they unloaded their cargo, the engineer ran to the tail of the plane to remove the rudder chock. The Japanese were firing at the plane, and mortar shells were starting to explode closer and closer to the plane, as they were getting the proper range. As he removed the chock, the wind blew the rudder around, and it cut his arm. He received the Purple Heart, for being wounded under enemy fire. He was the only person in our whole squadron who received the Purple Heart for the entire time we were in Burma. They managed to get airborne without getting hit.

One of our planes, with all four crewmen aboard, didn't make it. They were taking off with a heavy load of 55-gallon drums of gasoline, and oil. While banking the plane to the left, the wing tip caught the treetops and the plane crashed, killing all four of the men. They were very good friends of mine and I acted as one of the pallbearers, for the engineer. I cried like a baby that day. It could easily have been me. The cargo may have shifted when the pilot started his bank to the left. They may have started their bank too soon, and didn't have enough altitude. Who knows, it could also have been a pilot error?

This engineer was out one night, in Louisville with some men, drinking and carousing, and he turned a full pint of whiskey up, and downed the whole pint before he put it down. It knocked him out cold and he fell to the floor unconscious. The other men didn't know what to do with him, so they let him lay there while they finished their drinking. Then they picked him up and caught a bus back to the base. They took him into the showers and turned the cold water on him and left him lying there, and they retired. Another G I and I came in from town, and heard the water running in the shower. We saw him lying there, still unconscious. We picked him up and took him to his bed, undressed him, and put him to bed. When someone awakened him the next morning, he didn't remember one thing about the night before. It's a wonder he didn't die of shock. I guess he wasn't supposed to die until the plane crash in Burma. He was a very likeable person, and looked a lot like a cross between John Hodiak, and Robert Taylor, the movie stars, only better looking than either one. He had a wife and little child back in the states.

We were flying into Mandalay, one day and saw a number of Japanese Zero's flying in the distance. We were lucky to be near the Irrawaddy River, so we flew close to the surface of the river, so they couldn't see us. They wouldn't fly that low to attack us, as they might not be able to pull up from a dive, and go into the river. There were tall trees lining each side of the banks, so that helped to hide us. Our luck held. If they saw us, they didn’t come after us. They were very active in that area, although I don’t remember hearing much about them getting into combat with our planes.

We had several New York, Chicago, and New Jersey radio operators, that seemed to rotate on sick call nearly every day in order to get out of flying. They were big cowards and had no backbone. They were causing the ones that would fly all the time to have to do double duty in order to get our supplies to these forward bases. It became such a problem the squadron Adjutant called all of the enlisted men together in a big meeting tent, and read the Articles of War to all of us. He explained to everyone that they would be court- martialed and shot by a firing squad, if they continued to make themselves unavailable for flying. They were not sick; but were as yellow as they come. They got the message, and there were not many on sick call, after that warning, even if they did feel sick. It made the rest of us feel bad, that we were even subjected to this lecture and warning. I never missed one single day of being available for flying, except the time I was in the Hospital and at rest camp. Most of us flew every day, and we did not appreciate this bunch of cowards. They were always very obnoxious and stuck together. Happily they all tried to bunk in the same tents together, and we didn’t have to contend with their kind. They were a bunch of lazy slobs, and they were not Irishmen.

One of their leaders, the main antaganizer, was a union foreman back in the states, named Iovanella, and he was one of the worst of the bunch about trying to get out of flying. I always have been against the unions, because they always seem to pick the biggest crooks, and rabble rousers to lead the members. I had to join the machinist union while I worked at the Todd Dry Docks, in Galveston, before I came into the service. The Union went on strike, and we were off from work for over two months. I lost all of my pay for that period, and all we accomplished was six cents an hour raises. It would have taken me years, if ever, to make up for the wages I lost. Our union purser, or treasurer, was a German named Graf. A lot of others and myself did not like him, and thought he might be trying to cause a lot of unrest among the employees. He had a very heavy German accent. He really carried a lot of weight with the unions that had everyone under their control. He kept everyone stirred up about how we were being mistreated and underpaid, and he was a main instigator of that labor strike. I didn’t attend too many of the labor meetings, as I just wasn’t in favor of their tactics. There were some very rough and bawdy men working at the dry docks, and always drinking heavily at these meetings. They sometimes had some really raw entertainment at these meetings, featuring nude women, and I cannot put into print what I heard they did.

One day we didn't have to fly, so we borrowed a Jeep and drove south to Bhamo, where a lot of the fighting had been taking place. We started seeing dead Japanese bodies lying everywhere. They retreated so fast, they did not bother to take any of their dead with them. They were fully clothed and several of them were officers. They still had their guns and swords, in their holsters, or lying beside them. They were tempting souvenirs; but we had been forewarned not to touch them as they might be booby-trapped. Some men did take a chance and were lucky, and they came away with pistols, swords and Japanese flags. I wish now that I had taken one of their pistols or swords. I don't know how they smuggled them home, as they took everything but our clothes from us when we started home.

We flew to Ledo one day and had to spend the night there. We went to the bazaar and did a little shopping. I bought a silk kimono for my future wife, Mozelle, and mailed it to her later. It was red, with a dragon design on the back. Mozelle still has it hanging in a closet. After fifty-eight years, it has deteriorated very badly. It is threadbare now and probably near rotting. I don't think that she ever wore it much, if any. It really was a decorative piece of bedtime wearing apparel.

On another occasion we loaded onto a truck, and drove to Dhaka, the capitol of Bangladesh, for a couple of days of rest, and recreation, (R & R). While there, I bought Mozelle two rings. One is a dinner ring, with a simulated ruby, surrounded by white sapphires. The other is a ruby garnet, with two pink pearls, one on each side, with the garnet in the center. She lost one of the pearls, and was afraid I'd get mad if she told me, and I have never been able to find any more pink pearls at any jewelers, in Texas or Oklahoma, Kansas or Missouri, where we have tried. We even tried to find the same size white pearls, and finally settled for two, almost the same size. They are white, and are almost as pretty as the pink ones were. Dhaka was the only place in the world where the pink pearls came from at that time.

On one flight into Burma, we had to fly in a very dense fog. We had to fly by instruments, as the fog was so thick we couldn't see very far ahead of us. We thought we were in the interior of Burma, and after flying around in circles, so we thought, we flew through passes and around mountains, that were supposed to be much higher than we were flying. All of a sudden we broke out of the fog, and we were flying over the Bay of Bengal, nearly seventy-five miles west of where we were supposed to be. Our instruments had not shown anything abnormal, and we never knew what caused us to circle around in those mountains, and not crash into one of them. The Lord had his hands on our controls that day, and guided our plane safely out of the mountains. We didn't unload that day, we just returned to our base, which was about an hour’s flight north of us.

A WAR UNHERALDED Part 5