Published by the WW II History Roundtable

April 1997 Volume 5 Number 7 Published by the WW II History Roundtable Edited by Jim and Jon Gerber

Welcome to the April meeting of the Harold C. Deutsch WW II History Roundtable. Our program this evening concerns the China-Burma-India theater. The panel tonight will speak of their experiences in the 10th Air Force and flying the Hump.

DC 2-1/2 When Japanese fighters shot off most of the right wing of a Chinese National Aviation Corporation DC-3, the company used the wing of a DC-2 to replace it and flew the plane to safety. It was promptly nicknamed the DC-2-1/2.

Revenge In one of the most unusual cases of revenge recorded by either side in the war, US Army Air Force Lieutenant Harold Fisher plotted to locate and shoot down the Italian pilot who had shot him down in 1943 using a decoy P-38 fighter. The US plane was being used by the Italians in very much the same way the German KG-200 units used captured Allied aircraft to infiltrate Allied formations and then shoot down as many as possible The incident so infuriated Fisher that he managed to equip a B-17 with additional armament and use himself as bait for the decoy P-38. Fisher learned the name of his nemesis, Guido Rossi, and the fact that Rossi’s wife was now behind Allied lines. He had her name and likeness painted on the plane’s nose. A short time after Fisher began trying to bait Rossi he was successful. When Rossi began air-to-air radio exchange with Fisher, the US pilot told the Italian pilot that he named his plane after a woman he had been living with - then identified her. As Fisher expected, Rossi put his previous tactics aside and came at the B-17 directly. Fisher shot him down and Rossi was picked up and became a prisoner of war. The bizarre episode won Fisher the Distinguished Flying Cross.

CBI The first helicopter rescue was done in the CBI Theater. In April, 1945, USAAF Captain James L. Green was plucked out of the mountains. Green, who himself had been on a search and rescue mission for pilots, crashed in the mountainous jungle in Burma. Seriously injured, he was lifted to safety a week later by Lieutenant R. F. Murdock in a Sikorsky YR-4.

Operation Petticoat? You may remember a comedy movie from many years back about a submarine that ended up being painted pink because red and white undercoat were mixed and applied to the hull. Before the gray top coat could be applied the sub was attacked and was forced to sail with only the pink undercoat. This story, of course, was fiction. However, there was a true occurrence of nearly the same thing. On December 10, 1941, the Japanese attacked the Cavite Navy Yard where the submarine Sealion was tied up next to another sub, Seadragon. Two bombs exploded on the Sealion flooding her aft engine room and causing her to settle by the stern. Flying shrapnel from the bomb blasts slashed Seadragon tearing away part of her bridge and blistering the paint on her conning tower and hull. While she was being hauled away from the flaming wharf, the Seadragon’s paint cracked and began to flake off revealing blotches of the red layer of lead primer underneath. The sub was quickly repaired and made seaworthy. Leaks were plugged and the sub’s pressure hull patched but there was no time for a paint job. The Seadragon left Manila Bay for her patrol looking like a red and black spotted leopard. During the month of January 1942, she stalked the enemy invasion ships as they swept down on the Phillipine Islands. The sub harassed troop convoys, eluded destroyers, survived depth-charging, fired 15 torpedoes and reported the unconfirmed sinking of Fukuyo Maru. Seadragon ‘s black paint continued to peel as she headed for Java hoping to get a new paint job. But with the Japanese attacking the Dutch East Indies, there was no time to cover the submarine’s bright red primer. She began running supplies and ammunition to Corregidor. Seadragon had been on her second patrol for 84 days when reports came from Tokyo Rose that the Americans had sent a fleet of “red submarines” to sink Japanese ships in the South China Sea. Rose called them pirates and promised death to the red submarines. US Fleet Headquarters was just as surprised by this news as the Japanese. Exactly what were these red submarines that were supposed to be harassing Japanese shipping? Were they some sort of secret weapon? Was red a new type of camouflage color? Or were they submarines of the Soviet Navy? Of course, to the men on board the Seadragon there was no mystery at all. When Tokyo Rose broadcast her attack on the American pirates in their red submarines, the crew was well aware of the cause. A violent storm in the South China Sea has scoured away the last of the ship’s black paint, leaving her as red as a boiled lobster. Despite the publicity and the fame, Seadragon survived the notoriety. On her next patrol she sent three more Japanese vessels to the bottom. Seadragon’s main claim to fame, however, was that she was the only red submarine in the history of naval warfare.

MacArthur US General Douglas MacArthur’s mother apparently had a difficult time accepting that her child was a boy. Until he was eight years old she kept him dressed in skirts and wearing his hair in long curls.

Tokyo Rose Iva Ikuko Toguri d’Aquino was an American citizen who was visiting a sick relative in Japan when war broke out. A graduate of UCLA with a degree in zoology, she chose to work in the Japanese Broadcasting Company rather than be assigned to work in a factory. Although she insists she was not Tokyo Rose, she received a ten-year prison term for treason after the war and a $10,000 fine. President Gerald Ford pardoned her in January 1977. The value of the sultry messages broadcast to US troops in the Pacific by Tokyo Rose has always been questioned, since many servicemen enjoyed the music she played and found her remarks laughable.

Travel Guide A Short Guide to Great Britain was a 32-page booklet given to US servicemen prior to arriving in Britain. It warned of such social blunders as stealing a British soldier’s girl and spending money too freely. It also noted: “The British don’t know how to make a good cup of coffee. You don’t know how to make a good cup of tea. It is an even swap.

Razor Blades Herman Goering brushed off reports that the British were destroying Rommel’s Panzers with American shells by saying to Rommel: “All the Americans can make are razor blades and refrigerators.” To which Rommel replied: “I only wish Herr Reichsmarshall, that we were issued similar razor blades!”