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China Clipper

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 3:16 pm
by NS38th_Aristaeus
China Clipper

by Ronald W. Jackson

Everest House.

C. 1980
Ronlad W. Jackson, using 6,900 previously undisclosed documents, has fashioned a gripping tale that sheds new light on the events leading up to World War II. Detailing the situations, attitudes, and strategies of both the United States and Japan in the 1930s, he reveals the forces that brought these powers into a harrowing confrontation. The catalyst: the hijacking of the Hawaii Clipper by Japanese naval officers. Their target: a wealthy Chinese-American restaurateur, one of the passengers, who was carrying a sachel full of relief money (three million dollars) to the Chinese cities then besieged by Japanese troops.
This book started out as a history of Pan-Am's clipper planes but ended up as the story of the Hawaii Clipper which was Hi-jacked by officers of the IJN, and makes a must have companion to Charles N. Hills Fix on the Rising Sun.

Re: China Clipper

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:22 am
by DouglasWestfall
Yet that could not have happened.

After takeoff, the Hawaii Clipper followed normal Pan American procedures and stayed in radio contact with Guam on 1.6 Mhz for several hours. The radio officer on the plane and radio operator at Guam, took bearings on each other at half hourly intervals until the signals became too weak.
At the midpoint of the flight, 0200Z, the Clipper would have transferred its radio guard to Panay and then switched to 8Mhz. Guam would continue to take bearings, but for technical reasons the Clipper could not. In following company precedures Guam would have continued to monitor the Clipper’s frequencies until notified of its arrival at Manila.
Sometime after 0230Z, Guam could no longer receive the Clipper as it was then beyond the range of Guam’s radio on either 1.6 or 8Mhz. The theory that at 0200Z Japanese hijackers forced the Clipper to turn toward the atoll of Ulithi in the Caroline Islands therefore, could not have happened.
Had the Clipper done so, the radio officer would have lost contact with Panay shortly thereafter, while his signals received at Guam would have become increasingly louder. Also, the plane would never have come close enough for the Cavite direction finder to obtain a bearing at Manila, which it did at 0345Z.
Considering that Panay remained in contact with the plane until 0411Z and that Guam never heard it again after 0230Z, there can be no doubt that the Clipper never made a turnaround at 0200Z.              Paul Rafford, Jr. -- Flight Radio Officer, Pan Am

Taken from Legends of the Flying Clippers
Douglas Westfall, historic publisher, SpecialBooks.com