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Source: Mr. Ralph Breckenridge, Winter Park, FL Formed at Bowan Field, Louisville, KY. Traveled aboard the Gen. George M. Randall via Newport, Panama Canal, Perth, Bombay, then via train to Calcutta, Kanchrapara, Chabua, Ledo. ![]() Plaque located in Memorial Park National Museum of the United States Air Force |
| Air-Sea Rescue in the China-Burma-India Theater Rescue operations in China and India during World War II were of no great importance to the history of air-sea rescue, since most of the flying in both regions was over land. The history of the 8th Emergency Rescue Squadron, stationed in China, does not include a single instance of air-sea search or rescue, and 50 per cent of the 7th Squadron operations in India were concerned with land rescue. The period of operations was not long in either case. The 8th Squadron did not arrive in China until May 1945, and the 7th was operational in India only from March until July 1945. India A small AAF rescue detachment was attached to the RAF for operations in June 1944. With two PBY's and only one crew, this unit afforded rescue cover for many XX Bomber Command long-distance missions. Rescue provided by the British began to prove inadequate late in 1944, when XX Bomber Command missions were stepped up. Requests for more rescue facilities were met by stationing the British No. 212 Squadron at Karachi, with the mission of providing rescue aid in the Bay of Bengal and along the west coast of India. This proved insufficient, however, and the AAF 7th Emergency Rescue Squadron was activated on 25 January 1945. Two flights of the 1st Emergency Rescue Squadron were deployed from Italy to serve as the nucleus of the new organization, which was authorized personnel and equipment under the provisions of T/O & E 1-987*. OA-10's, B-17's, L-5's, and PT-19's made up the squadron's aircraft. (* On 21 December 1944 the War Department prescribed a revised T/O & E (1-987). Personnel authorized under the new regulation increased the size of emergency rescue squadrons to 93 officers and 328 enlisted men. Aircraft equipment was changed to include eight B-17's, four helicopters, and four L-5's with floats. Each squadron was to retain 12 OA-10's.) Operational flying began in March, and the first month's activities included 43 missions and 16 rescues. Over one-half of the missions were flown over land areas, and land search and rescue became increasingly important in the following months as the India-based bombers moved to bases closer to Japan. In August 1945 the squadron moved to Okinawa, but did not arrive there until after the end of hostilities. China On 18 May 1945 the Air Search and Rescue Section of the China Air Service Command was established in Headquarters, XIV Air Force Service Command. The section was to be the control center for distress data in China, and in that capacity evaluated and passed on for action all distress information. The 8th Emergency Rescue Squadron was charged with carrying out the section's directives for search and rescue activity. Two days after this organization was formed, the first incident - a C-47 search operation - took place. The first rescue, on 27 May, was accomplished by three helicopters of the 8th ER Squadron. By 15 June six more helicopter rescues had been accomplished. From its formation until 10 September 1945 the rescue section received 138 reports of distress cases. Search operations were carried out in 110 instances, and 43 rescues were accomplished. The 8th ER Squadron was the only unit among those engaged in World War II to be equipped solely with helicopters and C-47 search aircraft. The mountainous terrain in which the squadron operated provided a thorough test of the helicopter's proficiency in rescue operations, and the results were extremely satisfactory. On the basis of helicopter performance in China, the Chief of Air Staff, Headquarters, AAF was told, "Helicopters are providing an important addition to AAF emergency rescue facilities… this is especially gratifying in view of the fact that helicopters are now standard unit equipment for emergency rescue squadrons." (Memo for C/AS AAF, "Emergency Rescue Helicopter Program", 22 June 1945.) |

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Source: Army Air Forces in WWII, Volume VII; Services Around the World, Chapter 15
(excerpt) Similarly, in North Africa and throughout the Mediterranean the AAF depended heavily upon the RAF's superior experience and organization. Not until the summer of 1943 did the AAF have a rescue organization of its own-a detachment equipped with three or four worn-out Catalinas, which had been flown by ATC from Florida.
Planes and crews belonged to the Twelfth Air Force, but they operated closely with British units under NAAF's Coastal Command. At the end of the year the crews of this detachment, no doubt because of their experience, were ordered home to serve as instructors at the newly established Emergency Rescue School at Keesler Field in Mississippi, where the AAF now undertook to organize and train its own rescue units. Appropriately, the 1st Emergency Rescue Squadron was assigned to the Mediterranean, where it began operations in April 1944. Early in 1945 two of its three flights were reassigned to India as the nucleus of a newly established 7th Emergency Rescue Squadron.
Source: Mr. Bernie Shearon The 7th Emergency Resuce Sq was activated 25 Jan 45, and was originally intended to serve in the CBI Theater, being stationed for a while at Argatala, India. It moved to the Pacific in the summer of 1945 and served at Okinawa before returning to Hawaii (Wheeler Field?) before inactivation 15 May 47. Postwar it was redesignated the 7th Rescue Sq and activated 1 Sep 49 at Wiesbaden AB, Germany. It was redesignated the 7th Air Rescue Sq 10 Aug 50 and the 7th Air Rescue Group 14 Nov 52, moved to Wheelus AB, Libya at about the same time and was inactivated 8 Dec 56. Other Sites of Interest: 1st & 7th Emergency Rescue Squadrons |
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Source: Air Force Special Operations Command - AFSOC CSAR Heritage
Stationed at Chanute Field, 14 Mar 45-19 Apr 45. The 8 ERS arrived in China in May of 1945 with R-6 helicopters and C-47 search support aircraft. Designed for land rescue, the 8 ERS completed 43 saves in difficult, mountainous terrain that more than proved the value of the vertical lift R-6s.
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First Helicopter Medical Evacuation in 1944
The China-Burma-India "Hump" airlift operation was the theater for what was probably the first use of a helicopter in a combat rescue. In April 1944, TSgt Ed "Murphy" Hladovcak of the 1st Air Commandos, piloting a Stinson L-1 Vigilant with three wounded British soldiers on board, was forced down over 100 miles (160 km) behind Japanese lines, 15 miles (25 km) west of Mawlu, Burma. Deep in the jungle where an airplane could not land, unable to hike out because of the injured passengers, and with ground-rescue forces days away, the downed men hid from nearby Japanese soldiers. A newly-delivered Army Sikorsky YR-4B helicopter, piloted by Lt. Carter Harmon, with a 175-horsepower engine, was dispatched to try a rescue. In the heat and humidity of Burma, the YR-4B could carry only one passenger at a time, straining its engine past the redline just to lift off. Despite these difficulties, over the two day period 25-26 April 1944, four trips were made in and out to a secure location where the men could safely transfer to a Stinson L-5 Sentinel. The final hasty liftoff was accomplished just as shouting soldiers burst from the jungle. As Lt. Harmon learned later, the soldiers were not Japanese, but an Allied land rescue party that had finally reached the crash site. The great success of the mission encouraged the advocates of helicopters, but few other missions actually took place during WW II.
Other Sites of Interest:
Fact Sheets: Jungle Rescue (National Museum of the USAF)
The Hoverfly in CBI - First Recorded Military Rescue by Helicopter
Igor Sikorsky's R-4 Hoverfly Helicopter
WW II Helicopter Evacuation
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| HOSPITAL TYPE | PATIENT CAPACITY | OFFICERS | NURSES | ENLISTED | TOTAL | NOTE |
| General | 1000 | 75 | 120 | 500 | 692 | |
| Evacuation | 750 | 47 | 52 | 318 | 417 | |
| Convalescent | 3000 | 28 | 0 | 189 | 217 | |
| Surgical | 400 | 50 | 60 | 275 | 385 | |
| Field | 400 | 22 | 18 | 182 | 222 | |
| Station | 750 | 49 | 90 | 390 | 529 | For station with 15,000 troops |
| Station | 500 | 35 | 60 | 275 | 370 | For station with 10,000 troops |
| Station | 250 | 20 | 30 | 150 | 200 | For station with 5,000 troops |
Seagraves Hospital Unit
2nd Convalescent 14th Evacuation - Ledo Rd, mile marker 19 (1943)
18th General - Ledo / Myitkyina (1945) 19th Evacuation - China / Burma 20th General - Ledo (1943)
21st Field - Paoshan (1944) (See CBI Unit Histories) Assigned to Y-Force ![]() 22nd Field (See CBI Unit Histories)
24th Station - Jorhat (1945) 25th Field - Ledo / Lashio (1943) (See CBI Unit Histories) 27th Field - Tsuyung (1944) Assigned to Y-Force 28th Portable Surgical ("China Dragons") - China (1943)
30th Station - Panagarh (1943) 32nd Portable Surgical - China (1943) 34th Portable Surgical - Hunan Province (1944) Assigned to Y-Force 35th Portable Surgical Assigned to Y-Force 36th Portable Surgical Assigned to Y-Force 40th Portable Surgical - Ledo; Wayao, China Assigned to Y-Force 42nd Portable Surgical - Ledo (1943); Wallabum (1944); Myitkyina Assigned to NCAC 43d Portable Surgical - Ledo (1944); Kamaing, Burma (1944) (See CBI Unit Histories) Assigned to NCAC 44th Portable Surgical Assigned to NCAC
45th Portable Surgical - Kanchrapara (1943); Kamaing; Mogaung; Shaduzup (1944); Kunming; Kweilin; Luichow; Shanghai ![]()
46th Portable Surgical - Ledo (1943-44); Hsipaw, Burma (1944-46) Assigned to NCAC 47th Portable Surgical - Wayao, China (1944); I-liang, China (1945) Assigned to Y-Force
48th Evacuation - Margherita; Ramgarh; Tincha; Myitkyina 48th Portable Surgical - Wayao, China (1943-45) Assigned to Y-Force ![]()
49th Portable Surgical - Burma (1944) 50th Portable Surgical - China (1944) Assigned to Y-Force 53d Portable Surgical - China (1944) Assigned to Y-Force 58th Portable Surgical - Ledo (1944); Myitkyina (1944) 60th Portable Surgical - Ledo (1944); China (1944-45) 69th General - Margherita (1945) 70th Field - Ledo (1944); Chengtu (1945); Kunming; Calcutta 235th Medical Dispensary (Avn) 71st Field - Bombay / Kanchrapara (1944) 72nd Field - Tezpur (1944); Yenshan (1945) 73d Evacuation - Ledo (1943); Shingbwiyang (Ledo Rd, mile marker 103) (1944)
94th Station - Kharagpur (1944); Piardoba (1945) 95th Field - Kunming (1945) 95th Station - Chabua / Kunming (1943-45) 96th Field - Central Burma, Shanghai (1945) 97th Station - Agra (1942) See also: Tribute to Kathleen Dillon, American Red Cross 98th Station - Ramgarh (1942-43); Chakulia (1943-45); Shingbwiyang (1945) 99th Station - Gaya (1942) 100th Station - New Delhi (1942) 111th Station - Chabua (1943)
112th Station - Calcutta (1943)
118th General - Karachi 142nd General - Lake Dhakuria (Calcutta) (1944)
159th Station - Karachi (1942)
172nd General - Kunming (1944)
178th Station - Lalmanir Hat (1943) 181st General - Karachi (1943) 198th Station - Dacca (See CBI Unit Histories) See also: Tribute to Kathleen Dillon, American Red Cross 234th General - Chabua (1945) ![]()
259th Station - Kweiyang (1945) 263d General - Karachi / Calcutta (1943)
335th Station - Tagap-Ga (Ledo Rd, mile marker 80) (1944)
371st Station - Ramgarh (c. Oct 44), Kanchrapara 372nd Station - Kaliakunda 383d Station - Tagap-Ga (Ledo Rd, mile marker 52) (1944) |









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IBT Roundup, 15 Mar 45 Issue Courtesy of Mr. Carl Weidenburner B-25 BOMBERS BLAST NIPS AND MOSQUITOES HQ., INDIA-BURMA AIR SERVICE COMMAND - Originally, the B-25 Mitchell bomber came to India and Burma to blast Japs, but since its arrival, this plane has taken up the task of exterminating another kind of insect - the malaria-giving Anopheles mosquito. For waging war against the mosquito, the B-25's have been re-fitted with special tanks to spray DDT solution, the new mosquito destroyer, on large areas of swamp land and infected jungle. The idea of spraying insecticide from a swiftly-moving airplane is not new, but it is believed that the actual spray ship constructed at the Bangalore Air Depot is the first of its kind. The present project is the outgrowth of U.S. Medical Officers' campaign to control the ravages of malaria. Behind the successful application of the DDT bomber lies the teamwork of numerous American military and civilian mechanical experts of the Air Service Command's Bangalore Air Depot, Mr. Christian J. Ohlschlager, American Technical Instructor, had much to do with the creation of a workable tank and spray system. Working with him on this were Robert T. Wise, an American engineer, and U.S. mechanical experts Daniel Chako and John J. Uebele, both veterans of the Orient. Expert Indian airplane mechanics, who participated in the conversion work, were H. N. Delawala and A. G. Khan. When the tank, valve and spray pipe system had been built and installed, Lt. Dodge E. Leary stepped in to test-fly this new weapon against our enemy.
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Departed U.S. 20 Jan 43 on U.S.S. Monticello. Arrived Bombay 3 Mar 43. Moved to Ledo and later Myitkyina.
685th Medical Collection Co. 889th Ambulance Co. (Motor) |


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13th Mountain Medical Battalion - Shaduzup (1944) (See CBI Unit Histories) |
43d Veterinary Animal Service Detachment
Source: U.S. Army Center of Military History (43d Medical Detachment)
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