We operated in a degree of comfort never before experienced in a bomber because we could pressurize all the areas occupied by crewmembers.

I recall that the system was made possible because of the use of such electrical innovations as "sylsyns" and "amplidynes" which enabled us to track the guns on a target with the use of gun sights. Our gun sights also had reticules, which we adjusted to the wingspan of the fighters we were targeting. I recall that we CFC specialists in the ground crew sighted in new planes to make sure each turret was synchronized properly with the correct lateral and vertical allowances between the sights and the turrets. A further innovation gave choices of who operated the turrets.

The Bombardier had primary control of both upper and lower front turrets. Both side gunners had primary and secondary control of the rear lower turret. Each gun sight had a switch with a primary and a secondary selection option. During combat the side gunners would yell back and forth about control of the lower turrets. In our crew I always had primary control of both upper turrets by prior agreement with the bombardier. The tail gunner was isolated from the other gunners by distance and the closed in nature of his compartment.

On my first mission as a tail gunner I realized that the 20-mm cannon in the tail turret had a very limited effectiveness. It was a 1903 Spanish Spandeau model with a canister on top of it with a capacity of about I 10 rounds. One long burst and it was empty. It was so heavy that it affected the trim of the aircraft. Most of us took it out after the first few missions. I would have liked to replace it with a third 50 but I never worked out how to do so and when I moved to the CFC position on another plane I forgot about it.

The crew that I first joined was: A/C Capt. John Bartlett Pilot Lt. Frank Crowe, Nav. Lt. J. V. Manning, Bomb. Lt. H.K. Wittee, Engr. Lt. O.B. Jorstad, Radio S/Sgt. Robt. Angel. Radar, Sgt. Russell Strong. C.F.C T/ Sgt Al Hart, Left Gunner, S/Sgt. G.A. Beck, Rt. Gunner, Sgt.R.L. Cook. Tail Gunner Cpl. G.N. Beck.

The following is a listing of the missions on which I flew, together with some descriptive data. This material is taken from a diary I kept of the missions I flew.

1-19 . My first mission with the Bartlett crew. We flew American Maid A-7. The target was Osaki I fired at every Jap plane within a mile.

2-4...We flew in AC # 596. The mission lasted 18.5 hours. Instead of a bomb run Bartlett's crew had been selected to fly a "Dumbo" mission. We flew in #596 "Cyclone 2l" in a circular pattern south of the coast of Honshu, keeping radio contact with a submarine stationed off the coast of Japan to rescue downed B-29s. According to my diary this was the first dumbo mission. On the way back from the mission we heard over the radio about "Mascot 9" of the 498th B.G. which had sustained serious damage over Japan and was now in distress -off Anatahan. Bartlett turned back to give them a hand but they were forced to ditch 7 miles west of Saipan. Bartlett turned on our landing lights and circled them. We fired flares to help rescue boats find them. 10 of the crew were saved and we got a commendation. I couldn't see why any one other than Bartlett deserved it but the whole crew was commended by Gen. 0'Donnell.

2-10.. In another experimental mission We flew over the target 30 minutes before main strike force as a diversion. The idea was that we would draw the fighters up, then turn on the power and skedaddle making them waste gas and be down refueling when the strike force hit. Never heard of a repeat of that one.

2-25..#593 American Maid. Tokyo # 357 There were fighters all over the sky. They do not bother me as much as the flak. We got several good sized holes in our plane. One just behind my head. I got a probable fighter. I feel that this is a good crew.

Lt. Crowe's crew. Top row 5th from left G. Beck, tail gunner,
6th from left is G. Beck, right gunner.

3-9 ..In an unforgettable mission we went on a night fire raid to Tokyo. Squadron Co. R. Morgan told us we were starting a new phase of the war in which we were going to bum down Japans major cities. I took it with a grain of salt but he was right. The result was 17 square miles of flames --black stinking clouds of smoke up to 20,000 ft. -- hundreds of search lights probing the sky. We were caught for an eternity in the lights while they threw everything including the kitchen sink at us. Bartlett threw us into a dive straight down and then I jerked to the left far exceeding the red line speed for B-29s but it worked. There were huge convection currents from the fires, throwing the 29s around like leaves. This was Bartlett's last mission. I heard he is being sent back to the States to train R-29 pilots.

3-13 Osaka night fire raid. Crowe is now the Aircraft Commander and Shorty Young is pilot. Crowe was cool, calm and in command.

3-31 We flew in #591 on a weather strike at very high altitude. No problems until after we dropped our weather man off at Guam. On the way back to Saipan No. 4 engine caught fire. Feathered it and found Saipan socked in. Finally had to land blindly by pushing down through the clouds - scary.

3-27 American Maid. Target was an airfield on Kyushu. We were cruising at 1000 ft about two hours after takeoff when No. 3 Engine caught fire. We couldn't get it out and also lost power in other 3 engines. We began losing altitude and got down to 200 ft. With a cargo of 10 tons of bombs in the bays we were in trouble. Started count down from 10 all the way to down to ditching, got to 5 when the fire went out. Our engineer got the other three engines up in power and we gained enough altitude to drop our bombs. Flew back with No.3 engine vibrating badly because we couldn't feather it.

4-3 Target 357 in Tokyo area again. Crowe's crew is getting a rest leave after this mission. Whitey and I do not qualify because we do not have enough missions. We will join them again when they return from Hawaii. As usual we flew up to the coast of Japan individually to the formation point. At the point where we formed up off Japan I saw 2 B-29s collide and crash into sea after hitting an air pocket. We sustained a lot of flak damage. The Marines have taken Iwo. That will make a huge difference in B-29s lost as the cripples will have a haven half way between Saipan and Japan!

At this time Lt. Jack Vetters, Operations Officer of the 869th, began forming a crew of men leftover from other crews and some new men. He asked me if I would join him in the CFC position. I was elated to be asked to do what I had been trained for.

The CFC position is responsible for maintaining the central fire control system. It really amounts to making sure all the components in the system are working. Care must be given to ascertaining that gun barrels are not worn or warped from excessive use. The head spacing is critical and attention is given to the way belts of ammunition feed into the guns. The electrical chargers for each gun must be examined and tested between missions. How much work one does is somewhat related to how much interest the other gunners have in the guns. The CFC gunner is ultimately responsible for all the 12 50 cal. Guns. I went through armorers school and the CFC school so I have the training required to maintain our central fire control system. At last, a CFC position of my own! Lt. Vetters said I should fly as many missions as became available until he got the crew together so that he and I would finish our tour of duty together.

4-7 1 flew with Simms to Tokyo target #357. This was our first P51 escort. Went in at 12,000 ft. at noon. Flew as tail gunner. Saw 2 B-29s go down over target. P-51s were spectacular. They slaughtered the Jap fighters. Saw phosphorous bombs being dropped on us by fighters. Dog fights all over the sky. Intense flak over target. Jap fighter exploded in front of us, pilot parachuted out. Couldn't bring myself to shoot him although it was an easy target. Jumped by flight of Irvings, two engine Jap fighter, on way out from target. Shot them up good but saw none go down. The P-51's are operating at the extreme limits of their range. What gutsy guys. We love them.

4-12 1 flew in #282 with Capt. Hanley. Tokyo target #357 My first mission in the CFC position Henley's CFC man was hospitalized for a few days. I will never go back to that cramped, isolated, tail position again. More P-51 escorts. It was a thrill to see them. The flak was tough but the Jap fighters were wary of mixing with those wonderful P-51s. We were carrying 2000 pound bombs. When we got to the target it was completely covered with thick clouds. We went up to Tokoyania, northeast of Tokyo, and lifted the town out of the water with those "big babies".

4-15 Flew with Snedaker as a side gunner on a Kawasaki night fire raid. As we approached the target we were met by hundreds of probing search lights. When one caught a B-29 in its beam all the rest focused on it and all the ack-ack guns blasted away. It seemed there were whole gangs of fighters above us waiting to pounce when the lights caught a plane. We dropped our bombs in a sea of flames and a searchlight caught us. Snedaker started turning and diving but the lights held us. The tail gunner called in a couple of night fighters on our tail. We had seen some B-29s get shot down in just that way but we evaded them and made it back safely.

Snedaker's crew

4-20 Flew CFC position for Lt. Grant. His CFC man was wounded on their last mission. Target was an airfield on Kyushu but we lost an engine about two hours out. We had a few tense moments until we got the fire out 4-23 Flew again with Lt. Grant. Target was Tomitaka near Tokyo. An uneventful mission. Am tired of this nomad existence. Would be very happy to get on a permanent crew. Grants style of flying does not promote confidence in this gunner. Lt. Vetters now has a complete crew. His co-pilot is Lt. Beal,. Nav.Lt. G.C.Cardwell, Bomb. Lt. R.M. Ash, Engr. M/Sgt. Archie Marr, Radar, Lt. Billy Byers. CFC gunner, T/Sgt George (blackie) Beck. Radio Sgt. Lou Christiansen. Right gunner S/Sgt George Wright. Left gunner, Sgt Everett Crump, and tail gunner Sgt. Jean Allen. Allen is a survivor from Campbell's crew. Both Wright and Crump are survivors from ditchings.

4-23 We flew our first mission together. We flew #745 on a daylight mission to Tokyo. Our new General. Curtis Lemay, told us we were flying no more high altitude daylight missions. The fact is we are ineffective at high altitudes because of cross winds, headwinds, tail winds, and cloud cover. I knew that, but we were all in a state of shock when we learned our altitude was to be 10,000 ft. at high noon. We were told we would have fighter coverage but it was canceled because of bad weather. I was very scared but proud of the fact that everyone did as ordered. I remember looking around at the briefing and thinking that about 30% of us would not come back from the mission. The fighters were all over us as - as soon as we crossed the coast. The flak over the target was intense and accurate. A burst tore a hole about the size of a football 18" in front of my head. We had over 30 holes in the wings. On the way out, a flight of Nicks came head on at us. One came at our plane at twelve o'clock high.. I caught him at about 1000 yards. I could see tracers from both upper turrets hitting his plane but he kept coming in. At about 600 yards he blew up, showering our plane with pieces of his plane. I got a good piece of another one but he nosed down and I couldn't tell whether or not he crashed.

I heard our losses were such that Lemma said, "O.K. we will go up to 15,000 ft." Of course that's just talk. We now have a brand new ship. Veterans have named her "Misti Christi since she he hales from Corpus Christi, Texas. She is number 929. We are 13 A Square.

4-29 We went on a mission to a naval base at Miyazaki, Kyushu. We had a good mission. I'm completely satisfied with our crew of of recycled gunners. The new guys are on the ball also.

5-5 {All my missions from here to the end of my tour were in #929 - Misti Christi, with Jack Vetters.)

Jack Vetters' crew.

We hit Kure, Japans big naval base, on the northern end of Honshu. We were over Japan for almost 3 hours. All the ships in the harbor opened up on us with that colorful naval flak which is so accurate. Each ship seems to have a different color flak. There were red, green, yellow, pink, purple, white, and grey. The bombardier's glass was shattered and I got a huge hole in front of my station. Jean Allen got two or three holes in the tail gunner's compartment. This is the halfway point of my missions. I'm on the downhill side from now on.

5-10 Tokuyama - an uneventful mission

5-14 Nagoya. Night fire raid. We hit it hard. The 73rd bomb wing is no longer alone. On Tinian there is the 313th wing and the 58th wing. On Guam is the 314th wing. Had a couple of night fighters after us. We evaded them and got caught in the search lights for a while.

5-15 Went back to Nagoya again at night and dropped some delayed action heavies.The fires from 5-14 were still burning. There were hundreds of planes all over the sky but this time they were all B-29s. Crowe's crew is back from rest leave They all gained about 10 pounds. Said rest leave was great. Vetters wants to finish our missions before the weather clears up and the missions get tough again. It's OK by me I'm in a hurry to finish and get back to the States.

5-23 Went to Tokyo last night. We got caught in the search lights on our bomb run and were held for 5 minutes A couple of night fighters followed us out to 50 miles off the coast but could not catch us. Saw 2 other B-29s get shot down by night fighters.

5-24 We hit Tokyo again. The flak was intense but the fighters were wary of coming in. I think I got one. I hit him with all six guns and he was on fire when he dove into a cloudbank

5-29 Went to Yokohama and we hit it hard. The weather was good and the opposition slight. I don't think we will go back there. Crowe's crew flew on our right wing. Beacroft is taking my place as tail gunner. He has already ditched once. They came through the mission fine. It is a strange feeling to see your old crew in another plane.

6-1 Osaka. We hit the arsenal. It was a rough mission. The flak was intense and accurate. We saw two planes go down. One of them was A-square 16 - Crowe's crew. Just as we hit the bomb run their number I engine exploded from a flak burst. They salvoed their bombs, made a beautiful controlled U-turn and headed back out . That's the last we saw of them. No radio message was received. We were at 18,000 ft. and less than 100 miles from the coast. We are hoping they bailed out and were picked up by our sub.

6-5 Kobe again. We got battered by that awful navy flak. Our elevator was shot up severely. We had a tough trip back No word of Crowe's crew yet.

6-7 Went back to Osaka. We pounded it to ruins. The flak worried me a lot. The weather is getting worse so the missions should get easier. We ran into a cold front 300 miles from Japan on the way in. We started to ice up and lose altitude. There were chunks of ice the size of grapefruit on our wings. We dropped two bombs to maintain altitude and finished the mission. No word from my friends on Crowe's crew.

6-10 Went to Hitachi in 10 tenths coverage. We bombed by radar. That makes for an easy mission. Only five more to go. I'm getting jumpy. Vetters says if we were going to get it we would have got it long ago.

6-15 Hit Osaka in complete cloud coverage. Still no word of Crowe.

6-17 A very bad day for us. We learned we have to fly 35 missions rather than 30. Only 3 crews from each squadron got by with 30. They have already finished. Due to lack of replacements the rest of us must do 35. Crew members within two missions of their A/C commander can finish with him when he gets 35. Jack Vetters has one mission more than I do so I need only 34. That means I have 8 more to go The rest of the crew must fly on.

6-17 Went to Hammamatsu last night. We have new fire bombs that are more powerful than the old ones. I hear we burned the whole town down in one night.

6-19 Fukuoka was our target tonight. Japan is still overcast with clouds and that makes the missions easier.

6-22 We saw some more of that rainbow flak at Kure but it was fairly cloudy. No fighters in evidence. I have not fired at a fighter since the 7th of June. These easy missions can't last.

6-26 Went to Osaka for the last time. From now on its going to be night fire raids. We have burned down all the major cities. The weather is so bad we can't hit single factory targets. On the fire raids all planes drop on the fires set by the first group of B-29s.

6-28 Sasebo was our target. There were several large fires when we got there and 200 planes hit it after we did.

7-1 Kumatoto was our city to burn tonight. We nearly hit another B-29 over the target tonight. More than one pair of planes have gone down that way.

7-4 We hit Kochi with a fire raid at ten minutes after midnight. Only one more mission to go.

7-6 Akashi is the name of the town we hit on our last mission. I understand the rest of the crew gets a rest leave before they finish their missions. No word has ever came through on Crowe's crew It puts a damper on the joy of finishing the missions.

Here is a curious thing. The APCO is shown as JD Morgan. The only APCO I recall on the Misti Christi was Texan, Jack Vetters, who named the aircraft after his home town, Corpus Christi, Texas.

POST SCRIPT

It was not until 2002 that I learned of the fate of A Square 16, the plane carrying members of the first crew I flew with. They were on a mission to Osaka, June 1, 1945, flying in the same formation that we were in. I Iwas then flying with Lt. Jack Vetters in A Square 13, Misty Christy.

Over the target we saw them take flack in engine two and leave the formation, making a nice 130 degree turn and head out to sea. We never found out what happened to them but when I attended my first reunion of the 73rd Bomb Wing Group I learned they were listed as MIA.

In Feb. of 2002 I learned from Hap Halloran what happened to them. According to a Japanese historian they were shot down by a fighter in Omine Mountain, Yoshino County, Nara Prefecture. Seven members of the crew were killed in the crash. They were Lt. Franklin Crowe - AC, Lt. Young - Pilot, Lt.J.K. Manning - Nav., Lt. C.B. Norstad - Flight Engr.,S/Sgt Robt. Angel -Radio, S/Sgt. G. Beck - Left gunner, and Sgt. Isley, Rt. gunner. Four members survived the crash. Lt. Harrison K Wittee - Bomb.,S/Sgt Alvin Hart - CFC, Sgt. Larry Beecroft - Tail Gunner, and Sgt. Russell Strong - Radar. Both Wittee and Hart were executed that day, June 1, at Osaka Kempei Tai Headquarters in Osaka. Sgt Beecroft was executed about July 20 at Shiniodayayama Parade Ground, a cemetery. Russ Strong was kept until Aug 15, the day the war ended, and then executed at the cemetery at which Beecroft was executed. Hap Halloran tells me that Osaka was regarded as a very evil place at that time by those in a position to compare various places where our men were imprisoned.

Left: Douglas A Tanner a CFC gunner from Hattiesburg, MS.
Right: George N. Beck while CFC Ground Crew...................

Many thanks to George Beck for this great contribution to the site. You can reach George at Beckgeoelma@aol.com




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