… and back on duty again

On December 8, 1941, General Brereton, Commander in Chief of the USAAF in Philippines confiscated all Philippine Airlines aircraft as well as two Philippines Air Force

Beechcrafts. Gunn was ordered to report in

Fort William McKinley where he was told

by the General’s aide that he was assigned

to the USAAF. The same day the Japanese

aircraft showed up and their fire damaged

two Philippine AF Beechcraft and Philippine Airlines Sikorski S-43 amphibian.

It was clear to Gunn that it was only a matter of time when they lose all the remaining aircraft and therefore decided to relocate them to a small airfield at Grace Park

which directly bordered with the graveyard. That grew around the unused airfield

so much that Gunn had to break couple of

tombs so as they were not in the way while

the aircraft were taxiing.

October 2022

A happy family captured in photograph in Honolulu during Pappy’s service

on Hawaiian Islands.

Harold G. “Buzz” Slingsby and Louis James

Connelly flew together with Gunn various

transportation and supply flights. They

formed a provisional transportation flight

under the USAAF command operating four

Beechcraft (they managed to repair one

damaged army aircraft). This kind of flying

triggered a lot of adrenalin, the pilots had to

maintain the treetop altitude, even at night,

in their unarmed aircraft otherwise they

risked being shot down by the Japanese

fighters which ruled the skies. Soon they

lost one airplane which was shot to pieces by the Japanese fighters on the ground

at the Bataan airport where Connelly had

flown the military supplies in. After that,

on December 13, Gunn himself was shot

down on his return from Del Monte where

he had flown medical material and several

officers in. At dusk a Zero attacked him and

showered him with bullets but Gunn, wildly

maneuvering, managed to escape the Japanese at the treetop altitude. However, when

he was passing the Zablan Field base, he

received further “friendly” hits from the AA

defense which confused him with the Japanese aircraft. With the failing engine he

turned around and at 10 pm, in pitch black,

(photo: the family archives)

he performed an emergency landing with

his Beechcraft at the local runway …

Shortly before Christmas Gunn was ordered to transport a group of Americans to

Australia. He said goodbye to his family

with the promise to be back in ten days.

At that time almost everyone in Philippines still believed that within a few days the

American reinforcements would arrive to

push Japanese out of the country. Regardless, Gunn instructed his wife, in the case

of the Japanese occupation, not to say her

husband served with the USAAF. She was

to claim he had perished in the air accident

over the ocean and his body was never

found. Shortly after midnight on December 24 Gunn and Slingsby took off with five

passengers each on the heading to Australia. Two days later they landed in Darwin.

On January 2, 1942, the Japanese entered

Manila. Polly with children was put in the

prisoners’ camp built on the University of

Santo Tomas campus where they all remained until the end of hostilities. For Gunn

this meant fighting on two fronts: for the

United States and for his family.

To be continued

(photo: author’s collection)

in 1934 launched the air transport within

Hawaiian Islands as the K-T Flying Service company. Paul usually spent weekends

with them, trained the mechanics and together with Tyce new pilots as well. After he

retired from the Navy he continued to work

for K-T full time. He trained the pilots, performed the inspections and test flights and

occasionally flew the regular commercial

flights with passengers or mail. It is of interest that later Bob Tyce became the first

civilian casualty of the Japanese attack on

Pearl Harbor. He stood in front of his airlines’ hangar on Oahu when the first wave

of the Japanese attacks stormed above him

and one of the fired bullets mortally wounded him. And another curiosity: One of the

aircraft operated by then K-T airlines, and

supposedly flown by Gunn as well, was

a Waco UIC serial number N13408. It is still

flying nowadays.

In 1939 Paul met Andres Soriano, head of

the influential Filipino family industrial clan

of Ayalas. Soriano owned twin-engine Beechcraft and was looking for a pilot for it.

Paul accepted his offer for the position and

in the end of 1939 moved to Manila. His family left Hawaii for their US home for three

months while Paul made all arrangements

in the new home. At the same time, he managed to convince Soriano to finance the

creation of the Philippine Airlines where

in 1941 the Philippine government invested

its share as well. Paul always spoke about

Philippine Airlines as of “his” airline but in

fact he has never had any shares in it. After

Paul found the nice house, the family was

reunited. All prospects looked great. Paul

was the airline’s flight director in charge of

three Beechcraft Model 18 and one Sikorski

S-43. And then December 7, 1941, came …

On March 15, 1941, the maiden flight of the Philippine Airlines was flown by this Beechcraft Model 18

registered NPC-54.

INFO Eduard

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