World Famous Comics: Operation Plum: The Ill-Fated 27th Bombardment Group and the Fight for the Western Pacific (Texas A & M University Military History)
Operation Plum: The Ill-Fated 27th Bombardment Group and the Fight for the Western Pacific (Texas A & M University Military History)
Product Description: They went in as confident young warriors. They came out as battle-scarred veterans, POW camp survivors...or worse. The Army Air Corps' 27th Bombardment Group arrived in the Philippines in November 1941 with 1,209 men; one year later, only 20 returned to the United States.The Japanese attacked the Philippines on the same morning as Pearl Harbor and invaded soon after. Allied air routes back to the Philippines were soon cut, forcing pilots to fight their air war from bases in Java, Australia, and New Guinea. The men on Bataan were eventually taken prisoner and forced into the infamous Death March.The 27th and other such units were pivotal in delaying the Japanese timetable for conquest. If not for these units, some have suggested, the Allied offensive in the Pacific might have started in Hawaii or even California instead of New Guinea and the surrounding islands.Based largely on primary materials, including a fifty-nine-page report written by the surviving unit members in September 1942, "Operation PLUM" (from the code name for the U.S. Army in the Philippines) gives an account of the 27th Bombardment Group and, through it, the opening months of the Pacific theater.Military historians and readers interested in World War II will appreciate the rich perspective presented in "Operation PLUM".
Excellent Scholarly Work on an Obscure Pre-war Deployment & Early Pacific War Debacle Few readers, even those who consider themselves conversant on World War II, will know the story this book tells before reading it. I gave it five stars for unearthing a little-known story, telling it well, and adding to the reader's World War II knowledge.
Operation Plum was the deployment of the 27th Bombardment Group (Army Air Force) to the Philippines in November, 1941 to beef up MacArthur's defense of the Philippines. 1,209 men were sent to the Philippines, and a year later 20 surviving pilots were rotated back to the United States leaving two enlisted men in Australia in the 3rd Bomb Group. The remainder were all killed or had become POWs under conditions from which only 30% survived to return to the US after the war. This book tells the story of the 27th centering around one pilot, Glenwood Stephenson, destined not be be one of the survivors.
The authors tell a fine story, providing just enough background on political and military events affecting the 27th and its personnel to keep the story of the 27th in perspective. MacArthur is featured prominently as are the other commanders in the Philippines and Australia, but without taking sides on his personality and generalship. So what happened, and why did the 27th suffer so dramatically in this incredibly feckless implementation of a critical plan to counter expected Japanese aggression?
The 27th was formed in 1940 at Barksdale Airfield across the Red River from Shreveport, Louisiana, and its pilots were brought to a high state of efficiency with twin-engine Douglas A-20 Havoc attack bombers and single-engine Douglas A-24 Dauntless dive bombers at Barksdale, Savannah, and other airbases. The path taken by some pilots to this point is told by following the early life of Stephenson, who was raised in poverty in the Midwest during the depression, and then earned an appointment to West Point and became an aviator.
By late in October, 1941, the 27th had been brought up to strength and began moving across country to the West Coast for passage to the Philippines. Unfortunately, peacetime confusion reigned, and the personnel were shipped separately from their planes and equipment. The personnel arrived in Manila on November 20th, but their planes and equipment were shipped in a convoy that sailed from San Francisco on November 14th, stopped at Honolulu, and was in the mid-Pacific when Pearl Harbor was attacked. On December 12th, the convoy was diverted to Brisbane, Australia, sealing the fate of the bulk of the 27th's personnel to fight without planes or arms as infantry on Bataan.
Only twenty-three pilots and two enlisted men were flown to Australia to assemble and return with the planes, but they found the aircraft had been haphazardly packed and could be assembled only with much difficulty. Parts were missing, and guns, armor and ammunition were absent. As it turned out, none of those planes would ever be used in the Philippines. Another batch of twelve pilots was dispatched on January 31, 1942, by submarine from Corrigidor to Java. A few of the A-24s were flown to Java from Australia, and the 27th finally fought the Japanese in the air as a unit with their A-24s over the skies of Indonesia. The tiny 27th force, without ground crews to maintain its aircraft, was rapidly decimated by the vastly superior numbers of Japanese aircraft, and after a short time the personnel, including Stephenson, escaped to Australia.
In March, 1942, the 27th's survivors were absorbed by the 3rd Bomb Group and flew missions in Mitchell B-25s against the Japanese in the South Pacific until rotated to the States in October, 1942. By then Stephenson had been killed in a plane crash.
Throughout all this the authors tell the stories of other 27th Group pilots, their relations with the British, Dutch, Australians, and Army personnel. That they endured many travails goes without saying. They took part in what became known as "Royce's Raid" with B-25s they had literally stolen back from the Dutch, arriving on Mindanao April 12th, three days after the fall of Bataan. The 27th bombed a number of Japanese installations on Luzon and Mindanao, but their operations were hurriedly brought to a close in order to evacuate VIPs to Australia. The list of passengers is given in an Appendix, and includes two newspaper correspondents who were considered more valuable than fighter pilots.
This book is important to World War Two experts and newcomers alike. The authors take great pains to put the 27th's activities into the context of the war around them, and that is absolutely necessary although possible annoying to some experts to allow everything to fall into place. I did not discover any glaring errors except a handful of opinion statements that were easily passed by.
This book is a great read, well researched and with extensive end notes, excellent appendixes including one giving the later careers of the surviving pilots, and a comprehensive bibliography. It is a great addition to any library on World War II, and I recommend its purchase and reading.
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