33rd Fighter Group 12/08/1944
HEADQUARTERS
Air Jungle Rescue Unit
Tingkawk Sakan, Burma
11 December 44
SUBJECT : Interrogation Report of LEONARD, CHARLES I., 2nd Lt., AC,
0-827230, 33rd Fighter Group, 60th Fighter Squadron, APO 218
TO : COMMANDING GENERAL, Atta. A-2, IB Sector, APO 671
1 to 4. The following is the story in the pilots own words.—- On 08 Dec 44, at 1455 hrs, I took off from Sahmaw for a bombing and strafing mission on Hke-Hkun (SO 5969). As I was near the target I noticed my engine was losing power and when immediately over the target, my engine cut out completely. After losing about 500 feet, the engine caught again but the whole plane was shaking violently. To keep the ending going, I had to use 2600 RPM and 45 inches of Mercury. However, I found that I was still losing altitude when going 140 miles an hour. Before throttling my engine, I made a left hand circle over the target and slvoed my bombs. I got down to about 3000 feet and was unable to get over the mountains to the northwest of my position. This was the approximate direction of home. My briefing earlier in the afternoon had disclosed that going up the valley which was ahead of me, I would be on our side of the bomb line. Realizing that I was going to have to bail out, I endeavored to get as far back in friendly territory as I could. At this point the cockpit filled with smoke; this had a strong odor of burning wire insulation. I threw open my canopy, prepared to bail out, and called my flight leader, telling him that I was leaving the plane. When I threw open the canopy, the inside of the cockpit cleared of smoke and the engine seemed to pick up for a little while. At about this time, I come to the end of the valley and circled over a village three times at 130 miles per hour. During this climb I advanced the RPMs all the way, and the Mercury to 50 inches, but this still gave me 2600 RPMs. After circling the village three times, I gained 1000 feet which made altitude about 4000 feet. This was enough to permit me to go over a ridge at the end of the valley in the northwest direction. At this time Major Tyler, our Squadron CO, contacted me and instructed me as to what bearing to take towards home. The bearing which he indicated would have led into another mountain higher than my altitude, so I turned right again down the valley, when I saw an opening into the other valley. Oil covered my windshield, and I flew with my canopy open. During this time I had been climbing at the rate of about 400 feet per minute, when I reached 6000 feet and was barely able to get thru a pass which brought me over the Namwam River. Later I realized that passing this ridge at the altitude which I had, and with the engine intermittently cutting out it would have been a wiser thing for me to have bailed out before attempting to cross the ridge. After passing the ridge and going into the valley Namwam, along the river, Major Tyler instructed me to call Stoker and have them give me a bearing for Barnum. I immediately switched to B Channel and called Stoker. It took him two fixes to finally get my position. This was due to my transmitter going on and off. My transmitter had been cutting in and out since I had my first contact with Major Tyler. Stoker gave me a course for Barnum which I took up immediately, but from this time on I was losing altitude continually with an indicated air speed of 150 miles per hour. My cylinder head temperature was way up above the red line, so I opened my cowl flaps and this caused my temperature to return to the red line. The oil pressure and temperature during this time was normal, but since the very start of the trouble my fuel gauge had been slowly filling with liquid which I believe was gasoline. Due to my turning, weaving in and out of the mountains Major Tyler was unable to locate me although he tried time and time again. He was unable to do so because I was not sure of my own position and this situation was further complicated by an unknown ship giving my position as South of Bhamo. Sensing that I was going to have to bail out of the plane due to the altitude which I was losing, I called Stoker to find out whether or not I was above the bomb line as the other panes call had indicated that I wasn’t. Stoker replied that I was above and had only a few minutes more to fly before reaching Barnum. At an altitude of 3000 feet I decided that upon reaching 1500 feet, I would bail out because I was over dense jungle. I called Stoker upon reaching 2000 feet and told him if possible I was going to make a crash landing, but due to my position, it was improbable that I could find a clearing, so I was going to bail out. Upon reaching 1500 feet, once again I prepared to bail out but I saw a field about 4 miles away which I thought I could reach. At this point the engine cut out cold and I started my glide towards the field. As I got over the edge of the field my engine caught again for a moment but it was running so roughly, that I knew to continue on was impossible. I locked my shoulder straps, cut my switches, and attempted a wheels up, full flap landing. This happed at 1639 hrs. Due o the planes smoking, and because I sensed that there might be an explosion, I started unbuckling my straps before a complete stop. The plane landed in a marshy, soggy field, and the plane slipped along like a sled and came to a slow easy stop. I immediately climbed out of the plane and ran to a safe distance from the plane. I waited until what looked like steam coming out of the cowl flaps, before returning to the plane. I went back then, placed my chute and jungle kit on the plane, and took an inventory of what it contained. My jungle kit contained everything with the exception of a mirror and a pointy talkie, and in addition it had leggings, a pair of gloves, a pair of sox, and two extra boxes of D rations. The kit also contained 8 rounds of .45 cal tracer ammunition. I still had my .45 cal pistol, knife and money belt around my waist. I put on my leggings, and was considering to strike off towards the native village or climb to a nearby hilltop to look over my position. At this time, the natives started towards me from the village, very cautiously. I pretended to pay no attention to them until they came within 100 yards of the plane. One of the men had a hat on that appeared to be Chinese or Japanese. He also carried a rifle. Later, when they are in range of my vision, I saw that it was a Chinese hat, and that a couple of the natives were wearing what looked like an Australian felt hat. I climbed to the wing of the plane which was nearest them, and shouted the Hindustani phrase “Adabaraz” (which means greetings). The natives then shouted something in return, and I clinched my fist and put my thumb in the air and said Ding How. They immediately imitated my sign and replied with a phrase of their own. We were based at Nagaghuli, Assam, we were instructed by Lt. Olson, of our outfit, who had previously attended a Jungle School sponsored by the 10th Air Force, how to approach natives and make the first contact. Following his instruction, I more or less stalled the younger men off until an older man whom I had seen coming, approached. When he came up close to me I gave him the high sign, that the natives had returned at my first greeting. This consisted of placing their right hands and arms over the head and nodding. At this, he returned my greeting, said something in Burmese, and we both smile very broadly at each other. I invited him to come up with me on the wing, and together we looked at my maps. We were trying to get an idea of where I was. He didn’t understand the maps at all, but I was able to determine my approximate position in the following manner. I would call out the name of a village, and he would indicate by raising his fingers, how many days journey it was. I told them that I was an American, and immediately they all smiled and said something that sounded like Melican. I then mentioned the word Japanese and repeated it again. I kept saying no good after each utterance, then the old man on the wing repeated something that sounded like Nippon no good. They also indicated that the Japanese were over in the direction of South. At this point, A C-47 appeared at an altitude of about 2500, seemed to be going in the direction of Myitkyina airstrip. I stuck a flare in key flair gun and fired it ahead of the plane in a position that would enable him to see it. He did not appear to have seen the flare. I then fired a second flare straight up, and a little toward his direction. He dropped his left wing and started circling my plane. He buzzed down quite low, and we exchanged signals. After signaling that he had seen me, he took off in the direction of Myitkyina. I then laid plans for spending the night as close to the plane as I could safely build a fire. I cleared out a space with my machete much to the amusement of the natives. They quickly caught on and started using their big knives to help me. I cleared brush away down to the muck and was prepared to make a fire out of the grass when a C-47 appeared to be coming from the direction of Myitkyina. I fired 3 tracer shells from my .45 cal. pistol in quick succession. He then flew over me and we exchanged signals. On his next pass he put on all of this lights and dropped me a bundle. It landed about 100 yards ahead of my plane. I ran and with the help of the natives, located the bundle which had fallen in high grass and returned to the plane. The C-47 went over again very low and I waved yellow streamers to indicate that I had received the bundle. He then returned to the direction which he had come from. I pulled the bundle up on the wing of the plane and took an inventory. It contained 3 C rations, one flashlight, halazone tablets, and instructions to stay with the plane. Also stating that I would be picked up the first thing in the morning. The bundle was wrapped in a drop parachute which I used later on as a bed. I then built a fire out of grass, and four of the natives including the old man indicated that they were going to spend the night with me. I opened a C ration, passed around the cigarettes and split up two of the crackers and gave it to them. I did this as a friendly gesture. The older man then dispatched a boy on some errand that I did not understand. The boy soon returned with dry bamboo for the fire and an older ban bringing food and water. The food consisted of boiled rice which had been put in a long bamboo stick with some sort of seasoning and the stick was then plugged. After the fire was going well, they put the rice over the fire in the bamboo and heated it until the bamboo turned black. After they proceeded to strip the bamboo down carefully, until they had what appeared to be a long banana. They then ate it, breaking it off like bread. They seemed rather hurt that I did not eat with them but I tried to explain to the older man that I had already eaten and indicated that I already had a full stomach. He explained this to the other men and they appeared to understand. I then indicated to the natives to bring grass and dried bamboo strips and they made a bed for me next to the fire. On top of that I laid my jungle kit and my unused parachute. This I used for a pillow. Along with the drop chute which the C-47 had dropped to me, I was able to sleep comfortably without being too cold. I then went to bed and later one of the natives returned tot he village. The other three natives took turns in keeping the fire going throughout the night.
09 December 44 — I awoke at 0630 hrs and after sending one of the natives for water, I used halazone tablets in this, I began making preparations for the plane which I felt would be coming shortly. Due to the extreme sogginess of the surrounding territory I tore up part of the drop chute and spelled out in panels, the words, SOFT - Ruts, in large block letters. I did this behind the airplane, in the clearing it had scraped when I landed. I tried again to get radio contact and at approximately 0780 hrs I realized that although I was unable to receive, I was able to transmit. About then, I transmitted blindly to any ship in the air over be channels, requesting them to relay my message to stoker, that the field I was on so far as I knew was no practical for landing any type of plane. I then started trying to transmit every hour on the hour, but I realized that I was not sending at all. At 0900 hours I began receiving again and heard ships in the air searching for me, saying that they couldn’t find me. After this, I could neither receive nor transmit. About 1130 hrs an L-5 bussed and dropped a message. Later I learned this was an Air Jungle Rescue L-5. This plane was closely followed by an L-1 belonging to the 5th Liaison Sqdn. The message dropped to me said, ‘Go west tot he field, and if the L-1 does not pick you up, I will return later in an L-1 and land in one of the paddy.’ The L-1 then dropped me a message which said, ‘Get the natives in the village to cut down the rice paddy does in a space of 800 feet by 30 feet, and I will be back later’, signed Capt. King, 5th Liaison. Both planes then returned in the direction they came from. I gathered the natives around me and indicated to them that if they toughed the plane after I left that it would blow up. To emphasize this fact, I then pushed the two IFF equipment detonators which wend off with a loud report. This completely surprised me and so definitely frightened the natives, that I feel quite sure that they will not return to the plane. However, as an extra precaution, I broke the canopy lever wire on the inside of the canopy and the cockpit cannot be reached without special equipment. I then made preparations to leave the plane and went towards the native village in search of the field that had been referred to by the planes. After going to the village I found out from one of the natives that there was a hard flat piece of land just north of the village (probably the strip referred to by the L-5) which would be suitable for a small plane to land on. I had the natives carry my parachute and jungle kit out to the strip and with that I had them cut down the larger clumps of grass. I took what was left of the drop chute and put strips of the chute along the east end of the clearing that I intended the plane to land, I made a large arrow with chute, in the direction the pilot should land. Then I took the natives up to the other end of the field and we built a fire and put green leaves on it for smoke effect. Hardly had we accomplished this when the L-1 piloted by T/Sgt Carl W. Hughes, of Air Jungle Rescue, appeared over the horizon. When I was sure that he had seen the smoke and the place that he was to land in, I had the natives put out the fire and we retired out of the way of his landing. He brought the plane in low over a fence which was approximately 100 feet away, and set it down exactly where I had indicated the best spot would be. He had the plane under control before he reached our end of the clearing, and considering the type of terrain and the fact that it was only 300 feet long, he made an excellent landing. He taxied up to our position clime bout of the plane and asked me if I was alright. When I told him that I was, we put my equipment in the plane and taxied further down off of the clearing into some higher grass so we would have the necessary room for the take off which would be complicated by the addition of my weight. The L-1 took off without using the full runway and turned left in the direction of Myitkyina. The following day I was returned to my squadron by the Air Jungle Rescue.
Source: *Historical Report, March 1945, Air Jungle Rescue Detachment, Headquarters Tenth Air Force, dated April 1943.
Official US Army Air Forces Combat Report by Charles Leonard of the 33rd Fighter Group. This material is a transcription of official reports-testimonials of Charles Leonard's combat experience.
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