Donovan of OSS by Corey Ford

(Robert Hale, 1941) : Book 3 1941 – 45

p.203 Activity in the Far East

― OSS Bases at Kunming & Chungking & Bangkok

― Carrying out “Recess” for Gen. Chenault’s 14^th Air Force.

p.265-275 Activity in China

― The Chinese “Secret Police” ― Geb Tai Li (Bureau of Investigation & Statistics)

― Joint OSS/14^th Air Force Unit formed under Gen. Chenault (The “Flying Tigers”) ― AGFRTS = Air & Ground Forces Resources & Technical Staff

― Col. Richard Heppner became OSS Chief in China.

― Sabotage at Kaifeng (Bridge across the Yellow River destroyed)

― Sabotage of the Canton/Hankow Railway.

― Japanese Cavalry attacked by air at Yiyang.

― Japanese barges destroyed by air on the Siang River.

― Dixie mission sent to Yenan – but later withdrawn – OSS branch in China by Chiang Kai Shek. (The Dixie Mission, a diverted sending military aid to the Communist guerrillas ― to help them fight the Japanese. Chiang believed such aid was just as likely to be used against him ― in the China Civil War.)

p.281 OSS in Tokyo

p. 291 Mercy Missions & Mercy Teams

― 20,000 Allies POWs & 15,000 Civilian Internees were scattered in camps from Manchuria and Korea to Indo-China.

― July 1945: Nine volunteer Mercy Teams were recruited for parachuting to rescue/help those camps.

― August 15^th, 1945: Four Mercy Teams assembled at the Sian Base to board planes provided by the 14^th Air Force:

- MISSION MAGPIE (for Peking)

- MISSION DUCK (for Weihsien)

- MISSION FLAMINGO (for Harbin)

- MISSION CARDINAL (for Mukden)

― General Takahashi: i/e Japanese Garrisons of North China said (arrogantly!) that the teams would receive the “courteous protection of the Imperial Army”

General posits about the Nine Mercy Missions:-

- Harbin: Mission Flamingo had to be cancelled: The Russians refused to allow them to land.

- Canton: The Mission was attacked by Anti-Aircraft fire, detained for five hours & then asked to leave.

- Hanoi: The Mission Plane was surrounded by hostile Japanese troops & tanks ― but unarmed Indian troops (POWs) surrounded the team and prevented any hostile Japanese action.

- Bangkok: Survivors of USS Houston were rescued from Petburi Prison Camp.

- Mukden: Mission Cardinal was interned by the Japanese ― acting on Communist/Russian orders ― until August 21^st, when the Siviet Government agreed that the Mission could operate.

- Sian: In Sian (100 miles North East of Mukden) several VIPs were released:-

- - GENERAL WAINWRIGHT – The hero of Bataan & Corregidor.

- - GENERAL PERCIVAL – Former Commander in Chief, Malaya.

- - GENERAL SIR SHEWTON THOMAS:- Former Governor of Malaya.

- - THE DUTCH FORMER GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES (Now Indonesia)

― HOTEM PRISON CAMP (MUKDEN):-

OSS Captain R.F.Hilsman Jim (& member of the Mercy Mission) rescued his father, Col. Hilsman, who had been captured on Negros Island earlier in the war.

p.300 JOHN BIRCH:

Lieutanant John Birch*, a member of an OSS Mercy Team was killed by a group of Chinese Communists who blocked his way to the Prison Camp.

* His Name was later “adopted”, by the Anti Communist, Right Wing “John Birch” Society.