Customer Reviews

The Last Flight of Bomber 31: Harrowing Tales of American and Japanese Pilots Who Fought World War II's Arctic Air Campaign

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Mr. Wetterhahn has done a great service in relating the type of warfare conducted in the Aleutians. However, the only criticism I would have is the title of the book....I think its title misleads the reader in that one is lead to believe this is the story of Bomber 31, whereas it seems to be about the Aleutian campaign. However it is, in my opinion, excellent reading, well researched and told from both sides with understanding and compassion.

Mr. Wetterhahn has done a superb job with his lastest book. Illuminating a theatre of World War II that is seldom touched upon. The daily lives of both american and japanese servicemen is seamlessly woven among an investigation concerning a downed american aircrew and the mystery of what actually happend to them over 60 years ago. Wetterhahn brings his countless years of experience..former combat pilot, aircrash investigator and author to meld a story of unquestionable bravery of the men that served in this theatre. Does this sound like I'm his publisher? Well, I'm not...but I can't emphasize enough...I've always been interested in this aspect of World War II and Mr. Wetterhahn has come forth to make something unique that is accessible to the layman.

This book was an interesting account of World War II in the Aleutian/Kurile Island area. Particularly fascinating was the detective work to unravel the identity of U.S. aircraft wreckage found on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Unfortunately the book has numerous errors scattered throughout which detract from the work--several are listed below:

1) Book states battleship Haruna was sunk at Midway--not so.
2) Book states A-26s were active in the Aleutians in 1943--not so. The A-26 did not make it to the Pacific Theater until 1944 with initial debut in New Guinea.
3) The G4M Betty bomber is referred to variously as the Type 97, G3M, and GM-4.
4) Book refers to destroyer Charleston being involved in Attu invasion. The Charleston was not a destroyer--was officially designated PG-51.
5) Unexploded ordnance around PV-1 wreckage is referred to as 50mm cannon rounds. Most likely meant 50 caliber machine gun rounds.

It seems a lot of historical works I read today have a significant number of errors.

"The Last Flight Of Bomber 31" by Ralph Wetterhahn
Subtitled: Harrowing Tales Of American And Japanese Pilots Who fought In World War II's Arctic Air Campaign". Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York 2004.

The author's emphasis is on the plural in "Tales" in the subtitle. Ralph Wetterhahn has told many different stories in this book. In the first case, the author has woven the tale of Bomber 31 into a succinct history of the Alaska/Aleutian Campaign of World War II. A Navy PV-1 Ventura was Bomber 31, flown by Lieutenant Walt S. Whitman, from Alaskan bases against the northern islands of the Empire of Japan. The crash site was discovered on Russian territory, Kamchatka, in 1962, recent photos of the crash site and the crashed aircraft are included. The story of the PV-1 Ventura, "Bomber 31", pops up as a chapter here and there, interspersed throughout the book. (If you want a good history of the Alaska/Aleutian campaign, see "The Thousand-Mile War", by Brian Garfield, Doubleday & Company, 1969).

Since the book was written in the new century, the author was able to draw upon Japanese and Russian sources, and the archives of American units. So, the book includes a brief history of the American action in Alaska, the story of Japanese who invaded Alaska and the story of the Japanese who were the target (e.g. Paramushiro), of the bomber campaign from Alaska. Then, there is the present day story of the investigation of the crash site of Bomber 31 on Russian territory.

The author has included interviews with Japanese veterans. Chapter 15 deals with the Japanese POWs who were kept in Soviet camps in Siberia. This chapter and the five paged section on propeller damage in Chapter 16 really did not add to the story of the book, in my humble opinion. Chapter 13, "Repatriation", deals with the return of American airmen to the control of U.S. authorities, in Tehran, Iran. There are six appendices, from page 285 to page 314, followed by 12 pages of notes. Appendix 6, "Aircraft Diagrams", was interesting to me as I could see how the PV-1 Ventura (page 307) evolved into the PV-2 Harpoon (page 314). Years later, I flew in P2V-7 Neptune bombers, and you could see the Neptune in the diagrams of her "grandparents", the Ventura and the Harpoon.

Years ago, my Historiography professor stated "Spell checker does not cut it".
Take a look at page 170, where the Japanese aircraft "...peeled off to begin his pass". Then look at page 176, where he would "... peal off to employ..." and on page 206, "Daughtrey pealed off to begin his bomb run". Of course, the author wanted "peel" in all three sentences, not "peal" which means to ring a bell. He rang my bell and I recalled that "Spell checker does not cut it".

When you say US-Japanese island fighting in WW2, images of humid, tropic jungle fighting pops up - Guadacanal, Iwo Jima, maybe if you've studied alot of WW2 Pacific, you've heard of Burma, New Guinea. We forget that part of the Battle of Midway resulted in the Japanese capture of two of the US Aleutian Islands.

Author Ralph Wetterhahn does a great job reminding us of that loss of US Territory, but even better, paints the picture of what battle was like on those cold, remote islands. Both sides battled the weather far more than each other. The US lost more planes to ice and fog than enemy fighters or flak. At least one third of all pilots and planes were lost during these battles, a very high and demoralizing rate of attrition.

Another interesting aspect of this forgotten war were the numbers involved - over 140,000 US troops, and several Japanese divisions were tied down. The Japanese thought we would counter attack their nation from bomber bases in the Aleutians, which we did - in bombing raids of up to 3 planes at a time! A sharp contrast to the numbers involved in the European air war.

The author is an expert aircraft crash investigator and former pilot...he is also a pretty darn good story teller. Add to that, maps, photographs and line drawings of the planes involved, this becomes a very detailed, well investigated story of not just one bomber (Ventura plane tail number 31) or its crew, but of the "Battle of the Arctic" a forgotten front by all except for those unlucky enough to serve in those frozen lands.

Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn more about this aspect of the Pacific War, aviation buffs, detectives (forensic science is involved here as well) as well as those interested in great story telling. I've read and re-read this book, still enjoy it and learn new things.