With
Special Order No. 70, Salina, Kansas 19 March 1945, Crew
23 departing Salina, Kansas for Herington, Kansas enroute
to Guam. A car struck bombardier, 1st Lt Robert Barnes
and his date, walking on the eve of departure. The young
lady died and Bob with compound fractures and serious
head injuries was hospitalized for quite some time.
19
March 1945, Crew 23 got movement orders to Guam. 2nd Lt
Jack L. Clawson, the second of four bombardiers during
my combat tour, was assigned to Crew 23.
Crew
23 on their thirteenth combat mission received the Distinguished
Flying Cross (DFC) for the daylight formation hit
on Kobe 5 June. Flak damage was significant. We lost an
engine over the target, cabin ruptures caused partial
decompression and pilot, Bob Winn's flak suit prevented
loss of "his manhood" when it stopped a 3 inch piece of
shrapnel that came through his seat, his survival dinghy
and stopped when it hit the flap of his flak suit between
his legs. No Purple Hearts, but maintenance people had
a field day digging out shrapnel and patching holes in
the aircraft and changing four cells. Almost as interesting
was the Nagoya during which Col. Mundy had to bail out.
Our nose wheel tires were flat as well flak holes in the
tail and fuel cells. Shortly after this mission, Crew
23 as assigned its 4th bombardier, Lt George Bucher, who
stayed with the crew through its last mission flown 14
August when Japanese surrendered.
On
2 September while General McArthur was accepting the Japanese
surrender, Crew 23, with Lt Col. Crumm were over China
seeking prisoner of war camps. We departed Guam with maximum
fuel load to stage out Okinawa. Our aircraft had new brakes
installed just prior to take-off from Guam which had not
been adequately deglazed and coupled with a max gross
weight we had trouble stopping the landing roll. With
smoke trailing from the brakes we finally brought the
plane to a stop straddling the perimeter road at the end
of the runway. As we rolled, Lt George Bucher, sitting
in the nose on the bombardier seat reached back and bent
the emergency brake handles all the back to the aisle
stand quadrant. He was bombardier on Crew
21 when Capt Senger ran out of fuel after a combat
mission and ditched 60 miles short of Guam. Brake handles
are expendable!
Since
an unarmed B-32 was shot down over China (by Russian or
Japanese fighters) a few days earlier, Crew 23 carried
a load of gun ammunition. On the second of September we
pinpointed a POW camp in Mukden, China. While we were
making contact with the POWs, Russian fighters launched
from the Mukden airport to look us over. Our gunners were
told to turret track the fighters but not open fire unless
the fighters turned and pointed their nose toward us.
Fighters posed no problem. We established contact with
the POW camp and Lt Col Crumm asked if any assistance
was needed. They did request beer and ice cream for 1680
men - to us a surprise - but a reasonable one. Col Crumm
passed on the request Guam but never knew if it was delivered
to Mukden.
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