S\S45-GUAM\FC\S30\P30GSP

W45AUTH\BB30G-GS.DOC

B-29 MISSION HISTORY BY BILL BROOKS

Jan 28, 1945: Left Great Bend for Kearney, Neb., staging area.

Jan 29: Left Kearney for Sacramento, Calif. (POE)

Feb 4: Departed for Hawaii, and landed at John Rogers Field.

Feb 7: Left Hawaii for Kwajalein. Nothing there but an air strip. Not a tree in sight.

Feb 8: Left for Guam, our present base.

Feb 12: Made first practice mission on Rota (3 hours).

Feb 14: Bomb run on Maug (6 hours) practice.

Feb 16: Bomb run on Maug (6 hours) practice.

Feb 18: Bomb run on Maug (6 hours) practice.

Feb 25: Made first mission on Tokyo as part of about 200 planes. Largest mission tried on island to date. Incendiary mission. Very cloudy so radar run was made. Good results. (18 hours)

Feb 28: Bomb run on Maug (7 hours) practice.

Mar 3: Bomb run on Maug (5 1/2 hours) practice.

Mar 6: Bombed Shizuoka, southwest of Tokyo. Hit engine plant. Good results.

Mar 9: Bombed Tokyo at 5,000 ft. No ammunition in guns. About 300 planes hit target with incendiary bombs -- 2:OOAM -- City well ablaze when we hit target. A good job done. Search lights picked us up on bomb run and two hits were made on No. 2 but did not knock it out. Then No. 1 and No. 4 were hit and fires started, had to be feathered. Two engines left. Flak continued and fighters tried to finish the job. Our chances looked pretty poor. Had several hits in bomb bays one behind aft pressurized section, two hits halfway to tail, one in elevator, one in tail turret and several near radio room. Controls to tail were nearly all out, hydraulic system was out, tire flat on left. Part of radio set and compass out. We managed to get away from target but a good half hour before we had a bearing. Then started for Iwo Jima and after five and half hours landed because fuel transfer system was out. On landing we crashed into a bank hitting a truck and a jeep. No one hurt. Found Iwo a hell hole and casualties very high and conditions very bad. Dusty as hell, no trees. Guns roaring all around and in harbor, planes taking off and landing every few minutes. Marines and pilots living in fox holes and only food K rations. Japs had island constructed like a huge subway system-caves and tunnels all over and strongly fortified. We left that afternoon by ATC for Saipan and stayed the night. Returned to Guam. Damage done to target about 15 Sq. miles burned. (5,000 ft.) (300 planes)

Mar 16: Raid on Kobe-good results. Had trouble with radar and so had a job flying around finding a target. You really sweat out the other planes flying over and around target. (5,000 ft.) (300 planes)

Mar 30: Raid on Nagoya. Aircraft factory northeastern part of city. From landfall to IP to target clear but target completely covered. Bombed by radar so results not observed. Had light flak at landfall and a few bursts over target. No damage. Timing for attack was very good but weather prevented maximum damage.

April 2: Shizuoka. Attack on aircraft engine plant. Our plane was second over the target carrying flare bombs. Target clear. Light automatic weapons fire and light flak. Altitude 7,000 ft.

April 15: Kawasaki. Manufacturing district between Yokahama and Tokyo. Fires were large when we hit the target. Large number of searchlights and antiaircraft was quite heavy. Managed to get through without being spotted. Hit the heat thermal and it turned out very rough. When we left smoke, was doing about 330 mph. Saw the first ball of fire. Four in all and three looked as if they were headed for our plane. Didn't seem to be too effective and only seemed to have a life of about three minutes. Had to feather one engine after leaving Jap islands. Altitude 7,000 ft.

April 17: Daylight raid on Nittagahara airfield on Kyushu. No flak -or fighters. Stopped on IWO for gas. Alt. 18,000 ft.

April 21: Daylight raid on Nittagahara air field. Altitude 16,000 ft. Saw four fighters and light flak. First mission as CFC gunner.

April 26: Was navigation ship for 106 P-51 fighters from IWO. Hit airfields on Kyushu. Heavy overcast and no opposition. Went to IWO on the 25th, came back on the evening of the 26th.

April 29: Bombed airfield at Kanoya, Kyushu. 17,000 ft. Light flak was encountered and four fighters.

May 3: Daylight formation attack against Kokuba. Light flak but effective fighter attacks. Tail gunner wounded and landed IWO for first aid.

May 5: Search mission. off coast of Kyushu. Observed no ditched plane. Feathered one engine during search.

May 10: Otake-oil refinery-mission successful. Flak was heavy but only four fighters came up. Altitude 18,000 ft.

May 16: Night raid on Nagoya. Carried more fire bombs. Altitude 12,000 ft. No flak, no fighters.

May 19: Bombed Shizuoka. Not primary target but weather conditions prevented hitting aircraft factory West of Tokyo. Bombed individually by radar. 26,000 ft.

May 25: Bombed Tokyo-1l,600 ft. incendiary raid on district around the palace. Area well burning when we dropped our bombs. Nearly rammed by two 29's from IP to target. Flak was heavy but was not hit. Many searchlights in area but concentration on other 29's allowed us to escape them over target. Was picked up by several on peninsula across the bay. Tracers could be seen all over target area, several rockets and two balls of fire.

June 28: Bombed Nobeoka, Kyushu. Incendiary raid on city and chemical plant there. City well ablaze when we dropped our bombs, 40 500 lb incendiaries. No flak-no fighters.

July 1: Bombed Shimoneseki. Fire bomb raid. Dropped bombs about daybreak. 76% of target destroyed. No fighters-meager flak.

July 6: Bombed Kofu, north of Fuji. Lost an engine right after target. No fighters, meager flak.

July 9: Bombed Gifu, north of Nagoya. Incendiary raid. Light flak and five or six searchlights over target.

July 16: Bombed Hiratuska, Southwest of Tokyo. Night fire raid, 40-500 lb incendiaries. Complete cloud coverage. Light flak.

July 24: Bombed Tsu on Nagoya Bay. City of about 60,000. Objective was to bomb factory Northwest of Nagoya but cloud coverage prevented seeing target. Bombed by radar. Carried two-four thousand pound bombs. Meager flak and no fighters.

Jul 26: Bombed Omuta, Kyushu. Important seaport and coal center. Incendiary raid. Three fighters seen, no attacks. Meager flak.

Aug 1: Bombed Mito, Northwest of Tokyo. Anti-aircraft guns and steel mill. Max effort, about 300 planes and 6,000 tons of bombs Light flak, no fighters.

Aug 5: Bombed Nishinomiya, between Kobe and Osaka. Supposed to have taken the overflow from bombing of Kobe and Osaka. Target completely covered by smoke. Five or six searchlights, no flak.

Aug 10: Day mission to arsenal district of Tokyo. Alt 21,500 ft. No fighters-flak heavy. Was able to see some of Tokyo and not a great deal left unburned. Had P-47, P-51 escort.

Aug 14: Isesaki, Northwest of Tokyo. Expected news to come that Japan accepted peace terms. Didn't come until after we were heading home. Incendiary raid. Light flak, no fighters.

Aug 30: Carried supplies to prison camp southwest of Tokyo. Found camp successfully, dropped supplies. Then flew over Tokyo and harbor area. Altitude 500 ft to about 1500 ft.

Sept 2: Flew formation over Tokyo, more or less i show of air power to the people of Japan.