ghost pilot
Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:41 pm
Anyone ever heard of this?
April 1942 Kienow, China Air Task Force Base.
A hour before darkness fell over eastern China, the silence was broken by a frantic cry from the Chinese officer on duty in the operations cave that a lone aircraft was approaching. Was it an enemy Japanese plane? The Japanese never sent out single aircraft but perhaps they might be trying a new tactic to catch the eight Warhawk P-40 fighter planes formerly known as the famed Flying Tigers on the ground.
Not taking chances, Flight Leader John Hampshire ordered 2 P-40s up into the air. The unknown aircraft was only 30 miles to the east and fast approaching.
10 miles from the Kienow airfield, the two pilots spotted the mystery plane flying low 200ft above the ground. It was a American made P-40 with American insignia! Where did it come from? The pilots noticed that it was very badly shot-up, the fuselage looking more like a sieve, and through the shattered windshield was the bloody face of the pilot, but the plane held steady, flying straight and true.
However, minutes later, the aircraft suddenly plunged downwards, hitting the ground with an explosion.
Who and what was that P-40 doing so far from the nearest US airbase? Where did it come from?
Apparently, so they learnt much later on that the pilot was one "Corn" Sherill based on the Philippine Island of Mindanao. After the fall of most of the Phillipines to the Japanese in the Spring of 1942, Corn Sheril and 11 mechanics decided to field one last mission against the invaders. Cannibalising parts from a few decrepit airplanes, they put together a single flight-worthy P-40 and fitted it with a few bombs and a large auxiliary fuel tank. The mission? An improbable bombing run at the heart of the Japanese empire, a naval base on the island of Formosa (Taiwan, then a Japanese Colony).
Corn Sherill flew the patched-up aircraft north to Formosa and 5 hours later, so unexpected was his attack that he was able to drop his bombs virtually unopposed, strafing and destroying a large number of grounded Japanese aircraft lined up in neat rows and bearing the rising sun insignia.
Leaving a wake of destruction, Corn Sherill turned westward, towards China and his one chance of survival, the Chinese nationalist airbase of Kienow. However, his plane was now riddled by shrapnel from anti-aircraft fire and low on fuel. Japanese Zeros, scrambled to intercept, poured yet more punishment into the P-40. Flying a desperate weave, a badly wounded Corn Sheril performed the best flying of his life, flying by the seat of his pants and finally escaped his pursuers in the clouds.
Low one fuel and forced to nurse a badly damaged plane without working instruments, he flew by dead reckoning alone. Somewhere between Formosa and Kienow, Corn Sheril died, but somehow his aircraft held true, perhaps from a braced stick against his knees. The plane continued on its course, flown by a dead man, directly towards the safety of the Allied airbase. That was where the two pilots from Kienow found the lone fighter, after a long and amazing flight through the heart of the Japanese empire.
April 1942 Kienow, China Air Task Force Base.
A hour before darkness fell over eastern China, the silence was broken by a frantic cry from the Chinese officer on duty in the operations cave that a lone aircraft was approaching. Was it an enemy Japanese plane? The Japanese never sent out single aircraft but perhaps they might be trying a new tactic to catch the eight Warhawk P-40 fighter planes formerly known as the famed Flying Tigers on the ground.
Not taking chances, Flight Leader John Hampshire ordered 2 P-40s up into the air. The unknown aircraft was only 30 miles to the east and fast approaching.
10 miles from the Kienow airfield, the two pilots spotted the mystery plane flying low 200ft above the ground. It was a American made P-40 with American insignia! Where did it come from? The pilots noticed that it was very badly shot-up, the fuselage looking more like a sieve, and through the shattered windshield was the bloody face of the pilot, but the plane held steady, flying straight and true.
However, minutes later, the aircraft suddenly plunged downwards, hitting the ground with an explosion.
Who and what was that P-40 doing so far from the nearest US airbase? Where did it come from?
Apparently, so they learnt much later on that the pilot was one "Corn" Sherill based on the Philippine Island of Mindanao. After the fall of most of the Phillipines to the Japanese in the Spring of 1942, Corn Sheril and 11 mechanics decided to field one last mission against the invaders. Cannibalising parts from a few decrepit airplanes, they put together a single flight-worthy P-40 and fitted it with a few bombs and a large auxiliary fuel tank. The mission? An improbable bombing run at the heart of the Japanese empire, a naval base on the island of Formosa (Taiwan, then a Japanese Colony).
Corn Sherill flew the patched-up aircraft north to Formosa and 5 hours later, so unexpected was his attack that he was able to drop his bombs virtually unopposed, strafing and destroying a large number of grounded Japanese aircraft lined up in neat rows and bearing the rising sun insignia.
Leaving a wake of destruction, Corn Sherill turned westward, towards China and his one chance of survival, the Chinese nationalist airbase of Kienow. However, his plane was now riddled by shrapnel from anti-aircraft fire and low on fuel. Japanese Zeros, scrambled to intercept, poured yet more punishment into the P-40. Flying a desperate weave, a badly wounded Corn Sheril performed the best flying of his life, flying by the seat of his pants and finally escaped his pursuers in the clouds.
Low one fuel and forced to nurse a badly damaged plane without working instruments, he flew by dead reckoning alone. Somewhere between Formosa and Kienow, Corn Sheril died, but somehow his aircraft held true, perhaps from a braced stick against his knees. The plane continued on its course, flown by a dead man, directly towards the safety of the Allied airbase. That was where the two pilots from Kienow found the lone fighter, after a long and amazing flight through the heart of the Japanese empire.
Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:55 pm
Sounds like a Martin Caiden story....
How could anyone know if he was dead or not before crashing?
How could anyone know if he was dead or not before crashing?
Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:41 pm
Zachary wrote:Sounds like a Martin Caiden story....
How could anyone know if he was dead or not before crashing?
Geez, you want to ruin it for everybody? What's next, no Santa?
Regards,
Mike
Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:57 pm
Heard it many times and several in print.
I have an entire file on the "Phantom P-40 from Mindinao"!
Great story and it'd make a great movie!
Jerry
I have an entire file on the "Phantom P-40 from Mindinao"!
Great story and it'd make a great movie!
Jerry
???
Fri Dec 29, 2006 4:11 pm
It's a bogus bunch of bull. Wartime propoganda and hipe. An example would be the pilot named "Corn" Sherrill who was called "Corn" because he liked corn liquor. There was no AAF pilot named Sherril in the Philippines. Another story has them mating the wings and fuselage of a Tomahawk and Warhawk together. Don't think that possible son. 
It got creedence due to Bob Scott writing about it in "Damned To Glory" and the fact that the people named actually existed (but most were killed later) like Capt John Hampshire.
It got creedence due to Bob Scott writing about it in "Damned To Glory" and the fact that the people named actually existed (but most were killed later) like Capt John Hampshire.
Fri Dec 29, 2006 5:40 pm
i've heard this yarn / yawn too!!! 
Fri Dec 29, 2006 6:38 pm
Jack's right....Bob Scott later admitted it was a lark they made up....read this account....http://www.warbirdforum.com/phantom.htm
Fri Dec 29, 2006 8:26 pm
It appeared in the January 1945 Reader's Digest, excerpted from "Damned to Glory". It later re-appeared in a compilation of Reader's Digest Stories called "Secrets and Spies - Behind the Scenes Stories of World War II" which came out in 1964.
My father bought the book and it now sits on my bookshelf. As a boy...I loved that story.
My father bought the book and it now sits on my bookshelf. As a boy...I loved that story.
Sun Dec 31, 2006 9:28 pm
that is a great story! It would've made a great made-for-tv movie circa 1976...
cheers
greg v.
cheers
greg v.