“Fly on Through”
Major Clarence H. (“Hank”) Drake, was a 3rd Bomb Squadron replacement who arrived late in the war. After his initiation into combat, Drake was transferred to the 4th Bomb Squadron and continued to fly successful missions as its commanding officer. After a career in the Air Force, he retired as a lieutenant colonel in late 1967, later making his home in San Antonio, Texas.
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 5th Fighter Group and 3rd and 4th Bomb Squadrons played a decisive role, proved to be the turning point of the war in China. Following their defeat, the Japanese made the decision to relinquish their Greater East Asia Corridor and withdraw from South China to positions north of the Yellow River. Imperial headquarters ordered the evacuation of the southern rail line extending to Kweilin and Liuchow, a branch of the main Hankow-Canton railway. Within a few days of the end of the Chihkiang campaign, units began to move from south China to be redeployed into northern and central China.
Soon afterward, revitalized Chinese troops, still in close coordination with air support, were reported to be so definitely masters of the situation that the Japanese were in full retreat along the Hsiang Valley. Within a few days it became evident, too, that the enemy was moving back toward the Indochina border and that preparations were being made to abandon Liuchow. Rather than decreasing efforts in response to the retreat, the 14th Air Force accelerated the air campaign with the aim of disrupting the imminent withdrawal of the enemy. Attacks from the air were concentrated on rail and road movements and river shipping, critically reducing the enemy's mobility and supply lines. Bombing missions throughout south and east China concentrated on attacks against communications targets and supply lines, as well as a large variety of targets of opportunity.
Even as the war neared an end, replacements were still 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 3rd Bomb Squadron into June. Raised by his widowed mother in Ohio, he had enlisted in the Air Corps as an aviation cadet in March 1941. Drake summarized his early career in a brief autobiographical sketch for the USAF’s Air War College at Mongomery, Alabama. “After graduating from pilot training in Class 41-H [in 1941 but before the US entered the war], I was assigned to an observation squadron by choice (my third choice, the Air Corps’ first choice). From spotting artillery fire and throwing flour sack bombs at tanks from liaison aircraft, I graduated to anti-submarine patrol in B-25s; to instructing in a B-25 OTU; and then to China. . . .”
While flying observation planes to patrol for German submarines in the Atlantic early in the war, Drake had been awarded the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster for meritorious service. He served in North Africa from March 1944. One of his later assignments had been to train elements of the 332nd Fighter Group—the now-famous “Tuskegee Airmen”—at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He was promoted to major in March 1945 at about the time he moved to China. A welcome addition, Drake had logged almost 2,000 hours in flight by the time he joined the 3rd Squadron.
The squadron's first mission for the month was off at 0935 on May 4, when two B-25s with two P-51s from the 3rd Fighter Group took a heading to Kaifeng and once again hit the railroad yards (section 15 this time). 1Lt. Willard G. Ilefeldt*, flying A/C #719 (with Drake as copilot, 1Lt. Robert E. Banger as navigator, Sgt. Robert E. Schlicher Jr. as engineer-gunner, Cpl. John J. DeFabritis as waist gunner, Cpl. Robert G. Hugel as tail gunner, SSgt. George W. Allnoch of the 28th Fighter Squadron, and Cpl. Edmund Schroeder as photographer), led the formation, with #722 (Chiang T., Meng C. M., Young C. H., Ku C. C., Kao C. K., and Feng C. K.) following, and 1Lts. Jean P. Doar and Joe L. Page flew the fighter planes. Heavy ground haze severely restricted visibility throughout the mission. Aircraft hammered the railroad five miles east of Kaifeng with seven direct hits and seven near misses, and crewmen reported two misses on the tracks between Kaifeng and Lanfen. Leaflets were dropped. Gunners strafed three boxcars sighted ten miles west of Lanfen.
It was Maj. Drake’s first bombing mission in China, and he described it years later to his son. As he told the story, the Mitchell was approaching the target and flying up against some high mountains to the right when it encountered heavy flak. They could not fly any higher, and they dared not fly lower. If they maneuvered left, away from the mountain, they would be off target. The situation seemed impossible to the rookie copilot, whose past flying experience had not prepared him for combat conditions such as these.
Drake asked the pilot, “What do we do now?”
“Why, we just fly on through,” Ilefeldt confidently replied. They flew on through, completed their mission, and returned safely to base. It was a lesson Drake long remembered. “Fly on through” became a guiding principle as he dealt with difficulties he faced later in life.
Maj. Drake, who had participated in eight missions as an operational officer with 3rd Squadron bombers, received orders for transfer to the 4th Squadron. Effective June 5, he replaced Capt. Henry A. Stanley, who was moving to 1st Bomb Group Operations, as the “Lucky Lady” squadron’s commanding officer. He continued flying missions, including many joint operations with the 3rd Squadron, until the ceasefire that preceded the surrender of Japan.
Drake’s final mission of the war was on August 10. He took off at 1310 in a 4th Squadron B-25H (no crew listed) to saturate the areas from Kiyang to Siangtan with “morale and news leaflets” dropped on connecting roads and railways. He carried no bombs and expended no ammunition. The leaflets, with versions printed in both Chinese and Japanese, were “carried in boxes shackled to the bomb bay in such a manner as to cause the box to tip and spill its contents when the toggle button was pushed.” Included were leaflets #JM-145, JP-1, JN-105, CP-40, CP-112, and CN-119. Released by select by the pilot were 71,760 on Kiyang, 89,160 on Hengshan, 71,760 on Hengyang, 78,980 on Siangtan, 18,950 on Kiyang (repeated but correct according to the report), 41,080 on the road and railroad from Kiyang to Hengyang, and 36,000 on the road and railroad from Hengyang to Siangtan. Encountering no opposition, he was back down at Chihkiang at 1720.
*See “Willard G. (‘Tex’) Ilefeldt,” blogpost 2/1/2025, for details.
Want to know more? You’ll find it in The Spray and Pray Squadron: 3rd Bomb Squadron, 1st Bomb Group, Chinese-American Composite Wing in World War II.