491st Bombardment Squadron

Pete Bertani, Peterson, Frank Bates, unknown, posing before a B-25 Mitchell in a revetment in China, likely Yangkai.

Overview of the American airbase at Yangkai (Yangjie) during WWII. Frank Bates notes, "Looking west across the valley. The newest planes' tail numbers are 336 & 340 and piloted by Alexander & Brillhart. Yangkai Army Air Base, China, early 1944." The 22nd and 491st Bombardment Squadrons arrived in January 1944 and shared the base with the 373rd Bomb Squadron (B-24s)...

491st Bombardment Squadron personnel with shark-mouth B-25 bomber inside tidy revetment in China: Peterson, unknown, Konkolics (?), Larry Johnson, unknown, Silvernail (?)

Ringer Squadron low-level bombing in French-Indo China, 1944.

Sgt. Richard H. "Dick" DeSonia after he went with group singing at Yangkai, 1944.

Restaurant 10 miles east of Yangkai, Spring 1945. Clayton E. "Fred" Nash, holding carbine, does not quite blend in.

There were no hangars at Yangkai AB, nor any airbase in China. This required all aircraft maintenance to be performed in the open, regardless of weather conditions. These 491st Bomb Squadron mechanics are changing engines on squadron aircraft #444, "Shark Mouth", in the spring of 1944. Frenchy Beaudetter, George Butsika, John Burns, John Aspinwall, Karl Hammett, Frank Bert, Frank Bates...

Gas detail, Yangkai 1945. Unknown, Peterson, Brillhart, unknown, Bertani, unknown, Alelunas, Schumaier,Baker, Big Chris, Myers, Kealy, Desmond, Hill, Keiser, Aspinwall, Hammett,Carter, Puloski.

Gas detail, Yangkai, 1945 Puloski, Baker, Christensen, Hill, Carter, Hammett, Aspinwall, Desmond, Kealy, Myers, unknown, Peterson, unknown, Brillhart, Bertani, Alelunas, Schumaier.

Gas detail at Yangkai, 1945 Grady Dawkins, Chuck Alelunas, Meyers, Baker, Big Chris, Kealy, Schumaier,Desmond, Hill, Keiser, Aspinwall, Puloski, Hammett, Carter.