The end of Fall wasn't far off when we all said goodbye to our wives and friends at Kearney, Nebraska, and headed our shiny new Superfortress toward Mather Field, Sacramento, California. Because this was our point of embarkation, commonly known as POE., all transient crews were restricted to the base. That made little difference for our stay was destined to be short and not so sweet.
During our final physical check-up, our bombardier was grounded for a few days because of ear trouble. Wing Headquarters immediately sent in a replacement and gave us less than six hours to leave the field for overseas. I wasn't sure whether we would lose our bombardier for good or just for the trip across, and I wasn't taking any chances. Everyone was tired from lack of sleep and some had been drinking a few beers at the club. Because this trip was a long one, I didn't think we were in the best condition to fly on such short notice, so I immediately contacted the medical officer to ground the whole crew for a short period. That's when the wires really started to burn - all the way to Washington and back. The generals chewed out colonels and colonels chewed out majors all the way down to Mather Field. This all resulted in declaring all liquor off limits on the base and our crew was made out to look like a bunch of drunks. That was the result of my judgment to ground the crew until we were in top condition to fly.
The next
day our bombardier was checked and declared O.K., so we wasted little
time in leaving the POE.
FIRST LEG TO HAWAII
On November 5th, our bomber, that we christened "Snafuperfort", was well on her way to the Hawaiian Islands and the coast of California had long disappeared on the horizon. For the first four hours our trip was uneventful, most of the crew asleep or playing cards. Suddenly the plane began to vibrate terribly. One look at the instruments told us that number four engine was bad so we had to stop the engine and feather the propeller immediately before she caught on fire. Our co-pilot and myself retrimmed the controls and again clutched in the automatic-pilot which took over the controls and flew the plane for us all the way in to Honolulu on the Island of Oahu. The B-29 flies almost as good on three engines as she does on four, however, the safety factor is greatly reduced. The radio operator kept in contact with the ground stations at all times. They kept sending us fixes every twenty minutes showing us approximately our position just to be on the safe side.
When our engine quit, I immediately contacted the rest of the crew and started a plan as to what we would throw out of the bomber in case another engine failed. The only way we could stay in the air with two engines out would be to remove all excess weight. Lucky for us the three engines held and after six more hours the Island of Oahu came into sight. When we were sixty miles out, six P-38's came up to see I if everything was OK.
Our exact destination was John Rodger's Field near Honolulu on the southern side of the island. I circled the field to the right so as to avoid flying over Pearl Harbor. That is a very sore spot in the Navy. The plane settled down, roughly eleven hours from the time we left the United States. If our bomber treats us as well as that on our missions to come, then we will all be happy. After taxiing to the ramp and cutting off the engines, we were greeted by a couple of colonels and majors - all of them interested in how our plane operated coming across on three engines.
The following morning, November 6th, the bad engine was inspected and proven to be absolutely worthless, so we planned on about a two-weeks stay in Oahu.
VISIT HONOLULU
As a rule all transient crews were restricted to the field. However, due to our expected long stay, the commanding officer gave us permission to go to town and also to Waikiki Beach. Everyone took off to the beach with great expectations, only to be very disappointed. There was the beach, not a half mile long and hardly fifty yards wide. Some of us tried the native surf boards with almost disastrous results. Sure looks easy but then so does ice-skating.
Honolulu is just another large American city; high prices, crowds of people and vehicles running all over the place. The city is filled with Japanese who actually outnumber everyone else on the island. Every time the government tries to draft one of them, they say they are for Japan and end up in the "clink".
The whole crew went souvenir hunting and ended up almost broke. I kept clear of such articles as $140.00 earrings and $240.00 gold cigarette lighters. Sailors who have been on the seas for about seven months come into Honolulu with a stuffed wallet, and care nothing about prices - consequently the ridiculous prices of most souvenirs. After dinner in one of the better hotels, we called it a day and took a GI bus back to camp. From then on, most all our time was spent with the plane, or playing cards. Incidentally, I'm fifty dollars to the good - so far.
As was expected, the Navy had everything. Charley Kingsley and myself loaded up on Kodak film at one of the Navy ship stores. They had all types and sizes of film stacked all over the counter.
On November
13th, our last day on the Hawaiian Islands, I celebrated my first wedding
anniversary. I'd have given an awful lot to be with Marge on that day.
Never realized I could miss anyone as much as I do my wife.
BAD WEATHER, DELAY
About nine in the morning on November 14th, the low misty clouds were breaking in many places and off in the distance the Hawaiian Islands were just a bump on the horizon. We were well on our way to our next stop, Kwajalein Atoll. While enroute, Sgt. Kramer picked up bad weather reports and soon we were instructed to land at Johnston Island, seven hundred miles west of Oahu. Johnston was a small coral reef 6000 feet long and 1000 feet wide, run by the Navy. Every square foot of space was utilized as was the case of the runway which went from one end of the reef to the other with not a foot to spare.
Again the Navy had everything fixed up just about perfect. There were pool tables, a big post exchange, and hard and soft drinks were also served from the bar. The food was tops and better than a lot I've tasted in the United States. It wasn't long before we all took off for the beach to fish and swim.
We were all up bright and early the following morning all set to leave when engine trouble developed again. Lt. E. Shinn, our engineer, and Master Sgt. Way immediately went to work and soon the ship was set to go again. As it was too late to take off for our next stop we relaxed and again took off for the beach.
No one in our crew liked the way the sign painters at Honolulu put the name on our ship so I repainted it that morning. Three hours later it was finished and so was I. The sun can really burn out here-much worse than it did in North Africa, as I very painfully found out.
Capt. Samuelson painting
the nose art on "Snafuperfort". He also
painted the nose art on numerous other B-29's based on Saipan.
The following day we again prepared to leave Johnston Island. The control tower held up six transports and seven B-24 bombers so we could get off immediately. Just as we were about ready to give it the gun, a naval officer came buzzing up in a jeep waving a piece of paper. It seemed that Cpl. Janecek and Sgt Evans had checked out rods and reels while they were there and gave them to a sailor to turn in. When we were ready to go, the sailor hadn't turned them in so it cost my two gunners seventy dollars. The hold-up cost the government over a thousand dollars in gasoline that was burned up, for all the planes that were waiting for us to take off had their engines going. We were disgusted with the Navy when we left Johnston.
Kwajalein,
another coral reef was our next destination. Our plane averaged about
220 miles an hour all the way, and after bucking twelve storms we finally
pulled into the South Pacific Island, ahead of time.
"HELL ON EARTH"
Talk about "hell on earth", that was it. The reef looked like the Japs had left yesterday instead of five or six months ago. There wasn't a whole palm tree on the island. Bullet riddled pill boxes, tanks and landing boats were strewn all over creation.
One night at this place was plenty. The next morning we all tore out to the plane eager to take off, only to find some of the ground crew riveting a piece of sheet metal onto our wing. It seems that there was a little weak spot and when they saw the crack, we couldn't take off until it was fixed.
Eleven
that morning Kwajalein was just a memory. Thanks for that. Next stop,
our home, the Island of Saipan. From the first reports that we had about
this place most of us were pleasantly surprised. Our quarters consisted
of semicircular, steel roof buildings that held about ten to twenty men.
Our ground crews had been here a few months ahead of us and they really
did a grand job of fixing the place up for us. Everyone was glad to see
us for it took all of sixteen days to get here and most of the fellows
were wondering if we ever would get here. When we arrived there were about
100,000 men on the island and planes stacked up on all the fields.
BASED AT SAIPAN
For the first three days at our permanent base, it rained off and on all day and all night. Leather began to get moldy after the first few days and most everything took on a musty odor.
Poker games became the order of the day and I was in pitching with the rest; winning and losing my share. Those who ran out of money had to be satisfied with bridge or rummy until pay day.
We arrived on Saipan November 18th. Up until that time there had been no raids pulled by our group except a short milk run to Truk. Much talk had been going on as to the coming raid on Tokyo. The "Big Gears" of the B-29 outfits said there were 1300 pursuits around Tokyo and we could expect up to 400 attacking us on the first mission.
KP Duty Saipan
RAID ON TOKYO
After five days of being alerted for the coming raid, the weather finally cleared between here and Tokyo and were definitely scheduled for the mission on November 24th, Thanksgiving Day. I should say it was Thanksgiving Day back home and the day after here for we are a day ahead of the States.
Three forty-five in the morning we were awakened and then things began to click. It reminded me of the days back in North Africa, almost two years ago, when we first started bombing the Germans and Italians out of the Tunisian area. Early breakfast, briefing and then to stand by at the bombers for take-off.
When
I arrived at the plane, everyone was all set to go. Each of our fourteen
guns had over 500 rounds of 50 caliber ammunition, and the cannon in the
tail was loaded and charged. The front bomb bays had extra gas tanks which
made a total of 8,000 gallons of gasoline. Because of the extra gas, our
bomb capacity was only 10 five hundred pound bombs. Our take-off weight
summed up to a total of 138,000 pounds. Twice the weight of the empty
ship. Lt. Shinn, the engineer, started the engines at six-twenty and fifteen
minutes later we headed out for Japan.
The flight to Japan was uneventful except that one of our engines started
to heat up. Six-and-one-half hours later we were cruising along at 28,000
feet; very near the Japanese mainland. When the clouds broke, Mt. Fujiama
stood out on the horizon like a beautiful painting done by a master. It
was a beautiful sight and one that very few people will ever witness during
this war. It was hard to believe that below us lay one of the rottenest
countries that ever existed. No one gave one thought about being knocked
down over this country when we first approached the target area.
Mt. Fuji
FIGHT 40 JAP PLANES
Soon
after leaving Mt. Fujiama and heading for Tokyo, what we most feared,
happened. One of our engines just up and quit on us. Life was really at
its lowest ebb - there was no mistake about that. We fell behind the rest
of the group and just then the dead engine cut back in again and began
to purr. It was too late to catch up to the group so then we tried to
dump our bomb load. Another disappointment - our bomb racks froze and
we couldn't get rid of them. By that time our outfit was so far away we
gave up all chance of catching them and commenced looking out for ourselves.
It was at this time we blew three exhaust stacks in one engine and she
began spitting out flame. To add to our troubles our bomb doors broke
down and couldn't be retracted. This created more drag and caused us to
loose altitude, making us a beautiful target for enemy pursuit. We didn't
have long to wait for pursuit and when they saw us all by ourselves, all
the Nips in the sky came on in for the attack. All the gunners stood by
with fingers on their triggers. The interphone soon began to buzz. "Three
pursuit - five o'clock low. Four pursuit two o'clock high. Two pursuits
twelve o'clock level! " Things got hotter than hell and the guns began
to crackle in all directions. Jap single and twin engine fighters came
in raking us over with machine guns and cannon. Our new gun sights were
really doing their stuff, for every time one of our gunners cut loose
at a Nip, he and a few others would turn tail and run. Cpl. Goulooze was
the first to nail one for sure. Three of the gunners saw it spin down
into the clouds trailing black smoke. Many of the enemy pursuits were
hit in some degree or other. All the gunners were so busy keeping them
off that no one was particular whether he definitely knocked one down
or not. This battle, between "Snafuperfort" and forty Japanese fighters
lasted for almost thirty minutes. We came out without a scratch. How this
happened we'll never know and neither will the enemy.
Naturally all of us heaved a sigh of relief when the last fighter turned
for home. However, we were far from happy. Our gas was very low and we
still had 1,400 miles to fly over water.
GET HOME SAFELY
About an hour out from the target, Lt. Shinn crawled back into the bomb-bay
and released the bombs by hand. All the damage we did was to kill a few
fish. Loss of this extra weight increased our speed by about ten miles
per hour. We nursed our plane home for about seven hours. Saipan came
into the radar sight by eight o'clock and after not too smooth a landing
I taxied the plane up to our parking place. There was about one hour's
gas supply remaining when we finally cut the switches.
Two Superfortresses were lost on this first Tokyo raid. One crashed in the harbor at Tokyo after colliding with a fighter and the other ditched just outside of Saipan after running out of gas. The following morning all twelve men on this crew were picked up by the air sea rescue. So ended the first mass raid on Tokyo; the battle for Japan proper had really begun in earnest. Immediately after landing, each crew was interrogated and given something to eat. There was also a bit of liquor for those who wanted it, and I was not the exception! After a good meal we were all set to hit the sack for a good twelve hours.
FIRST NIP AIR RAID
It was midnight on the following night that our field had its first air raid and this was not practice. There was no previous warning of any sort; just the sudden noise of cannon, planes and machine guns. All I can remember is blindly grabbing for my clothes and gas mask. Just as I was leaving our hut a Nip roared over our area with all guns blazing. Everyone fell flat on his face-including me. Again we all made a break for it and another Jap came over producing the same results. By the time I got well entrenched in a ditch, the Japs had gone, and up on the plateau where the bombers were stationed rose a column of smoke thousands of feet high. This meant one thing -- scratch one B-29. It wasn't long before the gas tanks began to blow up and soon the whole field shook with a tremendous explosion. The bombs in the ship went sky high. It was a sight never to be forgotten. All that remained of the once proud B-29 was a mass of twisted junk.
The next day Eldon Shupe and myself took off in a jeep to tour the island. We came across hundreds of wrecked amphibian tanks, trucks and landing craft. All of these had been destroyed on "D" Day and left to rot and rust on the same spot where they were destroyed. The town of Garipan was strictly a "has been" for only a few shacks were left. The rest of the town was pushed aside by bulldozers to make room for army camps and roads. All the Japanese were gathered together in internment camps and could be recognized by a red piece of cloth.
It was
getting close to chow time so Capt. Shupe and I headed back to the field.
We drove by the remains of the bomber that had been destroyed the night
before. Suddenly, without warning, the frightening sound of Jap machine
guns pierced the air and bullets hit the dirt right in front of our jeep.
The next thing I knew we were both in a ditch flattened out against the
earth. I ran back to the jeep just to get my camera, and less than a second
after I got back into the ditch, the Nips came back again, all five of
them ,with their guns blazing. I tried bravely to raise my head to get
a picture, but when the dirt kicked up in front of my face, I forgot about
pictures and practically buried my face in the dirt.
JAPS RETURN
After the Japs made their second attack, we figured they had left so Shupe and I ran for the jeep and went racing up the taxi strip. We hadn't gone two hundred yards when back they came again. Shupe flew out one side and I went out the other while the jeep went on down the road and into a ditch on its own accord. By this time two B-29's were burning. Three enemy fighters had already crashed in flames - shot down by our anti-aircraft. We had to give the enemy plenty of credit for his ability to fly and for his guts. None of them got back to their base for our fighters took care of the remaining pursuit. In the last two strafing missions we lost about eight B-29's. Three of which were completely demolished.
TO STAY AT GUAM
Something had to be done soon. All afternoon the hospital was taking care of men who were burned and shot. About forty men were burned - when one of the Japs crashed on an air raid shelter. Everyone was on edge the rest of the day and many days to come. In the evening our Colonel came around and told us to stand by to fly planes out of Saipan and to stay at Guam until things cooled off a bit. No one knew how long we would have to stay, however, we did know that the Japs had won the first round.
At Guam our quarters consisted of one hangar and five-hundred cots. Another hangar served as our mess hall. The next morning some crazy sergeant woke us all up about 5:00 A.M. for breakfast. After eating, some of us took off and hitched rides all over the island in G.I. trucks. It was the same old thing here as it was in Saipan; the town a shamble and every section littered with smashed equipment and bomb craters.
It was while we were at Guam that we heard about Captain Joe Irvin ditching in the Pacific on the way back from the second Tokyo raid. Reports came in that his ship went down about four-hundred miles out. We all hoped and prayed that his crew would be picked up for none of us wanted to believe that Joe and his crew were dead.
Our stay at Guam turned out to be short and interesting. In a way we were glad to leave Guam and come home to our base at Saipan for this stuff of having to eat and sleep in a hangar was strictly "for the birds".
NIGHT RAID ON TOKYO
Around the latter part of November some of the crews were scheduled for a night raid on Tokyo. Each plane was dispatched at different intervals so as not to get over the target at the same time. This looked like an easy raid, and so it was - for all but Major Hansen. His ship went down and no one had any reports whatsoever on his ship. The Pacific is terribly large and especially when you have no idea where to look for a man.
Sunday, December 3rd, our bomber was finally put back into flyable condition and ready for a test hop. Rather than take off and accomplish nothing, Group Headquarters planned a single bomber raid over the island of Rota which was still held by the Japs.
Our bomb racks were loaded to capacity and we really had fun. Lt. Wright dropped some on the airfield, the town and the docks. The island was already a total wreck, however, we might have done some good.
MAJOR, COLONEL LOST
December 4th, Tokyo was again at the top of the list to be bombed. This was to be strictly a daylight precision raid on a famous aircraft plant. The bombers didn't get off until about 8:00 A.M. which meant they would be back around 10:00 P.M.
Final reports on the mission came in the next morning. Major Goldsworthy's ship was last seen going down over Tokyo with one engine on fire and mobbed by fighters. Colonel King, our Group Commander, and another Colonel were on the plane. The Nips hit the jackpot on that mission. Joe Irvin and Major Goldsworthy were both in our flight of which there were three to a squadron, so at present our ranks are a bit depleted.
Tokyo reports on the raid stated twenty-one Superforts shot down and scores damaged. Actually Major Goldsworthy's ship was the only one that was lost. To calm the Japanese people, Tokyo radio stated: "All we have to do when they come over is shoot them down and if they start fires, all we have to do is put them out". Time will tell. The next few days were very dull with no missions and no air raids. Planes were put back into commission and everyone was out filling sand bags for their aid raid shelters. It seems that each time we raid Japan, they get mad and send some planes over to raid us.
