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Last update: 14 August 2023
Crew 03

Corporal Leland D. Faktor

Engineer/Gunner
95th Bombardment Squadron
- First name:
Leland
- Middle name:
Dale
- Last name:
Faktor
- Nickname:
-
- Rank Doolittle raid:
Corporal
- Last rank:
Corporal
- Service number:
17003211
- Date of birth:
17 May 1921
- Place of birth:
Plymouth, Iowa
- Date of death:
18 April 1942
- Place of death:
Shuichang county, Zhejiang province, China - KIA after bailng out - Fall of a cliff
- Place of the cemetery:
Wang Tseun, China - his grave was found near that village in 1947. Faktor was reburred in 1949 in Plymouth, Iowa
- Name of the cemetery:
Bohemian Cementery

Additional info

His father was Louis Faktor and his mother Rose Faktor, born Cinkie.  He had 2 brothers (Marvin and Leroy) and one sister named Juantia.

Leland Faktor was born on a farm one and one-half miles NW of Plymouth, Iowa. He was born in Worth county; Iowa which is sepatrated by a road from Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. He was the second son born to Lou and Rose Faktor. As a little boy, he played and fished in the creek that was on his father's farm. When he was old enough to work, his fahter bought him a bicycle so he had transportation to help other farmers in the area. Hebecame interested in flying and planes and had a friend who owned a Waco plane. On Sundays he would go flying with his friend and he lovedthe freedom and thrill of being in the skies. He attended and graduated from Plymouth High School in 1940. To be able to fly he enlisted in Aircorps on 8 August 1940 with  the intentionof becoming a pilot. He was stationed at Chanute Field in Rantoul.

Faktor was KIA after bailed out of the plane “Whiskey Pete” on 18 April 1942. Supposedly he fell off a rock in Suichang county. His parachute had also only partially opened. In fact it is unknown what exactly happened to him after bailing out. Buried in Wan Tseun in the Zehjian province. His grave was hide for the Japanese occupying forces. Later, after the war he was reburried in Mason City, Iowa.

As said Faktor was buried in China in Wan Tseun, a small village about 450 miles or 725 km southeast of Shangai and reburied in the USA since 27 April 1949. His grave was refound in 1947 - Leland Dale Faktor was identified through a golden ring and brazelet with his name on. During the Japanes occupation of parts of China his grave was hide for the Japanese troops in that region.

THIS IS THE CHINESE VERSION OF THE STORY OF THE DEATH OF FAKTOR

Of course, not everyone was lucky enough to survive. Leland D. Faktor, who was in the aft cabin of the 3rd plane, failed to parachute. The villagers of Beiyang Village, Zhede Township, Suichang County, who found the remains of the plane, and transported his body to the village and laid it down on a board and set up a shed to guard it. After two days and two nights, the boody was transferred to the temporary headquarters of the Thirteenth Air Terminal in Wangcun, Quzhou. A month later, on May 19, Major Chen Youchao, director of the 13th Air Terminal in Quzhou, and 200 air terminal personnel buried Faktor with military honors on behalf of the Chinese Air Force. Students from Wangcun Primary School also attended the funeral.  The cemetery faces west and the grave faces east. There are no hills. There are two blue stone slabs in front of the tomb. The high one is about 120 cm high and 80 cm wide. The logo of the team's flying wing. Faktor's remains were returned to the United States in 1947, when news reported that "the last of the Doolittles had returned home," and he was given a grand funeral. The two bluestone in front of the tomb remained, and the locals saw them in the 1980s, and the stone materials of the bluestone were used to pave the road. Nobody knows what the bluestone stele was used for after renovation and road construction.
 
That Faktor failed to parachute is written in the diary of  RICHARD E. MILLER of crew 02 too. I have the diary in my possession. I hope to publish parts of it in the coming months. The official story tells us that Faktor fell from a cliff after bailing out.  So also a Chinese source tells us that Faktor was found dead in the plane and that he did not bailed out or was not able to bail out.
 
Leland D. Faktor is inducted into Iowa’s Aviation Hall of Fame in 2014.- http://flyingmuseum.com 

civilian exposure chanute afb feature

There is/was a Faktor Hall on Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois since 1978. However this base is abandoned now. The base was established in 1917 and close in 1993.  On May 22, 1917, a contract was signed for the construction of Chanute Field with English Brothers Construction of Champaign. The original airfield was built exactly two months later, on July 22, 1917, utilizing a workforce of 2,000 people and 200 horses. 

These days the base is abandoned.

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Chanute AFB 08

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The Faktor Hall in 1981

 the faktor hall in 1981

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The Faktor Hall today ; 

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 The airfield was named after Octave Chanute. On https://www.abandonedspaces.com/uncategorized/chanute.html?chrome=1&Exc_D_LessThanPoint002_p1=1  you find an article and pictures.

By April 1941, Faktor volunteered when commanders of the 17th Bombardment Group and 89th Reconnaissance Squadron came looking for men willing to serve on “an extremely hazardous mission…of great value to the war effort.” In all, 24 crews consisting of 70 officers and 130 enlisted airmen mustered at Eglin Air Field on March 3, 1942, where Faktor and others first met the charismatic commander Jimmy Doolittle before embarking on a hectic training regime.

On 18 April 1942, Corporal Leland D. Faktor, Flight Engineer and Gunner from Plymouth, Iowa, bailed out of his B-25 bomber following the Doolittle Raid on Japan. The only of Doolittle’s Raiders killed in the raid, Faktor was one of three Iowans to either bail out or crash land over the Chinese coast following the famous 13-hour flight and raid.
 
Born 17 May 1921, in Plymouth, Faktor grew up on a farm about one and half miles west of town. “He was a quiet boy and some said shy; but he was not quiet or shy when it came to airplanes,” recalled his sister LaVerne in the 1995 book “A Potpourri of Plymouth’s Past. After graduating from Plymouth High School, Faktor enlisted at Fort Des Moines on August 9, 1940, in the hopes of becoming a pilot. Sent to Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois, by the Army Air Corps to complete Airplane Mechanic’s School.
 
If someone has more info and pictures on this profile, please contact me at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
 
1| Gravestone © find a grave.com – Don Calhoun - used with permission - 2| in Mason city Leland Faktor has a remembrance stone - Memorial Park Cemetery @ 43°08'44.9"N 93°17'34.3"W - All other pictures copyright @ nara-usa - public domain
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Written and research by Geert Rottiers on .
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THE TOKYO SIXTEEN

The Heroes of Doolittle's raid on Japan in april 1942

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