Varnum Continentals

Preserving and Sharing Rhode Island History

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Join!
    • Varnum Continentals Marching Militia
    • Varnum Continentals Membership
  • Donate
  • About
    • History of the Varnum Continentals
    • About James Mitchell Varnum
    • Officers of Corporation and Board of Trustees
  • Event Rentals
    • Event Rentals at the Varnum Memorial Armory
  • Museums
    • Featured Museum Exhibits
    • Varnum Memorial Armory Museum
      • Tour the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum
    • Varnum House Museum
    • Book a Museum Tour
    • EVENT SPACES FOR RENT
  • Feature Articles
  • Blog
  • Calendar
  • Contact
  • RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP!
  • Join the Varnums!
  • Make a Donation!
  • Book a Tour!
  • EVENT SPACES FOR RENT
You are here: Home / Archives for B-24

[FEATURE ARTICLE] The Aleutians Campaign of World War II and a Varnum Continentals Connection

March 21, 2017 By Brian Wallin

Poster for Thirteenth Naval District, U.S. Navy, showing a rat representing Japan, approaching a mousetrap labeled "Army Navy Civilian".
Poster for Thirteenth Naval District, U.S. Navy, showing a rat representing Japan, approaching a mousetrap labeled “Army Navy Civilian”.

In February of 1942, by order of Chief of Staff General George Marshall, the cumbersome reporting mechanisms of the Army were reorganized into three components: Ground Forces, Air Forces, and Services of Supply (later to be simply known as the Service Force that also included the Army’s Technical Services).  Among the latter was the Quartermaster Corps, and it is a unit of the command and one soldier in particular with which this month’s story is concerned. There is a Varnum Continentals connection in our look at the Aleutians Campaign of 1942-43: the contribution by Sgt. Douglas McGunnigle, the father of our own Bruce MacGunnigle (the family changed the spelling of their name in 1972 to return to the original as used by Bruce’s great-grandfather – a Civil War veteran who adopted the shorter version while in the Union Army).

The Aleutian Campaign was often called “the forgotten battle” because it was overshadowed by Guadalcanal and the war elsewhere in the Pacific. It also coincided with the Battle of Midway, which marked a key turning point in the war against Japan. It was in the Aleutians that Bruce’s father was stationed during his war service.

Map of the Aleutian Islands.
Map of the Aleutian Islands.

The Aleutians are a chain of 120 barren volcanic islands that extend some 1,200 miles west from the Alaskan Peninsula. The western-most US possession is the island of Attu, which plays a key role in our story. On 6 and 7 June 1942, the Japanese invaded Attu and neighboring Kiska. Some believe it was to divert attention from their attack on Midway. However, the US Navy had broken the Japanese naval codes. They knew the Japanese were heading to both locations. They initially did not respond to the Japanese invasion, concentrating instead on Midway. The outcome of that battle, of course, turned the course of the war against the Japanese.

The Aleutian Islands during World War II.
The Aleutian Islands during World War II.

The only real military value of the Aleutians to the US was to prevent a possible aerial attack against the west coast from a Japanese-held position in the islands. The outer Aleutians were within striking distance of northern-most Japanese territorial positions. American forces later conducted bombing raids on the Kuril Islands and the Japanese base at Paramushiro, forcing the enemy to retain troops and aircraft on the islands.

American forces were already stationed on the Alaskan Peninsula and on two inner Aleutian Islands, with a base at Dutch Harbor on Unalaska and an Army airfield on Unmak. Japanese naval air units attacked Dutch Harbor on 3 and 4 June 1942. Some damage was done, but the usual foul weather prevented both a follow-up by the Japanese and a retaliatory attack by American forces on the Japanese fleet. It also prevented the Japanese from attacking Adak Island. The Japanese had little trouble in occupying Attu and Kiska, capturing a small number of American troops stationed on the former. American forces had earlier evacuated the native population from Kiska.

Tough winter conditions on the Aleutian Islands.
Tough winter conditions on the Aleutian Islands.

Any service member who served in the Aleutians would sum up the experience primarily in terms of the weather: almost universally awful and equally unpredictable. There was an old joke about the isolation and desolation of the islands: it was said there was a woman behind every tree. Problem was, there were no trees.

The remoteness of the islands also played a key role in what turned into nearly a year of efforts by combined American and Canadian forces to expel the Japanese.  In March of 1943, a Navy task force of cruisers and destroyers tangled with a similar sized Japanese naval force in the Battle of the Komandorski Islands. Both sides sustained damage, but the outcome discouraged the Japanese from supplying their garrisons by surface craft, using only submarines thereafter. This marked the beginning of the end for Japanese occupation.

It would be hard to pick a less hospitable place. The climate is characterized by mostly overcast skies, high winds, and frequent cyclonic storms. Adak, some 1,400 miles southwest of Anchorage, averages 173 days with fog. December through March is marked by high winds often reaching hurricane force. Average annual snowfall is about 100 inches with an average of 341 days a year with measurable precipitation.

Scenes from the U.S. Army base on Adak Island.
Scenes from the U.S. Army base on Adak Island.

To better enable Army Air Force B-17s, B-24s, P-38s, and other aircraft to attack the outer islands, the Army established a major base in August of 1943 on Adak with full support facilities and runways made of all-metal Marsden matting laid over the porous Alaskan tundra.

Adak remained an active military base into the 1990s. The airfield, now a civilian airport, still serves the island. The Navy carried out reconnaissance and patrols with PBY amphibious aircraft, destroyers, submarines, and PT boats to keep the Japanese at bay. Using this initial strategy, Army and Navy forces continued to face off against the enemy, scoring some victories over a period of months, but at an ongoing cost of men and equipment, much of it due to the foul conditions.

On 11 May 1943, Attu was invaded by American troops. An 18-day campaign ensued over extremely difficult territory, resulting in nearly 4,000 American casualties. On 29 May, the Japanese conducted one of the largest banzai charges of the Pacific campaign. Only 28 Japanese survived to be taken as prisoners. Some 2,300 Japanese bodies were recovered. It is estimated that many more were buried by bombardments. On 15 August, a combined American and Canadian force invaded Kiska. They met no opposition. The Japanese abandoned the island, successfully evacuating their troops under cover of fog and poor weather. Allied forces did suffer some casualties from friendly fire, booby traps, and frostbite. Again, Kiska lived up to the Aleutian’s unpleasant reputation.

Tadayoshi Koga's captured Japanese Zero Fighter Plane.
Tadayoshi Koga’s captured Japanese Zero Fighter Plane.

One significant benefit of the Aleutians Campaign was the recovery of a nearly intact Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter plane on Akutan Island where it had been crash landed after being slightly damaged during the 4 June Dutch Harbor raid. The Japanese Army pilot, 19-year old Tadayoshi Koga, sighted a grassy field that had been designated by the Japanese as an emergency landing site. Unknown to them, it was actually a bog that snared Koga’s plane and flipped it over, killing him. To prevent the agile Zero from falling into enemy hands, all pilots had been ordered to destroy their aircraft should it be shot down. Koga’s wingmen were afraid to strafe the plane in case they might harm their fellow pilot.

The plane lay undiscovered until July 10 when a US Navy pilot on patrol spotted it. After a difficult recovery process, the plane was salvaged, repaired, and returned to flying condition in California. Test pilots flew the plane multiple times over a period of several weeks, revealing at last performance characteristics that could give American pilots the much-needed advantage over the Zero.

New strategies to overcome the Zero were developed and, along with the arrival of the Grumman F-6F Hellcat, Army and Navy pilots went on to overwhelmingly defeat the Zero in repeated aerial encounters. A great book about this process is “Cracking the Zero Mystery” by Jim Rearden. For a look at how the Japanese viewed the capture of the Akutan Zero, look for “Zero” by former Japanese officer Masatake Okumiya who described the recovery of Koga’s plan as “no less serious than the Japanese defeat at Midway.”  By the way, the captured Zero met an ignominious end after it had given up its secrets. It was struck by a Navy aircraft while taxiing and was totally demolished.

So, back to our Aleutians story…

Sgt. Douglas McGunnigle (left) andfellow soldier digging in the tundra.
Sgt. Douglas McGunnigle (left) andfellow soldier digging in the tundra.

The Aleutians marked the initial deployment of troops from the First Service Command, comprised of units from New England. Here’s where Bruce’s dad, Douglas comes into our tale. A graduate of East Providence High School and Burdett College in Boston, he was newly married to his wife Dorothy who was expecting their first child.  Jane Douglas MacGunnigle was born in 1943 while her father was in the Aleutians, and he did not see her until he returned at the end of the war. At the age of 26, married and about to become a father, he was to his surprise drafted, inducted into the Army on 26 June 1942 in Providence and following basic training was assigned to the First Service Command’s Headquarters Detachment, SCU 1101 as a Warehouse Foreman. He was shipped out to Alaska where he was assigned as a supply sergeant at the Army’s new base at Adak. The facility included a major airfield, hospital, and a variety of support and supply facilities for troops engaged in combat on the outlying islands.

The Army, apparently to preserve security and the destination of troops, sent the men to Alaska in warm weather gear and had them set up in tents on Adak. It took a while for the all-weather Quonset huts to arrive. In the meantime, things (to say the least) were pretty uncomfortable. The same conditions initially existed for naval personnel sent north. The weather took a heavy toll on men, ships, planes, and machinery.

According to every veteran of the Aleutians, apart of the intensity of combat, the most overwhelming emotion was that of fatigue brought on by the sheer sameness of the territory. The old expression of moments of terror surrounded by long periods of boredom could be aptly applied to the Aleutians. The almost constant fog and dampness, frequent and intense snowstorms, chilling rain, mud-filled tundra that swallowed up vehicles and made even walking from one place to another a major effort: the Aleutians were a place where the temperature rarely drops below freezing in winter or over 60 degrees in summer. Rain falls upwards on the average of 250 days a year. The troops, of course, were charged with carrying out their mission, no matter what the conditions.

Sgt. Douglas McGunnigle (left).
Sgt. Douglas McGunnigle (left).

The Army’s Adak base was huge, primarily consisting of Quonset huts. The Navy also maintained an active presence on the island. The services there were manned right through to the end of the war and then beyond. Douglas McGunnigle served his country in the Aleutians through the end of the war and was mustered out of the Army on 25 September 1945. According to his separation papers, he was entitled to 300 dollars of which he was given $100 at the time, apparently to help get him back home.

Like others in the Greatest Generation, he gladly returned to civilian life and went to work for the James C. Goff Company, selling wholesale buildings materials in Rhode Island and east to Cape Cod. Bruce was born in 1947 in Providence, RI. His father died at the age of 43 in 1958. Seven years later, his mother moved the family to East Greenwich, RI. Bruce’s sister, who had suffered a fall as a teenager that resulted in her becoming physically handicapped and legally blind, died in 1970 at the age of 27. Despite her injuries, she graduated from college.

In one of those unforgettable family moments, Bruce recalled a Thanksgiving Day in the 1990s when his older cousin Hal came over with a videotape that contained newsreel footage shot in the Aleutians on Adak. It showed planes taking off from the metal grid runway under the usual poor weather conditions when the scene switched to sights of the troops in everyday activities including the all-important mail call. A sergeant was handing out letters and as he turned, he faced the camera for a moment. There, almost a half-century earlier, stood Douglas McGunnigle. Bruce recalled it was easy to recognize him, as he and his father look exactly alike. The family members cued up the video again to show Bruce’s mother Dorothy, by then her 80s. Bruce told her he thought the man in the scene was his father. His mother looked quickly at the screen simply said, “Sure, that’s him.” And she was undisturbed by the whole thing. She lived to be 91.

The legacy of the Aleutian Campaign?

Despite the inhospitable climate, the primitive living conditions and the isolation of one of the military’s most remote bases of the war, the thousands of men and women in the Army and Navy units (and even a number of civilians) stationed on those forsaken islands stuck through it all, did their jobs and did them well. Today, some of the battle and base sites are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Some are also designated as National Historic Landmarks to ensure they will be remembered. They will most definitely remain in the memories of those whose family members served there.

Note that the spelling of his father’s name is correct: the family changed it from “Mc” to ““Mac” after the war.

Filed Under: Feature Article Tagged With: akutan, Aleutian, Aleutians Campaign, B-17, B-24, feature article, japanese, Komandorski, P-38, Tadayoshi Koga, World War II, zero

[FEATURE ARTICLE] Red Roses & Silver Wings: A World War II Memoir with a Varnum Connection

February 9, 2017 By Brian Wallin

Kitty and Jack Strickland in 1941.
Kitty and Jack Strickland in 1941.

By the early spring of 1945, the end of the war in Europe was in sight. The Battle of the Bulge was over and Russian troops were pushing towards Berlin. But the fighting continued on the ground and in the air. Our story this month is typical of thousands of others: a young married couple, deeply in love and separated forever by the war. As with so many, much of their romance was conducted by mail.  Army Air Force Lt. Jennis “Jack” Strickland was a B-24 pilot attached to the 445th Bomb Group, 2nd Air Division, 8th Air Force, stationed at Tibenham AFB in England. His wife, Kitty, was at home with their young son, Jennis III, with another baby on the way. They had met as teenagers in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 1938 and were married on September 1, 1941. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Jack enlisted and eventually was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant and sent to fly B-24s. Kitty dutifully followed him from base to base through his training until he was shipped overseas in September of 1944. In the final days before they left, Kitty and Jack managed to see each other briefly, each time not saying goodbye “just in case”. When Jack and his crew sailed for Europe aboard the Ile de France, she was pregnant with their second child. Kitty stayed at home with her infant son and found employment in the Washington, D.C. area to assist in the war effort. Her book is a reflection of so many young couples whose lives were unforgettably and often permanently changed by the winds of war.

Jack immediately began flying regular missions out of England and keeping up a steady correspondence with Kitty until a fateful day in the twilight of the war. He was closing in on the magic number of missions to earn his rotation home when his unit was reorganized and he became a member of a lead crew, formed to consolidate equipment and resources in a single squadron.

The 445th was  assigned to participate in support of Operation Varsity, a major allied airborne campaign in late March of 1945. U.S. and British airborne troops were dropped into central Germany to cut off retreating Nazi forces. The 445th was tasked to conduct extremely low-level supply drops (at 300-foot altitude) using the spacious cargo capacity of their B-24s. This low level put them at risk of even small arms fire from enemy ground forces. It also meant that if the bombers were hit, there would be no chance for crews to bail out. One plane returned with burned tree branches in its engine cooling fins, the result of hitting treetops in an effort to escape ground fire. Because of the heavy loads they carried and the low altitude, the planes were also stripped of .50 caliber machine guns. Two crews from the 27 sent from Tibenham were lost that day. Jack Strickland, who had the unit’s deputy base commander, Col. Carl Fleming, flying as his co-pilot, piloted one of them.

Red Roses and Silver Wings cover
Red Roses and Silver Wings Memoir

In 1998, Jack’s widow, Kitty Strickland Shore (she remarried in 1950), published a memoir titled “Red Roses and Silver Wings”. It is an often entertaining, sometimes poignant book much of which is comprised of the accounts of their early months of marriage, the letters she exchanged with Jack when he went overseas and her life after his loss. The final moments of his life were shared by none other than the Varnum Continental’s own Tom Campbell who was flying as the co-pilot of a B-24 immediately behind Jack’s aircraft.

It was conveyed in a letter he sent to Kitty when she was writing her memoir. Tom expressed the hope that his words would not open up any old wounds as he recalled the traumatic events of that day describing the loss of Jack’s plane but also saying that he hoped it would help to explain the role that Jack played in the mission’s overall success. Here is the story (edited for brevity) in Tom’s own words:

“On the mission we were leading the whole 2nd Air Division of 240 B-24s … your husband was Deputy Head (piloting the second aircraft in the formation) with Lt. Col. Fleming, designated to take over should anything happen to the lead ship … it was a nice spring day and (we flew) over France without any worry about anti-aircraft guns … the lead ship had to be at the lowest altitude and all following aircraft few above so no one would run into the leader’s supply drop… We were at tree-top level to allow reasonable drop altitude for the following flights … as we approached the designated drop area we could see a tremendous line of men and equipment all heading … towards the Rhine River … Suddenly two tall radio towers appeared (through the smoke) directly in our flight path. The supporting guy wires left very little room to maneuver … at very low altitude. I recall slipping through with one wing low to avoid the guy wires. At this point we were flying directly behind Lt. Strickland … We could feel the plane rise as we dropped the 5,000 pounds of supplies … All we had to do was make a right turn, and bank across the river (to head for home) … As we went around the back side of (a large) hill we encountered a large concentration of German infantry. All the troops began firing their rifles at the aircraft … Suddenly, out of nowhere these came up to Lt. Strickland … The(ir) slow speed and color looked like something from a Roman Candle … I could not see any fire or damage to the engines … without any indication of trouble the nose of the ship went down slowly and they flew into the ground with all engines running…  Upon impact the ship exploded in a tremendous fireball high in the air … We were so close, we flew directly through the fireball … After the mission briefing, we learned of one other aircraft lost from our flight … our overall losses (that day were) 25 aircraft out of 240. This was the biggest operation since D-Day and the last major combined effort of the war … this was the most traumatic thing that ever happened to me in all my years of flying. I can never forget what happened even to the last detail.”

Memorial to the 445th Bombardment Group.
Memorial to the 445th Bombardment Group.

Ironically, Jack’s brother was an infantry lieutenant on the ground and witnessed his brother’s plane crash, but did not know it was Jack’s aircraft. Kitty learned of her husband’s death through her mother-in-law who had been sent the government’s notification telegram. At the time, Kitty did not have a permanent address because of the wartime housing shortage.

On May 20, 1945, Kitty gave birth to a little girl (named Lynne Murray Strickland) at the Walter Reed Army Hospital. Jack’s best friend, Army Lt. Harold Holland was home on leave. He visited her and brought a dozen red roses to the hospital. He told her that Jack had asked him to bring her the roses if he was not able to be present when their baby was born. Sadly, because of government regulations at the time, Kitty’s military benefits were sharply cut off right after her daughter’s birth. She began her post-war life on her own as a widow with two young children as did many other young women of the time. In the spirit of the greatest generation, Kitty soldiered on and eventually told her story in her book.

Jack was buried at the military cemetery in Maargarten, Holland at Kitty’s request.  He was 22 when he died and Kitty a year younger. Speaking of her late husband in the final pages of her book, Kitty wrote:

“He had known love. He had sired two children. He had realized just who he was and recognized his own strengths and weaknesses. He had found his God … He had lived his life with integrity and kindness and he thoroughly believed in the cause for which he gave his life … I believe he had done what God put him here to do…”

Jack Strickland’s flight crew. Jack is standing at right.
Jack Strickland’s flight crew. Jack is standing at right.

Kitty remarried in 1950 to Navy veteran Francis “Frank” Shore, 11 years her senior. Frank had served in the war as an officer aboard the destroyer USS Barton. At the time, he had a young son about the same age as Kitty’s. Together they had three more children and, eventually, a total of fourteen grandchildren. Frank died in 1987. Kitty had the opportunity to visit England shortly before she wrote her book in 1998 (a project she undertook at the request of her children). With one of her adult granddaughters, she visited Tibenham and saw the remains of her late husband’s wartime landing field.

She ended her book with these words:

“In my mind I saw the young American airmen rushing to the B-24s that were lined up on the runways, ready to start another mission. I could picture Jack, sitting in the cockpit, checking instruments, his mind on the job that lay ahead. As he glanced out the window he saw exactly what I was seeing then. I felt his presence and had the distinct impression that, at that moment, he was watching his granddaughter and me and was pleased.”

Tom Campbell's flight crew about to fly the Operation Varsity mission. Tom is second from right.
Tom Campbell’s flight crew about to fly the Operation Varsity mission. Tom is second from right.

On April 25th, Jack’s outfit, less than a month after the Operation Varsity mission, the 445th flew their 280th and last mission of the war. With the surrender of Germany on May 7th, 1945, everyone’s thought turned to going home.  Some would continue the fight in the Pacific while others would return home to friends and family.  The 445th flew a total of 70 missions in 1945. Unit histories and personal accounts consistently record the mission in Operation Varsity as the worst of them all.

We were honored to have Tom Campbell as a fellow Varnum Continental and mourned his passing in August of last year. Following World War II, Tom had continued to serve his country in the Air Reserve and Air Guard, retiring in 1977 with the rank of Lt. Colonel. His family recently graciously donated numerous pieces of Tom’s military memorabilia to the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum.

Filed Under: Feature Article Tagged With: 44th Bomb Group, B-24, Operation Varsity, World War II

[DEC. 12 DINNER MEETING] Speaker Greg Banner on The Halifax Disaster

December 3, 2022 By James Mitchell Varnum

In December 1917, a World War I ammunition ship blew up in Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia. This massive event was listed as the largest man-made explosion in human history prior to atomic weapons and totally devastated the city. Thousands died. Our December speaker, Varnum Member Greg Banner, will describe the background, event, response, and results and discuss aspects of military, nautical, local, and emergency response history.

About the Varnum Continentals

The Varnum Continentals are committed to the preservation of the historic heritage of our community, our state, and our nation. Please take a virtual tour of our museums to learn more about our mission to encourage patriotism. You can participate with us through active membership and/or philanthropic support in our non-profit organization. Donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Museum tours are welcomed and our facilities may be rented for suitable events.

Our Mission

The Varnum Continentals are committed to encourage patriotism through the Varnum Armory Museum, the Continental Militia, and the James Mitchell Varnum House and thus to preserve, support, and communicate the military history of our community, our state, and our nation.

Recent Posts

  • [DEC. 12 DINNER MEETING] Speaker Greg Banner on The Halifax Disaster
  • Varnum Armory Bathroom Renovation!
  • Watch the Varnum Armory on Rhode Island Wave!

Search

Copyright © 2023 Varnum Continentals || Log in