Central Florida World War II Museum - Lt. Joel P. McConnell

Lt. Joel P. McConnell: Rizol, Luzon, Philippines, 760th Field Artillery Battalion, "I don't want you to
think that I stayed up in the plane all the time. I spent a lot more time on the ground looking
through binoculars. Its just I enjoyed being above the jungle rather than in it. I remember my flights
well but I only went up when they needed an extra pair of eyes. My small stature was another
consideration. On the ground things were tougher. Moving through the jungle and underbrush was
a challenge itself. Looking for booby traps, watching for snakes and ants, watching for footprints,
discolored foliage that may have been cut to camouflage positions. I found a good Jap supply dump
in this manner and the guns blew it sky high. So often, I was on an elevated position watching through
field glasses and sweating buckets. I did good work at Rizol. We did a lot of shooting there. There are
two things that will make a battery's nightmare: attack from the air and counter battery fire. One man
was killed (Sgt. Rasmussin) and five more wounded in Battery A from one Jap shell down by Cuenca about
the time I went to the hospital and left the unit. So when a horse drawn battery was spotted
pulling in to give us counter battery fire you better believe the 760ths 155 howitzers cleaned out the
road. A patrol later counted 10 dead Japs, 6 dead horses, 1 blown up cassion, and a 15 cm gun blown
into a ditch. Later firing knocked out a bridge, 7 trucks, eight 47mm guns, two 105 howitzers, and
numerous cattle and carts. One of the boys picked up a piece of silk serge bag by one of the blown up
guns and gave it to me since I was one of the spotters. I wrote a letter to my wife on it. (see picture left)
It reads...Dear Sue, Thought you might like to see some real silk again (yuk). This is a powder bag from
a Jap artillery shell which was picked up beside a gun which we just knocked out. I am proud of this as it
was I doing the firing when we destroyed the Jap gun. I have been doing a lot of shooting over here and
have had good results. I just want you to know how much I miss you and want to be with you. Let us both
hope it will not be too long. Give my regards to poppy and muggie. I love you with all my heart. Yours JP
P.S. Forgive me for not sending a valentine. I'll make it up to you. ( the piece of silk is roughly 10 inches
by a foot.)

( On Feb 23, 1945, the 760ths scout plane was wrecked on takeoff. A new plane was received soon
thereafter. Once again the pilot was Lt. Phillip Gouglielmo) Luzon, Philippines, "At some point we got
another plane. It had a bigger engine than the little 65 horse L4. Not much bigger mind you, only about
75 horse, but it was faster and we could range out a little farther in it. We were following the Pasag river
keeping an eye out for Japanese activity. On our return trip Phillip says, "Hey Mac, How long has it been
since you had a bath?" I replied that it had been quite a spell. "I think I can put her down on that sand
bar." We banked around for a closer look. " Looks pretty solid, what do you say?" At the time, the
prospect of a dip in the river sounded wonderful. We had been camped away from any standing water
for awhile and it had gotten to the point that my socks were rags when I pulled off my boots having rotted
off on my feet. So I agreed. We landed on the sand bar without problem and took turns taking a quick
wash the other keeping lookout. It felt great. Once the engine was restarted, I had to lift the tail and turn
us around. I had a little trouble, but I got the tail up and swung it about. Suddenly, a group of natives
came out of the trees and grabbed the tail too. I thought they were trying to help but soon realized they
were holding the plane. That could only be for the Japs, so I pulled my pistol and waived them off. When
I got in and the plane started forward, they grabbed it again. We only had so much room to taxi so I hung
out the door with my gun again. They let go and Goog gunned it. We just missed the trees, but we made
it up. There wasn't much conversation on the trip back to camp. I think we were both pretty rattled. Upon
landing we discovered palm fronds hanging under the plane. It had been a near thing, too close a call. I
hate to think what our fate might have been. We never tried that again."

Luzon, Philippines, "We had some new fuses called proximity or posit fuses. They were designed by the
British for knocking out Buzz bombs over England. They were designed with a little radar in them which
would bounce off the ground and cause them to explode in the air showering the shrapnel down. We
learned we couldn't shoot with them in the rain though. The radar would read the raindrops and cause
them to go off in mid flight. They were usually used against infantry. We were flying along following a
road when we sighted a company of Japanese infantry. They ran off the road and into the trees when
they spotted our plane. I called a strike on them. The shells contained the new proximity fuses which
caused them to burst in the air just above the trees. In those big 155 shells they were devastating. We
flew back on a low pass and a lone Japanese soldier came out of the smoking woods and into the road.
He shook his fist at the plane as we went by. We were low and I could see him well, and I still can see
that lone Japanese standing in the road shaking his fist."