Project 9: The Birth of the Air Commandos in World War II

Chapter 8

77 • • • Chapter 8 Chapter 8 There wasn’t any animal like this in the Air Force zoo. We were inventing a new one. —Col. Philip Cochran It was late September 1943, and the sweltering, enervating heat that had gripped Washington and much of the Northeast for weeks was beginning to ease. The steaming summer was slowly simmering into fall, but the passage of time was not the ally of the men planning the invasion of Burma, half a world and half a year away. After Cochran’s visit with Wingate, Cochran and Alison set to work feverishly on a plan. General Hap Arnold, in a khaki shirt and tie, wore glasses as he carefully read the typed report of Cochran and Alison that outlined a plan far surpassing that originally conceived in Quebec. He occasionally made noises that could be construed as approval—or not. He glanced up once as he flipped pages, but his face was implacable. Arnold was widely known for abhorring long reports; usually anything more than two paragraphs had an immediate response: sent back to the writer, with an acerbic demand that it be condensed.“Get to the point”was the phrase that seemed always about to burst from the general’s mouth.1 Alison and Cochran sat silently, half-wanting the AAF commander to explode and reject their report as unrealistic and far too ambitious. Both still harbored some faint hope they would be sent back to their respective fighter groups and ordered to leave for Europe immediately. 78 • • • Project 9 Alison ventured a look at Cochran, slightly raising his eyebrows in a silent question. Cochran replied with a barely discernible lift of his shoulders. At last, after about ten minutes during which the only sounds were the crackle of pages being turned,Arnold laid the report on his desk and removed his reading glasses. He rubbed his eyes, then looked at both young officers. He turned to Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg. “Van, does this thing make sense?” The AAF deputy chief of staff nodded.“Yes. It’s a very, very ingenious plan.” Arnold took out his pen and scribbled his initials on the report. He turned to Cochran and Alison.“All right, do it.”2 With a squiggle of Arnold’s pen the promise that had been made in Quebec to extend American assistance in evacuating wounded British troops had grown exponentially. It was now an audacious plan to provide not only evacuation of sick and wounded Chindits from Burma but also insertion behind Japanese lines using gliders, resupply using heavy and light cargo aircraft, and close air support of the Wingate columns using fighters and—eventually—medium-range bombers. And for good measure the plan would press into service the world’s first military helicopters, despite screams from the evaluators at Wright Field that they had not even completed preliminary testing. Alison and Cochran had no time to waste and precious little time to perform even the most basic necessities of organizing the new unit, assembling personnel, acquiring assets, instituting training, and deploying a force sufficient to ensure the success of the joint British-American venture. The monsoon season in Burma runs from June through October , and during that time the rain is nearly constant. More than 200 inches drench the countryside, causing freshets to become streams, streams to engorge to rivers, and rivers to become raging torrential floods. Paths become slippery quagmires, marshes turn into swamps, and the entire countryside, never an ideal battleground in the best of weather conditions, becomes a nightmare of physical misery, a sodden muddy horror in which moving on foot, let alone sustaining offensive action, is nearly impossible. Cochran and Alison had felt a definite sense of urgency as they worked up plans for Project 9. After Cochran’s return to Washington from London, he and Alison had sat in the suite in the Hay-Adams and let their imaginations go. “What If” became their favorite game. Gradually the outline for a selfsustained , autonomous aerial fighting force took shape. In less than a month they put together a table of organization and a “dream sheet” of 79 • • • Chapter 8 equipment and personnel that would be necessary to effect their pie-inthe -sky vision. The idea of a couple of battle-tested fighter pilots’ acting as couriers or ambulance drivers was just too galling for Cochran and Alison, and they soon saw the possibility of making the operation a full-blown combat opportunity. To some degree the meeting with...