Lost in Shangri-la

by Mitchell Zuckoff

  8 House Speaker Sam Rayburn: C. P. Trussell, “Blackout Lifted on Capitol Dome,” New York Times, May 9, 1945.

  8 “It will be a busy summer”: Hanson W. Baldwin, “A New Phase Now Opens in the Pacific War,” New York Times, May 13, 1945.

  8 Between sunrise and sunset: Day-by-day chronology of World War II Pacific history, compiled by U.S. Air Forces and provided by Justin Taylan of PacificWrecks.org, http://www.pacificwrecks.com/60th/1945/5-45.html (retrieved October 11, 2009). See also chronology at http://www.onwar.com/chrono/index.htm (retrieved October 11, 2009).

  10 named it for an African country: Karl Heider, Grand Valley Dani: Peaceful Warriors, 3d ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Group, 1997), p. 1.

  10 Sri Lankan potentates: Tim Flannery, Throwim Way Leg: Tree-Kangaroos, Possums and Penis Gourds (New York: Grove Press, 1998), 3.

  10 Captain Cook visited in 1770: Hobart M. Van Deusen, “The Seventh Archbold Expedition,” BioScience 16 (July 1966): 450.

  11 a daring strike called “Operation Reckless”: Samuel Eliot Morison, History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, vol. 8, New Guinea and the Marianas, March 1944-August 1944 (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2002), pp. 68–90. See also Stanley Sandler, World War II in the Pacific: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland, 2001), pp. 400–403.

  11 “Release a Man for Combat”: Ibid., p. 184.

  11 “my best soldiers”: Sandler, World War II in the Pacific, p. 1050.

  12 a sidearm to keep under her pillow: Dona Cruse, interview by author, August 11, 2009. Dona is the daughter of WAC Ruth Coster, who passed up a chance to fly over Shangri-La on May 13, 1945. See also Steven Mayer, “Taft Veteran Killed in Crash Only Woman Listed on Wall,” Bakersfield Californian, Nov. 12, 2007, www.bakersfield.com/102/story/283703.html, included in the Ruth Coster Collection at the University of Central Arkansas.

  12 “Hey Joe—hubba, hubba”: Colonel Ray T. Elsmore, “New Guinea’s Mountain and Swampland Dwellers,” National Geographic Magazine 88, no. 6 (December 1945): 676.

  12 the safety precautions’ real aim: Judith A. Bellafaire, The Women’s Army Corps: A Commemoration of World War II Service, U.S. Army Center of Military History pub. 72-15 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1990). See also p. 422 in the definitive history of the WACs, Mattie E. Treadwell, The Women’s Army Corps (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1954); and Selene H. C. Weise, The Good Soldier: The Story of a Southwest Pacific Signal Corps WAC (Shippensburg, Pa.: Burd Street Press, 1999).

  12 “blanket parties”: Margaret Hastings to Kitty Dugan, February 2, 1945, archives, TCHS.

  13 The letter didn’t give away: A notation on the envelope indicates that the letter was “censored by Lt. Margaret V. Bogle,” the same officer who informed Margaret Hastings about the trip to Shangri-La.

  13 enlisting . . . in August 1942: Background information on Laura Besley from U.S. World War II army enlistment records at www.ancestry.com (retrieved September 11, 2009), and Harrisburg, Pa., City Directory (Detroit: R. L. Polk, 1936–37), p. 62. See also 1930 U.S. federal census records.

  13 a “sassy” young woman: Gerta Anderson, interview by author, April 26, 2010. Laura Besley’s mother and Gerta Anderson’s maternal grandmother were sisters. Laura was named Earline, after her father, Earl, but took the name Laura from her grandmother.

  13 tables made from boxes and burlap: Hastings, “Owego WAC Writes.”

  14 parachute cloth hung as decoration: Hastings to Dugan, February 2, 1945. Details of WAC tents in Hollandia also from Mary L. Eck, Saga of a Sad Sack, self-published pamphlet recounting military life in New Guinea and elsewhere, 1979.

  14 double electric socket: Hastings, SLD, part 2.

  14 “Get skinny in Guinea”: Ibid., p. 16.

  15 showered at least twice a day: Hastings, “Owego WAC Writes.”

  15 “in order to keep respectable”: Ibid.

  15 “There was ‘jungle rot’ ”: Lieutenant Colonel Anne O’Sullivan (retired), “Recollections of New Guinea,” Women’s Army Corps Journal 5, no. 5 (October–December 1974): 14.

  15 almost enough to make her feel cool: Hastings, SLD, part 2.

  16 the health of military women: Treadwell, Women’s Army Corps, p. 446.

  16 several hundred WACs: Ibid., p. 427.

  16 a letter to his family: All quotes from Colonel Peter J. Prossen come from his letters to his wife on May 12 and 13, 1945, copies of which were provided by his son, Peter J. Prossen Jr.

  16 his elder son . . . knew him: Peter J. Prossen Jr., interview by author, July 28, 2009.

  18 hundred or so men and the twenty-plus WACs: John McCollom, unaired interview with filmmaker Robert Gardner, Dayton, Ohio, October 1997.

  18 Coca-Cola syrup and fresh fruit: Eck, Saga of a Sad Sack, p. 29.

  18 sightseeing flights up the coastline: John McCollom, interview, October 1997.

  3. SHANGRI-LA

  19 a more direct, low-altitude pass: Elsmore, “Mountain and Swampland Dwellers,” p. 671. See also John McCollom, interview, October 1997.

  19 “Colonel, if we slip”: Elsmore, “Mountain and Swampland Dwellers,” p. 671.

  19 late for a hot date in Australia: C. Earl Walter Jr., interview by Patrick O’Donnell, 1988, http://www.thedropzone.org/pacific/walters.htm (retrieved October 10, 2009).

  20 a mostly flat, verdant valley: Major Myron J. Grimes (retired), interview by author, August 31, 2009.

  20 stamped the area “unknown” or “unexplored”: Ozzie St. George, “Rescue from Shangri-La,” Yank: The Army Weekly, August 17, 1945, p. 6. See also Gordon L. Rottman, World War II Pacific Island Guide: A Geo-Military Study (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001), p. 148.

  20 “estimated 14,000-foot peak”: St. George, “Rescue from Shangri-La,” p. 6.

  20 a mountain might be hiding inside: Elsmore, “Mountain and Swampland Dwellers,” p. 671. (At one point Elsmore writes of a cloud bank, “We could see the occasional rift, but we knew that peaks lurked in its innocent white walls.”)

  20 a flying instructor during World War I: “Ray Elsmore, 66, Helped M’Arthur,” New York Times, February 19, 1957, p. 31.

  20 deputy county prosecutor: William H. Carleton, “History of the Directorate of Air Transport, Allied Air Force South West Pacific Area and the 322 Troop Carrier Wing,” at http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/usaaf/dat.htm (retrieved September 1, 2009).

  21 MacArthur’s evacuation flight: “Ray Elsmore, 66,” p. 31.

  21 the Southwest Pacific: Rottman, Pacific Island Guide, pp. 146–52.

  21 prepared to veer up and away: Grimes, interview.

  21 “Push on through”: Elsmore, “Mountain and Swampland Dwellers,” p. 673.

  22 “a riot of dazzling color”: Ibid., p. 674.

  22 “Crops were in full growth”: Elsmore, “Mountain and Swampland Dwellers,” p. 674.

  22 “diving into the drainage ditches”: Ibid.

  23 “one of the most impressive sights”: Ibid., p. 676.

  24 “a pilot unfamiliar with this canyon.”: Colonel Ray T. Elsmore to General George C. Kenney, secret letter (since unclassified) titled “Route Survey,” May 29, 1944, MacArthur Memorial Archives, Norfolk, Va.

  24 “anxious to avoid incidents and bloodshed”: Elsmore, “Mountain and Swampland Dwellers,” p. 677.

  25 “pygmy type”: Ibid., p. 689.

  25 models of sinewy manhood standing seven feet tall: “The Hidden Valley,” Pulse: A 27 General Hospital Publication, Vol. 3, No. 46, July 8, 1945, Supplement, p. 1. The publication was a hospital bulletin saved by Capt. Earl Walter. Also, Eck, Saga of a Sad Sack.

  25 the size of ponies: Lieutenant William Jeff Gatling Jr. to his family, published as “Shangri-La,” Arkansas Gazette, May 20, 1945, n.p.; in the Ruth Coster Collection at the University of Central Arkansas.

  25 “Dorothy Lamours in blackface”: Hastings, SLD, part 2.

  26 ever set foot in the valley: Elsmore, “Mountain and Swampland Dwellers,” p. 677.

&
nbsp; 26 “I suppose I would have regretted it”: Gatling, “Shangri-La.”

  27 suspending their battle: St. George, “Rescue from Shangri-La,” p. 6. Also, Colonel Edward T. Imparato, Rescue from Shangri-La (Paducah, Ky.: Turner, 1997), p. 8.

  27 His father: “George Lait Weds; War Correspondent Takes Jane Peck Harrington as Bride,” New York Times, September 8, 1945. See also “Jack Lait, 71, Dies; Editor of Mirror,” New York Times, April 2, 1954; and “The Press: Blue Bloomers and Burning Bodies,” Time, July 26, 1948.

  27 correspondent for the International News Service: Ibid.

  27 knocked out cold: International News Service, “Newsman Kayoed in London Raid,” St. Petersburg Times, April 20, 1941.

  27 blown out of a car seat: Ernie Pyle, “Rambling Reporter,” Pittsburgh Press, March 27, 1941.

  27 “As a war correspondent”: Inez Robb, “Robb’s Corner,” Reading (Pa.) Eagle, January 29, 1958. It’s fitting that Robb wrote this tribute to George Lait, who helped to name the valley Shangri-La. When Margaret Hastings turned her diary into an eighteen-part newspaper series in 1945, Robb was brought on as a professional writer to help.

  28 a dispatch rich in description: Donald Collier, “U.S. Fliers in New Guinea Discover a Shangri-La,” Chicago Natural History Museum Bulletin, nos. 3–4 (March–April 1945), quoting a story by George Lait “published in a New Guinea news sheet of the Army,” www.archive.org/stream/bulletin16chic/bulletin16chic_djvu.txt (retrieved August 30, 2009).

  28 Patterson’s story: Harry E. Patterson, “Real Shangri-La in New Guinea,” Milwaukee Journal, March 11, 1945.

  29 disappointed by the name Hidden Valley: Elsmore, “Mountain and Swampland Dwellers,” p. 680.

  29 “matched a whole army”: James Hilton, Lost Horizon (New York: Pocket Books, 1933), p. 157.

  29 “He foresaw a time”: Hilton, Lost Horizon, p. 158.

  30 a 1937 speech: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Quarantine the Aggressors Speech,” delivered in Chicago on October 5, 1937. Roosevelt paraphrased slightly, changing the tense from “would” to “will.” The result was to make the prediction even more ominous. Text located at http://fletcher.tufts.edu/multi/texts/historical/quarantine.txt (retrieved September 1, 2009).

  4. GREMLIN SPECIAL

  31 comically ornate certificate: Membership in the “Shangri-La Society” was extended to survivors of the May 13, 1945, crash and their rescuers. Margaret Hastings’s certificate can be found at TCHS; those of John McCollom and C. Earl Walter, in their personal scrapbooks. Ken Decker’s could not be located.

  31 “leading authority on the valley”: Walter Simmons, “Glider Takes Six More Out of Shangri-La,” Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1945.

  31 “a case of ‘head you lose’ ”: Ray Zeman, “Pilot Finds Shangri-La,” Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1944.

  32 “fully equipped with bargaining trinkets”: Harold Streeter, “Pacific Reporter: Shangri-La,” Hartford Courant, May 13, 1945.

  32 “navigational training”: MACR, p. 1.

  32 Prossen’s first trip to Shangri-La: John McCollom, interview, October 1997.

  32 a date after work: Hastings, SLD, part 1. In her published diary, Margaret says she had been informed of the flight a day earlier by Colonel Prossen, but in her sworn statement after the crash, dated June 29, 1945, MACR, she said she was invited that morning.

  32 desperate to visit Shangri-La: Hastings, SLD, part 2.

  32 she leaped at Prossen’s offer: Prossen issued the invitation through the chain of command, so it was delivered by Lieutenant Margaret V. Bogle, according to Hastings’s sworn statement, MACR.

  32 prizes at local dog shows: Hastings, SLD, part 2.

  33 savoring each cold spoonful: Ibid.

  34 leather and hydraulic fluid: Details of the C-47 from www.boeing.com/history/mdc/skytrain.htm (retrieved September 5, 2009). See also www.warbirdalley.com/c47.htm.

  34 at a cost to the military of $269,276: Copy of Aircraft Record Card #41-23952, from U.S. Air Force Historical Division, Research Studies Institute, Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Ala.

  34 Gremlin Special: The MACR lists “Merle” as the nickname, but “Gremlin Special” is cited in an account of the crash in Michael John Clarinbould, The Forgotten Fifth: A Photographic Chronology of the U.S. Fifth Air Force in World War II (Hyde Park, N.Y.: Balus Design, 2007), pp. 103–4.

  34 The Gremlins: Roald Dahl, The Gremlins (1943; reprint, Milwaukie, Ore.: Dark Horse, 2006).

  34 “Let the girls in first”: Hastings, SLD, part 2.

  35 “showing partiality”: Ibid.

  35 caught Laura’s eye and winked: Hastings, SLD, part 2.

  35 spent time in a German prisoner-of-war camp: Background information on Eleanor Hanna from her sister, Roberta (Hanna) Koons, interview by author, September 11, 2009.

  35 singing wherever she went: Hastings, SLD, parts 2 and 4.

  35 “Isn’t this fun!”: Ibid., part 2.

  36 bracelet made from Chinese coins: Eleanor Hanna’s U.S. Army individual deceased personnel file (IDPF) contains a Xerox image of part of the bracelet, which was found in the grave she shared with Laura Besley. At first it wasn’t clear to whom it belonged, but a May 14, 1959, letter in the file from her father to the army quartermaster general makes a claim on the bracelet and refers to the two others she owned just like it.

  36 daughter of a newspaper publisher: “Pfc. Gillis from East Orange,” New York Times, June 9, 1945. Although the Times said she was from New Jersey, MACR lists her hometown as Los Angeles.

  36 fleeing from Spain with her mother: Ibid.

  36 grieving the death of her fiancé: Associated Press, “Airfield Is Built to Rescue a Wac and 2 Men in New Guinea,” New York Times, June 9, 1945.

  36 relieve her loneliness: Information about WACs Helen Kent and Ruth Coster from Dona Cruse, interviews by author, August 11, 2009, and September 4, 2009. Dona is the daughter of Ruth, who died in 2005.

  36 tell her what it was like: Ibid.

  36 Three more WACs: World War II enlistment records, www.ancestry.com (retrieved November 1–3, 2009).

  37 trailed by his copilot: Background on George H. Nicholson from MACR. Also, 1920 and 1930 U.S. Federal Census at www.ancestry.com (retrieved September 11, 2009). Also, interviews by author with Maryrose Condon, a first cousin of Major Nicholson, and John and Michael McCarthy, first cousins once removed, on September 13, 2009.

  37 graduated from Boston College, then received master’s degrees: Interviews with Maryrose Condon and John McCarthy, September 13, 2009. See also “Major Geo H. Nicholson Killed in Plane Crash,” Malden (Mass.) Evening News, May 31, 1945, p. 1; and “Maj. George H. Nicholson, Killed in Pacific Plane Crash,” undated newspaper clipping saved by Nicholson’s family.

  37 served under Lord Mountbatten: “Major Geo H. Nicholson Killed,” Malden Evening News.

  37 skipped a “Victory in Europe” party: Alice K. Nicholson Cadley to friends and family, “Mother’s Day 1995,” in which she marked the fiftieth anniversary of the crash by distributing copies of Nicholson’s letter.

  37 a vivid fifteen-page narrative: George H. Nicholson to his wife, Alice K. Nicholson (later Cadley), May 9, 1945, provided by his cousin Maryrose Condon.

  39 three other crew members: Crew list, MACR, p. 3.

  39 a month earlier: “Melvin Mollberg Killed In Plane Crash in the Pacific,” undated newspaper clipping provided by Melvyn Lutgring.

  39 Corporal James “Jimmy” Lutgring: Melvyn Lutgring, interview by author, January 5, 2010. Lutgring was named for Melvin Mollberg, despite the different spelling of their first names.

  40 asked her on a date: Hastings, SLD, part 2.

  40 an oil salesman and a leader in his Presbyterian church: “Daytonian, Two Valley Men Reported Killed in Action,” Dayton Journal, May 30, 1945, p. 2. See also Williams’ Dayton (Montgomery County, Ohio) City Directory 1944 (Cincinnati: Williams Directory, 1944), p. 484.

  41 “The Inseparables”: Betty McCollom, widow of Jo
hn McCollom, interview by author, August 1, 2009. See also information about John and Robert McCollom from Marjorie Lundberg, “Baby Girl’s Father Killed, but Uncle Is Dad’s Replica,” St. Paul Dispatch, June 8, 1945, n.p., from John McCollom’s personal scrapbook.

  41 Eagle Scouts together: John S. McCollom’s obituary, Dayton Daily News, August 21, 2001, provided by Betty McCollom.

  42 a wedding photo: “Tragic Shangri-La Figures and Kin,” St. Paul Dispatch, undated story and photographs in McCollom’s scrapbook.

  43 “Mind if I share this window”: Hastings, SLD, part 2. McCollom’s location is confirmed in his sworn statement, dated June 29, 1945, MACR.

  5. EUREKA!

  44 twisted in their seats for a look: Hastings, SLD, part 3.

  44 “Oh, what is so rare”: Ibid.

  44 The Vision of Sir Launfal: The famous line from Lowell’s 1848 poem is, “And what is so rare as a day in June?”

  45 as soft as green feathers: Hastings, SLD, part 3.

  45 a heading of 224 degrees: McCollom, sworn statement, MACR, p. 1.

  46 standing in the narrow radio compartment: Ibid.

  46 alone at the controls: Ibid.

  46 an altitude of about one thousand feet: Ibid.

  46 four hundred feet: Hastings, SLD, part 3.

  46 “Eureka!”: Ibid.

  47 “I want to come again!”: Ibid.

  47 “Give her the gun and let’s get out of here”: Ibid.

  47 thought he was joking: Ibid. Margaret wrote, “I thought he was joking. So did everyone else.”

  47 applying full power to climb: McCollom, sworn statement, MACR, p. 1.

  48 learned to fly only three years earlier: “Maj. George H. Nicholson Killed In Pacific Plane Crash,” undated newspaper clipping saved by Nicholson’s family.

  48 Turbulent air was common: MACR does not make an official determination whether the cause of the crash was pilot error, a sudden downdraft, or a combination of factors.

  48 especially treacherous: Imparato, Rescue from Shangri-La, p. 170. Imparato knew the terrain from flying over it.

  49 “a sudden down-draft of air current”: Historical Data Regarding the Loss of a FEASC C-47 and the Rescue of Survivors of the Crash, declassified document prepared by the U.S. Air Force Historical Division, Research Studies Institute, Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Ala., November 17, 1952.