Wayne County’s lost airmen gave lives operating WWII warplanes
The C-47 Skytrain is what flight officer William James flew so many missions over the “Hump” in before losing his life in a 26th and final mission.
Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series in May on Wayne County soldiers who lost their lives in World War II. The names of the men are from the Wayne County War Memorial in Wooster Cemetery.
In the days leading up to the United States’ involvement in World War II, the nation was poorly prepared for war. Although aircraft had proven valuable in WWI, the United States had not been keeping pace with the rest of the world.
In 1940 the U.S. inventory of military aircraft was 3,611. By the end of the war, that number had ballooned to nearly 300,000. Parked end to end, they would form a line stretching from Wooster to Denver and back. In 1940 7,000 pilots were trained. By the end of the war, 250,000 pilots had been trained. Additionally, over 50,000 received navigation training, 45,000 received bombardier training and 297,000 were trained in gunnery. Most of these men were recent high school graduates.
Wayne County saw many men eager to volunteer for this new service even though, in retrospect, it was one of the most perilous activities of the war. Drawing names from those enshrined on the Wayne County War Memorial in Wooster Cemetery, some of their stories are provided below.
The 10th Air Force was created to supply China with war goods. Since Burma was controlled by the Japanese, an airlift was needed between India and China. This meant crossing the Himalayas. The route became known as the “Hump.”
The Himalayas are the highest mountain range in the world. The range has its own weather system, often violent and disruptive, making the route incredibly dangerous. More than 1,000 men and 600 planes were lost over the 530-mile stretch of rugged terrain, and that’s a conservative estimate. It was dubbed the “Skyway to Hell” and the “Aluminum Trail” for the number of aircraft that didn’t make it.
William E. James, son of Ernest and Letha James and 1938 graduate of Wooster High School, was the flight officer of a C-47 Skytrain that made supply runs over the “Hump.” He had been cited for completing 25 successful missions shortly before he and his crew went missing. On Aug. 2, 1943, he and two other crew members were on a mission from Yunnanyi, China to Assam, India. The crash site was found, and his remains were returned to the United States in 1949. He is buried at Camp Butler National Cemetery in Riverton, Illinois.
Some crash sites and crash victims remain where they fell, due to extremely difficult terrain and geopolitical obstacles. An investigation concluded the accident was likely caused by the lack of proper direction-finding radio equipment facilities at Yunnanyi.
Charles Weiser was a graduate of Orrville High School Class of 1943. Immediately after graduation, he went to work at the Orrville Post Office, where his father Clyde L. Weiser was postmaster.
In January 1944 he was called up for training at Lowry Field in Denver, Colorado. When training was complete, he was assigned to a crew, and all were transferred to the Pacific.
He was assigned to the 881st bomber squadron. On Feb. 19, 1945, Charles and his crew mates boarded their B-29, piloted by 1st Lt. Stanley Samuelson, to take part in a diversionary strike in support of the invasion of Iwo Jima. It was one of 150 aircraft launched in multi-group formations to bombard the Musashino Aircraft Works near Tokyo, Japan.
During the bomb run between Mt. Fuji and the target, a twin-engine Kawasaki Ki-45 “Nick” fighter plane dove into his aircraft just behind the wings and forward of the aft bomb bay, causing the B-29 to break apart.
Several witnesses from the bombing formation later reported they saw parachutes. Two survived. Charles Weiser did not. His mortal remains are interred at the National Cemetery in Hawaii.
Marlin Austen was born in Ashland County on March 7, 1926. His father Ivan was a salesman of steel products. Sometime between 1930 and 1940, Ivan took a position with the Ohio Oil Company, which put him and his family in Wooster. The family lived at the extreme west end of West Larwill Street in 1940.
Soon after graduation from Wooster High School, Austen enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force. After boot camp he was sent to various bases for training with the new, high-tech bomber, the B-29 Super Fortress. He trained to be a gunner.
After a year of training, he was sent to Saipan to join his B-29 crew in July 1945. On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States attacked Hiroshima with an atomic bomb. It followed this with a larger atomic bomb against the city of Nagasaki on Aug. 9. The Japanese finally acquiesced, surrendering on Aug. 15. WWII was over.
The role of the B-29 now shifted to providing supplies to POW until they could be repatriated. Austen was assigned to one of these missions on Sept. 4.
For whatever reason, the Super Fortress he was serving in veered off course and crashed into the side of a nearby mountain. Only one of 14 survived that crash. Marlin Austen did not.
Eventually, Austen’s remains were returned to Wooster, and he is interred at Wooster Cemetery. He left behind his mother and father. He was their only child.
Looking Back is a feature on area history from local historian Mike Franks, who was raised in Apple Creek and has lived in Wooster most of his life. He can be emailed at bh_looking_back@aol.com.