The Jersey Brothers

by Sally Mott Freeman

  MacArthur press releases from Philippines: Richard Connaughton, MacArthur and Defeat in the Philippines (New York: Overlook Press, 2001), 223–28.

  Personnel losses at Pearl Harbor: National Park Service Historical Statistics, USS Arizona Memorial, Hawaii.

  Note: the navy’s Bureau of Navigation was responsible for all naval personnel issues in early 1942. It was renamed Bureau of Personnel (BUPERS) later that year.

  7: “THIS FORCE IS BOUND FOR TOKYO”

  Re Admiral Halsey: “perfect willingness” to divide the Pacific Ocean with the Japanese. We’ll take the top half, they can have the bottom”: James Hornfischer, Neptune’s Inferno: The US Navy at Guadalcanal (New York: Bantam Books, 2011), 210.

  Re Task Force 16 and Doolittle Raid mission recollections: Bertram Mott, “Memories of the Tokyo Raid,” Shipmate, 1961; Bernard Peterson, telephone interview with author (November 2007); Briney to the Blue, Petersen’s self-published battle recollections, 48–49; James Barnhill, telephone interview with author (November 2007); Barnhill’s privately published battle recollections, My Enterprise Battles.

  “The Dauntless pilot had spotted an enemy patrol vessel fifty miles ahead”: Stafford, Big E, 78.

  Additional details on Task Force 16 formation and Doolittle Raid: Ibid., 74–79.

  8: BARTON, 1930–1941

  Hazing that Barton endured at the Citadel is detailed in letter from Helen Cross to USNA commandant.

  A detailed description of plebe hazing at the Citadel: Pat Conroy, My Losing Season (New York: Bantam Books, 2002), 100–107.

  Details of Barton’s abbreviated tenure at USNA: Midshipman A. B. Cross Jr. USNA student file, Nimitz Library, USNA Archives, Annapolis, MD.

  9: THE PERILS OF ESCAPE—AND A LITTLE BASEBALL

  Ten-and-one squads and execution of Staunton Ross Betts: Tarleton E. Woods, March of Death: An American Soldier’s 1,216 Days as a POW of the Japanese (Spartanburg, SC: Honoribis Press, 2006), 37–38.

  William Wordsworth, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour,” July 13, 1798.

  Description of Charles Armour’s house in Little Rock, AR, perspectives on his childhood and family relationships: James Morgan, If These Walls Had Ears: The Biography of a House (New York: Warner Books, 1996), 43–90.

  Barton Cross formed a prisoner baseball team and arranged a game with the Japanese guards: “In Memoriam on Brother Cross,” Chi Phi Chuckett, November 1945; included stories about his imprisonment, informed by interviews with fellow prisoners.

  10: A BROTHER’S BURDEN: THE SEARCH

  Newspaper article and photograph of Ensign A. B. Cross noting his status as missing in action: Red Bank (NJ) Register, March 12, 1942, Rutgers University Archives, microfiche obtained via interlibrary loan with Montgomery County Library, Rockville, MD.

  Captain Newsom’s letter from Darwin, Australia, to Bill Mott: WCM correspondence file. Same letter also found in Barton Cross’s USN personnel file.

  11: MIDWAY

  Admiral King’s perspective, judgment, and personality: Andrew Roberts, Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941–1945 (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), 195, 404–8.

  Eyewitness recollections of Midway battle: Benny Mott essay and letters to Bill Mott; Peterson, Midway chap., Briney to the Blue, and author interview; Barnhill, My Enterprise Battles, and telephone interview with author; Stafford, Big E, 82–106.

  “a wiry, energetic man”: Ibid., 91.

  “From stem to stern”: Ibid., 93.

  “On the flank of the enemy’s anticipated thrust”: Arnold Olsen, Midway, USS Enterprise CV-6 Association Public Affairs Issue.

  B. Barnhill filming battle: James “Barney” Barnhill, self-published battle recollections, Galloping Ghost.

  “On the way back to Pearl the radio was busy”: Stafford, Big E, 117.

  12: UNDER SIEGE: JN-25

  “Dear Bill, I haven’t had much time to write, as you might imagine”: WCM official correspondence file, June 1942.

  Chicago Tribune leak that US had broken Japanese naval code (JN-25) and WCM White House meeting with Captain Larry Safford: transcript of WCM interview with John Toland obtained from Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NY; and Clay Blair Jr., Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War against Japan (Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1975), “The Midway Security Leak,” 256–60.

  13: TO DAVAO: EN AVANT!

  “There was one overriding thought on every prisoner’s mind: would [Davao] be better than Cabanatuan?” Life magazine interview with Mellnik and McCoy, published February 7, 1944, following their escape, return to the United States, and lifting of gag order.

  Journey from Cabanatuan to Davao Penal Colony: Kenneth R. Wheeler, “For My Children” chapter: “Davao Penal Colony”; Heisinger, Father Found, 329–39; Davao references in letters to Mott/Cross family from Barton Cross’s fellow prisoners.

  14: AND THEN THERE WAS ONE: USS ENTERPRISE VERSUS JAPAN

  “Dear Benny, The suspense I have gone through since hearing from you last”: WCM correspondence file, October 1942.

  MacArthur claimed Nimitz had violated the divided command structure: James P. Drew, LCDR, USN, “Tarnished Victory: Divided Command in the Pacific and Its Consequences, et al.” (Thesis, Fort Leavenworth, KS, 2009).

  Dispute between MacArthur and Nimitz regarding Guadalcanal and for scarce military resources in Pacific: Blair, Silent Victory, 295; Winston Groom, 1942: The Year That Tried Men’s Souls (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005), 260–61.

  Harm caused by divided military command structure at Guadalcanal and beyond: James P. Drew, LCDR, USN, “Tarnished Victory: Divided Command in the Pacific and Its Consequences, et al.” (Thesis, Fort Leavenworth, KS, 2009).

  Benny’s viewpoint: Captain E. Bertram Mott, undated Santa Cruz battle retrospective essay, “The Battle of Santa Cruz and Guadalcanal from the Anti-Aircraft Viewpoint.”

  Battle sequence, Santa Cruz: Stafford, Big E, 192–211.

  Reporters’ observations during and after Battle of Santa Cruz: Richard Tregaskis, Guadalcanal Diary (New York: Random House, 1943), 62–70.

  15: THE OTHER WAR: ARMY-NAVY FOOTBALL

  Condition of USS Enterprise at Nouméa following Santa Cruz battle: Stafford, Big E, 241–43.

  “Parsons was only sworn in to the United States Navy when a fellow Philippine reserve officer awakened him in the middle of the night on December 8, informing him that the entire personnel and equipment of the Luzon Stevedoring Company had been taken into the United States Navy. He was then sworn in by Admiral Hart as a lieutenant, senior grade.” Travis Ingham, Rendezvous by Submarine (New York: Doubleday Doran, 1945), 23–24.

  Background and lead-up to 1942 army-navy football game and game statistics: http://forwhattheygave.com/category/army-navy-football; Gene Schoor, 100 Years of Army Navy Football: A Pictorial History of America’s Most Colorful and Competitive Sports Rivalry (New York: Henry Holt, 1989), 112–14.

  16: HAPPY DAYS AT THE PENAL COLONY

  Details of prisoner life at Davao as observed by local Filipinos who worked at or near the colony: Mari Virginia Yap Morales, Diary of the War: WW II Memoirs of Anastacio Campo (Quezon City, PI: Ateneo University Press, 2006), 51–131.

  The following diaries and memoirs also contributed to author insight into the prisoner experience at Davao: David Nash, Nash Diary; Hugh McGee, Rice and Salt (San Antonio: Naylor, 1962); Stephen Mellnik, Philippine Diary 1939–1945 (New York: Van Nostrand Rheinhold, 1969); Carl S. Nordin, We Were Next to Nothing: An American POW’s Account of Japanese Prison Camps and Deliverance in World War II (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2004), 73–82.

  Davao Christmas celebration: Morales, Diary of the War, 51–131; Kenneth Wheeler, “Christmas at DAPECOL” chapter, in “For My Children”; Red Cross packages to prisoners: Wheeler, “For My Children”; John M. Wright Jr., Captured on Corregidor: Diary of an American P.O.W. in World War
II (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2009), 66–69; Heisinger, Father Found, 327–28.

  18: ESCAPE: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

  Primary and secondary sources consulted on Davao prisoner escape and aftermath: John D. Lukacs, Escape from Davao: The Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010); Mellnik, Philippine Diary; Melvin McCoy, Ten Escape from Tojo; Dyess, Dyess Story; Samuel Grashio and Bernard Norling, Return to Freedom (Spokane, WA: University Press, 1982); 2010 author interview with the late Jack Hawkins at his home near Quantico, VA (arranged thanks to the kind assistance of John Lukacs).

  The morning of April 4, 1943: The escape from Davao Penal Colony and effect on prisoners left behind: Heisinger, Father Found, 333–39; Wheeler, “No Escape,” in “For My Children.”

  After the escape from Davao Penal Colony, effect on prisoners left behind: Heisinger, Father Found, 333–39; Wheeler, “No Escape,” in “For My Children.”

  Punishment of prisoners in Barracks 5 to 8: Wheeler, “No Escape,” in “For My Children”; Nash, Nash Diary; McGee, Rice and Salt, 103–8.

  19: FAREWELL TO THE WHITE HOUSE

  “You know I have been trying for some time to get some kind of sea duty”: Excerpt of letter from Bill to Benny, WCM correspondence file, May 1943.

  William C. Mott new orders: personal correspondence file, 1940–1943; WCM’s USN personnel file; WCM Navy Orders file.

  20: A TALE OF ATROCITIES

  Debriefing of Dyess, Mellnik, and McCoy in Australia: Colonel Allison W. Ind, Allied Intelligence Bureau: Our Secret Weapon in the War Against Japan (New York: David McKay, 1958), 180–82; Mellnik, Philippine Diary, 279–316.

  The guerillas fed and clothed them: William Wise, Secret Mission to the Philippines: The Story of “Spyron” & the American-Filipino Guerrillas of World War II (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1968), 112.

  Improving state of guerrilla resistance movement in the Philippines: Ibid.

  Guerrilla radiograms sent from PI to MacArthur HQ in Brisbane regarding prisoners in Philippines: Paul P. Rogers, The Bitter Years: MacArthur and Sutherland (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1990), 4.

  “This is superb”: A very good index of Whitney’s habitual dealings with MacArthur: Paul P. Rogers, The Good Years: MacArthur and Sutherland (New York: Praeger, 1990), 296.

  The GHQ audience showed intensified interest: William Wise, Secret Mission to the Philippines: The Story of “Spyron” & the American-Filipino Guerrillas of World War II (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1968), 112.

  Training of guerrillas in the Philippines during World War II: Larry Schmidt, USMC, “American Involvement in the Filipino Resistance Movement on Mindanao During the Japanese Occupation, 1942–1945” (academic paper, Fort Leavenworth, KS, 1982). Excellent background on training protocols and intelligence transmission between Australia and guerrillas.

  21: AUGUST 1943: ALLIED WAR SUMMIT, QUEBEC, CANADA

  Preparation for and references to Quadrant conference: Elsey, Unplanned Life, 36–40.

  Quebec Conference attendees, vignettes, and general tenor of conference: Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 459–62; John Costello, The Pacific War 1941–1945 (New York: HarperCollins, 1981), 416–17.

  Admiral King and Quadrant: Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 195, 407; John Byrne Cooke, Reporting the War: Freedom of the Press from the American Revolution to the War on Terrorism (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007).

  Quadrant Conference outcomes: Robert H. Ferrell, ed., The Eisenhower Diaries (New York: Norton, 1981), 48, 50.

  Reading of Dyess affidavit excerpts at Quadrant: Monday, August 23, 1943, Minutes of Combined Chiefs of Staff meeting, Château Frontenac, Quebec. Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NY.

  FDR’s ritual before dictation: Grace Tully, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: My Boss (Chicago: Peoples Book Club, 1949), 80–82.

  FDR and Helen Cross correspondence: Cover memo to FDR on Helen Cross’s incoming from Miss Grace Tully: “Letter from Mrs. A Barton Cross Lilac Hedges, Oceanport, New Jersey. Her son is Lt. Com. Mott. Source: Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NY.

  Excerpt of 1943 MacArthur letter to FDR: Lukacs, Escape From Davao, 284.

  22: REVENGE ON THE INNOCENT AND A COVERT PLAN

  After crouching for thirty days in feces-strewn wire hutches: Heisinger, Father Found, 333–39; Wheeler, “No Escape,” in “For My Children.”

  Secret MIS-X plan to spring Davao prisoners and description of Claro Lauretta’s guerrilla resources: Mellnik, Philippine Diary, 280–86.

  Mellnik’s recall of his first conversation with Harold Rosenquist and later General Sutherland in Washington is entered here nearly verbatim: Ibid., 299–305.

  Captain Lauretta’s reference to doctors and hospitals operating in the hills of Mindanao: Ingham, Rendezvous by Submarine, 153.

  A note on MacArthur’s political and financial aspirations and their effect on policy and war theater decisions: In 1943, General Sutherland traveled to Washington for war planning conferences and also to promote General MacArthur’s candidacy for the presidency. Himself the son of a senator and wise to the ways of Washington, Sutherland worked with Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan to get the War Department to rescind the order preventing MacArthur from seeking or accepting political office. Source: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/rksuther.htm.

  Roosevelt felt pressured to keep MacArthur happy because he was a Republican, a household name, and potential future presidential candidate, depending on the course of the war. He did not interfere when, in February 1942, MacArthur accepted a payment of $500,000 ($7.5 million in current value) from Philippine president Manuel Quezon. MacArthur’s staff members also received payments: $75,000 for Sutherland, $45,000 for Richard Marshall, and $20,000 for another low-level aide, Sidney Huff. Eisenhower, after being appointed Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force, was also offered money by Quezon, but Eisenhower declined the offer. These revelations were made public by historian Carol Petillo in 1979 after she uncovered correspondence and archived bank deposits and later by Rogers, MacArthur and Sutherland: The Good Years and The Bitter Years (2 vols.), 1990, 1991.

  23: SECRETS INSIDE THE OXYGEN TENT

  Oxygen tent operation: Margeurite Klein, “Nursing Care in Pneumonia,” American Journal of Nursing (October 1941).

  Standard procedures for evacuating Americans caught behind enemy lines in the PI: Americans were routinely evacuated from prearranged rendezvous points after USS Narwhal and USS Nautilus had delivered their cargo to the guerrillas. Four hundred seventy-two Americans boarded the emptied submarines in the Philippines between 1943 and 1945 in this manner: Wise, Secret Mission to the Philippines, 141–43; Edward Dissette and H. C. Adamson, Guerrilla Submarines (New York: Ballantine Books, 1972), 236; Mellnik, Philippine Diary, 288.

  “[T]hey had been working intensely on a plan to extract the prisoners at Davao Penal Colony—well ahead of Rosenquist’s departure for Brisbane. Stories of MIS-X success facilitating escape and evasion in Europe, well behind enemy lines—in areas crawling with Germans—were legion. Let this be the answer to a thousand prayers. And now Rosenquist, MIS-X plan in hand—approved by Sutherland—was in Australia.” Willoughby, Guerrilla Resistance Movement in the Philippines, 175–77.

  Captain McCollum’s concern for his cousin Shivers: “I was trying very hard to get these people saved. I had a personal interest in it because my favorite first cousin was a prisoner there. He was an army officer, Shivers McCollum.” Rear Admiral Arthur McCollum’s Oral History, Source: USNI, Annapolis, MD.

  General Sutherland and decision-making at GHQ: Rogers, Good Years: MacArthur and Sutherland, 230–35.

  Courtney Whitney biographical background: RG-16 “Biographical Sketch,” Papers of Major General Courtney Whitney, 1942–1947, MacArthur Memorial Archives, Norfolk, VA.

  Courtney Whitney’s long-standi
ng mercantile interests in the Philippines: Peggy Seagrave, Gold Warriors (London: Verso Press, 2002), 93–94.

  Whitney was more MacArthur loyalist than military professional: RG-16 “Biographical Sketch,” Papers of Major General Courtney Whitney, 1942–1947, MacArthur Memorial Archives, Norfolk, VA.

  Eleanor Roosevelt’s telephone call to Newport hospital per WCM interview with John Toland:

  WCM: “I came down with double pneumonia and nearly died, they later told me. They didn’t have penicillin readily available in those days, and I was in the infirmary, then the hospital in Newport, Rhode Island. This was while I was at the Naval War College. I was in an oxygen tent, and Mrs. Roosevelt found out about it, and she called the hospital and got the night nurse and said, ‘This is Mrs. Roosevelt, and I’d like to inquire about Billy Mott.’ And she only got that far when the nurse snapped, ‘Yes? Well, this is your Aunt Fanny,’ and hung up. She reported it the next morning and there was an investigation.

  “But that’s the way she was, a very warm person. Here’s another interesting example of how they cared about the White House staff. We burned coal to heat our home in those days, and we had an automatic device—I forget what you call them—that fed coal into the firebox. A part broke on it, and consequently we had no heat. We had a small child, and my wife was pregnant at the time, as I recall. I was wondering how I was going to keep my family from freezing when the telephone rang. They said, ‘We understand you have a problem; that you need some heating. Mrs. Roosevelt has some electric heaters in the White House attic, and you can borrow them.’ Then the Secret Service arranged to fly the coal feeder part in from Cleveland. By the way, I also realized that this meant that the home telephones of those of us that worked in the Map Room were tapped. I had told nobody at the White House about this problem.”