While Crew 21 was recovering from its terrifying experience and awaiting a gunner to replace Harrison, the airplane commander passenger (Capt Cornelius W. Kobler) that had survived the ditching, took Crew 21's replacement aircraft, and his crew, on a mission. They never returned.

The approximate time of take-off of their plane was 7:00 PM 25 May 1945. The time they were over the target area, "Tokyo" was about 2:00 AM 26 May when the crew was lost. Source: "Butler Co Veterans of WWII" by Richard G. Curry

"On May 26th at night we were flying in over north Tokio (sic) on a mission. Comming (sic) in from Mount Fuji towards the Shiebea (sic) Peninsula when were caught in the searchlights. We kept comming (sic) in and dropped our bombs on the target. Soon after we were hit by flak in the right wing and # 3 engine had caught fire. Engine was feathered and the fire was put out. Soon after that # 2 engine was hit and on fire. Engineer tried to put it out but it kept burning beyond the firewall. Fire spread rapidly and the Cpt.'s manuvering (sic) around couldn't blow out the fire. Soon it had burned half the wing off and was getting near our center wing tank. The blister next to me was melting and the plane looked as if she would blow up right away. The Captain was planning on putting in Tokyo Bay and ditching it there. He gave us our choice weather(sic) to bailout or stay. The radioman was in the back with the gunners and no message was sent. I jumped out of the plane with the other gunners right behind me. Weather(sic) they ever jumped I'll never know. I was on fire and by the time I got it out, pulled my ripcord, I could see nothing of the plane. I landed safely in a tree and was picked up by the by the Japanese two nights later. I never did hear anything else about my crew.

Note: The following document is in PDF format it can be viewed and printed by using

This aircraft rammed with a Japanese fighter. 10 crew members including Aircraft Commander Kobler were killed on crash.

Sergeant Harry J. Slater was arrested, sent to Tokyo Military Police and came back to U.S. after the war.

According to information found on the Interment.net web site the 9 of 10 men lost on the 26 May 1945 Tokyo Urban Area Mission are interned at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery St. Louis, Missouri. d. 05/26/1945, Plot: 78 0 978-980, bur. 03/23/1950

Note: The remains of the crew were originally buried by a Japanese farmer and were later transferred to the military cemetary at Yokahoma from where they were transferred to Jefferson Barracks.

Update: 20 Nov 2007 - Cpl George Winford Roberts' remains were returned to Newport, Arkansas where he was interred in the family plot at Sandhill Cemetery in Auvergne, AR. just a few miles south of Newport - Maj Matt May, USAF, great nephew of Cpl George W. Roberts.

Thanks to Jim Kasmarek for providing us with this information he found. While researching his father's childhood and WWII days, he was told that his father's childhood friend was Fred Graesslin, who served in the Pacific Theater, but had died during the war. Further, Graesslin's brother, who Jim had contacted was able to tell him that his bother (F/O Graesslin) served on a B-29 as a Navigator he believed. Upon further research in an effort to find out more about Graesslin for Karmarek's father he found there was a Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) #14511 and obtained it from the National Archives and found our web site as a result of an internet search.

The names of Kobler & his crew appear on the 39th Bomb Group Casualties List but until receiving this information it wasn't known by some they were all from the same crew.

Our thanks to Jim Kasmarek for this valuable piece of history. He can be contacted via email by clicking on his name.