Unsung Heroes: Ferry Pilots During World War II

On August 16th, 1912, a son was born to Giuseppe (Joseph) DeBona and his wife Adline May Claiborne DeBona. He was born in Eagle Pass, Texas, and they named him Joseph Claiborne DeBona. Giuseppe was an immigrant from Italy, and worked as a merchandise broker.

 

As Joe Clairborne DeBonna grew up he attended the Main Avenue High School in San Antonio, Texas. There he enjoyed sports and was on the school track team. After graduation he attended the University of Texas, joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and played quarter back on the school football team.

 

Joe also had a keen interest in aviation as he was growing up, and he wanted to become a pilot.

 

Upon graduation Joe was employed by the National Cash Register Company in Los Angeles, CA, as a salesman. But the world was watching what was happening in Europe after World War I, and Americans were wary of getting into another European war.

 

In 1940 The Selective Training and Service Act was enacted, and the U.S. government began drafting young men between the ages of 18 and 45. Later the draft was extended to include men up to 64 years of age.

 

On October 16, 1940, Joe DeBona registered for the Selective Service (another word for the draft). At that time Joe was 5 feet 10 1/2 inches tall, weighed 175 pounds, and had black hair and hazel eyes. He then enlisted in the United States Army on July 21, 1942.

 

There is little information about his early career in the US Army, but during WW II Joe DeBona was a ferry pilot in the 1st Ferrying Squadron, 6th Ferrying Group, Air Transport Command, United States Army Air Forces, and based at Long Beach Army Airfield, California.

 

Lost In The Amazon

One of the aircraft DeBona was tasked with ferrying was a Lockheed F-5A-10-LO Lightning photo reconnasissance fighter. These aircraft were manufactured during World War II at the Lockheed Aircraft Company facility located in Burbank, CA. The aircraft would then be ferried to operational areas during the war.

 

A photograph of a Lockheed F-5A-10 Lightning 42-13289 Photo Reconnaisance Aircraft in flight during World War II.

 

The primary role of the Loockheed F-5A photo reconnaisance aircraft was photographic reconnaisance. The F-5A was designed to gather intelligence by capturing high-resolution aerial photographs of enemy installations, troop movements, and strategic military targets.

 

The F-5 variant was stripped of armament and equipped with a variety of cameras, allowing it to operate at high speeds and altitudes while avoiding engagment with enemy fighters. These reconnaisance missions provided invaluable information for military planning and strategic bombing missions.

A three-view drawing of a P-38 Lightning.

 

Lockheed F-5A Specifications:

• Crew: 1 (pilot)
• Length: 37 ft 10 in
• Wingspan: 52 ft 0 in
• Height: 12 ft 10 in
• Empty Weight: 12,500 pounds
• Gross Weight: 20,000 pounds
  
• Engines: 2 Allison V-1710-111/113 V-12 liquid cooled turbo-supercharged piston engines, each with 1,600 horespower
• Maximum speed: 414 mph at 25,000 feet
  
• Range: 2,300 miles with drop tanks
  
• Service ceiling: 44,000 feet
• Cameras: K-17, K-18, or K-22 cameras
• Camera mounts: Vertical and oblique mounts for diverse angles and coverage

 

Typically the aircraft would carry multiple camers which allowed it to simultaneously take both vertical and oblique images. The effectiveness of the F-5 Lightning stemmed from its high speed, long range, and high altitude capabilities. This allowed it to operate deep into enemy territory.

 

The F-5's ability to carry out reconnaissance missions over enemy territory provided crucial information which was instrumental in aiding Allied forces to make informed strategic decisions and to conduct successful operations through the war. The aircraft's role in recommaissance missions underscored its versatility and the innovative use of technology during World War II.

 

1st Lt. DeBona was one of the thousands of anonymous U.S. Army pilots who would take aircraft from the factories and ferry them to where they were needed for the battle in World War II. One of his tasks was to ferry a F-5A-10-LO Lightning photo reconnaisance aircraft, serial number 42-13113, to a transshippment Brazilian Air Base on February 19, 1943.

 

On that day, 1st Lt. DeBona was flying a brand new Lockheed F-5A-10-LO Lightning photo recon aircraft from Burbank, CA to a Brazilian Air Base when both engines failed over the depths of the Amazon jungle in Brazil. Lt. DeBona managed to spot an open area below him in the jungle which allowed him to make a successful forced landing on Marajó Island, Pará, Brazil. 

An aerial view of the Marajó Island, Pará, Brazil.

 

Lt. DeBona was unhurt during the landing; however, the aircraft was a total loss and it was abandoned to the forest once he was rescued.

 

What follows is a report which appeared in the Binghampton Press, Binghampton, New York:

Flier Rescued After 14 Days Alone in Jungle

DeBona, Forced Down in Brazil, Suffered Most From Loneliness

By A. T. STEELE

SPECIAL CABLE

To The Binghampton Press and the Chicago Daily News, Inc.

 

    Somewhere in Brazil, March 10—(Delayed)—Forced down in the Depths of the Brazilian jungle an American pilot has been rescued from a nightmare experience of 20 days. He is Lieut. Joe De Bona who is today speeding back to his home in Beverly Hills, Cal., for reunion with his waiting wife.

 

     I met Mr. De Bona at a Brazilian air base shortly after he arrived, bearded and weary from his forest trek. He said he had lost more than 25 pounds and admitted that his long stay in the jungle, fighting the mosquitoes and fever, and worst of all the black solitude, had badly shaken his nerves. Mr. De Bona is by no means the first flyer to crash in the Amazon forest but he is one of the very few to come back alive. Mr. De Bona was ferrying a two-motored plane across Brazil when one of his motors suddenly conked out. Twenty-five minutes later the second engine quit and the plane headed steeply for the dense forest below.

 

     Miraculously Mr. De Bona found a hole in the jungle mass and managed to make a belly landing in the bog. As the radio was still working he ticked out his approximate position to an air base 165 miles away. Then he sat down for a long wait. Three days later an American search plane found him and dropped him iron rations. Mr. De Bona had hoped he might be rescued within a few days but it was not until 14 days after his crash that a small party of natives succeeded in beating their way through the forest to the place where the pilot and his plane waited.

 

     “I have been to Guadalcanal and I have been through some mighty unpleasant experiences in my life but I’ve never suffered anything like the torture of the fortnight in the jungle,” Mr. De Bona went on.

 

     “I didn’t dare go far from the plane for I would have been lost in 10 minutes if I tried to penetrate the thick forest which surrounded me. One I started to climb a tree to look over the countryside but I came down in a hurry when I met a snake gazing at me through the branches. The days were blazing hot with occasional squalls of drenching rain. I could do but sit them out under what little shelter my plane could give me. A 6 o’clock night came down with equatorial suddenness. The swamp mosquitoes came on duty, buzzing about me until dawn. I slept or tried to sleep in the tail of my ship, using my rubber raft as a mattress and my parachute as a mosquito net.”

 

     Mr. De Bona exhibited a leg flecked with spots—ant bites. Unlike the mosquitoes, jungle ants worked 24 hours daily.

 

     Mr. De Bona said much of his suffering was psychological. The loneliness, the black nights, the long hours of waiting with nothing to read and nothing to think about except his own difficulties, had a cumulative effect as the days passed. Then there were the jungle noises which mounted in crescendo after the sun went down. Sitting in his lonely swamp he saw monkeys, buffaloes, brilliant plumaged birds and snakes. The creatures he liked least were the black scavenger birds which soared continuously over the forest looking for dead meat.

 

     Mr. De Bona developed a fever a few days before his rescue and was soon “hearing imaginary voices” and talking to himself, when on the 14th day a Brazilian rescue party of four men driving saddled oxen broke into the clearing, De Bona wept with relief.

 

     “I never believed anything like this possible outside Hollywood,” Mr. De Bona said. “But now I know Hollywood sometimes is right.”

 

—Binghamton Press, Vol. 64, No. 283, 13 March 1943, Page 11, Column 2

But, the Army Air Force still needed 1st Lt. DeBona as a ferry pilot, and on April 6, 1943, DeBona was once again involved in another aircraft accident, this time while taxiing a Boeing B-17F-70-BO Flying Fortress at Morrison Army Airfield in Florida. 

 

Enter Jimmy Stewart - Actor and Pilot

During World War II Jimmy Stewart, along with many other Hollywood celebrities like Clark Gable, wanted to contribute to the war effort. Jimmy wanted to fly, and to the surprise of many, he accomplished his goal and was a bomber pilot during World War II.

 

But, that is a story for another time.

 

Before and after World War II Jimmy Stewart was an active private pilot, and after the war his interest in aviation continued. After the war Joe DeBona took up an interest in racing aircraft, and he formed the Joe DeBona Racing Company. Somewhere along the way Jimmy Stewart met Joe Debona and decided to become a partner in his airplane racing company.

 

A photograph of Jimmy Stewart and actress Margaret Sullivan with Stewart's Stinson airplane.

 

After World War II Leland and Martha Cameron purchased aircraft parts from the War Assets Adminstration, WAA Agents, U.S. Army of U.S. Navy, Wunderlich Contracting Company, and Sharp Fellows, Inc. 

 

The Wunderlich Contracting Company had purchased all the surplus airplanes stored at Kingman Army Airfield in Arizona. The company paid $ 2,780.00 for a total of 5,483 airplanes, including many P-51 Mustang parts. What a deal!

 

Allied Aircraft, owned by Leland and Martha Cameron, then used the purchased parts from three separate P-51C parts to build and modify the racing P-51C named "Thunderbird". When they went to register this new aircraft with the Civil Aviation Administration they said the Serial No. 2925 appeared to be fictional.

 

However, after providing additional information as to where this aircraft came from, the CAA did issue a certificate of airworthiness and assigned the aircraft N5528N on April 5th, 1948. Two days later the aircraft was sold to the Joe DeBona Racing Company, a partnership between Joe DeBona and Jimmy Steawart.

 

Below is a video when the rebuilt from parts P-51C was first flown:

 

Below is a picture of Jimmy Stewart standing to the right of Joe DeBona and a pile of parts in front which were removed to lighten "Thunderbird" for racing. Life magazine photo by Allan Grant (via AirCorps Aviation).

 

The 1949 Bendix Race

 

A photo of the original Bendix Trophy on display at the National Air & Space Museum, Washington, DC.

 

The 1949 Bendix Race course was takeoff from the grounds of the Murdoc Air Force Base in California to Cleveland, Ohio, a distance of 2,008 miles. It was the first time that a simultaneous recehorse start took place. Six aircraft competed for the 1949 Bendix Trophy.

 

Taking off alongside DeBona in the Thunderbird were two other P-51Cs, both entered by Paul Mantz Air Services, a deHaviland Mosquito, a Martin B-26 Marauder, and a Republic AT-12 Guardsman. 

 

After takeoff the pilots climbed up to reach favorable winds at altitude, and then continued their dash eastwards towards Cleveland. The first casualty to drop out was the AT-12, the Maurauder had fuel problems and landed at North Platte, Nebraska. In the meantime the two bright red P-51Cs and DeBona's cobalt blue P-51C streaked on, increasing their lead.

 

DeBone flew a very precise course and was helped by 29-33 mph tailwinds. DeBona averaged 470.136 mph, a record which still stands to this day. It was the last time the Bendix Trophy involved piston powered airplanes. Eleven and twelve minutes after DeBona crossed the finish line the red P-51Cs arrived, followed by the Mosquito which finished fourth.

 

A photograph of the P-51C Mustang named Thunderbird in flight.

 

You can read more about DeBona and the cobalt blue "Thunderbird" at vintage aviation news website. To see the history of this incredible P-51C Mustang, visit the website for information about The North American P-51 Mustang.

A photograph of the cobalt blue P-51C Thunderbird.

 

The 1953 Coronation of ElizabethII June 2, 1953

 

Joe DeBona continued racing and flying airplanes, and when it was announced in England that Elizabeth II would be crowned on 6-1-53, everyone wanted to see it. In 1953 television was just coming into it's own, and ABC, CBS and NBC had managed to get started in the television broadcast business.

 

Well, even people in the US were interested in the upcoming coronation, and the new networks were trying to figure out how to broadcast the coronation as quickly as possible. Canadians were excited as well, and wanted to see it as soon as possible.

 

So, the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) arranged for the BBC kinescope film of the coronation to be flown to Goose Bay, Labrador in a Royal Air Force (RAF) Canberra. From there a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) jet would fly the film to Montreal for broadcast.

A photograph of an RAF Canberra in flight.

 

So, the two US networks needed a way to get the kinescope film from Goose Bay to broadcast facilities in Boston, MA. Boston had the ability to feed the entire country for both networks.

 

Enter Joe DeBona.

 

The two networks set up a race with CBS hiring Joe Debona to fly the "Mr. Alex", formerly known as "Thunderbird", while Paul Mantz's red P-51C, flown by Stan Reaver who had finished second to DeBona in the 1949 Bendix Race. He vowed not to let that happen again!

 

On coronation day the kinescope film was shot, loaded into the RAF Canberra, and arrived in Goose Bay by 1:45 pm. 17 minutes later DeBona was wheels up at 2:02 pm, arriving in Boston at 4:13 pm. Reaver had departed Goose Bay at 2:15, had icing problems, and arrived in Boston at 4:37 pm. 

 

When NBC realized Reaver would be late, they approaced ABC (the American Broadcasting Company) to strike a deal. Just moments before 4:00 pm ABC and NBC reached an agreement with CBC and swithced their feed to CBC coverage from Ottawa.

 

When DeBona landed in Boston at 4;13 pm, taxied to the ramp he handed over the film to the CBS executives. Unfortunately, both ABC and CBS managed to show the London coverage of the coronation a whole 4 minutes after DeBona landed, scooping NBC out!

DeBona hands off film cans to CBS executives at Logan Airport.

On January 23, 1975, Joseph Claremont DeBona passed away at the age of 62 in Newport Beach California. As we pilot say "DeBona has Gone West".

I hope you enjoyed this trip through some of the history of aviation. If you enjoyed this trip, and if you are new to this newsletter, sign up to receive your own weekly newsletter here: Subscribe here!

 

Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!