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Bail Out Over China And The Long Walk Home The Story Chapter 6 Miscellaneous Notes |
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| 1. Three members of my regular crew (engineer and two gunners) missed this flight due to illness. They were lucky - or were they? (now that it is over!) 2. There were three things the Chinese could not understand: A. Now and then I would wear my dress hat which I had tucked in my flying suit when I bailed out. They always asked how come it did not fall off my head when I jumped. B. I had a removable bridge in my mouth and so was able to take out four teeth, clean them and put them back. They had never seen this and used to crouch down on the ground and try to look up into my mouth. Then they would laugh their heads off. C. The last thing was the vapor trails that our plane engines left in the sky. They thought they were on fire. 3. Two sights I will never forget are the Great Wall of China and Peiping (also known as “Peking” and now “Beijing”) at night. We looked down on its lights one night as we sneaked by just to the north of it. The thoughts that went through my mind are too numerous to list. I would love to go back now.. 4. Two weeks after going down, the guerrilla gave me a captured Jap camera. With it came definite instructions to take as many pictures as possible showing how the guerrilla were fighting the Japs! I was then told to give the pictures to the American authorities - and thus enhance the Communists’ chances of getting supplies from us. Myself and crew were the only ones who ended up with the snaps. 5. In the diary on February 21st I mentioned a note we received from four other evades in the next compound. They were two Americans, a Russian and Jap - they wanted to speak with us. We were at a guerrilla headquarters and the General in charge strongly advised me not to see them. He said that all four of them had been working in China when the Japs took over and were now heading out the same way we are. He was helping them in a limited way but he said he did not trust them and was sure that they were Jap spies. I thought it over - and took his advice. Since then I’ve often wondered about it! 6. Few people know it but Port Arthur was the Japs’ first Pearl Harbor! Just like their surprise attack on us - they pulled the same trick on the Russians at Port Arthur. It was in 1904 and they used ships instead of planes - sank the Russian fleet in the harbor - won the Russo-Japanese War! 7. Some of the crew members had unusual stories to tell. One fellow saw a group of soldiers running toward him when he landed. He crawled under some bushes - took out a picture of his mother and his girl friend - and said goodbye to them. When the soldiers found him, he came out with his hands up. They turned out to be Chinese soldiers wearing captured Jap helmets! 8. Finally, an apology for the diary being written as it was - small groups of words instead of sentences. The reasons - it was bitter cold, on occasions time was short, lack of light, the notebook was small, I wanted to get all the facts down, I was dead tired, sick, hungry and usually mentally exhausted. Sorry about that. 9. Years after our walk-out, I received a letter from Major Allen (our C.O.). He explained how he had gone to Yenan and then had dropped emergency supplies to us in an area where “he thought we were”! He also said in his letter “I also picked up the body of Captain Whitelsey, an OSI operative, who was trying to join up with you. He was captued by the Japs and beheaded.” End of Chapter 06 |
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