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Address as of 2 April 1949, in Hong Kong: Littlefield, H.G. 1218 Ave. Joffre, Apt. 6 70659 Address from the CNAC Mailing List of 1965: Howard Littlefield 19957 Gresham St. Northridge, Calif. May 8, 2001 (The following story from Oakley Smith takes place during Christmas 1948.) "Hi Tom, Well we were taking supplies to Tu Yu-ming who was surrounded by the Reds about 150 miles northwest of Nanking when we got hit by a few bullets. There was a low broken cloud cover over the drop area so I had to make four or five passes to let the kickers hit the drop zone when they shoved the load out the open cargo door. Howard Littlefield was my copilot and I don't remember who the radio operator was. Anyway, about the third pass we took a round through the instrument panel just to the right of the autopilot shut off valve. A fleck of paint from the panel hit the radio operator just below his left eye so he started to bleed and was terrified. Really, it was only a very minor cut and not deep so after putting a little cold water on it we went on to continue dropping the rest of the load. I had just bought a nice pair of brown shoes but when the bullet came through the panel it also cut the hydraulic line to the autopilot valve that was disconnected anyway (we didn't use autopilots on C-46's) so the fluid ruined my right shoe. After we returned to Nanking, Littlefield resigned. Len Parish and Littlefield flew the plane with 27 bullet holes back to Shanghai for repairs. I got the plane that Len brought to Nanking along with his crew to continue dropping supplies the next morning. That's about it Tom. No big deal. Best Regards, Oakley" CNAC pilot pay in February 1949  or would like to be added to the CNAC e-mail distribution list, please let the CNAC Web Editor, Tom Moore, know. Thanks! |
