The big news of the month was that Japan had agreed to adopt the peace
terms as laid down by the alliance and - -
THE WAR WAS OVER!
Of course arrangements for the official surrender had to be planned and
carried out but for all intents and purposes the actual firing was over. No more
“sweating out” air raids in the foxholes, no more missions where enemy fire was
probable and expected! The original false rumor of Japan’s capitulation caused quite
a bit of hilarity and excitement. The announcement was made during the middle of the
picture show in the Squadron Area and the show itself was
completely forgotten. Everybody was whooping and hollering and guns were going off like
firecrackers. Fortunately no one was injured and when it was found that all of it was
unconfirmed rumor things quieted down to normal. In order to preclude any possibility of
any one receiving an injury when the surrender was officially confirmed all men were
ordered to turn in all their fire arms to Squadron Supply and they were kept there until
the day after President Truman’s announcement of the acceptance of the peace terms by
Japan. The official announcement came as some what of an anti-climax and most of the men
were concerned in discussing the procedure the Army would use for returning men to the
States how much longer each individual would have to remain over here. Rumors were a dime
a dozen and you had a wide variety of choices from which to pick the hard cold facts still
had to be faced that the War Department was still making the rules and those were the ones
that would govern.
The quote for enlisted men with over the critical 85 points for the
month was quite low and only ten men were transferred to the Replacement Battalion under
this system. However, combat crews who had completed their required hours prior to the
cessation of hostilities continued to return to the States under the provisions of W.D.
Circular 372, 1944 and during this month eight Officers and nine Enlisted
On 2nd
August orders were received sending four (4) Catalina’s and two (2)B-17’s with
crews plus thirty-two ground / maintenance men to
Clark Field, Manila in order to give a
wide spread of coverage in rescue work. On 23 August 1945 warning orders were received to
be prepared to load Headquarters and Flight A in LST’s for permanent move of the
Squadron to Clark Field. An advance detail consisting of two Officers and eight Enlisted
men were sent forward to prepare the new area for occupancy. When the LST’s arrived
it was discovered that there was not enough space available to transport all the equipment
and troops and it was decided by XIII Bomber Command, who was in control of the movement
of all Air Corps Units from Morotai that only the heavy equipment which could not be
transported by air would go by water and that the personnel and airborne equipment would
be moved by air. Due to the
need for all available aircraft to transport troops and supplies into Japan for the
occupation no definite date as to when plans would be available could be given. The
Squadron has been using its own C-47’s to carry equipment and a few personnel up on
an every other day schedule. Due to unforeseen circumstances no definite area at Clark
Field had been assigned to the Squadron and the end of the month found things somewhat
jumbled up. A few personnel and quite a bit of the airborne equipment was at Clark Field,
the heavy equipment was en route by water and the majority of personnel plus some
equipment was still here at Morotai.
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