“Fly on Through”

By early May 1945, Allied forces in Europe were nearing victory, and the balance of power was shifting in China. The Battle of Chihkiang, in which the Chinese-American Composite Wing’s 5^th Fighter Group and 3^rd and 4^th Bomb Squadrons played a decisive role, proved to be the turning point of the war in China. Even as the war neared an end, replacements were being sent to the China Theater. Maj. Clarence H. (“Hank”) Drake was attached as a B-25 pilot in late April and flew missions with the 3^rd Bomb Squadron into June. On Drake’s first combat mission, he feared that enemy flak might bring down the plane, so he asked the pilot, “What do we do?”  1Lt. Willard G. Ilefeldt calmly replied, “Why, we just fly on through.”