Willard G. (“Tex”) Ilefeldt
Sometime following the 3rd Bomb Squadron’s move to Liangshan in late January 1945, Capt. Willard G. Ilefeldt received his Republic of China Air Force wings from Lt. Col. Hsu Huan-sheng, Chinese deputy commander of the Chinese-American Composite Wing. Several other officers sent similar photos home to their families, suggesting that they were taken at the same time, but the exact date the wings were presented remains a mystery. Courtesy of Christine Ilefeldt Hance.
Along with several other replacements, 1Lt. Willard G. Ilefeldt had been attached to the 3rd Bomb Squadron as a B-25 pilot and appointed a flight leader in November 1944. When 1Lt. Paul L. Young was forced to leave because of repeated malarial relapses in January 1945, Ilefeldt additionally assumed the role of historical officer.
Born in Cooper, east of Dallas, Ilefeldt was known as "Tex" because of a drawl acquired during an early childhood spent in Texas. His father was a German immigrant who sang opera, and his mother, also of German extraction, was from Boston. In 1920, three-year-old Willard was living with his parents and younger sister at the State Orphan’s Home at Corsicana, where his father worked as a mechanical engineer. After his father’s death from diabetes later that year, his mother moved with her children back to Boston.
Often called a "dumb kid" because he was dyslexic and hyperactive and labeled a troublemaker because of his frequent fights, Willard was sent to a private boarding school intended to teach boys who were unsuccessful in traditional educational settings to become productive adults who could support themselves. In addition to learning to accomplish a variety of practical chores and to take responsibility for completing those that were expected of him, he received a basic education using non-traditional teaching techniques that enabled him to overcome his disability and learn to read and write. Ilefeldt graduated from high school in Boston and went on to study acting and music. He became an actor in summer stock, wrote plays, and sang with dance bands. So successful was he in conquering his condition that Ilefeldt later studied for the ministry, and he became a published author after retirement.
Initially attached to the Massachusetts Army National Guard based in Boston, he had enlisted in the infantry soon after the Pearl Harbor attack and gave details in his memoirs:
I was inducted into the 26th Division, called the Yankee Division [at Camp Edwards near Cape Cod]. We were told it had acquitted itself rather honorably against Germany during the first World War, doing its part “to make the world safe for democracy.” After Pearl Harbor, when we were actually doing battle with an enemy and all the isolationists had turned quiet and I saw I was “in for the duration,” I figured I better do something about it: I went to OC and became an infantry officer. Later (for the “convenience of the government”, it was called) I transferred in grade and became a pilot and ended up as a flight leader flying combat with the Chinese Air Force under Chennault. But that is a story for another time.
Before shipping out to the CBI, he had married Ellen Martha Clancy, whose stage name was Janet Shaw. She was an actress whom he met at the Long Beach Municipal Airport while she was working on Ladies Courageous, a film about women pilots who ferried planes during the war. "His wife knew some of those Hollywood women movie stars like Bette Davis," my father later recalled, and she had appeared in films with other stars such as Vivien Leigh, Susan Hayward, Clark Gable, Tex Ritter, Robert Taylor, and Humphrey Bogart as well. The marriage ended soon after his return from the war.
Persistent rain in the vicinity of Peishiyi (Baishiyi) had prevented operations, but weather conditions finally cleared enough to allow planes into the air. Six B-25s (one flight of three led by Maj. Chester M. Conrad and the other by Maj. Mark T. Seacrest) left Peishiyi and flew to Liangshan (now Liangping), which was to be used as the staging field. Located about 120 miles northeast of Chungking (Chongqing), this field was closer to enemy action but farther away from supplies and conveniences. Bad weather moved in again and delayed the mission for more than a week, prompting the flight crews to regret their failure to bring the necessary cigarettes, toiletries, and change of "undies.”
The long-awaited mission finally took off from Liangshan on Monday, January 15. Nine B-25s from the 2nd Bomb Squadron, six from the 3rd Bomb Squadron (four H models and two Js), and three from the 4th Bomb Squadron were off at 1050. Conrad led the 3rd Squadron element aboard A/C #714, with Capt. Jack M. Hamilton (copilot), Capt. George C. Cunningham (bombardier), 1Lt. Robert E. Banger (navigator), and MSgt. Grady B. Fuller, SSgt. Norman L. Long, and Cpl. Robert G. Hugel (turret, waist, and tail gunners), and Maj. V. B. Miller (observer). Capt. Seacrest was the pilot of the second J, A/C #715, with Sung S. C. (copilot), 2Lt. Allan Mikola (navigator), and TSgt. Frederick C. Libolt, Sgt. Joseph P. Supsic, and Cpl. James J. Morris (gunners). FO Barton L. Wherritt flew #724 with 1Lt. Ilefeldt (listed as copilot, although the H model had no copilot position) and Sgt. Jack A. Trout, Cpl. Andrew R. Allegretto, Cpl. John J. DeFabritis, and Cpl. James J. Ryan Jr. (all gunners). Chinese crews flying A/C #716 (Chiang T., Kuan H. C., Hsiao T. P., and Weng C. K.), #717 (Teng C. C., Kao W. F., Yuan C. F., Ku C. T., and Ho W. C.), and #723 (Liu P. C., Liu P. C., Wei C. S., Liu T. C., and Lee J. S.) also participated, all of these H models. The bombers flew to Laohokow, where an escort of twelve 3rd Fighter Group P-40s and four 16th Fighter Squadron P-51s joined them.
The formation flew on through clear skies to Kwangchow, to Shihkweiyao, and then to the Hankow storage area on the north bank of the confluence of the Han and Yangtze rivers. The 3rd squadron’s planes were echeloned behind and to the left of the 2nd squadron formation that took the lead. Each carried eight 500-lb. general purpose bombs fused nose and tail to 0.1-second delay. All but three of the GPs, dropped at 7,450 feet on Cunningham’s lead, successfully blanketed the target, falling in a pattern parallel to the railroad yards. A/C #716 salvoed its bombs due to malfunction of the release mechanism. Of those bombs released, 100% were credited as hits. Crewmen reported large fires and columns of heavy black smoke billowing to 6,000 feet. The successful Hankow docks raid was the only mission flown for the month by the 3rd Squadron officially stationed at Peishiyi, and it served as a fitting final mission for Capt. Cunningham, who received his orders to return to the States three days later.
The Hankow docks raid was Ilefeldt’s first combat mission, and he flew a total of thirty-six by the end of the war. Following the formal capitulation of Japan, he was part of a group that left for Yangkai on September 5 to begin his return home.
The greatest number from the 3rd squadron traveled home aboard USS General Charles H. Muir (AP-142). Navy records reported that 423 Army officers and 2,650 enlisted men boarded Muir at Prinsep Ghat, Calcutta, on October 3 and got underway the following day at 1503 "down Hoogley River,” according to the ship’s war diary. Muir made stops for refueling at Columbo, Ceylon, and at Port Said, Egypt, before steaming west and arriving at Pier 88, New York, at 0721 on November 1. Streamers with the legend “China, Burma, India” flapped in the breeze as Muir pulled into position and crowds waving “Welcome Home” banners greeted passengers at the pier. Hundreds of soldiers lined the rails and tossed Chinese, Indian, and Japanese money to those waiting below, according to a New York newspaper. Ilefeldt was listed among veterans of the China Theater who passed through customs that day.
Willard Ilefeldt was employed as a salesman and acted in “little theater,” where he met his second wife. He later studied for the ministry and was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1961. He served as rector for parishes in Orange County, California, before earning a Doctorate in Pastoral Counseling in 1969. He practiced in Orange County until his retirement to Sky Ranch in Carmel Valley, where he raised sheep. During this period, he wrote a memoir called Thoughts While Tending Sheep that was published in 1988.
Read more of this story. Find it in The Spray and Pray Squadron: 3rd Bomb Squadron, 1st Bomb Group, Chinese-American Composite Wing in World War II.