Douglas A. Bell

SN 141131384, 14TH Air Force, Flying Tigers, 22ND Bomb Squad, China-Burma-India

My name is Michael R. Mitchell. This is my stepfather, Douglas Albert Bell.
He was born in Copperhill, Tennessee April 7, 1921.
He graduated from Marietta, Georgia High School May 27, 1938 and entered Western Kentucky State Teachers College in Bowling Green, Kentucky June 12, 1939. He attended three semesters through January 29, 1940. He joined the Army Air Force on August 19, 1942.

He flew 45 combat missions in China-Burma as a bombadier-navigator on B-25's. He was a technical sergeant.

This is Doug and some of his bombs.

This is Doug's B-25 (though it looks like a B-17) unloading bombs on Japanese targets over China in 1944.

On about March 26, 1944, he was flying photo-gunner in a B-25H aircraft on a mission from Kunming, China to Hainan Island in the South China Sea to bomb a Japanese airfield. They bombed from 200' to 300' high, for some reason using incendiary bombs. The aircraft suffered damage, presumably from small arms or antiaircraft fire, and began losing fuel on the trip home. His pilot called him up from the nose of the plane to tell Doug that they were not going to make it home. Dad was called up because, at 22 years of age, he was the oldest man in the plane. The pilot said they could jump or crash. Dad elected for the crash.

The plane crash-landed near Tietohseih in French Indo-China, perhaps behind enemy lines. The crew members survived.

Members of the crash-landed crew included:

Pilot, Capt. Ralph D. Fiske, #7 Parker St., Saugus, Mass. (Deceased)(His widow lives in Hendersonville, NC)
Aerial Engineer, Sgt. Perry B. Bartlett, then of 2326 Highland Blvd., Milwaukee, Wisc. He now lives at 17470 West Robinwood Street, Brookfield, WI 53045, Phone (414) 782-6359
Radio Gunner, Sgt. Jesse G. Spencer, then of RD 2, Volney, Virginia
Navigator, Lt. Stanley S. Schwartz, then of 1824 Davidson Ave., New York, NY. He now lives at 5410 Creekbend, Houston, TX 77096-5011, Phone (713) 723-6491

(If anyone knows how to locate Jesse Spencer, please send me an email.)

Stanley Schwartz, sitting in the co-pilot's seat, was thrown through the windshield into a muddy rice paddy.

Perry Bartlett relates that the crew struck out for the nearest town, walking half time and riding horses half time for two days. At the town, he believes the pilot contacted their home base but learned that no aircraft could be sent to pick them up. So they bought tickets and rode the train back to Kunming, arriving about two weeks after being shot down. (My step-father and "Eagles, Bulldogs & Tigers," p. 168 (see below) said it took 30 days.)

The photo at the top was taken June 4,1944 after Doug's return to the States. He had lost much weight and, finding the U.S. then such a foreign place -- after the experiences he and his crews had gone through, finally got into a bar room fight, battering a few MP's who sought to intervene. He was busted to private first class and left the Army at Seymour Johnson AFB, NC Sept. 27, 1945.

Doug learned that my father, Albert W. Mitchell who had been a friendly rival of his for my mother's hand -- had been killed at Normandy. So he looked up and married my mom in May, 1945. My half brother, Douglas Albert Bell, Jr., was born in 1946 when we lived in Navco just outside Mobile, Alabama.

Doug made promises in China-Burma which he sought to keep.

He enrolled in Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky and received his B.A. in religion in 1953. He attended College of the Bible (now Lexington Theological Seminary) for two years and was ordained a Disciples of Christ minister in 1955.

This is Doug, the young minister.

Thereafter, he served with distinction as a pastor in Simpsonville, KY, Eminence, KY, and Kinston, NC. He died of brain cancer in September 1965. He is dearly missed.

Among the few material things that Doug Bell left me when he died was this.

It is the Distinguished Flying Cross which was awarded him for exhibiting "extraordinary heroism or achievement in aerial flight." Actually, it was awarded to all Army Air Force combatants in CBI who completed (or almost completed, but got shot down) 50 missions. His crew members each received the medal, though they claim they did nothing extraordinary or heroic.

I look back and wonder how it might have been for that young Tennessee boy to crawl up into the nose of a fighter-bomber forty-five times to engage in combat. I wonder about the fear he felt.

I have not been able to track down in detail any more of Doug's combat experience. If you have information or suggestions, please send me an email. mitchel4@ix.netcom.com

Gen. Douglas MacArthur's West Point Speech on American Servicemen

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