Operation: Fighter protection, Burma (Myanmar)

Date: 28th November 1943 (Sunday)

Unit No: 530th Fighter Squadron, 311st Fighter Group, 10th Air Force

Type: P-51A Mustang

Serial No: 43-6040

Code: Unknown

Location: 40 miles NNW of Rangoon (Yangon), Burma (Myanmar)

Base: Kurmitola, India

Pilot: 1st Lt. Robert Fiske Angell O-407635 AAF Age 24. PoW */DED

* Burma #5 (Moulmein & Rangoon Jail)

Note: The 530th Fighter Sqn nickname “Yellow Scorpions” was adopted when members of the Sqn heard a Japanese broadcast reporting that it was coming over to "annihilate the 'Yellow Scorpion' squadron," but initially no one knew which outfit this was. When the Japanese next broadcasted the same threat it included the Sqns location.

REASON FOR LOSS:

The after mission report by 2nd Lt. Kenneth G. Granger O-672605 described the when he last saw 1st Lt. Angell and his Mustang:

“We were at 18,000 feet, 11:50 hours, 28th November 1943, approximately forty miles North North West of Rangoon on an escort mission when I last saw Lt. Angell. There was one Zero in the vicinity, but Lt. Angell was not having any trouble at the time. I did not see Lt. Angell again”.

All that is known is that 1st Lt. Angell survived whatever caused him to either abandon or crash land his aircraft is that he became a PoW of the Japanese and that he was held at PoW camp Burma #5 in Rangoon.

The circumstances leading to the death of 1st Lt. Angell were determined by a British Military Court convened in Rangoon, Burma between the 3rd and 21st May 1946.

The following four members of the Imperial Japanese Army were before the court:

Capt. (Rikugun-tai-i) NAGAHARA Kenso who was the former Commanding Officer (CO) of Futo Buntai, Rangoon, Burma and also the CO of the Futo Buntai prison;

Capt. (Rikugun-tai-i) YAMAZAKI Kaname was the Medical Officer (MO) of the prison;

2nd Lt. (Rikugun-Shōi) YOKOTA Masao;

Cpl. (Rikugun-Jōtō-Hei) NODA Masami.

Note: the Japanese word Rikugun preceding a rank indicates that it relates to the army.

All were also members of or attached to the Kempeitai who were the military police of the Imperial Japanese Army and functioned much like the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.

On the first count all four accused were charged with committing a war crime in that between the 1st August 1943 and 1st April 1945, when members of staff of the New Law Courts Jail, Rangoon, Burma, were responsible for the well-being of the persons interned there, and in violation of the laws and usages of war, were together concerned as parties to the ill-treatment causing a physical suffering to PoWs interned there.

On the second count Capt. NAGAHARA, Capt. YAMAZAK and 2nd Lt. YOKOTA were also charged that between the 1st April 1943 and the 1st April 1944, they were concerned with the ill-treatment leading to the deaths of 1st Lt. Angell, 2nd Lt. Royal D. Butterfield, 1st Lt. Joseph F. Zizlavsky, Fg Off. Herbert and Fg Off. Kenneth M. White.

Capt. NAGAHARA was in post at the Futo Buntai prison, also known as the New Law Courts Jail Annex, from 1st January 1945 and the 1st April 1945.

During the period they were in charge a number of American and British airmen were incarcerated in the Annex where they were kept in confinement under harsh and oppressive regulations without proper or adequate food, covering, sanitation facilities and medical attention.

On the first count Capt. NAGAHARA and 2nd Lt. YOKOTA were found guilty and sentenced to four and two years imprisonment respectively. Capt. YAMAZAKI was found not guilty.

On the second count all three of the accused were found not guilty.

Above: Reporting on the death of 1st Lt. Robert F. Angell (Courtesy of the Great Falls Tribune, dated 15th October 1945)

Burial Details

The remains of 1st Lt. Angell were recovered on the 5th May 1946 from the Rangoon Cantonment Cemetery. His remains were amongst 37 other recovered personnel, 29 passengers and 3 crew that were lost when the C-47B #43-48308 transferring their remains went missing in a heavy storm on the 17th May 1946 during the return flight to Barrackpore in India. An extensive airborne search of a flight path 300 miles wide from Calcutta to Rangoon and a special search as far south as the Andarman Islands, failed to locate any evidence that the aircraft crashed on land and no floating wreckage was found to indicate that the aircraft had crashed into the Bay of Bengal.

The wreckage of C-47B #43-48308 was discovered by Clayton Kuhles of MIA Recoveries, Inc. on the 10th November 2009.

Above: 1st Lt. Robert Fiske Angell - Manila American Cemetery, Walls of the Missing. (Courtesy of the ABMC)

1st Lt. Robert Fiske Angell. Air Medal, Purple Heart. Manila American Cemetery, Walls of the Missing. Born on the 13th August 1919 at White Sulphur Springs, Montana. Son of Earle Fiske and Edna Louise (née Groff) Angell Henrico, Virginia, USA.

1st Lt. Angell was Declared Dead (DED) on the15th February 1944.

Researched by Ralph Snape and Traugott Vitz for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this crew. Thanks also to Traugott Vitz for his work on the ‘VitzArchive’.

Other sources listed below:

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them. Franklin Delano Roosevelt