Striking Japan

The fundamental mission of the 330th ASG was to keep the B-29s at Isely Field flying missions against Japan. This they did. Supported by the the 330th and the other three ASGs at Isely Field, the 73rd Bomb Wing dropped 48,532 tons of bombs on Japanese targets in the course of 9894 combat sorties.

The first B-29 to arrive at Isely Field was T Square 5 on 12 October 1944.  She was Brigadier General Haywood “Possum” Hansell’s plane.  General Hansell was the commander of the XXI Bomber Command (all the B-29s outside of India and China).  The crew wanted to name the plane “Joltin Josie.”  General Hansel preferred “The Pacific Pioneer.”  In a wonderfully un-military compromise, the plane would be named “Joltin Josie, The Pacific Pioneer.”  Her arrival on Saipan caused quite a stir – finally, four months after invading the island, the B-29s were arriving and the mission to strike at Japan was almost at hand.

T Square 5, "Joltin Josie, The Pacific Pioneer,” after arriving at Isley Field on October 12, 1944. She was the first B-29 to land on Saipan and was greeted enthusiastically.
After piloting the first B-29 to land on Saipan, General Haywood Hansel (person on left shaking hands) is greeted by officers already on Saipan. This includes Colonel Lyman Phillips,commander of the 330th ASG (middle man standing in group of three officers in center of picture.)

Starting in November, General Hansell would try to strike at Japan by applying Army Air Forces doctrine – high altitude precision strikes against strategic targets.   The limitations of bombing technology, teething problems with the new B-29s, and the weather over the Japanese home islands would frustrate his attempts more often than not.  Before he could “work out the kinks” and begin producing the results expected in Washington, he was relieved in January 1945.  General Curtis LeMay would assume command – and two months later the low-level incendiary attacks would begin.

Joltin Josie lasted only a few months longer than General Hansell.  She successfully flew 24 missions without an abort.  But, on 1 April 1945 she crashed on takeoff (see discussion below) just off the end of the Isley Field runways, exploding on impact with the waters of Magicienne Bay.  There were no survivors.

Planes of the 498th Bomb Group, 73rd Bomb Wing in formation during an airstrike against Japan. Mount Fuji is in the background.
Five B-29s of the 500th Bomb Group release incendiary bombs during a daylight attack on Yokohama on 29 May 1945. 152 planes went on this mission. None were lost, but 30 aircraft came back with battle damage which the men of the 330th ASG would have helped repair. By the time the war was over 58% of Yokohama was in ruins. (Note: The yellow areas on the photo are damage to the original print.)

The photo above was used in hundreds of thousands of propaganda leaflets dropped over Japan in the last weeks of the war.  By that time the threats to the B-29s had diminished enough that the US was “calling its shots” as a show of strength.  The text of the leaflet that accompanied the photo said:

ATTENTION

JAPANESE PEOPLE

In the next few days the military installations in SOME OR ALL of the cities named on the photograph will be destroyed by American bombs. These cities contain military installations and workshops or factories which produce military goods. The American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives a warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives. America is not fighting the Japanese people. The peace which America will bring will free the people from the oppression of the military clique and mean the emergence of a new and better Japan. You can restore peace by demanding new and good leaders who will end the war. We cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked, but SOME OR ALL will be, so heed this warning and evacuate these cities immediately.

Post-War Strategic Bombing Survey Map of the City of Tokyo. The darkest areas on the map show the 15.8 square miles of Tokyo destroyed on the night of 9 March 1945 during “Operation Meetinghouse.” This incendiary attack was the single deadliest air raid of World War II, killing an estimated 100,000 people and making another estimated 1.000,000 homeless. Ultimately, Tokyo, a city comparable to New York City, would be the target of six “burn jobs” and 56 square miles (51%) of the city would be ash when Japan surrendered.
Oblique aerial photograph of Tokyo taken 28 August 45. The only things left standing are the burned out shells of concrete reinforced buildings.

Of course, not every mission was without losses and the earlier B-29 attacks against Japan were progressively more perilous.  Over the course of the war, the 73rd Bomb Wing (one of five B-29 Bomb Wings operating out of bases in the Mariana Islands) lost 182 aircraft and had another 1044 cases of battle damage. 1033 men were killed or missing, and another 138 men were wounded.

In addition to battle damage, running out of fuel, and possible errors navigating over vast stretches of open ocean, the B-29 itself could cause a crew to be lost.  The B-29 had been rushed into service on a highly accelerated delivery schedule which limited flight testing. Consequently, the plane began service with some significant engineering weaknesses, including engines that were susceptible to overheating and fire.  These engines were considered “still not ready for combat” even as the first B-29s were being sent overseas for combat. 

Design modifications to address these weaknesses were made after the aircraft were delivered.  Through time these many of these weaknesses would be addressed and the dependability of the B-29 would progressively improve. But the dependability of the B-29s powerful R-3350 engines would always remain something of a concern. 

Z SQ 6, the Draggin' Lady, had one (or possibly two) of its engines fail during a “slow time” flight on 27 February 1945. (Slow time flights were used to break in new engines before taking them into combat.) The plane crashed in the ocean off the coast of Saipan about a mile short of the runway. Both pilots and an observer were killed, and two others were injured in the crash. The plane was recovered but never flew again. More information on this plane and crew can be found at https://www.cooksontributeb29.com/z-6-draggin-lady.html.

As the photo above shows, ditching at sea – even near land – was extremely dangerous.  During the period of the B‑29 attacks on Japan (November 1944 – August 1945), search and rescue activities for downed flight crews continuously improved and the chances of being rescued if you had to ditch or bail out got progressively better.  However, it was still not unheard at any time for a B-29 to take off from Saipan, Tinian, or Guam (the three Mariana Islands that ultimately had B-29 bases) and never be heard from again.  Overall, 709 B-29 crewmen from the 73rd Bomb Wing were known to have ditched at sea. Only 285 of them (40%) were recovered. 

One of the lucky crews that had to ditch was the crew of V Square 51, Umbragio III, Dat’s My Boy. The crew ditched the plane about 90 miles north of Saipan on 13 December 1944 after running out of fuel while returning from a mission to Nagoya. The entire crew survived the ditching – you can see them all in the life rafts in the photos –and was rescued the next day by a Navy destroyer. Amazingly, the B-29 was still on the surface the next day and the destroyer had to sink it.
Mobile Repair Unit (MRU) of the 330th ASG performing engine repairs on a 500th Bomb Group B-29, the Pacific Queen. Source: Official US Army Air Forces photo.