Flying Skunks vs. Black Angels

When A/C #713, piloted by Capt. Raymond L. Hodges Jr., bellied into a rice paddy after developing mechanical failure on a practice flight demanded by Maj. R. L. Patterson, in command of the 83rd Bomb Squadron that shared the same airfield, it was soon surrounded by solicitous natives bearing fruit and water. R. N. Solyn Collection, courtesy of Robert N. Solin

The Japanese had completely occupied Burma, immediately to the south and east of Assam, India, since early April 1942. Their goal was to capture the Imphal plain and push into upper Assam to cut off air supplies to China over the Himalayan Hump. The crossroads city of Imphal in the Indian state of Manipur was the only practical approach by which the Japanese could invade India from Burma because of the forbidding mountain range that ran along their shared border. Japanese forces laid siege to the city as the British and their Allies offered fierce resistance. Lord Mountbatten had urged an assault into north-central Burma to capture Myitkyina and Mogaung, both strongly held by the enemy. Myitkyina’s airfield was taken on May 17, although the city held, and Mogaung was under attack. Bombing of Allied strongholds had continued uninterrupted for two years by the time the 3rd Bomb Squadron reached Moran Field in Upper Assam on May 31, 1944.

As this situation was developing, Chinese forces succeeded on May 11 in crossing the Salween River as they advanced from China’s Yunnan Province and were heavily engaged just west of Tatangtzu as well as along the Schweli River. While they waited for orders to proceed to China, their “ultimate destination” where they expected to join the other three bomb squadrons of the Chinese-American Composite Wing, the 3rd Squadron’s flyers had hopes of taking part in some of the action in Burma.

Maj. Chester M. Conrad, squadron commander, and Capt. John C. Hinrichs Jr., its supply officer, traveled to the supply depot at Jorhat and "made connections for the future” as June began, according to Capt. Louis F. Graves Jr., squadron navigator and acting historical officer. Graves, with Capt. George C. Cunningham, bombardier, visited A-1 and A-3 (Personnel and Operations) at Wing headquarters, where they received updates on the tactical situation, as well as a supply of intelligence information and materials. However, atmospheric conditions were not cooperating with plans for combat. "Typical monsoon weather forestalled any operation today although work continued on the line,” wrote Graves on the following day. “Heavy rains turned the tent area into a quagmire. Usually the rains and winds are heaviest after nightfall. Few tent floors escape a thorough washing and mold is showing on articles of clothing.”              

The mechanics soon discovered that aircraft maintenance was a serious problem, not only because of the weather but also because spare parts were in short supply and working conditions were poor. There were no hangars, so repairs and maintenance were done in the aircraft parking areas. During monsoon season, work on the planes was performed primarily at night because of the fierce daytime heat. Resourceful mechanics rigged makeshift covers to protect the engines during downpours so they could keep the planes ready to fly when weather permitted.

MSgt. Arthur Oxford, who had arrived at Moran in March with the 82nd ("Bulldog") Bomb Squadron, had this to say: "Soon our B-25s went into action to support both the Chinese drive in Northern Burma and the British counter-attack in Assam. They bombed the Jap bases like Myitkyina and Kumaing and Katha. They ripped up railway bridges and junctions. They caught Jap planes on the ground in raids on airfields. And then in June the four-month monsoon season set in to give us a new batch of trouble.”

Continuing the narrative, TSgt. Charles A. Metcalf of the 83rd ("Black Angel") Bomb Squadron provided more details. “Trouble is right. The weather was so thick the birds could walk on it. Our planes were lucky to get a day clear enough to see the target. And even if they did, they still had to cross and re-cross the 9,000-foot-high Chin Hills, which were always blanketed in a few thousand feet or more of clouds,” he said. “We ground men soon made some delightful little discoveries about the effect of constant rain and dampness on a plane. Metal parts, for instance, rust or corrode. Fabric rots and leather gets mildewed. Radio equipment goes on the blink and machine guns jam up.” *

 The four squadrons (81st, 82nd, 83rd, and 434th) of the 12th ("Earthquakers") Bomb Group, 10th Air Force, had flown against targets in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Pantelleria, Lampedusa, Crete, Sicily, and Italy before being transferred to India. Since arrival of the 82nd and 83rd squadrons at Moran, these experienced airmen had been flying their B-25s on primarily low-level bombing and strafing missions against targets in Burma.

Maj. R. L. Patterson, in command of the 83rd Squadron, was distrustful of the abilities of the recently-arrived and biracial 3rd Bomb Squadron. Before allowing the mixed Chinese-American crews to "tack onto" his planes for missions, he insisted that 3rd Squadron airmen fly a practice formation flight with the 83rd to demonstrate their readiness for combat. After being presented with Patterson's demands on June 3, Maj. Conrad agreed, although he and the rest of the squadron were "slightly irritated at Patterson's belittling attitude.” The following day, Capt. Raymond L. Hodges Jr. and "his Chinese boys, 2Lts. Tung and Yen" (Tung Shih-liang and Yen Pao-san) flew follow element to the 83rd Squadron's lead element. Capt. Graves later commented, "Our boys assembled and tacked on much quicker than the 83rd, who flew an extremely wide pattern.”

Hodges, from Alabama, had been flying since 1938 and was far from inexperienced. Although he joined the Air Corps in September 1940 as a mechanic, he later qualified as an aviation cadet and completed the typical pilot’s training curriculum that consisted of ten weeks of preflight school (military protocol; classroom preparation for flight training), ten more of primary flying school (basic flying skills; more classroom instruction), ten of basic flying school (more complex flight maneuvers), and ten of advanced flying training (preparation for single-engine or multi-engine assignments), followed by ten weeks of post-graduate transition flying training (preparation for piloting the specific aircraft used by the unit to which student was to be assigned). As a test pilot, Hodges flew about fifty-five different kinds of planes during this period, including "some Navy, some foreign, some experimental planes.” He became a training instructor at Turner Field in Albany, Georgia, and Eglin Field near Valparaiso, Florida, where he trained Jimmy Doolittle to fly the Michells he used on his raid. Since his arrival in early April, he had trained Chinese pilots and crews. While the 3rd Squadron shared the field with the 490th Bomb Squadron of the 341st Bomb Group, 10th Air Force, Hodges collaborated to perfect "glip bombing" against bridges. The technique proved so successful that the 490th gained fame as the “Burma Bridge Busters" and the 341st as the “China Glippers.”** Hodges' wingmen, Tung and Yen, were almost equally qualified, having successfully completed pilot’s training in the US.

After about an hour in the air, Capt. Hodges' plane (a B-25H, A/C #713) developed engine trouble. Hodges, with two Chinese crewmen, 2Lts. Chang H. H. and Tu Kai-mu, was flying at 5,000 feet in conditions of scattered clouds, ceiling about 7,000 feet, and unlimited visibility when the oil pressure on his right engine dropped to zero. Soon after Hodges turned back toward the field, his right propeller "ran away" and would not feather (turning the blades into the wind to eliminate drag). The plane was unable to maintain altitude, so at about 1445 he made a wheels-up landing in a rice field about eight miles northwest of Moran Field. Flying on Hodges' right wing was 2Lt. Tung, who reported observing that the right engine caught fire and gas spurted out. He followed the lead plane down to tree level and saw Hodges and the two crewmen on the wing of the downed plane, waving their arms. Tung returned to Moran and reported the plane’s location. Failure of the engine's internal lubricating system was blamed for loss of oil pressure since oil lines were determined to be intact. The report was signed by Capt. Thomas S. Simpson as operations officer, as well as by Capt. Mark T. Seacrest and 1Lts. Robert C. MacNeil and Reuben Ragland; SSgt. Maynard W. Rieks was noted as crew chief. The plane was turned over to the 52nd Service Group, China-Burma-India Air Service Command, for salvage.

Capt. Hodges borrowed a bicycle from one of the locals (“the Chief,” according to Simpson). As he started pedaling back toward base, he met his rescuers along the road. Capt. Graves wrote that when two trucks "drove through tea garden lanes" and arrived at the crash site, the rescue team found the plane surrounded by natives, who had brought "quantities of fruit and water" to the downed airmen and "gathered up airplane parts scattered in the wake of the crash.” Graves praised Hodges for crash landing "beautifully,” with the least possible damage to the plane and no injury to personnel. "All hands" had returned safely to the airfield by 1900.            

By this time, bombers assigned to the 3rd Squadron, each displaying the Kuomintang sun, also bore a Chinese Air Force number―in the range from 713 through 726 for bombers of the 3rd Squadron. On the nose of each plane was a roundel featuring the squadron's insignia: a black-and-white skunk with his tail raised in the "armed" position and a self-protective clothes pin on his nose. Above his back was his target: a burnt-orange rising sun against a turquoise sky. Its design was the creation of Capt. Hinrichs. Squadron personnel referred to themselves as “the Spray and Pray Squadron,” but newspapers back home sometimes called them “the Flying Skunk Squadron.”

The estrangement that had developed between the 3rd and the 83rd squadrons "reached a crescendo at the evening meal" following Hodges' forced landing. Unsatisfied, the Black Angel Squadron's commander demanded a second flight to test the capabilities of 3rd Squadron airmen. This time Conrad objected, on the grounds that his squadron had already demonstrated its ability and that a second flight would be a personal affront to his men, causing them to “lose face.” Patterson's attitude was "inspired by an apprehension of the close formation the Third flies,” according to Graves. "His comments are whimsy, not founded on any logic.”

Conrad refused, insisting that his squadron would "merely await the arrival of the necessary fighter protection in Col. Rouse's outfit and the assignment of a lead airplane.” (Col. Frank E. Rouse then commanded the CACW’s 5th Fighter Group.) Maj. Patterson appealed to Brig. Gen. John F. Egan, in command of the 5320th Air Defense Wing, who wired a message to Conrad demanding that he yield because the other officer outranked him as the “supreme commander.” Conrad had no choice but to concede to the second practice flight, which took place on June 7. This time, Lt. Ragland's flight flew second element to Maj. Patterson's lead three elements. Once again, the Chinese pilots "made a wonderful showing" and Patterson called off the practice flight.

The 3rd and 83rd Squadrons were scheduled to fly their first mission together on the following day, but foul weather again intervened to prevent operations. Maj. Gen. Howard C. Davidson, former CACW training chief and now in command of the 10th Air Force to which the 3rd Squadron had been temporarily assigned, held a conference that included representatives of both bomb squadrons and the 90th Fighter Squadron of the 80th Fighter Group ("Burma Banshees") that shared the same field. Davidson's major points were his intention to remove the 83rd back to its group near Calcutta, as well as the 3rd Squadron’s assuming the bombing role over Burma in support of Lt. Gen. Joseph W. ("Vinegar Joe") Stilwell's troops with protection by P-40s from the 90th and the CACW's 5th Fighter Group that was scheduled to arrive soon. The 83rd departed on June 11, “leaving Upper Assam to the Third.”

* Sgt. Dave Richardson, "Earthquakers' Odyssey,” YANK: The Army Weekly, China-Burma-India Edition, December 9, 1944, Part 3 (posted by Carl Warren Weidenburner, China-Burma-India: Remembering the Forgotten Theater of World War II, 2006).

** Penny L. Pool, "A life that could have been a movie,” The Randolph Leader (Roanoke, AL), November 9, 2005.

Want more of this story? You can find it in The Spray and Pray Squadron: 3rd Bomb Squadron, 1st Bomb Group, Chinese-American Composite Wing in World War II.