Times Past: Behind the scenes in the last year of WWII
By Dan Krieger
COURTESY PHOTO
First Lt. Ernest E. Caudle enters the cockpit of a Stearman (Boeing) Model 75 biplane trainer in 1942. Caudle and his crew bailed out from their B-29 aircraft in August of 1944 in Soviet territory during the last year of World War II.
“O nly seven frogs and some moss made up the evening meal, so everyone went to bed tired and hungry.”
The ordeal of 1st Lt. Ernest E. Caudle and the crew of B-29 No. 829, named “CAIT PAOMAT II,” which is Gaelic for St. Catherine, is one of the lesser known stories of the last year of World War II.
Thursday marks the date of Japan’s surrender in 1945.
Many of us are familiar with the role of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the largest mass-produced airplane at that time, in the firebombing of Japan and the dropping of the two atomic bombs launched from bases on Pacific islands just east of Japan.
What is less known are the B-29 missions launched from Chengdu, China, aimed at bombing the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata, Japan beginning in June of 1944.
These were the first attacks on the Japanese mainland since the Doolittle raid in 1942.
Great distances were involved, and while the B-29 had a ceiling of nearly 40,000 feet, the actual bombing runs required lower levels susceptible to Japanese anti-aircraft measures.
Badly damaged aircraft had little chance of making it back to Chengdu. The best option was to head northwest to Siberia.
The Soviet
Union was an ally of the United States in the war against Hitler. In East Asia, Stalin maintained strict neutrality toward Japan and didn’t declare war until Aug. 8, 1945, the day before the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
American pilots who bailed out or crash landed over Soviet territory were rigorously, if politely, questioned and
eventually taken to
Tashkent in what is now remote
Uzbekistan, where many had to stay until the end of the war.
Caudle’s crew departed from Chengdu for a daylight raid on the Steel Works on August 20, 1944. It was excellent bombing
weather, but the aircraft was spotted. It took heavy flak, and its engines began to leak oil.
Realizing the impossibility of returning to base in China, the captain, Maj.
Richard McGinn, pointed his disabled aircraft toward Vladivostok in Siberia.
Once over the Asian mainland, he had his co-pilot, Caudle, set the craft on autopilot hoping it might land itself. Then he ordered his crew of 10 to bail out.
Caudle had married his wife, Helen, in Selma, near Fresno, in 1942.
His daughter, piano teacher Carol Russell, came to San Luis Obispo in 1968 when her husband, John, joined the music faculty at Cal Poly. Later her parents followed, settling in Arroyo Grande.
Caudle’s story begins shortly after midnight on Aug. 21, 1944 when he jumped
from the B-29 at 11,000 feet, after first packing three Krations, the 1940s version of MREs —Meal, Ready-to-Eat — in today’s military.
Each K-ration served a full day’s meals.
His diary notes that since he was so heavily loaded, he was lucky a tree broke his fall. He made a backpack from the straps of his parachute to hold his jungle kit and supplies and began to hike up the hill where he reconnected with Lt. Lyle Turner.
The crew members gradually united in the forest by firing shots from their M1 Carbines and .38 and .45 caliber pistols.
They wouldn’t die of thirst in the wet environment. They could purify water with Halazone tablets in their kits. But hunger was another matter. Soon the few K-rations would be exhausted.
Frogs and squirrels soon became a staple of their life as they wondered what would befall them when they encountered the Red Army.
More of Lt. Caudle’s story later.
Dan Krieger is professor emeritus of history at Cal Poly
San Luis Obispo County’s website | 08/10/2008 | Times Past: Behind the scenes in the last year of WWII
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Times Past: Behind the scenes in the last year of WWII
