14
May
Took off from Guam at 0110 to pull a fire raid on Nagoya.
Over 500 B-29s from Guam, Tinian and Saipan took part in
the raid. The city was burning good when it was our turn
over the target. Our formation was very poor but luckily
we had very few fighter attacks. Not very much flak on this
mission. 16 hrs 05 min Flying time.
17
May
Departed Guam about 1930 for a night fire raid on Nagoya.
Lost an engine 180 miles this of Iwo Jima. Savoled bombs
and returned to Guam. Flying time 5 hrs.
19
May
Scheduled for a daylite raid on Tachikawa Aircraft Works
near Tokyo but had engine trouble and didn’t get off
the ground.
21
May
Departed for Iwo Jima about 1000 to navigate fighters from
Iwo to Japan. Arrived Iwo in 4 hrs 10 min. After taking
in a movie that nite we were ready to hit the sack when
the Air Raid warning sounded. We all dived head first in
the nearest fox hole. We had hardly gotten settled when
it seemed the little island was blowing up. It really looked
like the 4th of July with the tracers from all sizes of
guns going skyward. Searchlites were scanning the skies
and the naval ships in the harbor which was almost a ¼
mile from where we were on a (uknown word) were cutting
loose with the all their big guns.
Above
all the noise of gunfire we could hear our nite figters
taking off at intervals.
A
Jap was hit and set afire high in the air. It came plummeting
straight down and hit the water with a mighty explosion
a short way from the shore.
It was all over as soon as it had begun. The next morning
22 May we attempted a take off to escort and navigate P-51
fighters to Japan. Weather was bad so we never got off.
A short distance from where our plane was parked another
Jap Betty had hit the ground. I was scattered over a large
area and 6 dead Japs were scattered with it, just as they
had been thrown from the plane. One Jap Betty had gotten
over the island the nite before and had dropped one bomb
which caused no damage to the airstrip but it killed one
person and injured 4 others.
23 May
Attempted another take off but had bad weather again held
us on the ground.
24 May
Got in the air with a formation of 6 B-29’s and 96
P-51 fighters but after almost getting to the Jap coast,
hit bad weather and to return to Iwo. Flying time: 6 hrs
25 May
4 B-29s including ourselves got off with approximately 96
fighters & took them to the coast of Japan. All the
fighters except two left us to strafe & bomb airfields
near Tokyo. We circled over one of our own submarines about
20 miles off the coast of Japan as groups of the fighters
began to come back each B-29 would navigate different spaced
bunches back to Iwo.
We were the last B-29 to leave and had to wait all tragglers.
One of the last fighters to come back was pretty badly shot
up, it was piloted by a full Col. the C.O. of one of the
fighter Groups. He had contact with our plane & told
us that he was going to have to bailout. We saw him bailout
over the sub and his plane hit the water & burn. He
wasn’t in the water but 3 minutes and the sub had
picked him up.
After
waiting our allotted time there were only two more fighters
came back and we took them back to Iwo.
Flying time was 7 hrs
26 May
We were to return to Guam about noon. Early that morning
B-29’s began coming back from the 1st 5000 ft nite
fire raid on Tokyo. Many were badly shot up. Besides the
fact that some were shot up too bad to land there was a
very low ceiling right over our strip. The crews of 3 B-29’s
had to bail out over the island. We saw 8 men bailout of
one.
A
short while later a B-29 ditched in the bay between the
shore and the navy ships. There were a couple of injured
men aboard but the plane made a beautiful ditching and
was still floating in the bay when we took off for Guam
about 1500 and arrived on Guam in 3 hrs and 50 min.
After
hitting the ground the sad news that Capt Paquette’s
crew (Dick, Joe Medina, Jack Covington, Jerry Leverson &
Bill Reith) who were living in the Quonset Hut with us,
had been Missing in Action since the 23rd. It was believed
that their plane had blown up over Tokyo on a nite mission
29
May
Took off from Guam about 0120 for a daytime fire raid on
Yokahama with fighter support from Iwo. Formed on the coast
of Japan in very bad weather. We managed to get in with
two other B-29’s and went over the target in a 3 plane
formation. The target area was clear and results were good.
Our fighters gave our formation good support and at that
we had 4 fighter attacks. Flak was quite heavy but inaccurate
and we received no bullet or flak holes in “The Lancer.”
Flying time 15 hrs 55 min |
