Christmas at Peishiyi
Still stationed at sodden Peishiyi during the Christmas holidays in 1944, Sgt. James H. (“Hank”) Mills sent this holiday greeting to his parents via V-Mail soon after Thanksgiving. The “Chinese characters” seem to be merely decorative and have no meaning.
Third Bomb Squadron personnel had sent holiday greetings to their families in late November via V-Mail to ensure arrival before Christmas. My father, then Sgt. James H. (“Hank”) Mills, wrote to his parents on a form provided by the 14th Air Force: “This isn’t much of a Christmas card but it’s the best thing there is. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Love, Son.” Now, as the holidays approached, men stationed across China made plans to celebrate with whatever festivities they could manage.
Thanks to the efficiency of the APO system, packages began to arrive at Peishiyi (Baishiyi) during the week before Christmas. According to the Chinese-American Composite Wing’s historical report, mail came in at 2,000 pounds each day, and on some days two such "morale-boosting loads" were delivered. The men had received a great many packages from home, so most had "lots of good things in their rat hole,” wrote the 1st Bomb Group’s historical officer, 1st Lt. Howard T. Chenoweth. The mess hall took on a festive appearance, decked out with holiday red and green. So many tidbits were coming from home that GIs began experimenting with cooking weird concoctions of food on the little hostel-room stoves made from oil drums. "Whatever culinary horrors were achieved, they always tasted better than that produced in the mess hall, since it came from loved ones," noted Maj. Don Hummel, formerly an attorney in Tucson and now Wing intelligence officer as well as historical officer. The gifts kept streaming in, some of them appropriate, as well as "strange bemused conceptions of what constituted proper gifts for our hinterland existence,” he wrote. “Flashy silk drawers, refined neckties, and even compasses were found in the lot. . . . Ill-conceived, even such gifts brought happiness. Morale had no ceiling this week before Christmas."
Packages from Nancy (my mom) typically included candy (Hank’s favorites were chocolate fudge, peanut brittle, and divinity), fruitcake, brownies, and oatmeal-raisin cookies, all made from ingredients that were strictly rationed and hoarded for special occasions back home, as well as such war-time luxuries as one or two apples and oranges. “It smells like Safeway sure enough,” he gratefully wrote home.
Although the holiday held no particular significance to the Chinese, many of them gave small gifts to their favorite Americans. Because the pay of the Chinese, even officers, was so much less than that received by American GIs, these gifts represented a sacrifice, and even the smallest was appreciated. In return, the Americans presented surplus toilet articles, gum, mints, and soap to their Chinese houseboys and others whose work they valued.
Maj. Mark T. Seacrest (squadron operations officer) was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Maj. Raymond L. Hodges Jr. (now with the 1st Bomb Squadron) and TSgt. William L. ("Shorty") Armstrong (AAF radio operator) the Air Medal, and Capt. Louis F. Graves Jr. (squadron navigator) received both the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal (these last two now back in the States). December 22 marked the return of Maj. Chester M. Conrad (squadron CO), 2Lt. Robert L. Logan (flight leader), and MSgt. Grady B. Fuller (line chief) from Bangalore, bringing with them supplies intended to enhance holiday cheer. TSgt. Robert N. Solyn (intelligence specialist) was sent to the hospital at Kunming and treated for a throat infection with penicillin (only recently in common use), and SSgt. Wilbur Dunlap (bombsight maintenance technician) was admitted because of "eye trouble.”
Maj. Seacrest, 2Lt. George P. Wood (communications officer), MSgt. John P. Hanrahan, and TSgt. Frederick C. Libolt (airplane inspector) took off for Enshih. 2Lt. Wayne H. Senecal (B-25 pilot), Sgts. John W. England (A/F radio operator) and Lloyd E. Jackson (instrument specialist), and Cpl. James J. Ryan Jr. (A/P mechanic-gunner-flight engineer) left for detached service at Liangshan. All of them returned on Saturday the twenty-third, when everyone was given the afternoon off. That evening, the CACW's Chinese officers hosted a dinner-dance at the Chialing House in Chungking for all American officers. "Many beautiful Chinese girls turned out and everyone had a big time except for the long ride to and from town" in an over-crowded weapons carrier, according to the 1st Bomb Group's historical report.
Base personnel not required for duty also had a full day off on Christmas Eve, and a party was given for Wing enlisted men that evening. It began formally with a brief speech by Col. T. Alan Bennett (acting CACW commander) before he hurried away on business of his own. Alcohol was consumed in abundance. Even the Chinese houseboys were made drunk by GIs too generous with their holiday cheer.
Afterward, some of the men made their way to the Chinese Recreation Hall for high mass. Priests, organists, and a choir leader had been imported for the occasion from Chungking. The mass was well attended. Since Protestants and Jews had no chaplain and no service, many of them took part as well, likely because they were feeling homesick and melancholy as a result of being separated from their loved ones by so many thousands of miles during the holidays. Some even sang in the choir. Despite the party atmosphere that had prevailed throughout the day and evening, the service was reverent and soothing.
MSgt. Hanrahan, with the 4th Bomb Squadron’s MSgt. Everett C. Bradley who had returned from detached service with Task Force 34 at Chihkiang, spoke on the NBC "Coast to Coast Army Hour.” Sponsored by the War Department, the series featured interviews with Army personnel serving in various theaters of the war. To reach its audience "live" on Christmas Eve back home, the broadcast was transmitted over Chungking Station XGOY at 0245 on Christmas morning and "beamed direct to the States.” When questioned by the master of ceremonies regarding his duties, Hanrahan answered, "I'm communication chief for my squadron on the ground . . . and a top turret gunner when we're in the air.”
"What did you say the name of your squadron was, Sergeant?"
"I didn't say. It's a little tough to get out in one mouthful but I'll try. It's the 'skunk-holding-its-nose-at-the-rising-sun' squadron.”* Hanrahan said that he had completed twenty-five combat missions by that time and explained, "We have to look for the Japs over quite a hunk of territory. You could drop the United States down into our hunting ground and have room left over for a sizable slice of Canada.”
"Do the Chinese and Americans in your outfit celebrate occasions like Christmas together?"
"Sure, we team up on parties like everything else. We invite the Chinese to celebrate Christmas with us. . . . They'll have us in for their Chinese New Year festivities.”
When asked about the past year's activities and hopes for 1945, Hanrahan related that the squadron's bombers had flown low over Chinese ground troops to encourage them before they retook Myitkyina and expressed the hope "to be flying low over Chinese troops just before they march back into Kweilin and Liuchow . . . and Canton and Shanghai and Hongkong and Peiping.”
Airfields across China received this greeting on December 25:
FROM GEN. WEDEMEYER'S HQS., CHINA — From Maj. Gen. A. C. Wedemeyer to his troops in the China Theater: Christmas 1944 finds us all half a world away from home, engaged in one of the greatest struggles in the history of mankind, such a terrible struggle that few of us can be home this Christmas. For us, Christmas must carry its spiritual message, the same message it has carried to men of good will for more than 19 centuries—the message of "peace on earth.” And those whom we love, those who wait for Christmas as we begin to celebrate Christmas Day, know that we in far-off China pray in one voice with them that peace through victory will be attained in 1945.
Gen. Chennault sent his own message of hope, praising his men's courage and endurance and expressing his confidence of victory in the coming year. “Working together with patience and fortitude will inevitably bring the dividends of victory and our early return home. With this full confidence, I extend to you all my most sincere greetings. Let us work together unceasingly to fulfill our pledge.”
Christmas at Peishiyi was not "white,” despite a few snow flurries during the previous week. In fact, Christmas Day was so warm that the men did not even need their jackets. They once again had the entire day off and most started it by sleeping late. That morning, each of them received a gift of four cans of beer. China was one of the few US stations where troops were not supplied with a beer ration because air-freight space over the Hump was much too limited for hauling beer, so this was a special treat. Still more mail and packages came in, and reveling started all over again. Christmas dinner was served at 2:00 that afternoon and consisted of canned turkey, roast duck and goose, dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, salad, and apple pie. Although some of "the usual trimmings" were missing, 1Lt. Paul L. Young (squadron intelligence officer and historical officer) noted, "We enjoyed it just the same.” A dance was held that evening for the officers at the Chinese Recreation Hall, and truckloads of Chinese girls were brought in for the occasion.
A longing for home and a hope that the war would soon come to an end―these were the thoughts and emotions shared by men of the 3rd Bomb Squadron and servicemen around the world as 1944 neared an end. President Roosevelt's greetings were relayed to the men stationed at Peishiyi on the twenty-sixth (Christmas Day back in the US). He wrote, “We would not cheapen your hours of heroism by wishing you a Merry Christmas, but we wish you to know that we are with you in spirit, in comradeship, and in faith.”
*It was soon afterward that the “Spray and Pray Squadron” was adopted as the 3rd Bomb Squadron’s unofficial designation.
Interested in learning more of this intriguing story? Read it in The Spray and Pray Squadron: 3rd Bomb Squadron, 1st Bomb Group, Chinese-American Composite Wing in World War II.