Otake 10 May 1945

The Otake Oil Refinery was one of the targets selected for a hit on 10 May 1945. Crew P-17 was in the formation led by Major Lewis our bombs were released at 13,000 feet and went right down the chute. There was little or no flak upon the approach to the target, however we discovered a large segment of the Imperial Fleet was anchored not far from the target area. Flak from these ships was intense and very accurate damaging at least eight of our B-29’s. P-17 suffered minor damage and returned to Guam with no problems. However, Jason Sox’s campaign to paint each and every repaired flak or bullet hole was fast making P-17 look like a first class case of measles. Results of raid were reported as excellent and we notched Mission No. 6 and 16:40 hours combat time.

Nagoya May 14 1945

Crew P-17 and the rest of the 39th went in on a daytime incendiary Mission over Nagoya at 14,500 feet. We arrived over the target about 11:00 am on the 15th of May. The flak and fighter coverage was non-existent. We returned to Guam about 6:30 pm with no damage. Credit for a good bomb run, our 7th mission and 16:30 minutes combat time.

Nagoya May 16 1945

No sooner were we debriefed on yesterday’s run than we were briefed on a 7700 foot night raid back to Nagoya leaving about 6:00 pm on the 17th. When we arrived at the target area we found the pathfinders had lighted the target area very well. The enemy fighters and flak was inaccurate. However, we had our No. 4 engine hit which put us on three engine time for the third time in four missions. We arrived back at Guam with no more trouble with results classed as good and our 8th Mission under our belts along with 15:25 combat hours.

Hammatsu May 19 1945

Crew P-17 was part of the sorriest bombing run to date.  From 18,000 feet, we had to strike with radar due to 10/10 cloud cover. No flak, no fighters and no results from our mission photos resulted in our 9th mission being nothing more than a milk run to Japan and back. We were credited with 14:20 combat hours.