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Post by chadhill on Apr 21, 2011 10:04:30 GMT 8
Very interesting photos, dmether. I'll have to study them, the Bataan/Cabcaben one is striking. Great find! From the National Archives? Okla, according to McClendon and Richards in "The Legend of Colin Kelly", Kelly's crew had regularly been flying a B-17D but due to maintenance that aircraft was out of service on 10 DEC, thus the reason they were flying an older C model on the fatal combat mission. Possibly LT Church's brief case had mistakenly been left behind in that aircraft. I have searched unsuccessfully for a roster of 19th Bomb Group personnel from that time. By chance does your book "December 8, 1941" show a Church in the index? I don't have that book yet. Kelly's body was found near the cockpit wreckage. Colonel K.R. Kreps, who had been the 19th BG XO in 1941, wrote in 1945 that he believed Kelly had become entangled in the radio mast on top of the fuselage, directly behind the cockpit, when the bomber exploded in flight, carrying him to the ground. The remains of Kelly and Sergeant Delehanty were identified and recovered from US Military Cemetery # 2 in Manila during 1946. Delehanty was found with his dogtags, but Kelly's widow had to furnish dental information, certain scar locations, and inform GR of his mended collarbone for a positive ID of him. He was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Madison, Florida. Father Francis P. Duffy served with the "Fighting 69th" in WW1 and died in 1932. But Jimmy-me-boy Cagney would have been as proud of Father John E. Duffy. According to Murr he was recommended for the DSC, the Navy Cross and the Silver Star. There were campaigns after his death to have him considered for the CMOH. I cannot name another man with five oak leaf clusters on a Purple Heart, signifying six times wounded, though there may be one. Presidio National Cemetery, San Francisco
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Post by okla on Apr 21, 2011 22:17:03 GMT 8
Hey Chad....You have come thru in great fashion once again. Where you obtain all this information continues to amaze me. On this Lieutenant Church thing, I have gone thru the whole set of rosters in the book( 8 Dec 1941) and the only Lt. Church, is a Russell M. Church, a P-35 pilot of the 17th Pursuit Squadron (Buzz Wagner's unit) There is a 2nd Lieutenant Wallace F. Churchill assigned to the 14th Bomb Squadron (Colin Kelly's unit). I wonder whether the name on this mysterious briefcase could have been smudged or marred,etc in the crash and only the "Church" part remained or was legible. Of course, there is the possibility that by the time the good Father was putting pen to paper that the name, in his memory, " Churchill" had become "Church". After his ordeal as a guest of the Emperor, this is very understandable. Just a wild theory on my part. The book lists, supposedly, the complete rosters of both Bomb and Pursuit Groups I have gone over both lists repeatedly and these are the only possibilities I could come up with. Hope you scope this excellent book out. It goes into all the snafus that took place that dark day and events leading up to it. A real good read. Postscript....Thanks much for setting me straight on the "two" Father Duffy's. When one stops to ponder it, this much happening to one person doesn't seem too creditable, does it?? But there was a nurse on Bataan, who escaped to Corregidor, was a POW till early 1945, remained in the Army, was with one of the forward hospitals in Korea in 1950, when the Chinese came swooping across the Yalu, over running everything in their path. I guess this kind of thing does happen to a person in one lifetime. To make a long story short, the Commander of that sector, knowing of her and her background, told his people to "get her out of there, no matter what. If she is the only one rescued, so be it. Get her out. No more POW time for her". This was done, along with the other hospital personnel and their charges. Her name was Bradley, if memory serves. She may still be living.This whole story is included in the excellent book, "We Band of Angels" and she was alive at the time it was published, again, if memory serves. Lastly, a special thanks for posting the pic of Father Duffy's tombstone. Being Catholic, I was extra interested in his exploits. Must have been quite a guy. As you said, Jimmy Cagney would have been proud of the second and less famous Father Duffy as well.
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Post by chadhill on Apr 22, 2011 10:11:34 GMT 8
Okla, I'll bet you nailed it. Seems very plausible that the briefcase belonged to 2LT Wallace Churchill of the 14th BS, and that the name had become smudged in the crash. Or, as you also suggested, Father Duffy may have recalled the name as "Church". Shortly before his death in 1958 Duffy dictated notes to his niece, hoping to write his memoirs, but he didn't live long enough to do so. Just in case the briefcase did actually belong to LT Russell Church of the 17th PS, I checked Bartsch's great book "Doomed at the Start". Church was indeed flying out of Clark at that time (he was KIA on 12/16). While my money is on the briefcase being Churchill's, stranger things have happened... P.S.--I've tried to learn more about Duffy's WW1 experiences, but with little luck, finding only that he served with the Rainbow Division for 11 months on the front. This rare photo surfaced in 2009 in a 19th BG Association newsletter. It was taken on Midway by a TWA employee in early September 1941. The B-17D shown is the one flown by Kelly and crew from Hickam to Clark. Their route of flight was Hickam-Midway-Wake-Port Moresby-Darwin-Clark. Standing in the center with his arm on the prop is PFC Robert E. Altman of Sanford, Florida, Kelly's radio operator and belly gunner. Facing away on the far right is Staff Sergeant William J. Delehanty of Brooklyn, New York, Kelly's flight engineer and left waist gunner. Delehanty was KIA with Kelly on December 10th. For reasons unknown, his headstone at Long Island National Cemetery shows the wrong date. Very interesting story about the nurse. Seems like I heard something about her, too-
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Post by dmether on Apr 22, 2011 10:10:52 GMT 8
Capt. Kelly's MACR, Page 1 Attachments:
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Post by dmether on Apr 22, 2011 10:13:35 GMT 8
Page 2a Attachments:
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Post by dmether on Apr 22, 2011 10:14:34 GMT 8
Page 2b Attachments:
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Post by dmether on Apr 22, 2011 10:15:42 GMT 8
Page 3 Attachments:
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Post by chadhill on Apr 22, 2011 13:21:44 GMT 8
Hi dmether-- oops, it looks like we both made a post at the same time. Sorry mine interupted your series ;D Thanks for posting that most interesting memorandum by Colonel Kreps.
Okla, the Kreps memo is fascinating reading. It was he who suggested that Kelly became entangled on the radio mast. The part about writing Kelly's father is revealing, too.
One final note: the late "God is My Co-Pilot" author Robert L. Scott (Brig. Gen., USAF, ret.) was Kelly's primary flight instructor at Randolph, according to McClendon and Richards in "The Legend of Colin Kelly".
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Post by okla on Apr 23, 2011 1:28:15 GMT 8
Hey Chad....A couple more things. Lt Russell Church was flying P-40s when he was KIA instead of the obsolete P-35s, wasn't he??? I believe his outfit was one of those that had transitioned to the more modern Pursuit craft prior to December 8, 1941. I have this impression because I have always thought that Buzz Wagner's Squadron was outfitted in the P-40 by the time hostilities began. The other thing....For years I had always assumed that the long leg across the Pacific, flown by those early B-17s, was from Hickam to Midway, Wake, Guam, and the PI. I supposed if that route was good enough for the "Pan AM China Clippers" it was good enough for the Army Air Corps. I only learned about the "swing" down thru Port Moresby a couple of years ago. It seems that the Brass figured that the Emperor would frown on flights of four engine American bombers cruising over the Japanese Mandates with the Pacific tensions at fever pitch. See what happens when this old coot "assumes" something. It usually turns out to be in error. Postscript....The Army nurse who almost made it to a second POW pen was one Ruby Bradley. She retired a full "Bird" Colonel and is living (at the time of publication of the book that I mentioned earlier) on a small farm/ranch in her native West Virginia. Quite an eventful life I would say.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2011 5:50:06 GMT 8
IIRC, the B-17's also landed and were refueled and serviced at Rabaul before the Japanese changed the base's ownership.
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