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My grandfather flew the CBI during WWII as a flight engineer, I need to get some of his pics and post 'em up.

Thanks for the pics OP!

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Great pics..!!

MOAR...!!!!

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My father was an Army Combat Engineer in India, Burma, and China during World War 2 also.  I have no information on which outfit he was in other than that.

He died in 1980.  I have pictures of him in uniform but no pictures of him in Asia.

He didn't talk about his experiences in the war too much.  I do remember him talking about seeing lots of snakes over there.  I also remember him telling me that at the end, they were ordered to turn over their trucks to the Chinese, who promptly crashed them trying to descend mountain roads.

Thanks for the pictures and please post more if you can.

Are there any websites with good information or name lists related to this?

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I still have a lot more pics from the album.

I don't know if I should post even moar large file pics in this thread or not .

I could just start a new thread later.

What should I do Arfcom?

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Keep posting until someone or something makes you stop.

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thanks for the pictures.  always like to see and read about history

Ex-CBI Roundup
February 1955 Issue
By Mr. Murray A. Massin

Source of quote


The 209th Engineer Combat Battalion had, on V-J Day, spent 24 months overseas, having left the United States on September 9, 1943. At war's end, the battalion was one of the most decorated in the CBI Theatre. Their awards included one Distinguished Service Cross, four Silver Stars, 33 Bronze Stars and 181 Purple Hearts.

The organization arrived in Ledo, Assam, after a trip across India by rail, truck and boat. Within a week they were set up for operations at Nawng Yang, Mile 43 on the Ledo Road, 15 miles from the point.

Throughout the next six months an amazing variety of tasks were carried out by various exponents of the outfit. They operated a saw mill at Nawng Yang; laid the first pipe line over Pang-saw Pass, which is the highest point on the Ledo Road; built a tank farm at Hell Gate, Installed the largest culvert system on the Road, at Thursday River; built and maintained a long stretch of roadway; and, finally, constructed bridges at the Tirao, Nam-chick, Nawng Yang, Tarung and Tawang Rivers.

The Tawang River Bridge, 37 miles south of Shingbwlyang, was the longest bridge on the Ledo Road. It was an American H-20 running 1285 feet across. In most cases, the deadlines set by the Commanding General were beaten by several days. In early March, the men of the 209th gaily waved on columns of Men-ill's Marauders as they passed down the road to begin their now famous jungle trek of nearly 1,000 miles. Had the Engineers known what fate had in store for them, their greetings to the Marauders would have been a great deal more solemn.
Soon afterward, the 10th Air Force began pressing for advance airfields in Burma, from which to support General Stilwell's ground advance toward Myitkyina, So, in April, the battalion took over the task of clearing airfields at Tingkawk, Sakan and Warazup. The first Purple Heart for the battalion was awarded to Pfc. Albert Hudy and Co. "A" on May 15th, when Jap planes bombed and strafed the Warazup airfield in a surprise attack.
...
Later on, attempts were made to airdrop supplies directly to the front lines. Many times the 209th was so deep in enemy territory that it was necessary for the retrievers to dash into open country under enemy fire. At one time, T/5 Ben Curtis made seven successive trips one afternoon under such conditions.
On May 28th, just two days after the Engineers arrived, the Marauders began to pull out, and the 209th took over their position on the Mogaung-Myitkyina Railroad over which the Japs were hoping to bring reinforcements. Meanwhile, General Stllwell's forces north of Myitkyina were preparing for the final push into the town.
....
The 209th then took up positions on the main road leading to Mogaung. The story has already been related of how three fully loaded Jap trucks drove right into this ambush and when the shooting was over, 89 Jap dead were counted.

On June 13th, Companies "A" and "B" were ordered to advance to a new position in the heart of Jap-held territory. The Japs recovered quickly and closed In behind the advance party, completely cutting them off from the rest of the battalion. For five days and nights these men were hopelessly surrounded. Numerous attempts by the remainder of the battalion, reinforced by the 236th, resulted only in heavy casualties and finally all hope of reaching the trapped men was abandoned.

Many acts of heroism occurred during this action. Sgt. Russell Ritter gave his life trying to bring up sorely needed ammunition. Lt. Col. Coombs, Regimental Commander, led one attempt himself but was mortally wounded. Sgt. George Sohn, Sgt. Dwight Holman, and Capt. John Mat-tina risked their lives to bring him and three other wounded men to safety, but the Colonel died soon afterward.
However, the men who were trapped did not despair so easily. Following a trail pioneered by S/Sgt. Lester Shockley of Co. "B" and led by Lt. Albert Falk, 85 of the men succeeded in finding their way to the main perimeter in small groups.
Some of the wounded were carried In by their buddies. Others never made It. Two outstanding cases of heroism were credited to Pfc. John Miller and T/4 Harvey Rodgers, each of whom burdened with a wounded mate became separated from the rest. Unknown to each other, they wandered within enemy lines for three days, but finally managed to bring both themselves and the wounded men to safety. They also brought back much valuable information concerning the enemy positions.


The 4th of July was celebrated, on orders from Headquarters, to fire a 60-second burst of all available weapons (including artillery) every hour on the hour. It is doubtful if the Japs ever realized what the shooting was all about.
At one time, two men who were sent forward to scout enemy positions were pinned down by Jap machine guns. S/Sgt. Frank Tynan and Pfc. Erwin Sieh, with several others, moved a machine gun to a spot where they diverted enemy fire, thus giving the trapped men a chance to escape.

On July 18th, General Stilwell visited the front line positions of the 209th and personally presented medals to several of the men whose outstanding acts of heroism had been recognized. Chief among these was the presentation of the Distinguished Service Cross, second highest combat award to S/Sgt. Alfred Miller of Co. "A." While in command of a forward machine gun post, the Japs made a violent attempt to overrun it. All of the men of Sgt. Miller's squad were wounded and had the Japs reached them, the Engineers would have been killed. Sgt. Miller charged the enemy with an arm full of hand grenades. His action was so violent that he succeeded in killing a large number of Japs, and routing the rest. He then evacuated all of his men to safety.
When General Stilwell arrived to present the medal, Sgt. Miller was wearing only a pair of underwear shorts. His uniform had just been washed. Major Edward Mellinger, Battalion Executive Officer, lent him a fatigue jacket, and thusly attired, he was presented to the General by Major Charles Christian.
Major Christian had taken over as Commanding Officer of the 209th when Col. Sandvall was wounded.
The 26th of July was a happy day. The first battalion of Infantry troops, known as the Galahads, came up to relieve the 209th and 236th. That completed 64 days under direct enemy fire for the 209th, but their task was not yet over. On July 30th, Co. "C" was ordered to the Irrawaddy River to block the attempts of many Japanese to evacuate the town by water. Machine guns were set up on motor boats and in two days they had killed an estimated 150 Japs and captured 50 prisoners. Lt. Tommy Ryan and the men of his platoon were credited with most of these. In another section, Cpl. Harvey Tohet of Co. "B" distinguished himself by knocking out a strong enemy position single handedly.


the 3d of August, all organized resistance ended in Myitkyina. This was the turning point in the North Burma campaign. Six days later, the 209th was flown back to Ledo for a much-needed rest. Of the original 26 officers and 522 enlisted men, only 15 officers and 182 enlisted men remained to be evacuated as a unit. Seventy-one had been killed in action and 181 were wounded. The remaining had been evacuated because of disease.

For its part in this important battle, the 209th was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation

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Thanks, so much for sharing part of your family history with us.

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Keep posting until someone or something makes you stop.

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Well getting to the end of the stash now I need to make sure I not reposting dupe pics.
I'll get some moar up later tonight or at worst tomorrow to wrap it up.

I did have some other items from the recovery stash posted here
Some of my Dad's unidentified military ribbon collection- until arfcom solves mystery

Dad's mystery WWI collection piece -.Arfcom comes thru

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Thanks for sharing.