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P-7
SN 44-61795 in formation with other 39th Bomb Group B-29s
during one their missions
Photo
courtesy of Richard Curry, TG, P-19
"Butler County Veterans of WWII"
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Joe
Giannini, Crew Chief, and "Shorty" Higgins, mechanic, though totally
fatigued from having worked all day and until past 0100 in the
morning, waved us off. One hundred thirty-two Superforts of the
314th Wing revved up their 3350 rpm Wright Cyclone engines, then
one by one lumbered down the 8,500-foot runway at North Field,
Guam. Each was loaded with 20-500 pound bombs and all were headed
for the same place - Otake. Joe and "Shorty" would be there to
welcome us back.
There
are a lot of nice things I could say about Lt Dale Barton, navigator,
but the nicest is - we were never lost. Following the usual plan,
we flew up in single file, climbing all the way. This tends to
complicate the job of a navigator as wind velocity and direction
were constantly changing. We arrived at our prearranged assembly
point off the coast of Japan and approached the target from the
west. The gunners flicked on their power switches and energized
their guns, sights and turrets. They carefully checked out these
components of the gunnery system and then fired short bursts to
be certain all was ready for action. Up front, Dick Little, radio
operator, released a flare signaling the start of assembly for
our element.
Otake
was an oil refinery and fuel storage area about 425 miles southwest
of Tokyo. The Operation Plan called for pinpoint rather than saturation
bombing. So, since we were Deputy Lead Crew for this mission,
and would be leading an element, "Biff" Badgley would use the
bombsight rather than drop on the leader.
At
1048 hours on the morning of 10 May, Capt. Leo C. Lewis, whose
career included a tour in B-17s over Europe, led the 314th over
the target. · He would eventually become a General Officer. Capt.
Juvenal of P-7 led our element, "Biff" turned on the bombsight
camera to record results as Juvenal and Ralph Hardin, co-pilot,
prepared themselves for the bomb run.
Dick
little, as usual, positioned himself to watch the aerial action.
I don't know what happened to the 550 Japanese fighters that had
been predicted but we only sighted two twin engines and one "Oscar."
The Official record of the mission would show 39 enemy aircraft
made 54 attacks and damaged one B29. I guess those that followed
us took the worst of that. "Biff" released the bombs on target
- the others dropped on the resulting smoke and flame. Juvenal
held course on the bomb run until bomb impact to allow the camera
to record results. Immediately thereafter, we broke formation,
made a sharp right turn and headed for open water in order to
avoid anti-aircraft fire which briefing had warned, protected
the Kure Naval Base. Twenty-six minutes after the lead plane began
its bomb run, all planes had left the target area.
Normally
at this point, the bombardier would turn off the camera, but "Biff"
distracted by flak, did not. Years later, "Big Ed" Reinhold would
kid, "Biff" about photographing the beautiful mountains of Shikoku.
The camera ran on, recording each ship of the Japanese Navy which
we unfortunately passed over that day ' amid their terrifying
anti-aircraft barrage. We had no way of knowing that this oversight
of allowing the camera to operate would provide Headquarters with
valuable intelligence- Until our film was processed, no one knew
the location or condition of the Japanese Navy. As it turned out,
they were alive and well in the Inland Sea having just returned
from the battle of Okinawa to lick their wounds in home waters.
There was still some fight left in them as their barrage attested.
Juvenal poured on the coal and hurried out of there, but in the
process took a hit in number 3 engine. We lost oil, then altitude,
and with # 3 feathered, made the decision to try for an emergency
landing at Iwo Jima.
Continued
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