Joe Minton Tiger in the Trench

I remembers one night in either Sylhet or Agartala when all hell broke loose in the dead of the night; a big cat (tiger, leopard, something 'REAL' big by the sound of it) had suddenly run between two of the bashas and fallen into one of our slit trenches. Remember those zig-zag air raid trenches - designed with 90 degree corners to preclude shrapnel from going the length of the trench? Anyhow, this cat let out roars that would wake the dead, probably even Milzer, and he kept up the snarling and roaring as he bounced off one corner then the next. Obviously ticked off even more at each bend in the trench, he really came unglued as lights started to pop on all around the area. Finally he came to the end and up and over and back into the 'underbrush'; he was long gone by the time Tiger Morgan arrived on the scene (probably wearing his pith helmet and nothing else but his .45 pistol). Everyone was pretty impressed 'by the big pug marks' all over the wet ground; he left claw marks from top to bottom of the trenches all the way to the end. Even the basha boys were impressed the next day when we were all measuring the size of the prints and width of the claw marks. Oh well, such is life in the jungle. (PS with enough ferocious snarling and growling plus authentic tiger roars, you can really do a job on the little ones!).

From 'Bedtime Stories' Adapted by Joe Minton, from his memories of the old war stories of the 15th Combat Cargo Squadron Heroes March 2000

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

Notice to all Viewers:

All stories and images within "Imphal, The Hump and Beyond, U.S.A.A.F Combat Cargo Units of the Second World War", are Copyright Š1999-2000, to the Veteran who submitted the text and/or photographs and to Bill Bielauskas, Webmaster at "Imphal, the Hump and Beyond, U.S.A.A.F. Combat Cargo Units of the Second World War". All rights reserved. No part of this page, or those connected via links, either text, or images may be used for any purpose other than personal use. Storage, reproduction, modification on a retrieval system or transmission, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without prior written permission of the Copyright Š holder(s) is prohibited.

This includes storage on another Internet Website other than "Imphal, the Hump and Beyond, U.S.A.A.F. Combat Cargo Groups of the Second World War"

Bill Bielauskas 10 Cayuga Trail, Wayne, NJ. 07470-4406