Warbird Information Exchange

A crisp hand salute to the 80 Raiders who selflessly roared into history on this day in 1942. You are not forgotten.

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Bless them all and those who came after them.

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Zero Surprise!!...

7th Aircraft - Plane # 40-2261 - "The Ruptured Duck" - Crew from 95th Squadron, 17th Group - (Crash landing - China coast)
Ted Lawson and his crew successfully dropped their bombs on industrial factories in downtown Tokyo before withdrawing to fly on to China. Lawson was forced to ditch in the water just off the coastline and was severely injured in the crash. Only the aircraft gunner was uninjured and Lt. McClure had to remain hospitalized until 1943. The injuries of the crew were treated by Doc White who got himself included in the raid as a gunner on the 15th aircraft. He had to amputate Lawson's leg in the field before either man could join the raiders at Chuhsien. Upon his return home Lawson authored the first story of the raid in the book Thirty Seconds over Tokyo.

No.7 bomber fell into the sea under the jurisdiction of Sanmen County, Zhejiang Province. Local villagers took the five US crew to Haiyou Town to have their wounds simply dressed. Four of the five, who were seriously wounded, were rushed in sedan chairs to the Linhai Enze Medical Bureau, where better medical facilities were available. Chen Shenyan, a medical doctor, and US military medical doctor Lt. Thomas R. White, who rushed there when told the news, succeeded in performing a limb amputation on Ted W. Lawson. Two British nuns were invited to be his interpreters and cook Western food for him. Dr. Chen Shenyan then escorted the four other US wounded crewmen to Guilin in Guangxi.




Van Johnson as Ted Lawson in the 1944 movie "30 seconds over Tokyo"

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Zero Surprise!!...

When we took The Yellow Rose to the 50th Annv, we were the only ones there and felt honored to be there...

they came from "Shangri-La"!!

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Interesting that in the combat crew listing it notes Leland Faktor as part of crew #2, but in fact was in plane #3 (Whiskey Pete).

They must have assigned a different plane order from what was noted on the list.

BTW Leland Faktor was my cousin's uncle. He parachuted from #3 but apparently the chute did not open.

DB