Wildman Flew Missions In China
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews with World War II veterans. The articles will continue in each day's edition until Friday, one day before Saturday's World War II Memorial Dedication and Recognition Day, May 29.
The Japanese began to expand their boundaries in Asia beginning in 1931, with the annexation of Manchuria.
By the time they bombed Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese had overrun and occupied the Philippines; French Indochina and Thailand; and overwhelmed Singapore, owned by the British, and the oil-rich Dutch West Indies. In 1937, their aggressive policy secured China's major cities - Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Nanking and Hankow, effectively isolating the country from the rest of the world.
In their colonies of India and Burma, the alarmed British looked to their borders. Early in 1942, the Brits lost the major shipping port of Rangoon, Burma, after a 75-day battle with the Japanese.
By the spring of 1942, Japan occupied all of Burma, and allied nations went on the offensive to protect American, British, Dutch and Australian interests in the region.
For three years, beginning in 1942, the only way to get troops into China was by air. Pilots took off from northeastern India, flew the shortest route over the Himalayan Mountains and landed on crude strips carved out of the jungle and hillsides.
Rex Wildman, 81, of Leesburg, in the early 1940s flew more than 50 missions into China, initially from India, with the 10th Combat Cargo Group, and later from Burma.
"Our job was to fly supplies into Burma," said the 1941 Leesburg High School graduate. "We flew from India through a small pass in a low range of the Himalayan Mountains to supply all the little outposts scattered close to the China border.
"The C-47 was used to transport Chinese troops, gasoline, rice, mail, armaments, etc., the list is endless. We took anything you could think of."
The C-47, called the Commando, was 76 feet long, had a 108-foot wingspan, two 2,000-horsepower engines, a 2,300-cubic-foot cargo hold and cruised at 183 mph.
"For places where we couldn't land to deliver supplies, gliders were often used. The gliders were towed behind the plane and landed wherever they could find the best spot. It was very dangerous. Some drop-offs were made with parachutes and some without. American troops often went in by parachute."
Runways, cut out of the jungle, were just long enough to get a plane in and out. They were dirt, most sloped one way or another and, in some cases, hills, rivers or ditches defined one end of the strip. The pilots used every foot of runway.
"We were very careful on landing and take-off. Always land uphill and take off downhill. How did we find those landing fields under heavy clouds and rain much of the time?"
Under strict radio silence, the pilots began with a point of reference, an estimated time of arrival and started circling around their probable destination. Flying at 100 to 200 feet was not uncommon. No flight plans were logged.
"We were told where to go and it was our job to get there.
"We looked for a road or a stream, anything we could identify and follow to the base. At times it all seemed worth it to see the smiles on faces with the expectation of mail from home. Accidents and crashes were common. At times, getting back to home base was just about as difficult."
Wildman said half of his time was spent transporting Chinese troops, flying them out or into China. The C-47s carried about 52 men.
"If a plane went down, people didn't realize they went down with Chinese troops, too."
The American pilots didn't mingle with the Chinese soldiers. Wildman called them low-grade personnel, often conscripted to fight against their will.
"It was hot," Wildman said of the climate. "Each soldier carried their own food - packs of rice. And they ate garlic. I don't suppose they took baths except once every month. They'd get in that hot plane, and oh, my golly, the smell. My co-pilot and I would literally hold our breath from the time we got in, closed the door and got to the cockpit."
For convenience, the planes often flew with the back doors off to easily move equipment and supplies. The Chinese would go out that way when they landed. That policy ended soon enough because of unscheduled departures.
"It never happened to me but sometimes there would be one or two less than they started with. If the Chinese didn't like a guy they'd throw him out the back."
A patch written in Chinese was sewn on the back of pilots' jackets telling the Chinese they would be rewarded for helping the Americans if forced down.
The pilots flew with fighter plane escorts when necessary. Wildman said the Japanese fighter planes weren't a big problem because of the weather.
"Of course a few did try to 'do their thing,'" he said of enemy pilots. "It is strange, the things that go through our minds when under stress."
On certain missions, the pilots were told not to shut down the engines on landing and to get back in the air as fast as possible because of a Japanese presence in the area.
"The first time I was sent to a field surrounded by Japanese, I had an hour or more to think about it. I began to worry as to whether I might forget how to fly. I was so scared.
"One friend, Bob Wilson, lost control on a muddy strip during take-off. It killed a Chinese soldier, burned Bob and put him in the hospital for a couple of weeks and sent the copilot home with physical and mental problems.
Where we couldn't fly in, drops were made. In the early stages, some drops missed the target, allowing the Japanese to get it."
By June, 1945 the Japanese had been pushed back from Burma. Wildman was stationed with the 331st Troop Carrying Group at Myitkynia, Burma, becoming an official Hump pilot.
"The Myitkyina base had just recently been taken over from the Japanese and was a pretty good field although it did need repair. It lies close to the China border, next to the Himalayans. A large river, the Irrawaddy, was next to the base and enjoyed by most of us in our off time."
Wildman moved to Burma in time to experience 100-degree temperatures accompanied by monsoons.
"It rained constantly, every day, from a drizzle to a downpour, for the next couple of months. Three or four of us lived in a British-made tent with mosquito netting on both tent and army cots. Everything had a green mold. My old foot locker still has a musty odor.
"I remember being awakened from sleep by perspiration which accumulated in the pit of my stomach or running down my side when I would turn over."
Malaria-carrying mosquitoes infected the whole area. The pilots used the drug attaban to control the disease. Wildman said malaria symptoms felt like the onset of the flu and everyone had it. Attaban held the disease in check when used as directed.
"The relocation was for one purpose - to fly supplies over the mountain to China. We called it the hump."
The backbone of the hump was the the Santsung Range with crazy winds so strong they could flip a big C-47 over or cause them to plummet 3,000 feet in a minute.
"The range at that location was 17,000 to 24,000 feet. We now had to file a flight plan. No maps were allowed. Weather in those mountains at times was terrible. We were hit with extreme winds, up and down drafts, which would force us up or down 1,000 to 2,000 feet.
"At that time we were at the mercy of the weather. We had no choice but to go straight through, never knowing what was ahead. We faced heavy electric storms, icing, winds blowing us off course. Static on those large 16-foot diameter props would turn a bright blue and streaks of static would cover the body of the plane.
"Many times I logged 100 percent instrument flying. Once we got over the mountains into China, the weather was usually fairly good.
"Our first thing when getting back to the base was to report on the weather, because of flights being suspended a few times. The commander of that operation gave an order there would be no flights canceled because of weather.
"One night about 40 planes were lost, we never did hear the right number. A few men miraculously managed to walk out.
"I don't know of anyone who ever turned back unless he lost an engine."
Wildman was nearing the end of a two-year enlistment. In January 1943, he and Bob Teeple, a close friend from high school, expected to be stationed together. That assumption was dashed within two weeks.
"We were split up and never saw each other again until after the war. I was put with a combat engineering company, training to build roads and airfields. I made corporal within a few weeks, making made it possible to apply for cadet training in the Army Air Force."
He trained in Steerman bywing aeroplanes, in BT-13s and AT-6s.
"The Army officials decided they needed multi-engine pilots and many of us we sent to train in the C-47s and there went all our fun. We were a very unhappy group for a while. No more aerobatics, only straight and level flying.
"Some said if we made it through flying training we would probably make it through the war. I lost three friends in training. Everything was done under pressure during the war and safety was not the No. 1 goal. Getting the war won was."
The way to India took eight refueling stops - they flew by way of South America, to Ascension Island, to Africa, Saudi Arabia, to Pakistan and finally to Dinjan, India.
"It was the first we had flown out of the United States, the first we'd flown over water. The first time we'd flown over 500 miles.
"The plane always overloaded. We used every inch of runway before lifting up. The cockpits were unheated, deicing didn't work at times.
"The most valuable training we received was on the job. We were good pilots by end of war."
One night, radio silence was broken while WiIdman was on a mission - with a message that the war was over.
"I finished my run and will never forget the sight from the air when we returned. Everyone was celebrating. Fireworks of every kind was going off.
"We then moved our base of operations to Shanghai, China, to help the nationalists fight off the communists in the north. The flying was easy compared to the hump."
Wildman was discharged in January 1943, expecting to get a job with the airlines, just like thousands of other military pilots.
Instead, after a few years, he ended up with a thriving laundry and supply service.
He and Lorabel were married Nov. 28, 1946 and raised four boys and one girl.
"You'd think after 60 years, you'd be rid of it, but every day it washes through your mind.
"One air base in China was two miles long, purposely there for C-27s that might get into trouble. We used one end of it. The Chinese were always working on it. They literally broke the stone by hand. Everything was done by hand. That's how they worked.
"It was a little lesson for me. I've thought about it many times. Just keep at it and it's amazing what you can get done." [[In-content Ad]]
Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews with World War II veterans. The articles will continue in each day's edition until Friday, one day before Saturday's World War II Memorial Dedication and Recognition Day, May 29.
The Japanese began to expand their boundaries in Asia beginning in 1931, with the annexation of Manchuria.
By the time they bombed Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese had overrun and occupied the Philippines; French Indochina and Thailand; and overwhelmed Singapore, owned by the British, and the oil-rich Dutch West Indies. In 1937, their aggressive policy secured China's major cities - Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Nanking and Hankow, effectively isolating the country from the rest of the world.
In their colonies of India and Burma, the alarmed British looked to their borders. Early in 1942, the Brits lost the major shipping port of Rangoon, Burma, after a 75-day battle with the Japanese.
By the spring of 1942, Japan occupied all of Burma, and allied nations went on the offensive to protect American, British, Dutch and Australian interests in the region.
For three years, beginning in 1942, the only way to get troops into China was by air. Pilots took off from northeastern India, flew the shortest route over the Himalayan Mountains and landed on crude strips carved out of the jungle and hillsides.
Rex Wildman, 81, of Leesburg, in the early 1940s flew more than 50 missions into China, initially from India, with the 10th Combat Cargo Group, and later from Burma.
"Our job was to fly supplies into Burma," said the 1941 Leesburg High School graduate. "We flew from India through a small pass in a low range of the Himalayan Mountains to supply all the little outposts scattered close to the China border.
"The C-47 was used to transport Chinese troops, gasoline, rice, mail, armaments, etc., the list is endless. We took anything you could think of."
The C-47, called the Commando, was 76 feet long, had a 108-foot wingspan, two 2,000-horsepower engines, a 2,300-cubic-foot cargo hold and cruised at 183 mph.
"For places where we couldn't land to deliver supplies, gliders were often used. The gliders were towed behind the plane and landed wherever they could find the best spot. It was very dangerous. Some drop-offs were made with parachutes and some without. American troops often went in by parachute."
Runways, cut out of the jungle, were just long enough to get a plane in and out. They were dirt, most sloped one way or another and, in some cases, hills, rivers or ditches defined one end of the strip. The pilots used every foot of runway.
"We were very careful on landing and take-off. Always land uphill and take off downhill. How did we find those landing fields under heavy clouds and rain much of the time?"
Under strict radio silence, the pilots began with a point of reference, an estimated time of arrival and started circling around their probable destination. Flying at 100 to 200 feet was not uncommon. No flight plans were logged.
"We were told where to go and it was our job to get there.
"We looked for a road or a stream, anything we could identify and follow to the base. At times it all seemed worth it to see the smiles on faces with the expectation of mail from home. Accidents and crashes were common. At times, getting back to home base was just about as difficult."
Wildman said half of his time was spent transporting Chinese troops, flying them out or into China. The C-47s carried about 52 men.
"If a plane went down, people didn't realize they went down with Chinese troops, too."
The American pilots didn't mingle with the Chinese soldiers. Wildman called them low-grade personnel, often conscripted to fight against their will.
"It was hot," Wildman said of the climate. "Each soldier carried their own food - packs of rice. And they ate garlic. I don't suppose they took baths except once every month. They'd get in that hot plane, and oh, my golly, the smell. My co-pilot and I would literally hold our breath from the time we got in, closed the door and got to the cockpit."
For convenience, the planes often flew with the back doors off to easily move equipment and supplies. The Chinese would go out that way when they landed. That policy ended soon enough because of unscheduled departures.
"It never happened to me but sometimes there would be one or two less than they started with. If the Chinese didn't like a guy they'd throw him out the back."
A patch written in Chinese was sewn on the back of pilots' jackets telling the Chinese they would be rewarded for helping the Americans if forced down.
The pilots flew with fighter plane escorts when necessary. Wildman said the Japanese fighter planes weren't a big problem because of the weather.
"Of course a few did try to 'do their thing,'" he said of enemy pilots. "It is strange, the things that go through our minds when under stress."
On certain missions, the pilots were told not to shut down the engines on landing and to get back in the air as fast as possible because of a Japanese presence in the area.
"The first time I was sent to a field surrounded by Japanese, I had an hour or more to think about it. I began to worry as to whether I might forget how to fly. I was so scared.
"One friend, Bob Wilson, lost control on a muddy strip during take-off. It killed a Chinese soldier, burned Bob and put him in the hospital for a couple of weeks and sent the copilot home with physical and mental problems.
Where we couldn't fly in, drops were made. In the early stages, some drops missed the target, allowing the Japanese to get it."
By June, 1945 the Japanese had been pushed back from Burma. Wildman was stationed with the 331st Troop Carrying Group at Myitkynia, Burma, becoming an official Hump pilot.
"The Myitkyina base had just recently been taken over from the Japanese and was a pretty good field although it did need repair. It lies close to the China border, next to the Himalayans. A large river, the Irrawaddy, was next to the base and enjoyed by most of us in our off time."
Wildman moved to Burma in time to experience 100-degree temperatures accompanied by monsoons.
"It rained constantly, every day, from a drizzle to a downpour, for the next couple of months. Three or four of us lived in a British-made tent with mosquito netting on both tent and army cots. Everything had a green mold. My old foot locker still has a musty odor.
"I remember being awakened from sleep by perspiration which accumulated in the pit of my stomach or running down my side when I would turn over."
Malaria-carrying mosquitoes infected the whole area. The pilots used the drug attaban to control the disease. Wildman said malaria symptoms felt like the onset of the flu and everyone had it. Attaban held the disease in check when used as directed.
"The relocation was for one purpose - to fly supplies over the mountain to China. We called it the hump."
The backbone of the hump was the the Santsung Range with crazy winds so strong they could flip a big C-47 over or cause them to plummet 3,000 feet in a minute.
"The range at that location was 17,000 to 24,000 feet. We now had to file a flight plan. No maps were allowed. Weather in those mountains at times was terrible. We were hit with extreme winds, up and down drafts, which would force us up or down 1,000 to 2,000 feet.
"At that time we were at the mercy of the weather. We had no choice but to go straight through, never knowing what was ahead. We faced heavy electric storms, icing, winds blowing us off course. Static on those large 16-foot diameter props would turn a bright blue and streaks of static would cover the body of the plane.
"Many times I logged 100 percent instrument flying. Once we got over the mountains into China, the weather was usually fairly good.
"Our first thing when getting back to the base was to report on the weather, because of flights being suspended a few times. The commander of that operation gave an order there would be no flights canceled because of weather.
"One night about 40 planes were lost, we never did hear the right number. A few men miraculously managed to walk out.
"I don't know of anyone who ever turned back unless he lost an engine."
Wildman was nearing the end of a two-year enlistment. In January 1943, he and Bob Teeple, a close friend from high school, expected to be stationed together. That assumption was dashed within two weeks.
"We were split up and never saw each other again until after the war. I was put with a combat engineering company, training to build roads and airfields. I made corporal within a few weeks, making made it possible to apply for cadet training in the Army Air Force."
He trained in Steerman bywing aeroplanes, in BT-13s and AT-6s.
"The Army officials decided they needed multi-engine pilots and many of us we sent to train in the C-47s and there went all our fun. We were a very unhappy group for a while. No more aerobatics, only straight and level flying.
"Some said if we made it through flying training we would probably make it through the war. I lost three friends in training. Everything was done under pressure during the war and safety was not the No. 1 goal. Getting the war won was."
The way to India took eight refueling stops - they flew by way of South America, to Ascension Island, to Africa, Saudi Arabia, to Pakistan and finally to Dinjan, India.
"It was the first we had flown out of the United States, the first we'd flown over water. The first time we'd flown over 500 miles.
"The plane always overloaded. We used every inch of runway before lifting up. The cockpits were unheated, deicing didn't work at times.
"The most valuable training we received was on the job. We were good pilots by end of war."
One night, radio silence was broken while WiIdman was on a mission - with a message that the war was over.
"I finished my run and will never forget the sight from the air when we returned. Everyone was celebrating. Fireworks of every kind was going off.
"We then moved our base of operations to Shanghai, China, to help the nationalists fight off the communists in the north. The flying was easy compared to the hump."
Wildman was discharged in January 1943, expecting to get a job with the airlines, just like thousands of other military pilots.
Instead, after a few years, he ended up with a thriving laundry and supply service.
He and Lorabel were married Nov. 28, 1946 and raised four boys and one girl.
"You'd think after 60 years, you'd be rid of it, but every day it washes through your mind.
"One air base in China was two miles long, purposely there for C-27s that might get into trouble. We used one end of it. The Chinese were always working on it. They literally broke the stone by hand. Everything was done by hand. That's how they worked.
"It was a little lesson for me. I've thought about it many times. Just keep at it and it's amazing what you can get done." [[In-content Ad]]