OSS CBI Photobook 17

 

 

  Page 17 is the first of several showing us off-duty moments in the HQ near Kaifeng. They seem to have quite a few such moments, and quite a lot of film.

Above: scan of top half of page 17.

 

 Above: scan of bottom half of page 17.

 

This mode of transport will be featured in stories coming up.

 

Robichaud, aka Frenchie

This kind of scene became a classic in after years, right?

Looks like blackjack.

 

 

 

 

Mills, Mills, and Brunner has lists of team members beginning on page 503. Note in the image above that the team name changed over time. 

 

As of May 22, 1945, the eight-member team is set up under Paul Cyr.

Zdrojewski is the only member of the small group that trained together on Catalina who has ended up in JACKAL.

For Friele, at least, we now have a hint. Andrew photoshopped the dollar bill pasted into the Page 16 photomontage:

There's a name we know! Sgt. B. E. Friele. 

 

This photo has the following caption in the "Communications Branch" section

of the OSS Primer Page of the US Army Special Operations History Office:

 

"1SG Berent Friele sending a message at SO Team JACKAL, China, 1945. Friele had previously been the radio operator of Jedburgh Team GERALD in France 1944."

OSS CBI Photobook 16 - Team JACKAL, Black Ducks, Transition to Kaifeng, Part 2, The Dollar

In Part 1, we began the study of Page 16, and noted the transition from the first base camp, somewhere near Kunming, the terminus of the Burma Road, south of the Yangtze.  The majority of the photos on the page are from that location.  

Team JACKAL has moved about a thousand miles to the northeast, to Kaifeng of many canals, on the Yellow River, east of the target destination, Hsien.

The photo top right is the first to show a canal; the photo bottom center shows a houseboat on a canal or a lake.  See how they and the dollar bill slant off - to the northeast, as it were.

Page 16, scan of bottom half.

Eugene Zdrojewski and Albert Robichaud.

Why save this dollar?  Let us take a close look.

C.H. Phelps,

F. A. BucKANAN,

G.A. Cook,

J. KEllEY

S.W. Hart

S.P. LIU

James D. Kelley rotated the bill
and wrote his address:  Pritchard, West Virginia.

Roy Perkins, Jr.

GABRIEL MASH
B'KLYN, N.Y.

The dollar bill is glued to the page with the purple letters backwards.  When we flip the image of the scan, we see this, below.  Can you read the top line?  If so, please let me know.

"KAIFENG, CHINA" is Dad's writing; I can tell you that.

Captain Edward B. Zarembo

Kaifeng

Chinese commando patch.
From the OSS site.

OSS CBI Photobook 16 - Team JACKAL, Black Ducks, Transition to Kaifeng, Part 1

Scan of top half of Page 16

Still on guard for bad guys in that cave!  What's that patch on Dad's left shoulder?

I wonder if this page shows us a transition from the first HQ, from earlier pages, to Kaifeng.  See the masts of the houseboats - and that dome; what is it? - and those black blobs on the nearest houseboat.

This is as close-in as I can scan it.  Things also become more clear just from straightening the picture.  See the ripples on the water surface?  Those blobs are ducks, black ducks: two on the house roof and one at the stern.  You can see the blade of the oar that the woman is rowing, and the pole being worked by the man in the bow.

Two more houseboats are in the background.  What is the dark blob seemingly attached to the rightmost houseboat?  Maybe it is a gadget; maybe a person is holding a jar.

Some damage shows up in the enlargement, below.

Zdrojewski and Robichaud together.  Frenchie taught Dad some French; I recall it now, and perhaps it explains why he would not let me spend senior year of high school in France as an exchange student.

Details of equipment show up, below, including dog tags, shoulder patch, wristwatch (which we still have), camera, something in his shirt pocket.

Here pops up on enlargement another fine view of the carbine an strap, watch, camera, bracelet.  We have the strap and the jump bracelet.  Now, who is the proud young man bottom right?

Who is he? How come he has no insignia?  The pouch on his belt is stamped "U.S."

Notice what is behind him: a soldier in all the kit (Is it Dad?) on a Kansas mule or Chinese pony. Where are they and what is happening?

UPDATE 2023:

This is Major Wu Ping Lin.

He was on the JACKAL team for the bridges demolition.

His daughter and friends have contacted me;

I have their kind permission to post his memoir.

Dog Tag

These things are part of the New Trove
that Marty rescued from obscurity
under the attic eaves of the Marilla house.

The folder held the papers we have seen, in previous posts,
from Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia.
The belt wallet held insignia and medals.
The little waterproof duffel had maps of Chinese terrain,
and related items, which we will get to
when we finish with the Chicago photos.

We never saw these things.  We did see the photo-scrapbook,
but the rest we did not even know about.
Now it's all collated and chronological and we study.

There was a black metal footlocker up in the attic, always.
Maybe this is the key to it.

Having consulted pages 104-105 of Finding Your Father's War Revised Edition:: A Practical Guide to Researching and Understanding Service in the World War II US Army, I'm pretty confident that, for example, line 2 consists of the following:

First: "42021053," Army Serial Number;

Second: "T43," the date of the first tetanus inoculation, hence the year of induction;

Third: "44," the date of the latest tetanus booster;

Fourth: "B," the soldier's blood type.

Also, on line 5, way over on the right, is stamped a lonely-looking letter.  It is "C," for Catholic.

The notch in the metal on the left side was to hold the tag properly in the stamping equipment.

Julie