WW2 Recollections of Lloyd H Bunting Jr: May 1941 - Nov 1945
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How I got involved Hickam Field, Hawaii 7 December 1941 Now what? 22nd Bomb Group After VJ Day Epilog
Lloyd H Bunting Jr is a veteran of the Pacific War with 47 B-24 combat missions. His recollections of the Pacific War, especially its commencement at Pearl Harbour, are set out below.
During May 1941 I was in my second year at Yale University. It was an anxious time, what with the war in Europe and our impending involvement, and I decided not to wait. At the recruiting office the choices were : Army, Navy, Marines; stateside or foreign service, consisting of Panama, Hawaii or the Philippines. The quota for the Philippines was filling fast and by the time I could prove I was 21 the quota was full. So the Army Air Corps, Hawaii was to be my destination.
I became a soldier at Hartford, Connecticut on the 14th May 1941, and was given the train fare and instructions to report to Fort Slocum, not far from my home in White Plains, New York. The transition to military life was accomplished in a leisurely fashion, and visits to and from home were frequent while waiting for shipment west to Paradise.
My next stop was Angel Island, San Francisco Harbour in sight of Alcatraz Island. I travelled there by pullman train. It was a comfortable trip, just sleeping, reading and playing cards. Eating was somewhat primitive though, just mess kits in a freight car while standing up. Still, there was good ventilation and viewing out of the big sliding doors.
At Angel Island we were quarantined because one of our troop had contracted measles. This was really a blessing in disguise, saving us from slave labour all the way to our destination. The next leg of the trip was by troop ship (seven days) to Honolulu. Bunking down in the hold, stacked five high with me in the top bunk. I had already learned where security and privacy were to be found. I had buddied up with Mike Laczko. Mike and I avoided the sea sick population by living on deck and eating from the ships canteen. Life at sea can be luxurious and healthy, and for us it was. At Honolulu we were met by a military band and hula dancers. We tourists then travelled by open narrow gauge train to Wheeler Field and a tiny tent city. Being quarantined gave us Air Corps people everything but freedom. Even our basic training consisted of just cleaning a mothballed World War I rifle for a proposed exercise.
At last our final destination was determined, our quarantine status having worn off. Some of us went infantry, others coast artillery, etc. Mike and I went to Hickam Field, he to the 22nd Material Squadron and I to the 50th Reconnaissance Squadron (in the 18th Bombardment Wing). We were just getting used to Paradise and now felt a bit apprehensive about what lay ahead.
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Hickam Field, Hawaii
My first job, as the newest member of the squadron, was 30 days K.P. (kitchen patrol) in a beautiful big messing installation where 1,500 men were fed 3 times each day. Who would believe that the reward for our 30 day sacrifice would be a free beer party with a floor show of strip tease ladies chaperoned by the squadron commander.
Hickam Field is on the shore of Pearl Harbour Naval Base, and our barracks was a wonderful multi storey concrete structure, open all round for ventilation and also the views. It had all the best living conditions including ablutions and recreation rooms.
Our job was to service the squadron's four B18 and four B17D bombers in preparation for their military use. After my K.P. indoctrination, my job then became minding the tugs, the tractors used to relocate our aircraft on the ground. It wasn't a very busy job so I assisted in the tool storage area and visited the armament section and such like to learn more of what I was here for. Our workplace was a huge double concrete hangar building on the parking and taxi strip where our eight shiny planes were parked, especially for inspections and when not in use, like on Sundays.
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Pearl Harbour, 7 December 1941
Lloyd Bunting returned to Hickam for the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbour attack. He had marked on a map where he was at the time of the attack ... the red dot.
USAAF Chronology Dec 41
Animation: • Oahu view • Pearl Harbour and Hickam
Maps: • First attack • Second attack
Sunday morning December 7th, 1941 was another beautiful day. I was returning from the shower clad modestly in my Army issue towel and with breakfast in the mess hall, or a snack at the P.X., on my mind. When I entered the barracks I noticed lots of the men were clustered at the window and I went to see what was interesting them. It seemed there was unusual activity over Pearl Harbour. Some guessed it was bombing practice or some such normal exercise. Then we noticed other planes crossing our air base enroute to Pearl Harbour. Suddenly a low flying plane, barely higher than the barracks, banked giving us a view of a big red ball insignia under the wing.
Gee !, then more speculation, perhaps a happy conclusion to Japanese / U.S. negotiations had something to do with it. Loud explosions made us decide to be elsewhere. We were being bombed, and we were on the top floor.
By the time we got to the ground, the building was being shaken by the explosions and wall tiles were crashing down the steel staircase behind us.
Outside we found some blokes trying to set up a machine gun while enemy planes roared overhead enroute to the harbour. There were more big explosions further down the hangar line and rubbish began to fly. Such a beautiful day and all this happening "just like in the movies!"
I and others were sheltering behind things assuming that we'd soon be bombed or strafed, like in the movies, and we were trying to assess our position. No-one ever told us what to do if ......... , particularly an air raid on a Sunday morning in our various conditions of dress.
An enterprising lieutenant arrived with a truck. He gave us the "you, you and you" invitation to board his truck in which we found a couple of machine guns. Before our mouths closed we had arrived at the local parade ground opposite the barracks complex.
Half of us were left at one end of the ground with a gun and a couple of cans of 50 calibre ammunition. I and the other half were left at the other end similarly equipped. Nobody knew what to do but, being soldiers, we tried.
All the while those Japanese planes were coming down the airstrip, banking over our empty space and continuing to the harbour. I at least, from my interest in our squadron armament area, knew how to load and fire these guns and was able to select the cans of ammunition properly loaded for our guns. Nothing seemed to mean anything to my colleagues who drifted off leaving me with a now loaded machine gun to defend us. Next, I couldn't get the plurry thing to charge. The bolt, when pulled back, wouldn't snap forward to force a cartridge into the firing chamber. What the hell ! there was I, barefoot and dressed in only a tiny towel, equipped with an anti aircraft machine gun with plenty of targets but ....?
Meanwhile people were running around in every direction, like one young officer and his girlfriend were driving all around quite as confused as us all. Someone crossing the ground near me lightened his load by dumping his loaded rifle near me. Then a sergeant got close enough for me to ask him "what's wrong with this thing?" He tried it, took the back plate off and found the charging spring broken and, reasonably, gave me a look and a grin and, shrugging his shoulders, took off. Again, what the hell ?
I took up the discarded rifle which I did know about, even if I didn't know about shooting at targets in motion. I lay down and wasted all of the ammunition I had, shooting at the planes. Lying down with no more cartridges I looked up to see a formation of five planes at high altitude coming down the line of barracks, and in line with me. I dumped the empty rifle and took to the street gutter, getting as low as possible below the kerb. I had read about bombing in the Spanish Civil War. No sooner had I done that than the bombs started arriving, whoosh whoosh, and the explosions. The barracks copped it again and so did I, but I wasn't standing around outside the barracks like some fools.
(Probably) Lloyd Bunting in his gun emplacement on the parade ground. At the left of the picture is the gutter Lloyd took to when the next wave came. The road at left is where Lloyd encountered the ammunition truck with the dying driver. The attacking aircraft were coming from the left of the picture to the right of the picture: across the airfield and toward Pearl Harbour.
More Parade Ground stories
From "One Damned Island After Another: The Saga of the Seventh")
Sergeant Stanley A. Mcleod, of the 19th Transport Squadron - a Regular Army soldier in on his second hitch - was one of several men who took guns and ran across the open parade ground to the center, where men were stacking ammunition.
McLeod and the men who were with him were still loading their guns when several Japanese planes dove in from different directions. The other men ran for the nearest palm trees. They saw McLeod crouching on the ground, firing his submachine gun at a plane 150 feet over his head. The other planes dove on McLeod, and the men hiding behind the palm trees broke and ran for better shelter. While they were running, they heard a terrific blast and, looking back, saw a great crater, and debris climbing into the sky about twenty-five feet from where, seconds before, McLeod had been firing. That was the end of McLeod.
Second Lieutenant Ansel B Vaughn was assigned to command the five little machine guns on tripods set up on the parade grounds. The boy who was trying to fire one of the guns was unfamiliar with it and was having his troubles.
"Here, let me show you," said Vaughn, and got into the harness. He had just stepped away from the gun again, and the gunner had settled into the harness, when a diving plane swung a spray of bullets, cutting down every man in the gun's crew and that of the gun next to it.
Only the lieutenant survived.
From an account by Joseph Pesek
As we were crossing the parade ground headed for the hangar line, we ran into Dave Jacobson and three other guys trying to set up an old WWI water-cooled machine gun and they were having problems with the tripod.
Joe and I both had prior hitches in the Infantry so we had it assembled and in operational order quickly. I believe that had there not been a lull in the strafing, we would have stayed right there, but I guess it was not to be.
It wasn't long after we left that Dave and his crew took a direct hit that blew them to bits. The only way they identified Dave was by finding a section of his finger with his ring still in place. Pg. 83- '7 Dec 41 "The Air Force Story" states that Dave was hit while changing a tire on the flight line. This may be so if he left the parade ground after I saw him there, but I doubt it. I know the gun we set up took a direct hit and those around it were killed instantly.
From an account by Jim Fulton
During the raid, on the parade ground across from our bay, some men had set up a .50 caliber machine gun where they had a clear shot at the Japs fighters that were strafing Hickam. This crew was quickly killed. On our trip to Hawaii on the transport "Republic" we recruits were under the charge of a "Previous service man" Jack Fox, who we considered to be an Army bum - he spent all his evenings at Hickam in the "Snake Ranch". When Jack saw the men knocked off the gun on the parade ground, he gathered a few volunteers, ran out, set the gun up again, and died fighting the Japs.
Members of the 50th Reconnaisance Squadron killed on 7 Dec 1941:
SSgt Ralph Alois
Pvt Louis Dasenbrock
Pvt John Haughey
PFC Clarence Hoyt
SSgt Henry Humphrey
Cpl Lester Libolt
PFC Harell Maddox
Cpl William Offutt.
After the concrete quit falling, I looked up to see right next to me in the road , an ammunition truck stopped. The driver had been wounded and his passenger needed help to get him out from behind the controls. With the bleeding victim on my lap, the other guy started the truck and took off toward the base hospital. However, he took the first corner too fast and dumped the victim and me onto the road. The poor guy now had to hold his buddy while I drove us to the hospital where it was found the bloke was dead. I left the fellow and his truck to go find some clothing.
Me in my skimpy towel surprised no-one and my modesty was not necessary but my bare feet were getting sore. A nurse kindly gave me a steel helmet, which I assembled and put on. Bunting in towel and helmet was ready for war.
Not having had breakfast, or even a cigarette, caused me to make for the P.X. restaurant which was now nearer than the barracks where I hoped my clothing would be. At the P.X. I had to holler for service. The staff were all in the cool room, and I was told to help myself. While I was making with the doughnuts and coffee a couple of young fellows came in, one helping the other through all the broken glass and furniture. They had just come from the hospital where the wounded one had been given a handful of bandages and told to come back later. Between us we managed to get his shirt off and found that whatever had hit him, had gone right through his shoulder. We did what we could with the bandages then made with the free breakfast and cigarettes. Pity I had no pockets for free cigarettes.
Later, at the barracks, I dressed in what I could find. The top floor was still smoking, including our lockers. After dressing I went over to the hangar where I learnt that our squadron was now out of business. All our aircraft lay melted, except for their engines, where they had been parked for Sunday.
President Roosevelt's address
Some of the fellows were trying to mount our air machine guns on the hangar roof in case of future attacks. I found a pistol and magazines, then went out to help fill and place sand bags, but now I was ready and able to retreat to the hills if the rumours of an invasion proved to have foundation. There would be no surrender for me knowing how the Japanese dealt with their prisoners.
The attack had ceased finally, seeming so much longer than the two hours. We really didn't know anything about the attack's success and what might be coming next. The night was full of rumours and guns and shaky trigger fingers; real scary until the sun came up, dawning on another beautiful day and making the day before seem unbelievable, even with the amazing damage which was everywhere to be seen. Of course, at that time we didn't know what had happened next door at Pearl Harbour, and the too real horrors that continued well after the attack. Pearl Harbour was the principal target and the Navy had no place to go.
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Now what?
In the times later, the squadron was given new temporary timber barracks and found something to do. The war had moved on and we were there; suffering being left out after the embarrassment of having failed to do what we were supposed to do, protect the naval base and thereby the west coast of the U.S.A. So when a notice appeared on the bulletin board "Volunteers for pilot training sign here", well, I signed. I crossed the Pacific to the U.S. west coast via troop ship, but now in a blacked out convoy which made the war seem real again.
At a California flying school I was enjoying learning to fly but alas not well enough in the allocated 8 hours to continue with the training. Washed out was the expression.
YouTube video of Aerial Gunnery Training
Next I was unemployed in a dust bowl called Taft, California. What a place ! I haunted the bulletin board until another opportunity was posted "Volunteers for aerial gunnery training". This time to Las Vegas, Nevada, and at that I succeeded. But soon the waiting set in, and again I was checking the bulletin board. This time the offer was "Bombardier / navigator training". The new venue was Carlsbad, New Mexico (75 miles south of Roswell).
I survived that so well I was asked to stay a while, as bombardier instructor, with the reward of another stripe on my sleeve. It was fun teaching my students to have good results and that anything but a perfect hit was always the pilot's fault. Our bomb sight, the D-8 model as I recall, was very simple and the navigation was dead reckoning; OK for all short fast flights in medium bombers. After a few months the powers to be decided that the new Norden sight would replace the D-8 and navigation was celestial, for which only officers were qualified, so we enlisted personnel were displaced.
I was unemployed again, this time at MacDill Field, Tampa, Florida. Rather than just sitting around waiting for something to happen, I provided gunnery information to doctors, dentists, clerical officers, people who needed some knowledge "just in case". And I kept applying for a gunner's seat on any plane out.
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2nd Squadron, 22nd Bomb Group, 5th Air Force
USAAF Chronology 5th AF Chronology
22nd Bomb Group history 22nd Bomb Group website 22nd Bomb Wing website 22nd ARW website Memorial museum site Insignia Book
One day I got the nod to join a bomber crew which was to train in El Paso, Texas. Here we trained as a crew. Our new crew then went to Kansas where we were given a plane and all the gear, and continued getting used to each other and our aircraft, a B24 Liberator. One day, having attained suitable ability, all the crews were assembled in an auditorium where we were congratulated and advised that we were about to be assigned to theatres of combat. There were about fifty B24 crews there, in suspense especially since it was announced that the Air Force required only one replacement crew for the Western Pacific Theatre. Lots were drawn and would you believe our crew won the trip west. I say "won" because we had to listen to British and Yankee veterans telling us how it "is" over there in the East, which we took to mean cold and dangerous, whereas in the South West Pacific it isn't even cold.
Cutting this tale shorter, on the 1st of January 1944 we left San Francisco for Hawaii, then onto Canton Island, Fiji, New Caledonia and Townsville Australia. There, heavens knows why, we were relieved of our plane and all our gear and a short while later we were assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 22nd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 5th Air Force stationed in Port Moresby where the squadron was transitioning from B25 medium bombers to B24 heavy bombers. Well, we were replacements and despite all the training we never flew with each other as a crew again.
From Cy Klimesh, 9 Sep 2007: Assuming that #42-100230 would be "their" plane in combat, the crew named her Island Queen and paid to have her nose art only to learn on arrival that their plane would be assigned to the 408th BS.
From "The Marauder - A book of the 22nd Bomb Group", 1944: By the time Lloyd joined the 22nd Bomb Group, it had a very impressive record of achievement. Members had earned 18 Distinguished Service Crosses, 2 Legions of Merit, 64 Silver Stars, and many more Distinguished Flying Crosses, Soldiers' Medals, and Air Medals ... not to mention 73 Purple Hearts. The 2nd Squadron had already flown 2,232 combat hours in 889 sorties, dropped 803 tons of bombs and destroyed 17 Japanese aircraft. The 33rd and 19th Squadrons had transitioned to B-24s in Australia and then the 2nd and 408th Squadrons had been sent back to Port Moresby for transition to B-24s. The 2nd Squadron was, at that time, led by Major George Rath.
From a letter to Lloyd by Hager Blair (Oct 1982) - Hager was a tail gunner in Lloyd's Squadron: "I remember our transition to 24's very well at Moresby, your crew Prindle [Lt Darrel Prindle], Carpenter [Lt Robert Carpenter], Scott [Lt Robert Scott], Alar [Capt Peter Alar], Benson [Capt Cameron Benson], and others came with the first 24 crews ... We flew an 18 hour mission to Balikpapan, Borneo and your eng - Murphy [S/Sgt Meredith Murphy] was the eng and Whitney [Lt Keith Whitney] was the nav. (That one was a dilly). [ Hager's description of this mission]
Crew members (Jan 1944):
Pilot: Lt Darrel Prindle
Co Pilot: Lt Harold Heighton
Navigator: Lt Byron Wilson
Bombardier: Lt Keith Whitney
Radio Operator: S/Sgt Graham Owens
Asst. Radio Operator: Sgt Theodore Terempel
Engineer: S/Sgt Meredith Murphy
Asst Engineer: Sgt Ross Mandella
Armourer/Gunner: Sgt Clinton Pike
Gunner: Sgt Lloyd Bunting Jr
[Thanks to Cy Klimesh]
YouTube video of B-24 nose art
Spot the similarity between "Target for Tonite" and "Island Queen"!
I did 47 combat before being assigned for retraining in next generation bombers back in the U.S. This was from Clark Field, Manila. Brisbane was the last stop for me because, while waiting in Brisbane for transport to the U.S., "VJ" arrived.
This is a very brief statement of Lloyd's combat career, during which he earned the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters in New Guinea, China, Luzon, Southern Philippines and the Pacific islands. A description of one of his missions is provided in a citation.
From a letter by Keith Whitney (5 Nov 2005): I received your letter of September 14th ... I thought our Co-Pilot, Harold Heighton, would enjoy the letter and pictures too ...
Because I was the bombardier, I worked closely with Bunting [Sgt Lloyd Bunting Jr] and Pike [Sgt Clinton Pike] who handled the armaments. Loading the bombs, etc.
I remember one mission where the bombs got hung up. We three had to physically kick them out. It was a little risky. Later the awards officer wanted me to write up the experience so he could submit it for an award and medals. I put it off not looking for glory. Finally after he dogged me for the story I wrote it up like a melodrama and gave it to him. Needless to say he didn't submit it. Thinking back on it now I should have done it right for Pike and Bunting's sake. Please forgive me Lloyd. You are a hero regardless of not getting it in the records. [Bombardier Lt Keith Whitney]
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Getting married and going home
In this story I have not yet mentioned my first R&R to Sydney where the first Australian girl I met was at the Trocadero Dance Hall: a WAAAF, ACW Pauline Prentice who, after 8 months, became my wife on 23rd March 1945. Pauline and I celebrated "VJ" day in Brisbane and some months waiting for my transport home. A honeymoon really. Daily I went off, like a civvy commuter, to work in the cemetery, digging graves and relocating U.S. coffins from up North. Then returning home to the wife. So normal. So normal.
Transport to the U.S. became congested but I got a 3 weeks ride, again as a tourist, on a Victory cargo ship from Brisbane to San Diego, arriving on 12 November 1945. I was then sent to Angel Island (again) and then travelled by train (for 4 days) to Fort Dix in New Jersey.
Finally, on Thanksgiving Day, 24 November 1945, I was given some money and a train ticket and discharged from the US Army Air Corps. I caught a train to White Plains, New York and rang my mother, who nearly wrecked the car getting to the station to collect me. There would be time to celebrate this homecoming, but first there were other important matters to attend to; so within minutes of my arrival home, I had changed into civilian clothes and accompanied my parents and sister Nancy to a football match.
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Epilog
Pauline Bunting travelled to New York via San Francisco on the Monterey in May 1946. Lloyd and Pauline returned to Yale University, where their son, Lloyd Hamilton Bunting III, was born. Lloyd resumed his architecture studies while Pauline worked in Yale's hospital (then known as the Grace-New Haven hospital). In August 1947 the family of three flew to Australia (United Airlines, NY to San Francisco, then Pan American Airways to Sydney). Lloyd finished his architecture degree at Sydney University and joined an architectural firm. Lloyd's firm submitted a shortlisted design for the Olympic Games facilities at Melbourne, held in 1956.
In 1955 the family, which now included a daughter (Anne) and another son (Bill), moved to Port Moresby (just 10 years after VJ Day). Lloyd designed hospitals and other public buildings in Papua/New Guinea. In 1961 the family moved back to Australia where Lloyd continued to design banks and major government buildings.
Lloyd Bunting Jr died at about 3am on 17 August 2007. His wife, Pauline, had died of heart failure on 12 April 1991.
A few days before he died I asked Lloyd if he remembers Pauline. He was very ill and could hardly form words ... but he pointed to his heart and made a very special effort to say "very, very much". It was comforting to know that she was with him at that time, as we would all wish to be for our family and friends ... Lloyd H Bunting III, 17 August 2007
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Family
Bunting Family Foundations: The Bunting family moved from Scotland to Maryland in the late 1600s, and were farmers until around 1860, when the family moved to Pennsylvania.
Lloyd Jr's Grandparents:
The parents of Lloyd Hamilton Bunting Sr (Lloyd Jr's father) were:
Washington Augustine (Chuck) Bunting: Born in Baltimore, MD, Died in Pittsburgh, PA
Chuck established the W.A. Bunting Stamp Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It still operates today as Bunting Graphics, Inc in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina and Maryland.
Kate Hamilton: School teacher. Born in New Castle, PA, 29 Mar 1854, Died in New York City, NY, 2 Jul 1921.
The parents of Anna Wanda Thiele (Lloyd Jr's mother) were:
Reinhardt Frederick Thiele: Born: Prussia, Germany, February 1847, Died Oshkosh WI, 8 Nov 1915.
Wanda Von Rothhard Thiele: Born: Saxon, Germany, 2 Apr 1852, Died Oshkosh WI, 6 Nov 1919.
Lloyd Jr's Parents:
Lloyd Hamilton Bunting Sr: Born Pittsburgh, PA: 17 Feb 1891, Died New York, NY, 1976. He was in insurance, with his own agency in New York city. Lloyd Sr and Anna lived in White Plains, NY until Anna died. He then lived in the New York Athletic Club until his last years.
Anna Wanda Thiele: Born Oshkosh WI, 29 Jun 1892. Died San Francisco CA, 2 May 1960.
Lloyd Jr's Brother and Sister:
William Howard Bunting, Born New York City, NY 27 Dec 1922, Died 31 Dec 1931 (Cancer).
Nancy Batchelder, Born Cincinatti OH, 18 Oct 1924, Died in NY, 2001.
Lloyd Jr's Children and Grandchildren:
Lloyd H Bunting III and his wife Sue. Children:
Lloyd H Bunting IV
Anne Kirk.
Bill and his wife Kerry. Children:
Chloe
Laura
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Alumni
School: White Plains High School
School: The Taft School, Watertown, Connecticut
University: Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
University: University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
Associations
Lloyd Jr's ex-service associations include:
American Legion - Lloyd was a Vice Commander of the Legion in Australia
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States
Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Inc
Awards
Air Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters
Asiatic Pacific Service Medal
Good Conduct Medal
Philippines Liberation Ribbon with Bronze Star
World War II Victory Medal
To mark the 50th anniversary of VJ Day, Lloyd was awarded a cross for Conspicuous Service by the State of New York. The award was made by State Governor George Pataki on 9 May 1995.
Lloyd Jr's ex-service associations include:
American Legion - Lloyd was a Vice Commander of the Legion in Australia
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States
Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Inc
22nd Bombardment Group Websites
World War II website for 22nd Bombardment Group Korean War website for medium bombardment groups (incl 22nd BG) Current USAF (Strategic Air Command) website James C. Houston, 2 Squadron, 22nd Bomb Group Walt Gaylor, B-26 Archive, 22nd Bomb Group
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