Tag Archives: CBI

Lighting it off, CBI style

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Official period caption: Independence Day celebration at a 10th Air Force Base “somewhere in India,” 4 July 1945. Lockheed P-38 Lightnings fire their 50 cal. machine guns and 20mm cannon.

These are possibly the “Twin Dragons” of the 80th FG’s 459th Fighter Squadron (459th FS), which at the time were based at Dudhkundi, supporting operations over Burma.

(U.S. Air Force Number 62693AC. National Archives Identifier 204961221)

Stay safe out there in your own little part of America this weekend, gents.

High Altitude Stuarts

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A Stuart light tank of an Indian cavalry regiment during the advance on Rangoon, Burma, in April 1945.

No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit  IWM (IND 4652)

The above Stuart is likely of the 5th Probyn’s Horse: King Edward’s Own Lancers, the light tracks of the 255th Indian Tank Brigade as opposed to the brigade’s two Sherman units (9th Royal Deccan Horse and 116th Royal Armoured Corps (Gordon Highlanders)). Balanced by the motorized infantry from the 4th bn/4th Bombay Grenadiers and 6th bn/7th Rajput Regiment, Priest SP guns of the 18th Field Regiment RA, along with detachments of armored cars, engineers, bridging troops, and medical units, the 255th was a rare armored fist in the liberation of Burma in 1944-45 and later became the 1st (Indian) Armoured Brigade in 1946.

Post-war, the Indian Army still showed much love to its Stuarts, even though the 15-ton light tank, sporting a scant 0.375-inches of armor over much of its hull, was arguably obsolete for most purposes other than reconnaissance even while it was sill in production.

They fought hard against the Pakistanis in 1947-48, setting what is believed (at least by the Indian Army) to be an attitude record for tank combat during the capture of Zola in November 1948. Carefully disassembled and transported to the pass in great secrecy during the build-up, they were reassembled and ran amok at 11,500 feet ASL, much like Hannibal’s war elephants.

Indian Army M5 Stuart light tanks of the 7th Light Cavalry Regiment at Zoji La (Pass of Blizzards) in Ladakh during Operation Bison, November 1948.

Yuletide CBI Warhawks, Complete with Cranberry

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Official wartime caption: “While still on alert duty, S/Sgt. J.A. Muller, Cpl. John W. Coleman, and Cpl. L.B. Thomas of the 16th Fighter Squadron, 51st Fighter Group, consume their Christmas Dinner on the field at a base ‘Somewhere In China,’ 25 December 1942.”

At the time of this image, the 16th was flying out of Zhanyi, China, and had a detachment in Yunnanyi.

U.S. Air Force Number 74184AC, NARA 342-FH-3A02359-74184AC

Constituted as 16th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) on 20 November 1940, the “Flying Wall” flew Curtiss P-40 Warhawks from the beginning. Deployed to the CBI in March 1942 as part of the Tenth Air Force, the squadron operated from India’s Assam Valley before moving into KMT-controlled China in October 1943 as part of the Fourteenth Air Force.

The squadron defended the Chinese end of the “Hump” route and harassed Japanese shipping in the Red River delta of Indochina, then later supported KMT ground forces in the 1944 drive along the Salween River.

Reequipped with P-51D Mustangs in 1945, they eventually returned to India and was inactivated on 13 December 1945. They earned four campaign streamers for WWII: New Guinea; India-Burma; China Defensive; and China Offensive.

Post-war, they were reactivated for Korea where they flew first P-80s then F-86s. They then served as an interceptor squadron with F-102s before switching to the F-4 Phantom in 1965. Since 1979, they have been operating F-16s and have been based at Nellis AFB, Nevada as the 16th Weapons Squadron (“Tomahawks”) since 2003.

Giving birth to a Sikorsky

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80 years ago today. 10 October 1944. Somewhere in India. Helicopter Arrives.

“The fuselage of a helicopter is unloaded from a transport plane by men of the First Air Commando Group in India. The little ship was loaded aboard the big transport in the U.S. only a few days before.”

USAAF photo from the Allison collection, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History.

While pioneered by the British and the U.S. Coast Guard in late 1943, the Tenth Air Force’s Air Jungle Rescue Detachment, using “the lightest pilots available” started flying early Sikorsky YR-4 helicopters in early 1944, with the first documented CSAR “skyhook” mission occurring n April when 2LT Carter Harman picked up the pilot of a downed L-1 liaison aircraft and three wounded British soldiers– over two days and four flights.

By the end of the war, the 1st ACG, constituted on 25 March 1944, had become perhaps the most experienced “chopper” unit of WWII. They operated four YR-4s “in-country” with two other aircraft destroyed en route.

Today, the USAF SOW commandos look to them as their historical predecessors. 

The Final Marauder Reports

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The U.S. Army’s 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), was not a big organization.

Grouped into three battalions each of 963 men and 139 horses/mules plus a K9 platoon, its all-up TOE was just 2,997 officers and men– basically that of an understrength light infantry brigade. Its largest artillery was 81mm mortars. 

Code-named “Galahad” and led by Brig. Gen. Frank D. Merrill, they became the larger-than-life “Merrill’s Marauders” as they cut a swath across occupied Burma in 1944, marching 1,000 miles in six months (four of those in combat) from India to seize the Japanese-held airfield in the city of Myitkyina.

Now, the last of the Marauders, Russell Hamler, who began the war as a horse soldier in the 27th Cavalry before he volunteered for what would become the 5307th, has passed at age 99, closing a chapter in military history.

The lineage of the Mauraders passed to the 75th Ranger Regiment, which keeps the memory alive.

Assam Draggin Getting Ready for a ‘Thousand Pounder’ Raid

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“White 4” P-40K Warhawk “Konkubine” of the 25th Fighter Squadron, 51st Fighter Group, getting prepped for a mission with a 1,000-pound centerline bomb, ca 1943. From left to right; Private Anthony Zinkevich, Private Frank Bussell, Tech Sergeant Thomas Collins, Staff Sergeant Lynn Hansen, and Lieutenant Robert McClurg– who carries a Gurkha kukri at the ready and wears a CBI “blood chit” on his back.

This picture, taken 14th April 1943, appeared in the November 1943 edition of “Impact” magazine, but, noticeably, the 25th continued to fly Warhawks into 1945. Photo via NARA

Formed as the 25th Pursuit Squadron at Hamilton Field, Calif., on Jan. 15, 1941, by July the squadron received its first P-40s and by March 1942 had sailed around the globe to set up wartime operations in British India. Setting up shop in Assam, India the 25th picked up the name “Assam Draggins.” 

As noted by the USAF:

The 25th Fighter Squadron’s first real moment of glory began in February 1943 when the unit was tasked to defend Fort Hertz near Myikina. Fort Hertz was a vital cog in air operations near “the Hump.” The 25th bombed and strafed enemy troops, concentrations, supply dumps, bridges, and enemy communication lines for twelve consecutive days, but failed to slow the Japanese advance on Fort Hertz. B-25 heavy bombers were needed to halt the enemy’s drive, but none were available. Lt. Col. John E. Barr, the executive officer for the 51st Fighter Group, modified a P-40 to carry 1,000-pound bombs, and by May 1943, had halted the Japanese offensive. 

The 25th Fighter Squadron encountered more combat activity than any other unit within the 51st Fighter Group during the war. The squadron returned to the United States and was inactivated on Dec. 12, 1945.

Post-war, they flew F-80s, F-86s, and F-4s, switching to the A-10 in 1982, which they currently operate out of Osan Air Base, South Korea.

Just Extra Mags and a Kukri

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A small-framed soldier of the 4th Battalion, 4th Prince of Wales’s Own (PWO) Gurkha Rifles, engaged in house-to-house fighting in a Burmese village, CBI Theatre, 1945.

Raised in 1941, 4/4 saw WWII service in India’s border areas in Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram, and the Far East. One of the Gurkha regiments that was partitioned to the Indian Army in 1947, the motto of what is today the Fourth Gorkha Rifles is “Kayar Hunu Bhanda Marnu Ramro” (Better to die than live like a coward) (National Army Museum UK/One of 11 photos collected by Company Sergeant Major G R C Willis, 2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment. NAM. 1989-10-67-4.)

Note the Sten Mk 3 sub-machine gun and the kukri in the belt at the Gurkha’s back. Due to the local conditions, the Gurkha has whittled down most of his ’37 Webbing to just a pair of basic pouches– which could carry either two BREN magazines, a half-dozen Thompson/STEN mags, four grenades, or boxes of 303– and a utility pouch, normally carried on the chest, worn to the back while what looks like the mouth of a canteen is poking up from his right. Still, with as many as 13 32-round mags, this skinny little guy could have over 400 rounds of ammo at the ready– an aspect oft-forgotten by those who poo-poo the use of SMGs on the battlefield. 

The 4/4 used beasts of burden for everything else.

Troops of 4/4th Gurkha Rifles crossing the River Irrawaddy in Burma. Each man carries his own weapon and essential supplies, while the ever-present mules shoulder the burden of extra ammunition, food, and water. NAM. 1989-10-67-5 by Sergeant Major G R C Willis, 2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment.

The hardy soldiers from Nepal were well represented in the CBI in 1944-45 as 3rd Battalion/6th Gurkha Rifles; 3rd Battalion/4th Gurkha Rifles and the 3rd and 4th Battalions, 9th Gurkha Rifles, all took part in the Second Chindit Expedition of 1944. Other Gurkha battalions fought in the swamps and forests of the Arakan.

In lighter notes, the STEN has always been my favorite burp gun and one that is absolutely just the most enjoyable to fire. We’ve already talked about my kukri obsession several times…

A Lil Jeep and a lot of swagger

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Capt. Forrest F “Pappy” Parham in front of the famous shark teeth of Little Jeep, a P-40 Warhawk when a member of “Chennault’s Sharks” the 23rd Fighter Group in the China-Burma-India theater of WWII. He went on to make ace with the 75th Fighter Squadron flying P-51s.

The Saskatchewan-born Parham was reared in Minnesota and began his career as an Army enlisted man but retired a full bird colonel in the U.S. Air Force having served through the Korean War. He retired after 28 years, carried the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, Air Medal with eight oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Unit Citation, Soldiers Medal and two Bronze Service Stars.

He died in Louisiana in 2002 at age 85. As you can tell, he enjoyed a good pipe and an ivory-handled 1911.