“Downed Baker Two Five”

No aircrew members of the downed B-25J-2, A/C #722, survived, but confirmation of their deaths could not be provided until after the war ended. In early June 1945, those listed as next of kin had all received official notification from the War Department that the aircraft had failed to return from the May 16 mission and neither it nor any of its crew had been located. Maj. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, in command of the 14th Air Force, sent a personal message to each of those family members who waited in agony for word of their loved ones. He sent this one to Jeanette Davis, who lived with her young son in California.

May 16, 1945, began as many other days, but its events lived on in the memories of 3rd Bomb Squadron members for many years afterward.

In the early morning hours, six crews were briefed at Liangshan on separate targets in the Ichang, Chingmen, and Shashih triangle in western Hubei Province on mission #130 for the purpose of hitting enemy troops and supplies on low-level raids. They flew without escort, as had become common practice in this phase of the war. All aircraft carried M1A1 fragmentation bombs (twenty on two Mitchells and seventeen on four), all instantaneous fused and dropped by pilot release. Three bombers were sent out with American aircrews and three with all-Chinese crews: A/C #721 (Capt. Robert C. MacNeil, 1Lt. Wayne H. Senecal, 1Lt. Robert E. Banger, TSgt. Frank T. Jakubasz, Sgt. John W. England, 1Lt. Jerome G. Cantor, and Cpl. Edmund Schroeder), #714 (Liu P. C., Chen S. C., Huang C., Li L., Cheng F. C., and Yuan C. F.; no ranks given for any of the Chinese), #722 (1Lt. Donald J. Davis, FO Barton L. Wherritt, 1Lt. Robert J. Koss, Cpl. James J.  Ryan, Sgt. James A. Wadlow, and Sgt. Loyal L. Fox), #720 (Sung S. C., Tu N. L., Chow H., Lu H. W., Tung N. T., and Ho W. C.), #725 (Maj. Clarence H. Drake, 1Lt. Frank P. Pulaski, SSgt. William H. Whearty, Sgt. Loren E. Gaffney, Cpl. John J. DeFabritis, and Cpl. Robert G. Hugel), and #726 (Teng C. C., Lee K. A., Ting C. L., Mao C. H., and Chang Y.), as specified in the mission report’s “crew list” section. The uncharacteristic lack of clarity in detail suggests the heavy emotional toll this mission took on those affected by it.    

The first plane listed in the report’s narrative was off at 0530 and bombed a supply dump in the Chengyangi (Xiangyang) area, about a hundred miles east-northeast of Ichang (Yichang) on the Han River, a tributary of the Yangtze. Although not specified, A/C number was likely #714. On the first run, three bombs fell short of the target; on the second run, three dropped from 1,200 feet scored hits on the supply dump. Next, gunners strafed and damaged three trucks found west of Chengyangi on four passes. Machine gun fire from the ground knocked out the plane's hydraulic system and hit the left engine. Its aircrew counted a total of ten hits. The bombs could not be released due to damage to mechanism, so three were pushed out and the remaining eight were brought back to base. The aircraft landed at 0930.

The second listed for takeoff in the report was a B-25 (A/C number again not specified but likely #720) off at 0950 (error?) that dropped twenty bombs on the barracks area at Chingmen (Jingmen) on the Han River. About half hit the target. Strafing produced unobservable results. The explosion of one of the plane's own bombs caused some damage to the aircraft but it was able to return to base.            

Time of takeoff was recorded as 0550 for the next three planes. A/C #726 proceeded to the Chingmen barracks area (perhaps accompanying #720), and Lt. Teng dropped all seventeen bombs, nine of them hitting the target area and eight missing the target but falling into the edge of town. Results of a strafing run on Tanyung were unobservable. Sgt. Mao C. H., waist gunner, received two hits from small arms fire to his right leg near the knee, reported to be flesh wounds. It was this aircraft’s first 3rd Squadron mission.

The crew of A/C #725, which took a heading toward the same vicinity, sighted a Sally in the revetment area at Chingmen. Drake dropped five bombs, but all missed the enemy bomber. He released ten bombs on the barracks area in Shihchiaoi, and then he dropped the remaining five on boats near Ichang, missing them but burning a house on the riverbank. When he dropped in to enable his gunners to strafe the boats, a small explosion on one of them resulted. He concluded with another strafing pass on the barracks area in Shihchiaoi, where crewmen sighted five horses tied outside a building. Small arms fire shattered the plane's right waist Plexiglas window, inflicting slight cuts to the chin and hand of Cpl. DeFabritis, waist gunner. No serious damage was done to the aircraft, which returned to base at 1010. Maj. Drake, for whom this was his second mission as pilot, later revealed that aircrews were always administered pharmaceuticals to prepare them for early-morning raids such as this: sedatives on the night before and amphetamines on the morning of the missions to ensure that aircrews performed at peak efficiency.*

One of the planes (A/C number not specified but likely #721), flying to the same vicinity as #722, released seventeen bombs over barracks on the outskirts of Ichang. All hit in the target area, but crewmen observed no damage. It then made a strafing pass on the city, firing 13,000 rounds. The aircraft encountered no ground fire. This Mitchell returned to base at 0940.               

Capt. MacNeil's target was Sha-Shih, according to Schroeder's combat missions certification. Shashih (30⁰18’58”N, 112⁰15’07”E), located on the northern bank of the Yangtze about seventy air miles downriver from Ichang, was an important port city used by the Japanese for shipment of supplies. Schroeder noted the mission's duration as four hours and fifteen minutes. His details are consistent with the operational intelligence report for A/C #721.

Modified to carry eighteen Browning M2 .50-caliber machine guns, a B-25J-2, serial #44-30656, A/C #722, took off from Liangshan with seventeen frags to bomb and strafe the Japanese-held airfield at Ichang. Red letters spelled out "BIG DAVE" on the aircraft's nose. Although the mission report listed takeoff time as 0545, Lt. Allan Mikola later wrote that it was fifth on the runway in order of takeoff. The pilot on this mission was 1Lt. Davis, with FO Wherritt as copilot, 1Lt. Koss as navigator-bombardier, Cpl. Ryan as radio-gunner, recently-promoted Sgt. Wadlow as engineer-gunner, and Sgt. Fox as armorer-gunner in the tail compartment. After taking off in good weather, the bomber made no further radio contact with the tower. Visibility enroute and at the target was poor, and A/C #722 became separated from its wing plane, A/C #721, soon after takeoff. At the target, Davis made several bombing and strafing passes. A Chinese observer estimated that between two and three hundred enemy soldiers were killed and that large quantities of stores were destroyed. Chinese authorities at Enshih reported that the aircraft was hit by ground fire and crashed almost immediately on the field, burning as it went down. One unidentified man was said to have bailed out, although other observers believed that all of them had parachuted from the plane.

When A/C #722 failed to return, three 3rd Squadron aircraft took off to search the Ichang area for the missing plane and crew, accompanied by a single B-25 from the 2nd Bomb Squadron. Capt. Frederick H. Greene Jr., pilot of A/C #726 (with MacNeil, Banger, SSgt. Jack Holmes, Sgt. Alfred J. Magyar, Hugel, and TSgt. Harley D. Reynard) was in the air at 1600, followed by Pulaski, #714 (with Senecal, 1Lt. John F. Faherty, Sgt. Robert E. Schlicher Jr., Gaffney, and Cantor) and 2nd Lt. Chiang T., #725 (with Chang L. T., Liu P. C., Ku C. C., Kao C. K, and Wang M. T.). Chiang’s Mitchells had engine trouble caused by a faulty carburetor and turned back after about ten minutes, while Greene and Pulaski spent twenty to twenty-five minutes searching the area without locating any wreckage or evidence of the crew. They flew on to the railroad in the vicinity of Siaping, where air crews sighted two locomotives twenty miles north of Sinyang. Two strafing passes by each aircraft scored 800 to 1,000 hits and inflicted severe damage to the engines. The planes flew on to Mingkiang. Thirty-five miles west of Kioshan, one turned up the road leading to Hiyang and the other turned down. Faherty specified #714’s destination as Tangyang in his combat mission certifications. Both reported good dispersal of bombs along the roadway.

Capt. MacNeil reported on the following day that aircraft of the 2nd and 3rd Bomb Squadrons were again searching the vicinity of Ichang and Shashih for wreckage, and Chinese ground parties were searching the area as well. The next week, a follow-up report of “downed Baker Two Five” stated that one crew member had been seriously injured and was captured by the Japanese, while the other five had been killed in the crash. Another notification stated that one pilot was killed, and others had been captured.

“This reported loss of a crew comes as somewhat a shock to the squadron, for although we have had quite a number of our American crewmen walk-out from enemy territory, this is the first time an American of our squadron has been reported killed since the squadron has been activated,” Capt. Willard G. Ilefeldt wrote in his monthly historical report.** Conflicting intelligence reports continued to come in through the following weeks. Based upon a recently-received report, he still held out hope for survivors: “The other crew members were not mentioned on the report and it is assumed that they evaded capture and regressed through the enemy lines. If they evaded capture, we feel sure that they will be ‘walking out’, for Ichang is close to friendly territory.”

When no reports came in providing confirmation of their survival, all were officially listed as missing in action and presumed dead. Their fate was not confirmed until after the war had ended. It is ironic that the first of all the reports received was the most accurate. Sgt. Fox's date of death was recorded in official documents as July 5, 1945. Although hit by the plane’s propeller as he jumped, he survived the crash and was hospitalized by his captors. He was later reported to have died as the result of his injuries—inevitable considering the brutality consistently inflicted upon their captives by the Japanese.  The other five died in the crash.***

*       “Fly on Through,” 5/4/2025.

**    “Willard G. (‘Tex’) Ilefeldt,” 2/1/2025.

*** “Honoring the Fallen: 1Lt. Donald J. Davis,” 7/13/2024.

        “Honoring the Fallen: 2Lt. Barton L. Wherritt,” 7/16/2024.

        “Honoring the Fallen: Sgt. James A. Wadlow,” 7/17/2024.

        “Honoring the Fallen: 1Lt. Robert J. Koss,” 7/21/2024.

If you want to learn more about these heroes and the ill-fated mission that took their lives, you can find it in The Spray and Pray Squadron: 3rd Bomb Squadron, 1st Bomb Group, Chinese-American Composite Wing in World War II.