Thank you for your patience as we rebuild our website! 2020-2025

1944

"We had many night-time visits from the Japanese and when that happened we headed for the caves around our hostel areas. This picture was taken from inside one of those caves overlooking the 396th hostel area. Needless to say this picture was not taken during an air raid but by someone that wanted to see what the area looked like...
"Lt.Sohl took this cycle with him to every base we serviced. I had never ridden a cycle before and he let me ride it around the revetment one day and I ended up driving right thru the door of the engineering shack and pinned "Rocky" Taurisano against the back wall of the shack. That was the first and last time...
Members of 12th Air Service Group recovering fuel from crashed Nationalist-marked B-25: "Gasoline was a precious commodity in China. All the gas we received had to be flown over the Hump from India into China. This picture shows some members of the 396th pumping gasoline out of the wing tanks of a crashed B-25. With the supply situation of everything...

MACR 5023 BOOK

Image

Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) #5023 (three pages total), for a crew of four missing in Action (MIA) in the CBI during WWII, lost while on a flight from Jorhat, India, to Chengtu (Chengdu), China, on 15 May 1944, while flying in a C-87 (a variant of the B-24 airframe modified to carry cargo), as part of Air Transport Command (ATC).  The full list of members of this flight were:

 

1) Pilot: 2nd Lt. James D. McDowell

2) Co-pilot: 1st Lt. Carl F. Christian

We will soon provide here the story of B-24J L.A.B. bomber #42-100040 and crew that disappeared on May 26, 1944. Crew names were: 2nd Lt. Rex D. Arnold - Co-Pilot (OK) 2nd Lt. Seymour Goldsmith - Navigator (NY) S/Sgt. Matthew O. Kelsey - Gunner (CA) T/Sgt. Paul J. Koerner - Gunner (MD) S/Sgt. Anthony S. Kryscio - Radar Operator (PA)...
Kosta (Jack) Xita, lost in the CBI during WWII in 1944. Engineer. Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) #5346
Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) #5346 describes his loss. He flew over with the B-24 bomber airplane itself and was an early member of crew, from Pottsville, PA. Newspaper reports at the time said this was his first mission in China on coming from India (although other personal accounts make it his third mission.) Only two short letters from him...