USAAF
5th AF
475th FG
433rd FS
Pilot 1st Lt. William Hasty
(South Carolina) (POW)
Shot Down August 27, 1944
Wartime History
Participated in a fighter sweep over Babo on
August 27, 1944. Hit by anti-aircraft fire in the port engine
causing a fire, at 14,000'. Stuck half in-and-out of the cockpit,
Hasty finally managed to free himself from the now burining cockpit, and
bailed out, his parachute opening only moments before it hit the jungle. Snagged
in trees, but spotted by his squadron mates, Hasty was badly and wounded
in the leg and landed in a swampy area, around 10:30am.
Located by a native Japanese collaborator at 2:30pm, Hasty surrendered to a group of Japanese, and was beat up and taken back to Babo for interrogation. His captors revealed detailed knowledge about his group, the 475th FG, down to crew chiefs, and asked him to reveal the range of the P-38. He was held bound and blindfolded into a large building near the runway with a red cross on it.
While interned at Babo, he witnessed several 5th AF missions against Babo from the ground and narrowly avoided being killed during the attacks.
On June 11, 1944 he was loaded onto a twin engine transport and flown to Borneo. There, he was placed in a stockade with starving Australian POWs, who generously poured their only bottle of iodine on his wounded leg which had been untreated by the Japanese, saving his life and leg.
Next he was flown to the Philippines, Formosa then Yokohama Naval Base, where he endured 90 days of solitary confinement and three beatings a day. Afterwards, the Japanese gave up, and placed him in a POW camp, with Pappy Boyington. He survived the war.
References
"The Ghost Sentai" by Carroll R. Anderson, Wings, February 1978
P-38
