[Homer_J_Simpson]

MacArthur: His Rendezvous with History, by Courtney Whitney;

"I don't recall ever reading this book "

When I reviewed the list I picked that book as the probable source for the furniture item by about the same process of elimination. But it doesn't sound like Toland bought the story himself. I've never seen the interior of a PT boat, but a chest of drawers and a large refrigerator? I don't buy it either.

[fso301]

I've never seen the interior of a PT boat, but a chest of drawers and a large refrigerator? I don't buy it either.

And the context of Toland's note was loading furniture onto B-17's at Del Monte airfield on the Southern Philippine island of Mindanao after having completed a 35 hour ~550 mile passage by PT-boat's across rough seas from Corregidor.

Remember, there were 21 people in MacArthur's evacuation group and 3 B-17's. In addition to their crews and ammunition, an additional 7 people had to be crammed into each plane. Unlike the cutout drawing below of a B-17G, the planes used to fly MacArthur's party to Australia were B-17C's as shown in the B&W photo which had a narrower fuselage due to not having a tail gunner. The flight was through hostile airspace so, the gunner's could not be impeded. Any notion of the planes being loaded up like a U-haul van is false.