On Sept. 15, 1944, the 31st U.S. Infantry Division landed on the southwestern beach on the island of Morotai, Indonesia, which was deemed necessary as a base to support the upcoming campaign in the Philippines. This step across the South Pacific was garrisoned by only 500 Japanese soldiers and was virtually taken without a fight.
In contrast, the nearby island of Halmahera had 37,000 Japanese troops and ample artillery, but the Americans contented themselves with bypassing it. On Sept. 16, however, a 7th Fleet task group of escort carriers under Rear Adm. Daniel Barbey bombed and rocketed the isolated installations on Halmahera, unwittingly triggering one of the war’s high dramas.
It began shortly before 7 a.m. when eight FM-2 Wildcats of Navy fighter squadron VF-26 from the escort carrier Santee strafed three barges east of Lolabata. One FM-2 was hit by antiaircraft fire and its pilot, Ensign Harold Thompson, was blown out of it at 350 feet altitude with a mangled hand and a lacerated leg. Thompson landed 50 yards from the enemy-held coast in Wasile Bay and took cover behind a lugger that, fortunately for him, was unoccupied and camouflaged with palm fronds.
Despite damage to his life vest, Thompson found that a tide was slowly carrying him seaward, where a Consolidated PBY-5a Catalina spotted him and braved Japanese antiaircraft fire to drop a one-man raft, which unluckily landed among the enemy.
Making an even more daring second run, the PBY succeeded in dropping another life raft 50 yards from Thompson, who swam to it. Meanwhile, Thompson’s squadron mates kept Japanese troops distracted until 9:30 a.m. when their fuel and ammunition gave out, but their places were taken by four Wildcats of composite squadron VC-66 from the escort carrier Fanshaw Bay, led by Lt. J.P. Fox.
The hours that passed saw more rotations among the escort carrier planes against the Japanese gunners, the latter taking their toll on pilots grimly determined to save one of their own at any cost. Ensign Jesse McNinch of VF-37 from the escort carrier Sangamon was bombing Japanese installations at Galela when he was shot down and killed. A Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat flown by Ensign Paul Lindskog of VF-60 from the escort carrier Suwannee was hit by a 5-inch shell, but he managed to bail out unhurt in safer waters and was rescued. Less fortunate was Ensign William Bannister of VF-60, whose F6F-3 crashed in the water 100 yards from Thompson, but never emerged from his sinking fighter. Oil starvation compelled another VF-37 pilot from the Sangamon, Ensign Merville Knackstedt, to ditch at sea and spend the night in a life raft.
At this point, with Thompson still trapped within Wasile Bay, Barbey requested assistance from a new source: With Morotai secured, 41 patrol torpedo boats in four squadrons, supported by PT boat tenders, sent 16 boats out on their first overnight patrol.
That patrol order, however, soon turned into the command to perform a seaborne rescue right from under the enemy’s noses.
Lt. Arthur Preston, commander of motor torpedo boat squadron Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 33, stepped forward to lead the attempt and quickly gathered volunteers.
Born in Chevy Chase, Maryland on Nov. 1, 1918, Preston attended the Phillips Academy in 1931, followed by study at Yale University and the University of Virginia School Law. He was a practicing attorney in 1938, but in September 1940 he joined the U.S. Navy Reserve. Wartime found him commanding a PT boat and during the Solomons campaign he was friends with PT-109′s commander (and future president) Lt. John F. Kennedy.
When Preston led his two wooden craft into the bay at 1350 hours, Thomas, his raft and the lugger in which he hid were still only 200 yards from the beach. Preston called for a smoke screen from the aircraft and Lt. George Stouffer, piloting a TBM-1 Avenger, accommodated him while the PTs again entered Kao Bay and turned east into Wasile.
Over the next two and a half hours, PT-489 and PT-363 dodged shells through the bay while a TBM, piloted by Lt. Dwight Long, laid more smoke between the PTs and the questing Japanese gunners.
As the boats finally reached their objective, they found Thompson too exhausted to make the final five yards to reach them. Without hesitation, PT-489′s intelligence officer, Lt. Don Seaman and Motor Machinist 1st Class Charles Day dove overboard, cut the rope by which Thompson had bound himself to the lugger and returned to the boat. As they departed, still under constant shelling, the PTs bid the enemy goodbye with their 40mm cannons, setting the lugger on fire before departing.
Miraculously, only minor damage was inflicted on the boats and none of the participating rescuers were hurt. After 11 hours in the water with his hand and leg wounds, Thompson remarked in retrospect that it “sure was a wonderful show to watch.”
For their roles in Thompson’s rescue, Seaman and Day were awarded the Navy Cross, while Preston received the Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman on Dec. 19, 1947. He is one of only two PT boat crewmen awarded his country’s highest honor during WWII.
Preston retired from the Navy as a commander in 1953 and worked as a banker thereafter, before his death on Jan. 7, 1968. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
