Tales of the Guinea Short Lines 25th Liaison Squadron

Flight Journal, Apr 2002 by Busha, James P, Henkle, James, Bartlett, Frank

Our other problem was that New Guinea is covered with jungle and areas not covered had to be carved out to make landing strips. In some parts, the grass was from between five to 15 feet high with swamps below. This was not a place for liaison aircraft. They were designed to operate from large open fields, dry creek beds and hard roads. The plane's manufacturer never intended this small, single-engine airplane to fly over such hostile terrain or to carry such high loads of men and equipment. The other burden that presented itself was that in New Guinea, it was either hot or raining, and most of the time both-not an ideal place for wooden propellers dd fabric covering. My at goes off to my mechanics and pilots for maintaining these aircraft in such an inhospitable place.

We flew missions from strips that the Seabees built out of crushed coral and from bomber and fighter bases that had steel planks laid down. When our LSs returned from a mission, our pilots landed alongside the runway just as a bomber or fighter was about to land. This made crews really angry because they had to go around for fear that they would hit us. We were really never that close to them, but boy, did they "chew" my L-5 pilots out! Those fighter and bomber boys didn't like us with our "little puddle-jumpers," but that would all change.

One day, we learned that a bomber had gone down in the jungle. One of my L-5 pilots "volunteered" to look for him, and not only did he find the missing bomber, but he also dropped tools to the downed airmen so they could cut a landing strip out of the jungle. The L-5 returned to base with its now elated pilot. Things changed from then on. After we had rescued a couple of downed pilots from the jungle, we realized what our role was. When I was in command, I believe we rescued more than 50 bomber and fighter pilots, and those boys came to appreciate us. If we needed help going into an area to drop food, weapons or ammunition and there were still enemy airplanes around, the fighter group would assign us a P-40 or P-38 as top cover. The fighter would circle above while the L-Ss went in to drop provisions. On one mission, I had a couple of L-Ss going to drop food to some Army boys fighting in the jungle. Two Japanese Zeros showed up and went after the slow-moving L-Ss. An Air Force bomber squadron was going over the area and had a fighter escort of P-38s with it. The fighter commander ordered two P-38s down to help the L-Ss, and they saved the L-Ss from being shot down. We were thrilled about that, to say the least.

Our group was at long last getting the respect it deserved. The bomber crews delivered ice cream to us as a thank you. It was such a wonderful treat in such a hot place and, for a while, we forgot about the War and thought of home as we enjoyed our fast-melting ice cream.

Things were becoming very busy for us. I would send two to three flights out to the combat units to look for downed airmen, to drop food and supplies to ground units, haul out wounded, or just deliver mail and supplies. If any of the landing sites looked too short or too tight for the IrSs to get in for a specific mission, we would "borrow" an L-4 Cub from one of the artillery units and use that. We built up quite a reputation for ourselves, and with that, I felt the group needed to have its own name and symbol. Someone in the group came up with the name "Guinea Short Lines." An artist in the group painted a kangaroo under the name because we were just hopping around everywhere. From then on, we would forever be known as the "Guinea Short Lines."