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The 10 crews which
did not have planes - including Royster's crew - went on to Lincoln, NE
to wait for transportation, after the 10 crews with planes had left. They
then went to Hamilton Field in California and finally got air transport
to Hawaii where they saw the damage from the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor.
"Then we began to think something about war. So far we had been playing
games," Royster said. On to Johnson island and Marshall Island.
"After that the finally told us that we can tell you where you are going."
They didn't tell us. "One more flight and then we will tell you. We don't
like to put out too much information because loose lips sink ships". That
was back in WWII when they told everybody that. They wouldn't tell us
anything. They kept on saying, "loose lips sink ships". They assumed everyone
had loose lips and you know what? They did. But we didn't know, so we
couldn't tell."
The crews landed at Saipan which had just been taken from the Japanese
and was not yet secure. The men were told to dig a foxhole at their first
opportunity, but they did not see any danger so the explored the island
instead. Just before sundown the air raid sirens started howling and Japanese
planes attacked.
In October 1944, their commanding general, General Haworth Hansell, landed
the first B-29 nicknamed 'Joltin' Josie' on Saipan.
"That's the only airplane in the world that I know day by day where it
is sitting right now, because I made a note of it. On Easter Sunday 1945,
that airplane never got off, it went straight down the runway and ran
right into the ocean and it is laying at the end of Saipan right now under
water. That plane died a sorry death and I was right behind it".
The crew
of the "big Stick" pose on Saipan near their B-29 which was
attached to the 879th Bomber Squadron of the 499th Bomb Group.
Back Row - L to R: Roy Palmer, radio operator; Ed Fanning, engineer;
Walter Haut, bombardier; Woody Falson, airplane commander; Dewell Pittman,
navigator; Charles Walters, pilot.
Front Row - L to R: Bill Royster, tail gunner and second engineer;
Sam Robertson, left gunner; Raymond Wilson, right gunner; Bart Kamps,
radar operator; Robert Carson, central gunner.
On December 3, 1944,
Royster flew his first combat mission of the 29 designated V Square 44.
He was the tail gunner. Royster flew 31 combat missions over Japan including
firebomb raids on March 9 and 10, 1945, when crews dropped incendiary
bombs on Tokyo.
Published sources note that 302 B-29's left for those raids with 279 arriving
on target. 14 B-29's were lost on the missions which burned 16 square
miles of Tokyo and caused a firestorm which resulted in approximately
84,000 deaths.
"It was the most destructive air raid that's ever been seen. A lot of
people think the most destructive was the A-bombs, but the only thing
the atomic bomb was one bomb from one plane," Royster said.
The B-29's did not fly without opposition, as Japanese guns fired flak
at the planes. The sky would be filled with shrapnel. The "Big Stick"
once received 54 holes from flak and another time then wounded Royster's
compartment was shattered.
"It didn't blow out and I did not even know it was shot out," said Royster
who was questioned by a newsman about how it felt to have the window shot
out. "I said I did not even know it had happened. You are so keyed up
that you don't know what's going on".
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