Ledo Road Diary: A Novel

By Stephen Cohen

There needed to be an overland route of supply from India to China in WWll. Someone had to build it.

The job fell to General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, and he brought 15,000 black men from America to Ledo, Assam in India to do it. They fought disease, leeches, the monsoon and the Japanese to get it done. Under the command of Lewis Pick they turned jungle into road.

This is the story of one Jefferson Goode , a jazz trumpet player, who writes the diary. And it is of his friend and community activist, Joey Carver. They are two boys from Philadelphia, who find themselves as roadbuilders, who fight the elements, the enemy and prejudice and segregation.

Through the words and thoughts of Jefferson, this adventure unfolds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532081514

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Copyright © 2019 Stephen Pops Cohen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-8150-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-8151-4 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 08/29/2019

Contents

Prologue

Who Is Who In The Diary 1942-45

Editorial Philadelphia Tribune

Communique from War Department Eyes Only

Communique - December 1942

Eyes Only Minutes Meeting

Pangsau Pass Mile 38. 5 India/ Burma

Urgent Communique Commander Southeast Asia

Responding via Telegraph Wingate to Wavell

Chicago Defender Japs Advance Up The Yangtze Now What Says Cks

Black 11

43 November 28

12 December 43

12 January 43

Personal Correspondence

Chicago Defender Tan Yanks In Burma

Communique Eyes Only B.G. Frank Merrill for Colonel Charles Hunter

Personal Correspondence

Communique Status Secret Telegraph

COMMUNIQUE via Telegraph Status: Secret

Undelivered Censored

Communique Status Secret

Directive Joint Chiefs of Staff

Telegraph Message Status: Top Secret

Censored and Unsent By War Department Order

Radio Message – Top Secret

Official Communique Status: Top Secret

Chicago Defender Yanks Take Airfield - Vinegar Joe Wins One

Censored and Undelivered

Letter from Joseph Stillwell Delivered to: Wife

Radio Message Personal and Immediate

Radio Telegraph - Personal and Immediate

Official Communique Category: Secret

Dispatch: Secret Priority: Urgent

Chicago Defender Tan Yanks Triumph at Myitkyina

Telegram Status: UrgentTop Secret

Chicago Defender Vinegar Joe Gets The Boot

Communique Office of The Chief EngineerWashington D.C.

Dispatch Telegraph Priority: Urgent

CBI Round Up Dispatch to All Points

Chicago Defender Jazz in The Jungle

Communique Urgent

Dispatch via Telegraph

Summary of Meeting

Official Communique

Communique Status: Urgent

Chicago Defender Philadelphia Tribune

And Then

Epilogue

Dedicated

to

All the men who built the Road

and

My father, and all the Marauders

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PROLOGUE

It is an immense, laborious task, unlikely to be finished, before the need has passed

Winston Churchill 1942

He was wrong.

There was a need to transport supplies to Kunming, China. For, General Claire Lee Chennault, the only effective way was to fly it there back and forth over the infamous Hump of the Himalayas. And, he was doing it, this bold airman who invented pursuit air attacks with his Flying Tigers. But, to the commander of the China, Burma, India theater of war, General Joe, Vinegar Joe Stilwell, the only long term answer was to truck what they needed from Ledo, Assam, India to Kunming overland.

The Japanese had made it a necessity, as they took Burma in 1942. Somehow, this land supply route had to rebuilt. It would wind through jungle, and virtually impassable overgrown trails, and the men would fight off leeches, rotting diseases, and malaria, and connect the Ledo Road to the poorly maintained Burma Road that would take the convoys to Kunming.

The men who would build it were a composite of locals, Chinese, and mostly, 15,000 African Americans from the United States. Who took up under powered bull dozers, raised picks and shovels, and found a way to cut through the jungle, and complete the road. And finally on a February day in 1945, 113 trucks rolled into Kunming, the beginning of 147,000 tons of supplies that would reach China by the end of the war.

But, this is not my story.

It came to me from my father, who had never spent any time talking about his experiences in CBI, as a Merrill Marauder, a unit composed to operate deep into Burma, and drive the Japanese out of north Burma. That unit fought to take back Burma, took heavy loses, and those who came home, were mostly quiet men, ready to get on with their lives, like my father. This jungle fighter, was now in a hospital chair at a cancer clinic in Philadelphia, having his blood transfused, again, hoping to get another year, above ground, as aplastic anemia ravaged a once valiant body.

In those long hours, he occasionally told a tale of the battles, and, for a day or so, of the men, he knew, who built the Ledo Road. He revered these young black men, who with nothing, hacked the roads open, after the Marauders infiltrated behind enemy lines, and staged dozens of battles.

He knew some of them, bumped up against two men, who worked at his brother in law, Harry’s tire store, at Fifth and Spring Garden in Philly before the war. And he gave me pieces of their story. But it was clear to Morris, ‘Moishe" Cohen, that without the Ledo Road, the efforts of his 5307 Composite Unit, the famed outfit of General Frank Merrill, and the brainchild of Vinegar Joe, would have failed, as it almost did anyway.

Here is the accounting of those unheralded men who built the 12,000 mile supply line from America to Assam to Kunming. The lifeline that commanding General of the operation, Lewis A. Pick called the toughest job ever given to US Army engineers in wartime, becomes a reality due to men like, our main characters; Jefferson Goode, and his buddy Joey Carver, who went to war to fight.

And fight they did, the elements, monsoon, disease, and struggle to keep their spirits high and their hopes alive.

This is their story, of what they did, what they gave and what America gained from a generation of African American men who build the Ledo Road.

Pops

July 2019

WHO IS WHO IN THE DIARY

1942-45

General Joseph Stilwell- oversees China/ Burma/ India campaign. He advocates land supply route from Ledo, Assam India to Kunming, China

Lt. Gen Claire Lee Chennault- famous for forming Flying Tigers attack group in China. Opposes Stilwell and overland route and efforts.

Gen. George C. Marshall- Chief of staff United States Army, supported Stilwell

Gen. William Bill Joseph Slim- British commander, and loses Burma in 1942

Major Gen. Orde Wingate-dashing, British officer, eccentric guerilla fighting, genius. He creates first deep penetration force called the Chindits.

Brigadier Gen. Frank Merrill- commands 5307 composite unit called Merrill’s Marauders, and takes back northern Burma with operation GALAHAD

Col. Charles Newton Hunter- replaces Merrill, when he is disabled by heart attack. He commands Marauders ably, and deserves credit for their success.

Gen. Daniel Isom Sultan- replaces Stillwell and commands Burma- India troops

Lt. Col. William R. Peers- works for Office of Strategic Services, and trains Kachin guerillas

Dr. Gordon Stifler Seagrave- Burma surgeon, and missionary. Marches out of Japanese occupied Burma with Stilwell in 1942. Establishes mobile army surgical units.

Major Gen. Robert F. Seedlock – is charged with rebuilding Burma Road from Kunming to Lashio, to meet the Ledo Road.

Lt. Gen. Lewis A. Pick, Chief Engineer, Ledo Road, takes over and rides first truck to Kunming from Ledo.

Brigadier Gen. John C. Arrowsmith- first head of operations, gets as far as Patkai mountains, Stilwell replaces him with Pick.

Chinese Players

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek- President of Republic of China. Also called the G-Mo and Peanut or Hazelnut by Stilwell, also known as CKS

Madame Chiang Kai-shek, also known as Soong Mei-ling. Influential, English speaking first lady of regime. Also known as the Dragon Lady.

T. V. Soong- finance minister, brother in law of CKS.

Long Yun- warlord and governor of Yunnan. Made Kunming fortress for air operations and main supply to China

Black Correspondents

Deton Brooks- writes for Chicago Defender, and points to inequity in treatment of colored troops, Tan Yanks.

Enoch Water- Philadelphia born, but writes for Defender and is with troops through 1944-1945.

Celebrities

Lena Horne

Cab Calloway

Dan Burley- polymath. Writer for many black papers, including Amsterdam News, and the Philadelphia Tribune. Also, top boogie-woogie pianist, coined term Bebop, and wrote Handbook on Jive talk. Ran the USO’s second most popular combat tour group after Bob Hope

Lily Pons- worldwide, acclaimed soprano and opera diva

And then there were, the well known

FDR, Churchill, Truman and, even George Patton in the diary.

And so it begins with this:

COMMUNIQUE TO PRESIDENT

January 31, 1942

T.V. Soong to President Roosevelt

Supply to China

The Japanese are at Moulmein and Rangoon to fall shortly. We must establish a route to supply China.

Averell Harriman has a map that shows a land route from the Persian Gulf by land and rail to the Caspian, then, by sea to the rail yards to Turkestan, and then 2,000 miles to Chungking for 5,000 miles.

Or failing that

An air route, supported by your own Chennault, something conveniently at hand to fly 700 miles over level land over Assam to Kunming in China. I estimate that 100 DC-3’s could transport 12,000 tons a month.

Failure to begin supply would be catastrophic to containing Japanese and bringing China into the fight.

Harriman to FDR

February 8, 1942

Supply to China

The land route from the Gulf is too long and easy to interdict. The only option is by air. General Chennault believes it feasible. You can assure Gen. Chiang Kai-shek that the supply route can be maintained by air.

Even with the Himalayas, in the middle of the route, pilots can with oxygen make the climb over, the Hump

General Joe Stilwell

February 10, 1942

Supply to China by Air

To: General George Marshall

Of course you can continue to supply by air. But, the only way to supply China over the course of the conflict is by road. We must not neglect to see the importance of keeping the Japanese from taking Burma and cutting off China from much needed supply.

Fly over the Hump, but, begin to build out from Ledo, Assam, our back country road, from here to the old Burma Road and onto Kunming. It will carry tons by truck and open the way for deep penetration troops as well.

By the time I arrive, it should be underway

I am certain the President will concur.

Diary Entry

JULY 1942

Jefferson Goode

Summer Blues

This humidity is too much, even for me. I don’t mind it much on the basketball court, I played most of the night, the three of us. Carver and me, after work at Harry’s, full of dust and grease. Picked up Daniel, who is working at the meat plant, and our record is now 25-5 this summer.

The night’s are about that mostly, basketball, a shower and a walk down the street to talk to Maria, usually humming some Lena Horne song, and pointing towards a gig at somebody’s party in West Philly. I leave the horn in the basement, her mother doesn’t like the noise, at night.

Most Sunday’s, after church, we will go to a spot by the Schuylkill, under the East Falls bridge and play, and she’ll sing softly, as her girlfriends gather. It is the first summer without school, and I know I can’t stop working to play, not now.

Everyone who comes into the tire store is talking about the war. Harry is uncertain what to do with the shop with wartime restrictions coming. He looks the part of a soldier, sturdy over six footer, Earl Flynn jaw and mustache to match. He wants to kill Germans, anywhere he can.

Joey has dragged me to a few meetings where we are encouraged to join up as well, which it seems to work for him. He is after a law degree, has direction. From junior high on, he has always wanted to be somebody. He made himself smarter, ran track harder, organized, rubbed shoulders with the movers. He couldn’t pay for college, anyway, he said, so the war might just be a road to the next thing.

On the hotter nights, I would sleep on the porch and wake up damp, towel off and take the trolley to Fifth and Spring Garden and Harry’s place. But some nights, when mom and pop would visit with the Joey’s parents, the Carver’s, I would sit in the basement, put the mute on the horn, and just play until the sounds filled the air, and everything was consumed by the music.

But the sounds could not muffle my anxiety about the future

EDITORIAL

PHILADELPHIA TRIBUNE

WHAT ROOSEVELT AND CHURCHILL CAN LEARN FROM VINEGAR JOE

Far be it from this editorial page to attempt to direct the strategy of this conflict in which we are all fully committed and engaged. But, it has been a difficult few months, even, a disaster some would contend, in the Philippines and Asia.

And for two of our best wartime generals, ignominious defeats. Douglas MacArthur exits the Philippines, and leaves thousands behind to march to certain imprisonment and worse in Bataan. He says he will return, and will, but when and at what precious cost.

And then General Joseph Stilwell exits Burma, on foot, after leading 114 others through jungle heat and rot to safety, from a march of 140 miles. But to, Vinegar Joe there was no need to pretend, or sugar coat his impromptu press conference, once he had washed up. He told FDR and Churchill, and the world the unvarnished truth,

I claim, we got a hell of a beating. We got run out of Burma and it is humiliating as hell. I think, we ought to find out what caused it and retake it!

Beating, indeed it was. Even with 500 million dollars loaned to Generalissimo Chiang Kai- shek, the Chinese did not join the fight, or were not ready to fight. The Japs moved quickly with stealth, and their air attack was formidable, according to Stilwell.

But, know this, readers. This is not the Generals war or FDR’s or Churchill’s, it is our war as well. If you have been enlisted show up for service. If you can serve, go see your recruiter. Every Negro who participates can help turn the tide, for the war effort and all of us here at home.

The bad news will stop, and your showing up will accelerate the outcome.

Diary Entry

August 1942

J.G.

I sat on the Art Museum steps tonight, looking out over the haze of another summer night. I came here, when everyone else was gathered on the street, and all the talk was of Uncle Dan’s letters from Arizona, where he was training with an all Negro engineering battalion, headed to India. Men older than me where signing up for service, and more men in uniform already where at our favorite haunts.

There was no war fever. But, I knew I wanted to go, as did Joey. Sitting under the columns and watching the city light bounce off the stone walls, made this place seem ancient, and even hallowed. My father knew Julian, Mr. Abele, who designed the columns and picked the stones. For my father, to have a man from his neighborhood become an architect and then help design this place was a story he never tired of telling.

Harry told us that morning that he was going to serve, as a mechanic, off he was to Camp Young, somewhere in the Mojave desert, near Arizona, he said. Once there he expected to figure out how to make tanks run, and repair treads not tires or both. He said he would be one of a million G.I.’s to be put into the hands of General Patton, before they all went to the Sahara to fight Rommel.

He wanted me and Joey to run the place with his father Joe.

I just can’t see us staying here. Waiting for Harry to come home, while the rest of my school mates where angling to get to someplace, where they could throw in on the fight.

Carver and Bess are fighting again. He is always the calmer of the two. He has always been the big draw for the young women around him. His manner and speech, suggested a man of letters and wealth. Bess, was flirty, gorgeous, and concerned that if he left, she would never see him again. Not that he would be killed, but, that he would just forget her. It was selfish, to be sure, but, not unexpected.

He told the family, he was going, his younger sister cried, quietly in her mother’s arms. His brother sat silently, and his father stood tall and put his hands on Joey’s shoulders, and said a prayer.

Bess sat with him on their stoop, and I passed them on my way here. He just held her, knowing that in a week he and I would be on train to Harrisburg and then further west towards some place called El Centro, California.

But, I did not want to leave so quickly, I had my own ambivalence. Could I take my trumpet? Write home? Would I be able to kill someone?

Was this the last quiet night overlooking Philly, and would I ever see it again?

October 1942

J.G.

Philly Still

We went to the Army Induction Center, and we were conscripted, finger printed, and examined. Then they sent us back on a bus. They were not ready to transport us anywhere, until Thanksgiving.

Carver has been working with me at the tire store, but, there are few customers.

At night, I have taken to playing at small club near South Street, and Maria will sing on Friday night.

Carver is spending some time at the Tribune writing war summaries, and giving small speeches on the war effort. One night, he had a fist fight with some non conscription types, who don’t want any colored man in the fight. He skinned his knuckles and had a small cut over his left eye, but really beat the hell out of one of his hecklers.

I still play ball at the Broad Street Y, but, I am not nearly the shooter I would appear. All the players are boys, or a few older men. Some are at the Navy Yard and too tired to play, and the others are just gone, somewhere.

On Sunday, I pray with the family, but, we all seem to be marking time until we go.

Diary Entry

Thanksgiving

J.G.

The table is full of aunts and uncles. Maria comes by for desert. There is talk of campaigns and hopes of victory. There is enough optimism to go around, but, there is little laughter, like it was before Pearl Harbor.

It seems everyone has settled in to this new routine. There is work, and food, and no one knocking to collect unpaid bills. And for the moment, Philly seems settled in, with race riots forgotten, and old time hate now cloaked by the demands of a united front.

Still, my uncle Thomas, refuses to believe, any of this racial calm, will last long, and that our segregated Army proves that America has a long way to go before, we are all created equal has any meaning.

But, the arguments fade, as the night turns old. This is my last home meal, Monday I am gone with Joey, this time for real.

Maria and I slip away, bundled in our winter coats, to her old sisters apartment.

We smoke and drink our way into the bliss only lovers can have before they are forced apart. We sink into each other, and dream that morning will not come,

Until it does

Dairy of Joseph Stilwell

Stilwell on Willkie

October 1942

I am convinced Willkie will be thoroughly immersed in soft soap and flattery on his trip to see Peanut (Chiang Kai-Shek). They will wine and dine