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For the Best Aerospace Era this is the mansplaining podcast.
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Here is your host Anthony L.
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Sealey
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A Boeing 314 commercial airliner was on a routine long haul flight over the ocean.
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It had been many hours since the in-flight crew or passengers saw land of any kind.
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Their destination was the Hawaiian Islands, otherwise known as paradise.
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As they approached this haven in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, radio transmissions came in with reports that paradise had become an inferno.
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It was the morning of December 7th, 1941.
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Welcome aerospace enthusiasts.
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Here is the question.
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What happens to commercial airliners when suddenly they are caught in the middle of a war zone?
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Well, that's what happened to four of the iconic Pan American Clipper flying boats in the Pacific Ocean on December 7th, 1941.
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Let's talk about this incredible story.
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First, let's look at Pan American Airlines, or Pan Am, and their operation in the Pacific leading up to the day that will live in infamy.
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In the 1930s, Pan Am focused their business model almost exclusively on international travel, transporting mail, cargo, and very wealthy passengers around the world.
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Far off destinations like Hong Kong, Manila, and Singapore were now accessible for the first time.
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Destinations that once took a matter of weeks to arrive at now could be reached in a matter of days.
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For the first time in history.
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Airplanes, like large flying boats, were capable of traversing great distances much faster than ships, and wealthy passengers and vendors paid the steep fares for that service.
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Transporting cargo, mail, and passengers across oceans in a fraction of the time that it took for a ship to transport made for good business.
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You can say Pan Am, under the direction of its founder, Juan Trippe, made the world a smaller place.
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For this unprecedented international network to work, Pan Am operated flying boats, famously known as Clippers.
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Some examples of the aircraft that they use were the Sikorsky S-42, the Martin M-130, and their flagship model, the Boeing 314.
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You know we love talking about flying boats here on the Mansplaneing podcast.
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Pan Am passengers on these Clippers were treated to a luxury experience with gourmet meals, sleeping bunks, and entertainment by the flight attendants during their travels over the vast Pacific Ocean.
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Has anyone here traveled across the Pacific Ocean before?
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I myself have not.
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Now keep in mind here how far aviation had come in just a short time to reach this reality in the air.
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We're only talking about a decade after Charles Lindbergh's renowned first solo flight across the Atlantic.
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These aircraft were marvels of aerospace engineering in the 1930s and'40s.
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However, they were more so luxury yacht than what we think of today as an airline Also, they were not capable of crossing the vast Pacific Ocean in one leg.
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For Pan Am's President Juan Trippe's vision to work, a network of compounds needed to be established.
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Pan Am built a network of compounds, or what I'm gonna call stations, on remote islands in the Pacific Ocean like Midway, Canton, Guam, the Philippines, and Wake Island.
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There are maps of their Pacific network on Pan Am's Historical Foundation website, by the way.
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Having a look at the map of these locations will give you an idea of the sheer scale of Pan Am's achievement here to make the first global flight network a reality.
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At these stations, Pan Am personnel used small speedboats to clear a path in the water of other ships and boats so that the Clippers had a smooth runway or ocean to land on They started this operation as soon as they were in range.
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Radios and lighted buoys help guide Pan Am pilots to their destinations.
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Although flight crews on the Clippers included navigators using the most modern radio and localizer technology of the day, They could navigate using the stars and using a compass, just as mariners have for thousands of years.
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I've actually got a really cool looking compass, but anyways.
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Once the Clipper splashed down in the water and taxied to the harbor, the flight crew and its passengers were taken to a Pan Am brand hotel or resort.
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Keep in mind, these hotels were not like a Motel 6.
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These were like four-star luxury resorts to accommodate the wealthy passengers They spared no expense, and you would definitely have to be wealthy to afford a ticket on a Clipper.
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A ticket on Pan Am in 1941 could cost around two thousand bucks for a seat and ten thousand for a cabin section to have all to yourself.
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In today's money, that's around$45,000 for a seat and more than$200,000 for a cabin section.
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Aside from the ultra-rich, there were also employees and foreign dignitaries that flew on Pan Am Clippers.
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By the way, you could almost buy a ticket to space for this kind of money today.
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With its international network, its Clippers, and its luxury hotels, Pan Am was a world-class company and one of the most recognizable in the world, like to the level of Apple, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Google, or McDonald's is today, because they can be seen all over the world.
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This is why many who romanticize about the earliest days of airline business think of Pan Am.
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And let's not forget, this was all made possible by airline workers during the Great Depression.
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Now let's get to December 1941 and the fate of four Pan Am Clippers, their crews, and their passengers on that ominous day.
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Let's start with the Anzac Clipper.
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The Anzac Clipper was one of Pan Am's flagship models, a Boeing 314.
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It was named for the combined armed forces of New Zealand and Australia.
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I'm sure locals of the region appreciate that name Passengers and most of the flight crew waited at Pan Am's terminal, Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.
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They were waiting on their captain, Lanier Turner, who was attending his daughter's piano recital across the bay in Oakland, and just to make matters worse, he hit rush hour traffic on his way back to Treasure Island for the flight.
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This caused a 40-minute delay.
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For my airline people here, does this sound familiar?
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After he arrived, the in-flight crew ceremoniously boarded the Anzac Clipper.
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Then after a few checks, the four engines started up.
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Then the passengers boarded after the ringing of two bells This was not a full flight, with only 17 passengers, along with 11 crew members, plus mail and some cargo, of course.
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This large modern marvel, part boat, part airplane, taxied and lined up for our takeoff.
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The engines roared as the hull of the Anzac Clipper lifted off the water.
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In the background was a newly constructed Golden Gate Bridge, which was just completed just four years earlier.
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What an incredible sight this must have been for the crowds who gathered to see the Pan Am Clippers take off.
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This is similar to how the crowds flocked to the Cape Canaveral during the 1960s to watch rocket launches.
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The date is December 6th, 1941, and their destination was Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands, otherwise known as paradise.
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Or at least that's what they thought they would find once they splashed down.
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It takes about six hours to reach the Hawaiian Islands from San Francisco on a jet airliner today.
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That was not the case in 1941.
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After the standard opulent 18-hour flight, passengers and crew expected a grand welcome once they landed with local music and those beautiful women who place those flower necklaces around your neck.
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However, as they approached the famed Hawaiian Islands, the crew received some ominous transmissions over the radio.
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It's the morning of December 7th, 1941.
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Normally, about an hour out, the radioman and the crew of the Anzac Clipper will listen to the radio station KGMB This station played popular music of the time, however, that's not what they heard on this morning.
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Here's what they heard.
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The island of Oahu is being attacked by enemy planes.
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The center of the attack is Pearl Harbor.
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We are under attack.
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The mark of the rising sun has been seen on these planes." Squadrons of Mitsubishi A6Ms, Aichi D3As and Nakajima B5N aircraft of the Japanese Empire led by pilot Mitsuo Fuchida, listened to the same Hawaiian radio station to home in on their target.
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It happened.
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Pearl Harbor was attacked at 07:48.
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Once they received the news, the crew of the Anzac Clipper scanned the sky with great attention and urgency, looking for Japanese planes.
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However, they did not inform the passengers of what was going on.
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Among the chaos, the Anzac was ordered to divert, as a Pan Am station was in Pearl City.
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But divert where?
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There was no place for them to go.
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They couldn't make it back to the continental US.
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They were far beyond the point of no return.
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Now, just as today, all airlines have emergency plans in place for a number of different possibilities.
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Legally, that's all I'm allowed to say here because I might have someone listening from Homeland Security.
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Who knows?
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If they are listening, I hope they're enjoying the Mansplaneing podcast.
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Now back in New York, in the early afternoon hours, Juan Trippe and Pan Am leadership were summoned back to work at the Chrysler Building to try and manage this situation.
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They worked to communicate to all of his Clipper crews.
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The Anzac received a coded message from Pan Am,"Execute Plan A." Captain Turner opened an envelope with the emergency plan.
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They landed off the waters of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii.
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This was a hub for Inter Island Airways, which later was known as Hawaiian Airlines.
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This was a place Pan Am has never landed before.
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Something like this has happened before for a more recent emergency situation.
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Let's talk about nine eleven real quick.
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Commercial flights were ordered to land at the nearest airport immediately, regardless if their company had ground operations there or not.
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Suddenly, it didn't matter what your uniform said or what the livery was on that airplane.
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You brought it home, you brought it into the gate, you brought up air stairs, and you got people back to safety.
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That was not the day to fly, and that's all I'll say about 9/11 here.
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Now consider this.
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I mentioned before that the Anzac Clipper was running about 40 minutes behind schedule because Captain Turner attended his daughter's piano recital.
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Had he not attended his daughter's recital and hit traffic and caused the delay of the Anzac Clipper, they would have flown right into the maelstrom of Japanese forces.
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Imagine that Talk about an easy target for the Japanese fighter pilots.
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Now for the crew and passengers of the Anzac Clipper, no one knew what was going to happen next, but for the moment, they were safe, which is more than I can say for the other Clippers in the Pacific.
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Now the attack by the Japanese Empire on Pearl Harbor is highly publicized.
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It's one of the most publicized events in history But what is not well talked about is the other attacks that followed.
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The Japanese mounted an offensive against multiple locations in the Pacific One of the largest offensives in history.
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Targets, particularly colonies and territories of the US and European countries were hit.
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One of which was Hong Kong.
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In 1941, Hong Kong was still a part of the British Empire, and this is where another Pan Am Clipper was at on a layover on December 7th.
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It was actually the Hong Kong Clipper, which was a Sikorsky S-42.
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It's more interesting to have names than tail numbers here, isn't it?
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Now the captain of the Hong Kong clipper, named Fred Ralph, Opened his same envelope marked Plan A after he received the news of the Pearl Harbor attack.
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Shortly after, Captain Ralph received mixed reports of what he should do next.
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I mean, what would you do in this situation?
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You're a long way from home.
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One report said to take off as soon as possible with the passengers and all station Pan Am personnel and head for the Philippines, where they had another station in Manila.
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Another report said,"Hey, just fly inland deep into China that were not controlled by the Japanese forces." As I've mentioned before, Japanese forces were occupying parts of China years prior in the 1930s.
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Either way, the flight crew, Pan Am ground personnel, and the passengers were woken up and began to get ready for a quick takeoff and escape.
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As the Pan Am passengers were woken up at their fancy hotel and were ushered into a bus, Captain Ralph got another report to say,"Hey, take off right now with whoever was beside you." But it was too late.
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The Japanese attack Hong Kong Island in Kowloon Peninsula at 0700.
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Twelve Ki-32 bombers and 30 Ki-27 fighters bombed and strafed multiple targets.
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As everyone rushed to find shelter, the Hong Kong Clipper was moored in the waters off of Kai Tak Airport.
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The Sikorsky S-42 with the Pan Am livery was a proud symbol of America and a prime target for the Japanese fighter pilots.
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Captain Ralph ducked and hid behind a concrete pillar.
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And watched the entire attack unfold.
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He said of the attack, there were at least a dozen different strafing attacks on the clipper The tracer rounds ignited the fuel in the wings and the Hong Kong Clipper was engulfed in flames." Their ride home now was gone For perspective, this is like a Japanese-built Mitsubishi F-15J strafing and destroying a Boeing 737 Max sitting on the tarmac of a commercial airport today.
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For me, that's a very haunting image to imagine.
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Fortunately, there was no one on board.
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In the aftermath of the Japanese attack, only three planes remained undamaged at the airport, two DC-3s and one DC-2 that were operated by the Chinese National Aircraft Corporation.
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This is an airline that Pan Am actually co-owned with the Japanese government.
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These planes were used to ferry refugees from the war zone and inland, including the Pan Am crew, ground personnel, and others.
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They face an ominous future cut off from their country, company, and their families.
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By the way, it was thought that the British forces in Hong Kong could hold off the Japanese for at least a month in the event of an attack.
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Well, Hong Kong fell in a matter of days.
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It seemed everybody underestimated the resolve and capability of the Empire of Japan.
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Now for the story of the crew and passengers of the Philippine Clipper.
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The Philippine Clipper was a Martin M-130.
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At the controls was Captain John Hamilton and First Officer Bill Moss.
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The Philippine Clipper skimmed off the waters off of Pan Am's terminal in Pearl City on December 5th.
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The passengers, including a Pan Am employee nicknamed Mac, were treated with a show of force, if you will, with the scene of the US Navy inside Pearl Harbor.
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From the starboard side, they could see battleship row of the West Virginia, California, Maryland, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Nevada, and the Arizona, along with support ships and hundreds of sailors.
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An almost arrogant display of military might here.
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Who would ever dare challenge the US Navy?
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Many of the sailors watched as a Martin M-130 Philippine Clipper took off from the water.
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This was a much more eventful sight to see than the much smaller PBY Catalinas they routinely saw leave the water for the sky.
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If you're a regular here, you know I'm a fan of the PBY.
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Catalina.
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Now the Philippine Clipper's ultimate destination was Singapore.
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One of its passengers was a P-40 pilot named Ajax Baumler.
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He was on his way to join the Flying Tigers and enter the fight over China against the Japanese forces Also in the Clipper's cargo hold were aircraft parts, including tires destined for the Flying Tigers.
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By the way, being a ramp agent myself, I can tell you aircraft tires, especially main gear tires, are one of my least favorite things to load and unload.
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They're heavy, large, and the only way to move them is just to muscle them.
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Now on December 7th, the Philippine Clipper was at Pan Am Station on the small secluded Wake Island.
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After the shocking news reached the island, Captain Hamilton, at the request of the base commander, agreed to fly a reconnaissance flight before flying on back to Midway.
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Singapore was out of the cards now.
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This was only five hours after the news from the Pearl Harbor attack reached Wake Island.
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Everyone was still processing the event.
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A Pan Am mechanic named Jerry Elridge was getting the Philippine Clipper ready for takeoff when he saw specks on the horizon.
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He and the others who saw the specs thought they were US planes coming to help protect and reinforce the military base on Wake Island.
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They were wrong.
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At 11:58, a squadron of Japanese fighters and bombers targeted Wake Island.
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This just proved that there was truly no safe haven in the Pacific from the Japanese Empire.
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The small military installation on Wake did not have a radar.
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They did not know the planes were Japanese until it was too late.
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One of the first bombs hit a stockroom nearby about twenty yards from Eldridge and the Philippine Clipper.
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Eldridge was knocked off his feet by the concussive force of the explosion.
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Everyone from Pan Am employees, the passengers, to the Marines and the Navy personnel, to the construction crews on Wake took shelter.
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For many, it was too late, though.
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Pan Am employee, Mac, along with others, took shelter in Pan Am's hotel.
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He said, Suddenly there was a terrific explosion, and the hotel began to crumble over our heads.
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The roar of engines, the bombs exploding, and the machine guns was deafening It shook the earth.
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We all yelled and ran out Outside he saw a gruesome scene.
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He saw three men get cut in half by a strafing Japanese fighter.
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Mac and everyone else thought this was it.
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This was the end.
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Captain Hamilton was out in the open and desperately dug in the sand to hide.
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First Officer Moss too ran for cover.
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When he saw, in his words,"Ajax kneeling on one knee, bullets were flying everywhere.
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One went through his cap and the other grazed his hip.
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He was taking notes about the types of airplanes that the Japanese were using and so forth." Baumler, the pilot who was looking to fight the Japanese in China, bravely recorded valuable intel that he hoped to deliver if they survived this attack and got off the island.
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In the aftermath of the attack, the first-class Pan Am Hotel and the station became a gruesome scene of blood and destruction.
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The five hundred twenty-five Navy and Marine Corps forces on Wake were hit just as hard.
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Navy pilots ran for their airplanes during the attack, but were gunned down as they ran to get into the cockpits.
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Of the 12 F4F Wildcat fighters that were on base, only three remained.
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The Martin M130 Philippine Clipper was hit just as hard as the Hong Kong Clipper had.
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However, miraculously, its fuel tanks were not hit.
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Despite the fact the fuselage was ridden with 19 bullet holes, the flying boat airliner was still airworthy.
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As plan A advised Captain Hamilton, all Pan Am personnel and passengers that survived the attack were to be evacuated, mail and cargo would be taken off for weight and balance, including the parts destined for the Flying Tigers.
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They prepared to take off for Guam.
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However, they received a haunting transmission from the operator there.
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Over the radio, they heard the same chaos of bombs.
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The operator at Pan Am station there said, That one landed too close.
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I'm signing off." They decided to head for Midway instead.
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There they hoped would be at least safe, and then back to Hawaii, if it wasn't under the Japanese flag by then.
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During the Japanese attack, they hit a fueling depot on Wake.
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Fortunately, though, the Clipper was being prepped for departure, so it had already been fueled before the attack.
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As the Pan Am contingent began boarding, about 50 men from the construction crew on Wake approached.
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Expecting a confrontation here as the Clipper was the only ride off the island.
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The still wounded Ajax Baumler grabbed his handgun and prepared to stand his ground and hold them off Baumler, who as I said before, was shot in the leg and hip, limped over just as one of the construction crewmen walked up.
00:27:48.138 --> 00:27:49.909
The man asked what their plans were.
00:27:50.739 --> 00:27:53.199
Baumler explained their plane and the situation.
00:27:54.118 --> 00:27:59.838
The Martin M-130 had bullet holes and was at the max capacity of passengers for weight and balance.
00:28:01.358 --> 00:28:04.828
How do you think the leader of the construction crew mob responded to this?
00:28:06.489 --> 00:28:13.386
Well, the man extended his right hand for a handshake and said,"Good luck" So no confrontation here.
00:28:15.539 --> 00:28:27.920
This does remind me though, does anyone remember that image from inside the C-17 Globemaster with more than 800 evacuees from Kabul, Afghanistan back in August of 2021?
00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:39.023
Definitely not our proudest moment, but this reminded me of that For the shot up Philippine Clipper, the thirty-seven on board was a challenge.
00:28:40.153 --> 00:28:43.814
It took three tries before they got off the water headed for Midway.
00:28:45.786 --> 00:28:53.855
The Philippine Clipper left behind about 1,000 men on Wake, including a Pan Am employee named Raugust who refused to leave.
00:28:54.576 --> 00:29:02.595
He stayed behind and helped transport wounded to medical facilities Everyone left behind though faced a terrible fate.
00:29:03.234 --> 00:29:05.934
They later became prisoners of the Japanese Empire.
00:29:07.919 --> 00:29:21.128
As they flew across the Pacific Ocean, the Philippine Clipper flew low, very low, like 100 feet above the water and all of their lights were turned off to avoid detection from the Japanese who seemed to be everywhere.
00:29:22.750 --> 00:29:25.661
This is about as stealthy as an M130 can get.
00:29:27.111 --> 00:29:33.840
Inside, everyone was melancholy, and some were fighting for their lives in great pain from their injuries.
00:29:35.520 --> 00:29:38.181
Generous amounts of whiskey was given to the wounded.
00:29:39.651 --> 00:29:52.355
In the dark cabin, constant whistling sounds came from the bullet holes After many hours, they arrived at Midway, where they found the same kind of sight that they had just left behind on Wake Island.
00:29:53.414 --> 00:30:00.095
The attack on Pearl Harbor really was the first of an all-out attack on almost every island installation in the Pacific.
00:30:01.809 --> 00:30:06.438
It was not safe there either, Hence the name of this episode, No Safe Haven.
00:30:08.537 --> 00:30:10.446
They could not stay there on Midway either.
00:30:11.537 --> 00:30:19.666
Fortunately, though, they were able to fuel up and fly on to Hawaii in the same low, slow manner in the dark.
00:30:21.787 --> 00:30:26.676
As they approached the Hawaiian Islands, they had to demonstrate that they were a friendly aircraft on approach.
00:30:27.876 --> 00:30:31.196
The crew and evacuees got a look at their destination.
00:30:32.096 --> 00:30:36.596
The proud battleship row that they saw just a few days ago was now in ruin.
00:30:37.977 --> 00:30:45.926
Smoke was still coming from some of the ships, like the Arizona, and others were keeled over, a devastating sight.
00:30:47.086 --> 00:30:53.146
The Pan Am crew and passengers reported intel and the wounded finally got some much needed medical attention.
00:30:55.039 --> 00:30:58.410
Eventually they would make it back home to the continental US.
00:31:28.946 --> 00:31:39.596
Now, if you wanna know more about the incredible stories of the Pan Am Clippers in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, then I highly recommend the book Stranded in the Sky by Philip Jett.
00:31:40.997 --> 00:31:47.477
And if you want to know how we responded to the attack, check out my episode, Time to Punch Back, from Series 3.
00:31:48.957 --> 00:31:56.047
Now, if you are counting, I said at the beginning of this episode that there were four Pan Am Clippers in the Pacific on December 7th.
00:31:57.385 --> 00:32:04.424
The fourth one was the Pacific Clipper, a Boeing 314 that was in New Zealand on that infamous day.
00:32:05.765 --> 00:32:12.615
The extraordinary story of how they made it back home is a story I'm gonna save for its own episode, so stand by for that.
00:32:13.545 --> 00:32:18.125
Thank you so much for listening, and remember, there's always a light at the end of the runway.
00:32:18.705 --> 00:32:22.425
Follow the mansplaining podcast for more stories from the Best Aerospace Era.
00:32:23.006 --> 00:32:27.066
Or go to Best Aerospace Era.com or find us on social media.
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For the Best Aerospace Era this is the mansplaining podcast.
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Here is your host Anthony L.
00:00:06.248 --> 00:00:06.698
Sealey
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A Boeing 314 commercial airliner was on a routine long haul flight over the ocean.
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It had been many hours since the in-flight crew or passengers saw land of any kind.
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Their destination was the Hawaiian Islands, otherwise known as paradise.
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As they approached this haven in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, radio transmissions came in with reports that paradise had become an inferno.
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It was the morning of December 7th, 1941.
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Welcome aerospace enthusiasts.
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Here is the question.
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What happens to commercial airliners when suddenly they are caught in the middle of a war zone?
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Well, that's what happened to four of the iconic Pan American Clipper flying boats in the Pacific Ocean on December 7th, 1941.
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Let's talk about this incredible story.
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First, let's look at Pan American Airlines, or Pan Am, and their operation in the Pacific leading up to the day that will live in infamy.
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In the 1930s, Pan Am focused their business model almost exclusively on international travel, transporting mail, cargo, and very wealthy passengers around the world.
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Far off destinations like Hong Kong, Manila, and Singapore were now accessible for the first time.
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Destinations that once took a matter of weeks to arrive at now could be reached in a matter of days.
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For the first time in history.
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Airplanes, like large flying boats, were capable of traversing great distances much faster than ships, and wealthy passengers and vendors paid the steep fares for that service.
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Transporting cargo, mail, and passengers across oceans in a fraction of the time that it took for a ship to transport made for good business.
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You can say Pan Am, under the direction of its founder, Juan Trippe, made the world a smaller place.
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For this unprecedented international network to work, Pan Am operated flying boats, famously known as Clippers.
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Some examples of the aircraft that they use were the Sikorsky S-42, the Martin M-130, and their flagship model, the Boeing 314.
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You know we love talking about flying boats here on the Mansplaneing podcast.
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Pan Am passengers on these Clippers were treated to a luxury experience with gourmet meals, sleeping bunks, and entertainment by the flight attendants during their travels over the vast Pacific Ocean.
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Has anyone here traveled across the Pacific Ocean before?
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I myself have not.
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Now keep in mind here how far aviation had come in just a short time to reach this reality in the air.
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We're only talking about a decade after Charles Lindbergh's renowned first solo flight across the Atlantic.
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These aircraft were marvels of aerospace engineering in the 1930s and'40s.
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However, they were more so luxury yacht than what we think of today as an airline Also, they were not capable of crossing the vast Pacific Ocean in one leg.
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For Pan Am's President Juan Trippe's vision to work, a network of compounds needed to be established.
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Pan Am built a network of compounds, or what I'm gonna call stations, on remote islands in the Pacific Ocean like Midway, Canton, Guam, the Philippines, and Wake Island.
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There are maps of their Pacific network on Pan Am's Historical Foundation website, by the way.
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Having a look at the map of these locations will give you an idea of the sheer scale of Pan Am's achievement here to make the first global flight network a reality.
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At these stations, Pan Am personnel used small speedboats to clear a path in the water of other ships and boats so that the Clippers had a smooth runway or ocean to land on They started this operation as soon as they were in range.
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Radios and lighted buoys help guide Pan Am pilots to their destinations.
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Although flight crews on the Clippers included navigators using the most modern radio and localizer technology of the day, They could navigate using the stars and using a compass, just as mariners have for thousands of years.
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I've actually got a really cool looking compass, but anyways.
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Once the Clipper splashed down in the water and taxied to the harbor, the flight crew and its passengers were taken to a Pan Am brand hotel or resort.
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Keep in mind, these hotels were not like a Motel 6.
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These were like four-star luxury resorts to accommodate the wealthy passengers They spared no expense, and you would definitely have to be wealthy to afford a ticket on a Clipper.
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A ticket on Pan Am in 1941 could cost around two thousand bucks for a seat and ten thousand for a cabin section to have all to yourself.
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In today's money, that's around$45,000 for a seat and more than$200,000 for a cabin section.
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Aside from the ultra-rich, there were also employees and foreign dignitaries that flew on Pan Am Clippers.
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By the way, you could almost buy a ticket to space for this kind of money today.
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With its international network, its Clippers, and its luxury hotels, Pan Am was a world-class company and one of the most recognizable in the world, like to the level of Apple, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Google, or McDonald's is today, because they can be seen all over the world.
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This is why many who romanticize about the earliest days of airline business think of Pan Am.
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And let's not forget, this was all made possible by airline workers during the Great Depression.
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Now let's get to December 1941 and the fate of four Pan Am Clippers, their crews, and their passengers on that ominous day.
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Let's start with the Anzac Clipper.
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The Anzac Clipper was one of Pan Am's flagship models, a Boeing 314.
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It was named for the combined armed forces of New Zealand and Australia.
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I'm sure locals of the region appreciate that name Passengers and most of the flight crew waited at Pan Am's terminal, Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.
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They were waiting on their captain, Lanier Turner, who was attending his daughter's piano recital across the bay in Oakland, and just to make matters worse, he hit rush hour traffic on his way back to Treasure Island for the flight.
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This caused a 40-minute delay.
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For my airline people here, does this sound familiar?
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After he arrived, the in-flight crew ceremoniously boarded the Anzac Clipper.
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Then after a few checks, the four engines started up.
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Then the passengers boarded after the ringing of two bells This was not a full flight, with only 17 passengers, along with 11 crew members, plus mail and some cargo, of course.
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This large modern marvel, part boat, part airplane, taxied and lined up for our takeoff.
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The engines roared as the hull of the Anzac Clipper lifted off the water.
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In the background was a newly constructed Golden Gate Bridge, which was just completed just four years earlier.
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What an incredible sight this must have been for the crowds who gathered to see the Pan Am Clippers take off.
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This is similar to how the crowds flocked to the Cape Canaveral during the 1960s to watch rocket launches.
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The date is December 6th, 1941, and their destination was Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands, otherwise known as paradise.
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Or at least that's what they thought they would find once they splashed down.
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It takes about six hours to reach the Hawaiian Islands from San Francisco on a jet airliner today.
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That was not the case in 1941.
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After the standard opulent 18-hour flight, passengers and crew expected a grand welcome once they landed with local music and those beautiful women who place those flower necklaces around your neck.
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However, as they approached the famed Hawaiian Islands, the crew received some ominous transmissions over the radio.
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It's the morning of December 7th, 1941.
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Normally, about an hour out, the radioman and the crew of the Anzac Clipper will listen to the radio station KGMB This station played popular music of the time, however, that's not what they heard on this morning.
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Here's what they heard.
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The island of Oahu is being attacked by enemy planes.
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The center of the attack is Pearl Harbor.
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We are under attack.
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The mark of the rising sun has been seen on these planes." Squadrons of Mitsubishi A6Ms, Aichi D3As and Nakajima B5N aircraft of the Japanese Empire led by pilot Mitsuo Fuchida, listened to the same Hawaiian radio station to home in on their target.
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It happened.
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Pearl Harbor was attacked at 07:48.
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Once they received the news, the crew of the Anzac Clipper scanned the sky with great attention and urgency, looking for Japanese planes.
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However, they did not inform the passengers of what was going on.
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Among the chaos, the Anzac was ordered to divert, as a Pan Am station was in Pearl City.
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But divert where?
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There was no place for them to go.
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They couldn't make it back to the continental US.
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They were far beyond the point of no return.
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Now, just as today, all airlines have emergency plans in place for a number of different possibilities.
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Legally, that's all I'm allowed to say here because I might have someone listening from Homeland Security.
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Who knows?
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If they are listening, I hope they're enjoying the Mansplaneing podcast.
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Now back in New York, in the early afternoon hours, Juan Trippe and Pan Am leadership were summoned back to work at the Chrysler Building to try and manage this situation.
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They worked to communicate to all of his Clipper crews.
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The Anzac received a coded message from Pan Am,"Execute Plan A." Captain Turner opened an envelope with the emergency plan.
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They landed off the waters of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii.
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This was a hub for Inter Island Airways, which later was known as Hawaiian Airlines.
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This was a place Pan Am has never landed before.
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Something like this has happened before for a more recent emergency situation.
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Let's talk about nine eleven real quick.
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Commercial flights were ordered to land at the nearest airport immediately, regardless if their company had ground operations there or not.
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Suddenly, it didn't matter what your uniform said or what the livery was on that airplane.
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You brought it home, you brought it into the gate, you brought up air stairs, and you got people back to safety.
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That was not the day to fly, and that's all I'll say about 9/11 here.
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Now consider this.
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I mentioned before that the Anzac Clipper was running about 40 minutes behind schedule because Captain Turner attended his daughter's piano recital.
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Had he not attended his daughter's recital and hit traffic and caused the delay of the Anzac Clipper, they would have flown right into the maelstrom of Japanese forces.
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Imagine that Talk about an easy target for the Japanese fighter pilots.
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Now for the crew and passengers of the Anzac Clipper, no one knew what was going to happen next, but for the moment, they were safe, which is more than I can say for the other Clippers in the Pacific.
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Now the attack by the Japanese Empire on Pearl Harbor is highly publicized.
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It's one of the most publicized events in history But what is not well talked about is the other attacks that followed.
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The Japanese mounted an offensive against multiple locations in the Pacific One of the largest offensives in history.
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Targets, particularly colonies and territories of the US and European countries were hit.
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One of which was Hong Kong.
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In 1941, Hong Kong was still a part of the British Empire, and this is where another Pan Am Clipper was at on a layover on December 7th.
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It was actually the Hong Kong Clipper, which was a Sikorsky S-42.
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It's more interesting to have names than tail numbers here, isn't it?
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Now the captain of the Hong Kong clipper, named Fred Ralph, Opened his same envelope marked Plan A after he received the news of the Pearl Harbor attack.
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Shortly after, Captain Ralph received mixed reports of what he should do next.
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I mean, what would you do in this situation?
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You're a long way from home.
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One report said to take off as soon as possible with the passengers and all station Pan Am personnel and head for the Philippines, where they had another station in Manila.
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Another report said,"Hey, just fly inland deep into China that were not controlled by the Japanese forces." As I've mentioned before, Japanese forces were occupying parts of China years prior in the 1930s.
00:16:52.357 --> 00:17:00.248
Either way, the flight crew, Pan Am ground personnel, and the passengers were woken up and began to get ready for a quick takeoff and escape.
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As the Pan Am passengers were woken up at their fancy hotel and were ushered into a bus, Captain Ralph got another report to say,"Hey, take off right now with whoever was beside you." But it was too late.
00:17:43.143 --> 00:17:48.432
The Japanese attack Hong Kong Island in Kowloon Peninsula at 0700.
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Twelve Ki-32 bombers and 30 Ki-27 fighters bombed and strafed multiple targets.
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As everyone rushed to find shelter, the Hong Kong Clipper was moored in the waters off of Kai Tak Airport.
00:18:05.792 --> 00:18:14.982
The Sikorsky S-42 with the Pan Am livery was a proud symbol of America and a prime target for the Japanese fighter pilots.
00:18:15.863 --> 00:18:18.712
Captain Ralph ducked and hid behind a concrete pillar.
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And watched the entire attack unfold.
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He said of the attack, there were at least a dozen different strafing attacks on the clipper The tracer rounds ignited the fuel in the wings and the Hong Kong Clipper was engulfed in flames." Their ride home now was gone For perspective, this is like a Japanese-built Mitsubishi F-15J strafing and destroying a Boeing 737 Max sitting on the tarmac of a commercial airport today.
00:18:55.686 --> 00:18:58.166
For me, that's a very haunting image to imagine.
00:18:59.893 --> 00:19:01.492
Fortunately, there was no one on board.
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In the aftermath of the Japanese attack, only three planes remained undamaged at the airport, two DC-3s and one DC-2 that were operated by the Chinese National Aircraft Corporation.
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This is an airline that Pan Am actually co-owned with the Japanese government.
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These planes were used to ferry refugees from the war zone and inland, including the Pan Am crew, ground personnel, and others.
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They face an ominous future cut off from their country, company, and their families.
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By the way, it was thought that the British forces in Hong Kong could hold off the Japanese for at least a month in the event of an attack.
00:19:48.880 --> 00:19:51.890
Well, Hong Kong fell in a matter of days.
00:19:52.890 --> 00:19:58.289
It seemed everybody underestimated the resolve and capability of the Empire of Japan.
00:20:29.365 --> 00:20:33.355
Now for the story of the crew and passengers of the Philippine Clipper.
00:20:34.906 --> 00:20:37.747
The Philippine Clipper was a Martin M-130.
00:20:39.317 --> 00:20:43.957
At the controls was Captain John Hamilton and First Officer Bill Moss.
00:20:45.983 --> 00:20:52.614
The Philippine Clipper skimmed off the waters off of Pan Am's terminal in Pearl City on December 5th.
00:20:54.441 --> 00:21:03.641
The passengers, including a Pan Am employee nicknamed Mac, were treated with a show of force, if you will, with the scene of the US Navy inside Pearl Harbor.
00:21:04.951 --> 00:21:17.931
From the starboard side, they could see battleship row of the West Virginia, California, Maryland, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Nevada, and the Arizona, along with support ships and hundreds of sailors.
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An almost arrogant display of military might here.
00:21:23.388 --> 00:21:25.848
Who would ever dare challenge the US Navy?
00:21:27.546 --> 00:21:33.205
Many of the sailors watched as a Martin M-130 Philippine Clipper took off from the water.
00:21:34.635 --> 00:21:42.346
This was a much more eventful sight to see than the much smaller PBY Catalinas they routinely saw leave the water for the sky.
00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:47.391
If you're a regular here, you know I'm a fan of the PBY.
00:21:47.441 --> 00:21:48.090
Catalina.
00:21:49.717 --> 00:21:53.267
Now the Philippine Clipper's ultimate destination was Singapore.
00:21:54.622 --> 00:21:58.422
One of its passengers was a P-40 pilot named Ajax Baumler.
00:21:59.602 --> 00:22:13.384
He was on his way to join the Flying Tigers and enter the fight over China against the Japanese forces Also in the Clipper's cargo hold were aircraft parts, including tires destined for the Flying Tigers.
00:22:14.837 --> 00:22:23.748
By the way, being a ramp agent myself, I can tell you aircraft tires, especially main gear tires, are one of my least favorite things to load and unload.
00:22:24.637 --> 00:22:29.298
They're heavy, large, and the only way to move them is just to muscle them.
00:22:30.817 --> 00:22:37.508
Now on December 7th, the Philippine Clipper was at Pan Am Station on the small secluded Wake Island.
00:22:39.278 --> 00:22:49.491
After the shocking news reached the island, Captain Hamilton, at the request of the base commander, agreed to fly a reconnaissance flight before flying on back to Midway.
00:22:50.521 --> 00:22:52.461
Singapore was out of the cards now.
00:22:54.422 --> 00:22:59.372
This was only five hours after the news from the Pearl Harbor attack reached Wake Island.
00:23:00.561 --> 00:23:02.622
Everyone was still processing the event.
00:23:04.201 --> 00:23:12.221
A Pan Am mechanic named Jerry Elridge was getting the Philippine Clipper ready for takeoff when he saw specks on the horizon.
00:23:13.122 --> 00:23:20.451
He and the others who saw the specs thought they were US planes coming to help protect and reinforce the military base on Wake Island.
00:23:21.432 --> 00:23:22.352
They were wrong.
00:23:28.622 --> 00:23:34.051
At 11:58, a squadron of Japanese fighters and bombers targeted Wake Island.
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This just proved that there was truly no safe haven in the Pacific from the Japanese Empire.
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The small military installation on Wake did not have a radar.
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They did not know the planes were Japanese until it was too late.
00:23:51.772 --> 00:23:58.232
One of the first bombs hit a stockroom nearby about twenty yards from Eldridge and the Philippine Clipper.
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Eldridge was knocked off his feet by the concussive force of the explosion.
00:24:04.782 --> 00:24:13.303
Everyone from Pan Am employees, the passengers, to the Marines and the Navy personnel, to the construction crews on Wake took shelter.
00:24:14.492 --> 00:24:16.123
For many, it was too late, though.
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Pan Am employee, Mac, along with others, took shelter in Pan Am's hotel.
00:24:23.202 --> 00:24:33.762
He said, Suddenly there was a terrific explosion, and the hotel began to crumble over our heads.
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The roar of engines, the bombs exploding, and the machine guns was deafening It shook the earth.
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We all yelled and ran out Outside he saw a gruesome scene.
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He saw three men get cut in half by a strafing Japanese fighter.
00:24:53.509 --> 00:24:55.618
Mac and everyone else thought this was it.
00:24:56.328 --> 00:24:57.328
This was the end.
00:24:58.692 --> 00:25:02.383
Captain Hamilton was out in the open and desperately dug in the sand to hide.
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First Officer Moss too ran for cover.
00:25:05.813 --> 00:25:11.962
When he saw, in his words,"Ajax kneeling on one knee, bullets were flying everywhere.
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One went through his cap and the other grazed his hip.
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He was taking notes about the types of airplanes that the Japanese were using and so forth." Baumler, the pilot who was looking to fight the Japanese in China, bravely recorded valuable intel that he hoped to deliver if they survived this attack and got off the island.
00:25:34.413 --> 00:25:41.942
In the aftermath of the attack, the first-class Pan Am Hotel and the station became a gruesome scene of blood and destruction.
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The five hundred twenty-five Navy and Marine Corps forces on Wake were hit just as hard.
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Navy pilots ran for their airplanes during the attack, but were gunned down as they ran to get into the cockpits.
00:25:57.073 --> 00:26:02.032
Of the 12 F4F Wildcat fighters that were on base, only three remained.
00:26:03.557 --> 00:26:09.017
The Martin M130 Philippine Clipper was hit just as hard as the Hong Kong Clipper had.
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However, miraculously, its fuel tanks were not hit.
00:26:14.317 --> 00:26:20.817
Despite the fact the fuselage was ridden with 19 bullet holes, the flying boat airliner was still airworthy.
00:26:22.467 --> 00:26:36.896
As plan A advised Captain Hamilton, all Pan Am personnel and passengers that survived the attack were to be evacuated, mail and cargo would be taken off for weight and balance, including the parts destined for the Flying Tigers.
00:26:37.852 --> 00:26:39.791
They prepared to take off for Guam.
00:26:40.142 --> 00:26:43.682
However, they received a haunting transmission from the operator there.
00:26:44.932 --> 00:26:47.701
Over the radio, they heard the same chaos of bombs.
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The operator at Pan Am station there said, That one landed too close.
00:26:54.804 --> 00:26:59.633
I'm signing off." They decided to head for Midway instead.
00:27:00.482 --> 00:27:06.853
There they hoped would be at least safe, and then back to Hawaii, if it wasn't under the Japanese flag by then.
00:27:08.459 --> 00:27:12.159
During the Japanese attack, they hit a fueling depot on Wake.
00:27:12.778 --> 00:27:18.489
Fortunately, though, the Clipper was being prepped for departure, so it had already been fueled before the attack.
00:27:20.565 --> 00:27:26.595
As the Pan Am contingent began boarding, about 50 men from the construction crew on Wake approached.
00:27:28.002 --> 00:27:32.373
Expecting a confrontation here as the Clipper was the only ride off the island.
00:27:33.133 --> 00:27:46.588
The still wounded Ajax Baumler grabbed his handgun and prepared to stand his ground and hold them off Baumler, who as I said before, was shot in the leg and hip, limped over just as one of the construction crewmen walked up.
00:27:48.138 --> 00:27:49.909
The man asked what their plans were.
00:27:50.739 --> 00:27:53.199
Baumler explained their plane and the situation.
00:27:54.118 --> 00:27:59.838
The Martin M-130 had bullet holes and was at the max capacity of passengers for weight and balance.
00:28:01.358 --> 00:28:04.828
How do you think the leader of the construction crew mob responded to this?
00:28:06.489 --> 00:28:13.386
Well, the man extended his right hand for a handshake and said,"Good luck" So no confrontation here.
00:28:15.539 --> 00:28:27.920
This does remind me though, does anyone remember that image from inside the C-17 Globemaster with more than 800 evacuees from Kabul, Afghanistan back in August of 2021?
00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:39.023
Definitely not our proudest moment, but this reminded me of that For the shot up Philippine Clipper, the thirty-seven on board was a challenge.
00:28:40.153 --> 00:28:43.814
It took three tries before they got off the water headed for Midway.
00:28:45.786 --> 00:28:53.855
The Philippine Clipper left behind about 1,000 men on Wake, including a Pan Am employee named Raugust who refused to leave.
00:28:54.576 --> 00:29:02.595
He stayed behind and helped transport wounded to medical facilities Everyone left behind though faced a terrible fate.
00:29:03.234 --> 00:29:05.934
They later became prisoners of the Japanese Empire.
00:29:07.919 --> 00:29:21.128
As they flew across the Pacific Ocean, the Philippine Clipper flew low, very low, like 100 feet above the water and all of their lights were turned off to avoid detection from the Japanese who seemed to be everywhere.
00:29:22.750 --> 00:29:25.661
This is about as stealthy as an M130 can get.
00:29:27.111 --> 00:29:33.840
Inside, everyone was melancholy, and some were fighting for their lives in great pain from their injuries.
00:29:35.520 --> 00:29:38.181
Generous amounts of whiskey was given to the wounded.
00:29:39.651 --> 00:29:52.355
In the dark cabin, constant whistling sounds came from the bullet holes After many hours, they arrived at Midway, where they found the same kind of sight that they had just left behind on Wake Island.
00:29:53.414 --> 00:30:00.095
The attack on Pearl Harbor really was the first of an all-out attack on almost every island installation in the Pacific.
00:30:01.809 --> 00:30:06.438
It was not safe there either, Hence the name of this episode, No Safe Haven.
00:30:08.537 --> 00:30:10.446
They could not stay there on Midway either.
00:30:11.537 --> 00:30:19.666
Fortunately, though, they were able to fuel up and fly on to Hawaii in the same low, slow manner in the dark.
00:30:21.787 --> 00:30:26.676
As they approached the Hawaiian Islands, they had to demonstrate that they were a friendly aircraft on approach.
00:30:27.876 --> 00:30:31.196
The crew and evacuees got a look at their destination.
00:30:32.096 --> 00:30:36.596
The proud battleship row that they saw just a few days ago was now in ruin.
00:30:37.977 --> 00:30:45.926
Smoke was still coming from some of the ships, like the Arizona, and others were keeled over, a devastating sight.
00:30:47.086 --> 00:30:53.146
The Pan Am crew and passengers reported intel and the wounded finally got some much needed medical attention.
00:30:55.039 --> 00:30:58.410
Eventually they would make it back home to the continental US.
00:31:28.946 --> 00:31:39.596
Now, if you wanna know more about the incredible stories of the Pan Am Clippers in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, then I highly recommend the book Stranded in the Sky by Philip Jett.
00:31:40.997 --> 00:31:47.477
And if you want to know how we responded to the attack, check out my episode, Time to Punch Back, from Series 3.
00:31:48.957 --> 00:31:56.047
Now, if you are counting, I said at the beginning of this episode that there were four Pan Am Clippers in the Pacific on December 7th.
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The fourth one was the Pacific Clipper, a Boeing 314 that was in New Zealand on that infamous day.
00:32:05.765 --> 00:32:12.615
The extraordinary story of how they made it back home is a story I'm gonna save for its own episode, so stand by for that.
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Thank you so much for listening, and remember, there's always a light at the end of the runway.
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Follow the mansplaining podcast for more stories from the Best Aerospace Era.
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