W45AUTH\HJ93P-JH.DOC

Jim Handwerker’s crew landing M-50, “City of Memphis” with engine problems

Presentation of SILVER STAR to 1st Lt John Handwerker 3 May, 1945

Add listing of crew members...............................

HEADQUARTERS XXI BOMBER COMMAND

APO 234, C/O Postmaster

San Francisco, California

GENERAL ORDERS 3 May 1945

NO....77

SECTION V

SILVER STAR ___ By direction of the President, under the provisions of the act of Congress approved 9 July 1918 (Bull 43, WD, 1918), and pursuant to authority delegated by the Deputy Commander, Twentieth Air Force in classified letter, file AG 323.361, subject: "Definition of Administrative Responsibilities" dated 18 December 1944, announcement is made of the award of the Silver Star to the following named officers:

First Lieutenant John J. Handwerker, 0743241, Air Corps, United States Army. For gallantry in action on a bombing mission to Tokyo, Japan, on 13 April 1945. Lieutenant Handwerker, Airplane Commander of a B-29 aircraft, discovered an oil leak in number three engine necessitating immediate feathering. Learning only enough oil remained for twenty minutes of operation, Lieutenant Handwerker unhesitatingly proceeded on the hazardous mission, unfeathering the engine at the beginning of the bomb run to obtain maximum speed and power. Smoke trailing from the crippled engine marked the aircraft as being in distress, resulting in a powerful barrage of intense and accurate searchlight directed anti-aircraft fire. Lieutenant Handwerker fearlessly piloted his aircraft through a withering assault from the powerful enemy batteries which encircled the bay. Undeterred by the hostile fire, Lieutenant Handwerker resolutely held his aircraft on the bomb run, released his bombs with unerring precision and scored direct hits on the target. By his extraordinary skill, fortitude and unflinching devotion to duty, Lieutenant Handwerker demonstrated brilliant execution of this exacting assignment and contributed materially to the success of the mission, thereby reflecting great credit on himself and the Army Air Forces.

* * *

BY COMMAND OF MAJOR GENERAL LeMAY:

A.W. KISSNER

Brigadier General, USA

Chief of Staff

OFFICIAL:

/s/ Robert B. Price

/t/ ROBERT B. PRICE

lst Lt, AGD

Asst Adj General

A CERTIFIED TRUE COPY

/s/ James L. Coley

/t/ JAMES L. COLEY

Major, Air corps

Letter from: 1st Lieut. John J. (Jim) Handwerker; Army of the United States (Air Force); 93rd Bombardment Squadron; 19th Bombardment Group ;North Field, Guam; April 14, 1945

Dear Dad,

Well, a long time no letter. Guess you all had just about given up hope of another long letter. I don't know how long this one will be, but I will try to make it interesting.

I have skipped telling you about a few of the missions. They have just about been like the first ones. We run into about the same things on all of them. I told you about the one to Omaru and we made another daylight raid to Nagoya, but I wasn't able to stay in the formation because of a bad engine, so I bombed a secondary target. We had little or should say, no opposition. The boys that went over Nagoya had a hard time. We won't have to go back to bomb that engine factory again....

I have made nine raids. The one I came back from today was the ninth. Boy, what a raid! I thought the first time I went to Tokyo was just about the roughest raid I would make, but the one to Tokyo last night made the first one look like a milk run. I came back on three engines and they counted 43 holes in the plane.

We took off Friday the 13th at 5:34 PM and each ship was on its own. We were all right until we got about 350 miles from Japan when the No. 3 engine started throwing oil. We lost 15 gallons in about 15 minutes, so we feathered the engine before it was all pumped out. We had enough oil left to run the engine at that rate for a half hour and the time we would be over Japan was only to be 23 minutes. We figured to have enough power to get in there and get out.

When we hit the coast and started in on Tokyo we started the engine up and she ran good. The only trouble was that the damn thing left a trail of smoke that made us look like we were laying a smoke screen. The searchlights picked us up about 20 miles from Tokyo and they must have seen the smoke coming from the engine and thought we were having trouble because we had searchlights all the way on our bomb run and for 10 minutes after we made our turn to leave Tokyo. While we were in the searchlights the flak batteries were pounding hell out of us. The flak was bursting under us and shaking us up pretty badly and we could hear it going into the ship. Sure is a funny sound! Sounds like somebody had a pop-corn machine under the seat. The searchlights covered the tail gunner and the bombardier and they couldn't see anything. The first thing I knew I looked up and saw a long burst of tracers shooting by the co-pilot's window about even with him. There were fighters on us and one of the fellows who was further in back of us said he could see us framed in the searchlights with the flak bursting all around us, our No. three engine smoking like hell and three or four fighters buzzing around shooting at us. The tough part about it was that we were on our bomb run and couldn't turn to get away from them. This fellow in back said they were so busy with me that they didn't fire a shot at him. That's the way it goes. It's rough as hell for some guys and again it's easy for another. We dropped our bombs and started to climb and turn and just about turned that plane inside out trying to get out of the searchlights, but they stuck with us. Some would follow us as far as they could and then another bunch would pick us up. After we broke away and climbed, the engineer was watching the oil and sure enough, it was being pumped out just about like we said and the pressure dropped to zero and lights were still on us. The engine wasn't going to be worth a damn anyway, so I let it run for about a minute longer and God must have been on our side because as I was hitting the feathering button, the searchlights went out. We still had the fighters and they followed us for about 30 miles before we shook them.

We started back for base on three engines and darn if the #1 didn't blow an exhaust stack and started throwing fire around the ring cowl. We kept on going though. After about an hour out, we took off our flak suits and looked around. The engineer turned on the light and right alongside him, about 18 inches and 24 inches in back of me, there was a flak hole about six inches long and 4 inches wide. We just looked at each other.

We came into range of the island and started our landing circle. I put the gear down, but only the nose and left gear came down. The right gear wouldn't come down. We had to circle with them down while the engineer went back into the bomb-bays to lower the gear by emergency system. Luckily, it came down on the first try because our #4 engine started smoking like hell. We came in and landed and had no sooner hit the ground before the fire-engines, crash crew, ambulances and all came running down the runway after us. We just made it back to our parking area before the #4 just about quit. The engineering officer met us and after looking it over said we would get two new engines. They were ruined. The #4 engine wouldn't last for about 15 minutes more and it would have quit. The reason the left gear wouldn't come down was because a 50 caliber bullet had hit the motor and knocked it loose from its mounts. We had holes in the bomb-bay doors, fuselage, nose section, wings, rudder, stabilizer, elevators, ailerons. That thing sure was shot up! The boys sure were glad to get on the ground again. Can't say that I don't blame them. We will get a rest for a few days before we go on another. Will take some time before the ship is ready again.

There isn't much going on around here. I have been pretty lazy myself and stay in the sack quite a bit. I manage to keep pretty busy though. The weather has been fine the past few weeks. We had a day off the other day and the whole squadron went down to the beach for a picnic. Had a grand time. We swam and for refreshments we drank beer and ate sandwiches. I got a good sunburn, but it has worn off, I mean the pain has. I hope to get a good tan here. You know that I have been on this island two months tomorrow. I have nine missions in now and if we keep up at this rate, I don't see why I will have to spend many more months here. Sure hope not.

So long and lots of love and good luck to all,

Jim.

This photo was with Jim’s papers. It may be of the M-7 28^th Sqd, R. Spencers Crew where half were lost. See G28RS-RM, Richard Marlows story. DL

Letter to brothers from: 1st Lieut. John J. (Jim) Handwerker; Army of the United States (Air Force); 93rd Bombardment Squadron; 19th Bombardment Group; North Field, Guam; August 31, 1945

Dear Goats:

Well, I've seen everything that I want to see now and am ready to come home. Yesterday, I spent three hours and fifteen minutes flying over Tokyo at an altitude of from fifty (50) feet to seven hundred (700). We didn't get above 700 feet.

First, I'll start with the beginning. We were alerted for a mission and told to wait until they found out where it was going. We sweated it out until 9 PM Tuesday night when we were all called into the briefing room. There was only one crew from our squadron and three others from the other two squadrons. We were told that we were to fly over certain. sections of Japan and spot the prisoner of war camps to see if they were being marked so we could drop supplies. I guess I was the luckiest because I was told to try to find five camps in the Tokyo area. We got all our maps and equipment together, put 500 rounds of ammo in each gun, checked out our flak suits and sweated out take-off time which was to be two o'clock in the morning.

About 30 minutes before take-off time, a big staff car comes driving up and out steps Colonel Storrie, who is the wing commander and really one of the big gears. He was supposed to become a General, but I guess the end of the war put a stop to that. He was going along and help observe and I guess mainly just to see what damage was done. We took off on time and made the same old route that we had made nineteen times before. We were flying at 6500 feet and were on top of the clouds. We dropped down to 1100 feet when we were 15 miles from shore and flew there until we hit landfall. This was the first time that I had been that low over the Jap mainland and also the first B-29 to go over Tokyo at that level and we were sweating out them shooting at us because I guess they were pretty mad at the 29s for the fire raids. Just before we saw land fall, we could see the smoke from steamers or warships on the horizon and supposed that they were part of the invasion forces. We proceeded to the point of land we had chosen and flew along the shore because the hills were higher than we were.

We were surprised to see the amount of cultivation that they had right along the seashore. The countryside was pretty, if you could call it that. The villages looked so peaceful, in fact the place looked too damn peaceful to suit us. The places looked like something out of a story book. They were very primitive looking.

We came around the point of land and entered Sagami Bay and then we saw the ships. We saw the Missouri, Iowa and South Dakota. We could see numerous small craft around and as we came close the thing that I will always remember was the American Flag. We could see it flying from the mast of the battleships and the flag looked as big as a circus tent. I swear that we could see the stripes in it and we were about five miles away. You couldn't help but want to give a yell. Everyone in the ship got about the same reaction from seeing the flag.

We flew over the fleet and started into Tokyo Bay and then we flew over Yokosuka Naval Base, the place where the navy made their landing and we got a good look at it. There was hardly any damage to it and of course we were disappointed. Leaving there, we flew up the shore to Yokohama and there we got our first glimpse of the damage. The word damage is too nice; destruction would be a better way to express the things we saw. This part of Yokohama had a lot of houses with tin roofs and that's about all that was left and it gave the place a brownish appearance due to the rust of the tin roofs. There were city block upon city block burned out. The houses were just gone. Factories were all gutted, roofs caved in and in most places just the concrete foundations left with twisted and rusted girders. Everything seemed to be covered with rust.

The weather was pretty clear but hazy. We could get a good look at everything because the sun was shining through the haze. If we got above 700 feet, we couldn't see anything so we flew around at 500 feet. The main business district had good buildings, but they were damaged. You could see where the bombs had fallen into them because there were large holes in the roofs. Speaking of neglect, when we flew out over the harbor again, we saw a Jap cruiser, we don't know whether it was sitting on the bottom of the bay or not, but it was all rusted. The bay is pretty shallow there. Looked like they had abandoned it. We saw parts of airplanes sticking out of the water, the shipyards had ships partly constructed but abandoned and they too were badly rusted. Everything seemed to be rusted. They had a big race track that looked about as big as Santa Anita in California. It had been wrecked and was in shambles. We flew over Kawasaki and saw the same. Nothing but destruction.

Now we come to Tokyo. By the way, Yokohama and Kawasaki are suburbs of Tokyo and are really considered part of Tokyo. They all join into one large city. Tokyo was by far the most damaged. Instead of blocks of destruction, it looked like it stretched for miles. There were just the streets, sidewalks, driveways, alleys and nothing else. The houses were gone and just the foundations left. The Japs had cleaned about all of them up and in some places there were gardens. They sure didn't waste any ground. Every available space was used to grow something. We passed over a number of what looked to be schools. We could see children lined up in the court yards in a very military manner. Some were filing into the buildings and as it was about 8:30 Tokyo time, I suppose they were starting to school. There were also a number of what looked to be military barracks with the soldiers out taking exercise. There were a great number of swimming pools. They all seemed to be alongside some large building and in the majority of cases the building was destroyed and nothing left but the foundation and, the swimming pool. We were told later that they were probably the public baths of which Japan has a lot. They say that both men and women take a bath together. What people...!

We flew low over the emperor's palace and they say no one is supposed to be above the emperor. Well, he had plenty above him that day. There was a large building that had been destroyed. The rest of it looked in pretty good shape. We got a good look at the moat around it and it was full of water lilies. There were a lot of shrines just outside of the palace and we could see the people walking around there. Some of them were wearing regular clothes, the same for the women, but occasionally you could see some guy or gal in one of those kimonos or whatever they call them. The city is planned pretty well, that is the main business district. They had wide boulevards with street car tracks, a canal running through the city and very modern-looking buildings, at least they were when they were new, but now the roofs are all knocked out and just the walls are left in most of them.

There was a section called the Arsenal area and this was one of our special targets and it sure was torn up. About the only thing left standing were the chimneys and the place looked like a forest. There were chimneys every place. There were areas that were completely burned out and suddenly they would stop. On one side of the street everything was burned out and on the other side there were houses with no sign of damage to them. The houses were all jammed together and there was no such thing as a front yard in about 95% of them. We could see a lot of red things hanging out of windows and at first thought they were signals, but I guess they were their beds because the Jap sleeps on the floor with a piece of wood for a pillow. They had a lot of buildings with red crosses on them. From what I have heard the released prisoners say, they were far from being hospitals as far as the prisoner was concerned.

We couldn't find any of the prisoner camps in the places which the Japs had registered with the Red Cross. Three of the places were just gone. There was nothing there but burned-out area. We did see where there were two and probably a third. One place was along the main railroad and the prisoners had painted in large letters the words COFFEE AND MILK on the roof and on the ground in the enclosure there was a large PW. There were about 200 guys standing around waving and jumping up and down. Some didn't have on shirts, just pants. We could see them very well. We made about four passes over them at about 50 feet high and then went on our way. Sure wish we had some supplies but there were to be other ships in there the next day to drop. We saw another sign on the side of a building which read "THREE CHEERS FOR THE NAVY. COME AND GET US" The prisoners were still behind fences and were probably waiting for the troops to come in and get them.

When we had just about used all our gas and had only enough to get back to Guam, we left and as we were hitting lands-end, we saw some more of the fleet. This bunch were in another part of Sagami Bay close to the Itsuki airport. There were three large Hospital ships painted pure white with giant red crosses painted on their sides. We also saw the Missouri and it was entering Tokyo Bay. We saw the three destroyers who led her. There were the three destroyers and the big Battleship in single file going into the bay. Sure was a beautiful sight. We got back to the field after sixteen and one-half hours of flying time.

Saturday night we are taking off again and will be there when the peace is signed. They are trying to get more than 1,000 planes over Tokyo that day. Personally, I've seen all I want to see and would much rather stay here and sweat out going back to the states.

They say that the B-29s are through over here and that MacArthur doesn't need them any more. Sure hope so and they let us go home. We will know in a few weeks or so. I have 89 points and only need 70 and classified in "Class A" which will be among the first to go home if they send them according to points. I'm ready. Everything is straightened out and my clothes are ready to pack. Don't jump at conclusions. I haven't the faintest idea when we will even know. The rumors are floating by fast and furious, but I just let them go in one ear and out the other.

The weather here has been sultry. I only put on my shirt and pants to go eat or to the operations office, the other time I wear my shorts. The nights are cool which helps and as long as there is a breeze, you can count on it being cool if you sit in the shade. I am feeling fine. I have been catching up on my sack time though. I can sleep just about all day and when 10 o'clock rolls around, I'm just as tired as if I hadn't slept a bit. The foods is pretty lousy. We will have about two or three days in a row of pretty good stuff. I mean fresh meats. The general run is goat, lamb and oxen. We don't have beef, it is all oxen. The funny part about it is that all of this comes from Australia and New Zealand. The rest of the time we have C rations, which is canned hash, canned Vienna sausage and just cans. I don't think I will ever want another piece of lamb or goat. I just can't stand the taste of it. I manage to hold my own though and if the others can get by on it, I can too. I understand that the food is the same all over. The boys who have stayed on Iwo Jima for a few days say the food is worse there than it is here, so it really must be terrible. I would like to know what is happening to all the meat that the U-S. is supposed to sending to the boys oversees. They must send it to all the camps in the states.

Oh well, that's enough bitching. I am going to stop for now and get this in the mail. I sure hope you all are well and Sam and Gene drop me a line, you owe me one. I'll have plenty to tell when I get home.

Love to all

Jim

Ltr from J Handwerker 05-26-94

I was born May 8, 1915 in Memphis, Tn. When I took my physical for the draft, I was classified as l-B because I did not have a jaw tooth on left side of mouth. After Dec. 7, 1 94 1 I knew it would only be a short time before I would be called up. I got married on Feb. 7, 1942 and was living at 1298 N Second St., Memphis, TN (now a vacant lot) and decided that I would try for the Air Corps Cadets. I volunteered. I did not have enough college credits and took the exams. Out of eighty eight there were only three accepted and I was one of the three. The exams were an IQ type. Said I had one hundred twenty plus. To pass the physical I had to go to a local dentist and have a bridge made to cover the missing jaw tooth. I was accepted and became a Private #14107130 unassigned in the AUS. I was twenty-six years old and would become 27 on May 8, 1942. I just made it. I was told to report to Ft. Oglethorpe, GA and then sent to Santa Ana, Calif. for Preflight and classified for Pilot Training in Class 43-D. Sent to King City, CA, for Primary, PT-22. Gardner Field at Taft, CA for Basic BT-13. Then Marfa, TX for Advance AT-17. Graduated in Class 43-D on April 12, 1943. Second Lieutenant #0743241 then to Davis-Monthan, Tucson, Ariz. for training on B-24. I remained here as an instructor. I logged over 1500 hr's four-engine time. I was transferred to Almagordo, NM for B-29 flight leader training. Next I was assigned to the 19th Bomb Group and continued training at Great Bend Kansas until January 1945 when the Group flew to North Field, Guam for Combat duty. I flew B-29 Serial #42-93917 with my crew #84 to Guam. My MOS was 1093.

My plane was M-50 and the name I had given it "BABY GAIL" after my two year old daughter was changed to "City of Memphis". My crew completed 22 missions. In May 1945, after the thirteenth mission we were sent to Muroc, CA for special training on radar. We were lucky and got a twelve day leave. July 5, 1945 we returned to Guam and flew another nine missions. I flew on the "Show of Force" over the Missouri when peace was signed. I was awarded the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with three clusters, Asiatic Ribbon with two battle stars.

About Sept. 5, 1945 I was flown from North Field, Guam to Saipan to await return to States for discharge. About October 15 I returned, on a Liberty Ship, 15 days at sea, to Los Angeles then to Camp Chaffee, Ark. for separation then back to home in Memphis, TN. I was put on Reserve Status as Captain. In 1951 I was ordered to active duty in the Korean War. I had three children and expecting a fourth any day. I went to Maxwell Field and classified for duty. The Delay Officer set me up for a six month delay. Got a certificate for four days duty during Korean War. I haven't received a call yet and am not going to remind them.

When I returned to Civilian Status I became employed as an accountant, salesman, real-estate broker and insurance broker. I maintained an average financial standing and have purchased a nice home (paid for). My wife and I have raised ten children, seven boys and three girls. One of our sons, Robert served in the Marines and spent thirteen months in Vietnam with First Marine Air Wing as mechanic at DA-NANG and CHU -LAI Another son, Timothy, was in the NAVY on an aircraft carrier in the MEDITERRANEAN then to KEY WEST. FLA. One of my daughters is SISTER MARY SAMUEL HANDWERKER with the Dominican Order at St. Cecelia Convent in Nashville, TN.(0ver 25yrs) We have, at last count, seventeen grandchildren.

My wife and I are in good health. I will be 79 (May 8, 1994) and my wife will be 74 (July 13, 1994) We are, we think, good practicing CATHOLICS. We thank GOD for our good fortune. I hold an Advance Amateur Radio License K4PYY and have a nice station which I enjoy very much. I have talked to stations all over the world. I have an IBM compatible computer, 486/50mhz and related software.

John J Handwerker

John J. Handwerker, 3361 Dogwoodlane, Memphis, TN 38116, (901)398-5123