United States of America: The interesting and emotive Second World War China-Burma-India B-24 Liberator Radio Operator's posthumous Purple Heart Medal awarded to Staff Sergeant Stephen F. Burke, 9th Bomber Squadron, 7th Heavy Bomber Group, Tenth Air Force, United States Army Air Force. Burke from Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, enlisted in January 1942 in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, and flew operationally over Burma as a Radio Operator in B-24 Liberators. Posted as missing in action and later assumed killed on 31 March 1943, that day he had taken part in a six plane mission against the Pyinmana Railroad Yards in Mandalay. Before reaching the target, the formation was attacked by a greatly superior number of Japanese fighters. During the intense air battle that followed, the plane was fatally damaged and crashed. Burke and four members of the crew were killed, either in the plane or by being strafed by enemy fighters as they descended in their parachutes. The four others became prisoners of war. Conflicting information however indicates that he may well have been one of the four survivors who having taken to their parachutes, then survived being strafed mid-air by the enemy fighter aircraft. One report indicates that he could have turned up as a prisoner of war held in Camp No.5 in Burma, which was Rangoon Jail. Whatever the case, his died whilst in service on or around 31 March 1943, or else within a few months of that, and his body has never been found. As such, he is commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing in the Manilla American Cemetery in the Philippines, which is where all the still missing American China-India-Burma and Pacific casualties are commemorated by name.
United States of America: Purple Heart Medal, reverse with official machine engraved naming: ’STEPHEN F BURKE’, on original ribbon with slot brooch, and housed in its coffin case.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine.
Stephen Francis Burke was born on 6 November 1920 in Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, the son of John James Burke (born in Ireland) and Bridgette Delia Toomey. He was still living in Worcester as of 1940 when shown as working as a clerk in a freight office. Having attested into the United States Army on 14 January 1942 at Boston, Massachusetts, Burke went on to see service during the Second World War as a Staff Sergeant (No.11021671) in the United States Army Air Force, being assigned as aircrew to the 9th Bomber Squadron, 7th Heavy Bomber Group, and flying as a Radio Operator.
In February 1941, the 9th Bomber Squadron was upgraded to the new B-17D Fortress bomber aircraft. With tensions increasing in the Philippine Islands and the threat of war with the Japanese Empire growing daily, the Army wanted to send these aircraft to the Philippine Department where they would join the newly created US Army Forces in the Far East. The thinking in Washington was that if Japan attacked the Philippines, the forces there would hold out as long as they could on their own until they could be reinforced from the United States.
In October of that year the unit prepared to take part in an exercise with the group in the Pacific area. With the ground echelon setting sail on 13 November 1941, the 9th made ready to fly into Hickam Field, Hawaii, the following month on 7 December 1941. The B-17s had no ammunition so more fuel could be carried on the long flight to Hawaii, and to compensate for the additional fuel stored aft of the center of gravity, the armor had been removed from the crew positions and placed, along with the machine guns, forward in the fuselage to balance the weight of the aircraft. Upon reaching Hawaii, the squadron arrived in the midst of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Unarmed and unable to fight back, the 9th lost several aircraft to enemy and friendly fire. Others scattered and landed hastily wherever they could.
After the Pearl Harbor Attack in December 1941, the squadron aircraft that had not yet been deployed to Hawaii were sent to Muroc Army Air Field to help defend Southern California from a possible Japanese attack since in the hysteria of the moment the Japanese fleet was expected to show up off Santa Barbara, California at any time. From Muroc, the planes flew on antisubmarine patrols off the California coast until about 12 December 1941.
In early January the squadron moved out, first to Hickam Field, then along a long route to the Southwest Pacific via Christmas Island Airfield, Canton Island Airfield, Tontouta Airfield on Fiji, Plain Des Gaiacs Airfield on New Caledonia then to RAAF Base Townsville in Queensland, Australia. Upon arrival in Australia, the B-17Ds that they had ferried to Townsville were sent to other units in Australia. Instead, the 7th Group would receive new equipment and Consolidated LB-30 Liberators were supplied to the group. From Australia, it was decided to send the 7th Group to airfields on Java in the Netherlands East Indies to conduct raids on advancing Japanese ground forces and naval targets. The first of the personnel of the 9th Squadron reached Java on 10 January when three LB-30 Liberators landed at Bandoeng Airport, then moved on the next day to Malang, where V Bomber Command had established a headquarters.
Newer B-17E Flying Fortresses, equipped with a tail gunner were sent to the area from the United States. This involved the group performing a cross-country trip from Hamilton Field to MacDill Field, Florida. From Florida, aircraft were flown south to Trinidad, then Belem, then to Natal on the easternmost tip of Brazil. Then a flight across the South Atlantic from the tip of Brazil across to Africa and landing at the British airdrome at Freetown, Sierra Leone. Then they headed inland and north to Kano, Nigeria, and across Africa to Khartoum, Sudan. At Khartoum, all the crews were given cholera inoculations, then the planes flew either up to Cairo before turning eastward, or else they were sent straight east across Arabia to Aden and then northeast to Karachi. Either at Cairo or Karachi the crews first learned that Java was their destination. It was the first indication they had had that the United States had been driven out of the Philippines. The last stop was at Colombo, Ceylon. From there the B-17s went straight through to Java and landed at Bandoeng Airport, where they received orders to go on to Malang Airport.
On Java, the planes arrived in flights of one, two or occasionally three planes. From Malang, the planes moved to Singosari Airfield near Surabaya, in northeast Java where the 9th operated from with the 22nd Bombardment Squadron. Their very first mission had given them a violent introduction to the kind of fighting they might expect from the Japanese. On 16 January two B-17Es and three LB-30S took off together from Singosari to attack Japanese air and naval concentrations in the Bay of Manado located at Menado in the Northern Celebes Island, about 1,000 miles to the northeast.
The attack force staged through an airfield on Kendari, spending the night of 16 January there, refueling and taking off in the early hours next morning. Two targets had been assigned: the B-17s were to attack shipping in Menado Bay, while the LB-30S bombed an airport in the vicinity. However, their orders were so unclear that the LB-30 crews could not be sure where the airport was and they had to spend fifteen or twenty minutes searching before they finally found the field at Langoan, beside a lake, about 20 miles south of Menado. Almost in the instant that the last plane reported its bombs away, they were hit by five Zeros, and for six minutes the three LB-30s were under fire. They managed to shoot down one of the Zeros before themselves escaping into the weather; but two of the aircraft had been fatally hurt.
In the meantime the two B-17Es had arrived over Menado to find four transports out in the bay and two more at the docks. On their first run, because of inexperience, they got themselves so blinded by the sun that they could drop no bombs, and on the second one plane had six bombs hang in the racks; yet as they withdrew the crews saw one of the transports capsize in the bay. Their returning course took them over the airport where the plane with the hung bombs managed to kick out two more on the runways, but the last four remained in the racks. Five minutes after this they were attacked by 15 enemy fighters. Two Messerschmitts, the rest Zeros made their passes from the rear or by diving under the bombers and pulling up behind to deliver their fire. The B-17E Fortress tail gunners, not seen before by the enemy let them come up close. Then, for some minutes before the Japanese discovered what had been added, it beat any skeet shoot ever seen. Five Zeros and one Messerschmidt went down. There were wounded in both Fortresses, and they were forced to land at Kendari for medical aid, gas, and repairs. An hour later, while they were still at work on one of the B-17's engines, five Zeros swept in to strafe the field. One of the B-17's took off in the face of the attacking planes and successfully fought off the three that went after it. The other two Zeros shot up the airport and further damaged the B-17 on the ground. The crew spent two more days endeavouring to repair his engines. Then, with Japanese ground troops approaching the field, they blew up the B-17 and the crew was taken back to Malang by one of the 11th Squadron's LB-30s.
While the B-17s were being attacked at Kendari, the flight of three LB-30S continued on course towards Malang. Two of the LB-30s had to drop out, one landing at Makassar, where it had to be burned when it could not be repaired. The other LB-30 was forced to crash-land on a streak of sandy beach on Greater Mesalembo Island. For nine days the crew waited there, with little but coconuts to live on and no proper shelter or medical care for their wounded, hoping that the wrecked plane would be spotted by a friendly aircraft. On the tenth day, they were picked up by a Navy Consolidated PBY Catalina. Additional attacks against the Japanese were made but such attacks were on too small a scale to do more than delay the Japanese, to whom one or two transports were but minor losses. The effort to fulfil this program was out of all proportion to the final result; and, as the Japanese continued their moves south through the Dutch East Indies towards Java.
On 3 February, the Japanese counter-attacked by attacking Singosari Airfield where a dive-bombing and strafing attack caught the Fortresses on the field. There had been no warning and there was no defense except for that provided by some old World War 1 French 75s of the 131st Field Artillery. Five planes were destroyed on the ground. That was not yet the end of the day's black news. The 7th Group, running its first mission out of Jogjakarta Airfield that morning, had sent nine B-17s up to Balikpapan. Eight came back. That made a total of six B-17s lost for the day.
From then on new replacement B-17s coming in from the States via India and Africa were barely able to keep pace with the losses. The airdromes were never safe from enemy attack and being without adequate antiaircraft defenses, planes that could not get off on a combat mission early enough to evade the expected raids were sent away from the airfields at the first alarm to spend the day cruising aimlessly up and down off the south coast of Java 100 miles west of Malang, putting hour after hour on the engines and increasing the frustration of the crews. On the morning of 8 February nine B-17s of the 7th Group took off on a mission against the airdrome at Kendari from which the Japanese were now launching most of their raids on Java. Almost immediately after taking off the formation was attacked by the Japanese. Three were shot down and the other six jettisoned their bombs and attempted to hide in the clouds. Only one of the nine planes dispatched that morning from Malang one that had returned early with engine trouble, came back undamaged. Nineteen men had been killed.
On 15 February when the British surrendered at Singapore, the Japanese pincers closed on Java. A fleet of 41 transports originating at Jolo in the Philippines were heading straight down the Makassar Strait and, after a single stop at Balikpapan, moved out across the Java Sea. A second fleet, even larger, was coming down out of the China Sea around the western curve of Borneo against Batavia and Western Java. The men on the bomber fields in Java received the news of Singapore's surrender as forewarning of their own defeat. Attacks were flown against the fleets heading towards Java, but the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Commission credited the Army airplanes of all Allied Air forces in the theatre with no more than three minesweepers, four passenger or cargo vessels, and one converted salvage vessel sunk, and a part in the sinking of two other cargo vessels.
With the Japanese ground forces heading south, plans were made to evacuate the bombers back to Australia. Between the 20th and 23d Malang alone suffered twelve separate attacks, and in the four days following the disastrous 20th eight more planes were lost on the ground. On 24 February 24 six B-17s attacked a Japanese convoy forming in the Makassar Strait for the final thrust across the Java Sea and again in the closing hours during the night of 28 February – 1 March, when six B-17s and one LB-30 bombed the same convoy as it moved towards the Java beaches. Their work was notable more as a gesture than for any worthwhile results and did nothing to halt or even delay the Japanese. To Fifth Bomber Command it became obvious that to continue operations on the present basis, without fighter protection and with their only three practicable airdromes under constant enemy observation, would mean the certain loss of all their planes. It was time to pull out and the remaining forces were withdrawn to Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia.
The squadron re-equipped in Australia during February the unit prepared to move to a new secret station. Arriving in Karachi, India, on 12 March 1942, they established headquarters at the dirigible hangar seven miles east of Karachi and became one of the initial units of what became Tenth Air Force. Almost at once the 7th Group, already veterans of battle with the Japanese in Java, proceeded to hit the enemy which was at that time attempting to move into Burma. They also aided greatly in the delivery of troops to Burma and on their return trip bringing out evacuees.
While this was being carried out, other members of the command were hastily constructing a permanent air base for the group. Many of the buildings were constructed out of packing crates and other various discarded materials. The men at that time were stationed in tents located near the newly constructed headquarters. Major Cecil E. Combs, originally with the 19th Bombardment Group, was assigned to the group at this time and assumed command. During the latter part of March and early April, new crews with B-17 airplanes arrived from the U.S. and although forward units of the group stationed at Agra and Calcutta were already hitting the enemy, the training of these crews was undertaken to prepare them for the future air war against the Japanese in the China-Burma-India theatre. Missions during this time consisted of bomber raids on Akyab, Rangoon and various other points in Burma. Losses were slight, though a number of crews failed to return, being destroyed in the air by Japanese Zeros.
Burke’s 9th Squadron saw service in North Africa to counter Erwin Rommel’s advances here, and flew operational in that theatre from June to October 1942, however Burke was not here, as he is listed without entitlement to the European-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, therefore it is safe to say he either remained out in the Far East, or else joined the squadron after it returned to the China-Burma India theatre in late 1942.
By now the 9th Bomber Squadron was reequipped with Consolidated B-24D Liberators and reassigned back to Tenth Air Force in India, where for the balance of the war, it carried out long distance heavy bomb raids over Japanese targets primarily in Burma, Thailand and French Indochina; although it also attacked Japanese targets in southeastern China attacking airfields, fuel and supply dumps, locomotive works, railways, bridges, docks, warehouses, shipping, and troop concentrations in Burma and struck oil refineries in Thailand, power plants in China and enemy shipping in the Andaman Sea.
During this period, Burke was assigned as a Radio Operator on a B-24 Liberator. On 31 March 1943 he took part in a six plane mission against the Pyinmana Railroad Yards in Mandalay. Before reaching the target, the formation was attacked by a greatly superior number of Japanese fighters. During the intense air battle that followed, the plane was fatally damaged and crashed. Burke and four members of the crew were killed, either in the plane or by being strafed by enemy fighters as they descended in their parachutes. The four others became prisoners of war.
The available information however if conflicting, as another report details that he may well have been one of the four survivors who having taken to their parachutes were then strafed mid-air by the enemy fighter aircraft. Further to this it appears he could have turned up as a prisoner of war held in Camp No.5 in Burma, which was Rangoon Jail. Whatever the case, his died whilst in service on or around 31 March 1943, or else within a few months of that, and his body has never been found. As such, he is commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing in the Manilla American Cemetery, Fort William McKinley, Manilla, Philippines, which is where all the still missing American China-India-Burma and Pacific casualties are commemorated by name. Burke is entitled to both the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. With copied image of the recipient amongst the research.
