W45AUTH\LW28B-HG.DOC

Fig 1 M-6 City of Austin Flight Crew #26 being briefed by Hans Gammel on right

Loc	Duty	Rank 07-45	Rank 02-45	Name	ASN	MOS	Home, 1945
S9	AC	1^st Lt	1^st Lt	Gammel, Hans P. N.	0-742706	1093	247 Starboard, Rockport TX 78392
	P	1^st Lt	2^nd Lt	Donaldson, Richard L.	0-778429	1092
	N	1^st Lt	2^nd Lt	James, John F.	0-2060296	1038	PO Box 1070 Kingshill, St Croix USVI 00851
	B	1^st Lt	2^nd Lt	Leiby, William C.	0-773125	1035	1412 Wooten Rd, Colo Springs CO, 80915
	RO	FO	FO	Anderson, Roland S.	T-131575	0142	1085 Fairlane Dr Rockledge FL 32955
	FE	T/Sgt	T/Sgt	Harvick, Roy C.	18018987	737	PO Box 448 Tahoka, TX, 79373
	R	S/Sgt	Cpl	Buhr, Walter J. Jr	39128974	2756
	CFC	T/Sgt	Pfc	Edmonds, Paul E.	34899770	580	PO Box 18, Newell NC 28126
	RG	S/Sgt	Cpl	Spokovec Carl J.	33704603	611
	LG	Sgt	Cpl	Maneese, Raymond C.	36782111	611
	LG*			Diamond, Len
	TG	S/Sgt	Cpl	Lodi, Remo J.	11141082	611	6 Oak St Plymouth MA 02360

* Diamond took Maneese place on 21st mission per note from Gammel

Fig 2 M-6 City of Austin Crew Chief Carroll Johnson with ground crew

Fig 3 M-6 Armament Facilities in background.

Fig 4 Fig 5

Fig 6 Fig 7

Gammel was carrying a full load of bombs when he clipped the top of the trees at the end of the runway on take off. After clearing the 600 foot cliff he salvoed his bomb load and made it back about the island to Harmon Field where he was able to land. Thankfull only a small percentage of the airfoil spoiled it’s lift and even the engine who’s blade hit the tree kept running fine except for a bit of vibration. They were lucky as it could have been much worse.

We Sank a Jap Cruiser and Saved a Downed B-29 Crew

By William C. Leiby, Bombardier, 28th Squadron, 19th Bomb Group

F132=M231;06-26-45;Wing 314; Day; GP; 15-17KAltitude; Kagamigahara; Kawasaki AC

Airborne=35; Abort=3; Lost=1(1 rammed); Bomb load=12100; Fuel Resv=699; Iwo=4

EA Sighted=24; EA Attacks=7 (dest=9, prob=1, dam=2)

28th Airborne=(12) VParker#22, FMaupin#27, BKordus#_,TReadhimer# , WRowe#_, JAmbrose#_, RLong(Alt), HGammel, JRandolph#_,JRobinson#_,JStevens#10, __, ___

BKordus#?? Capt Ben Kordus rammed and lost in M13 at target

Our mission on June 26, 1945, was to the Kawasaki Aircraft Factory at Kagamigahara, Japan. We were rendezvousing out from Osaka using the "quadrant/altitude" system when Japanese fighters jumped us and shot down a B-29 in one of the other squadrons. Because of our previous experience with a crew that was downed in April, we were directed to abort the mission and assist in the rescue.

We circled the downed flyers, dropping food, water, emergency radio equipment and life rafts. We tried for release an inflated life raft through the quick opening bomb bay doors, but the slip stream caused the raft to strike a part of our plane, and it was punctured Our radio operator continued to call for help and finally made contact with a submarine which was standing in very close to shore. The sub surfaced and headed for the downed crew at full speed.

When we sighted the submarine, we took off after a couple of two-masted Japanese schooners that had set out from shore under auxiliary power in an attempt to capture the downed crewmen. We tried to drop a couple of bombs on them on our first pass, but our plane was in a bank at the time of release and all we hit was water. Our skipper, Lieutenant Gammel, then made a higher pass at the boats, bringing the nose down as we got in range so we could fire all six of our .50's at the same time. As we passed over the boats he put the plane in a sharp, climbing turn so one of the waist gunners and the tail gunner could bring their guns to bear. We scored hits on both schooners. The first one caught fire and burned and we could tell that the second boat was heavily damaged. The submarine then picked up the survivors of the downed B-29.

Later, when we were returning to the States after completing our required missions, we ran into the men of the rescued crew in Hawaii where they were recovering from their ordeal.

Ironically, when we dropped out to assist in the rescue Captain Kordus' plane took up our position in the formation. While on his bomb run over the target his plane was rammed by a Japanese fighter which sheared off one of his wings and sent his B-29 spiraling to earth. There were no survivors. The bombardier on Captain Kordus' plane, Lieutenant Ed Kushner, was a good friend of mine. He and I had gone through bombardier training together.

Official Air Force records listed only the plane that was shot down by Japanese fighters as lost on this mission, but Kordus' plane makes two B-29's lost that day.

Tough Time Over Tachikawa

By William C. Leiby, Bombardier 28th Squadron, 19th Bomb Group

F037=M096;04-24-45;Wing 73-313-314; Day; GP; 10-14KAltitude; Tachikawa; Hitachi AC Plant "Catcall #1"

Airborne=131; Abort=0; Lost=5( 2 to AA; 1 to EA; 1 to accident; 1 unk); Bomb load=10063; Fuel Resv=1070

EA Attacks=249 (dest=17, prob=23, dam=25)

28th Airborne=(11) CWells#13, TReadheimer#_, RSpencer#, GO'Leary#_, JHancock#9, HGammel#_, EHammond#_, JCarroll#_, FMaupin#10, VParker#10, BKordus(alt),JRobinson#_, MFloyd#_,

MFloyd#?? Lt Marian Floyd lost in M15 over target

The April 24, 1945 mission to Japan turned out to be one of the roughest we had during our combat tour. It was a major strike consisting of 131 aircraft from three Wings: The 73rd from Saipan, the 313th from Tinian and the 314th from Guam. The target was the Hitachi Aircraft Company plant at Tachikawa. Seventy seven percent of the strike force hit the primary target, the others dropped their bombs on the secondary target, which was Shizuoka, a coastal city on the main island of Honshu.

The mission summary sheet records that the strike force had 249 fighter attacks and we lost five B-29s, at least two of them to antiaircraft guns .The report says that 17 enemy aircraft were shot down, twenty three probably destroyed and twenty five were damaged.

My work sheet report indicates our Squadron went over the target at 12,500 feet altitude. We carried a bomb load of 20 M-64 bombs and flying time for the mission was 15 hours.

Following are the other comments I wrote down to turn in during our debriefing upon our completion of the mission.

REMARKS This was a daylight formation mission and was one of the roughest, if not the worst, we've had to date. Before we hit the target we had the most flak, both for accuracy and intensity, than we've seen so far. We saw a plane in which a friend of mine, Lt. Engfer, the bombardier, go down after a savage attack by fighters. We anxiously watched to see if we could observe any parachutes open from crew members of the stricken ship. We saw two chutes open, and witnessed two enemy fighter planes make passes and firing at the helpless men in the chutes.

Our Squadron received numerous fighter attacks, many of the coming from head-on. I started firing at one attacker that was already on fire, having been hit by gunners in planes proceeding us. I could see my tracers going into his cowling and watched as the plane went out of control and spiraled toward earth. Our right gunner was credited with a confirmed victory during the attack on our formation. Also I damaged two single engine and one twin engine fighters.

After we left the target area, we were dispatched by the lead ship to assist another B-29 that had been damaged and was losing altitude. It was also under attack by the twin engine fighter that I damaged as he tried to attack our plane. We saw two crewmen of the damaged B-29 bail out overland before the stricken plane headed out to sea. We stayed with the damaged airplane until it ditched 50 or 60 miles out from Nagoya. We circled the downed crewmen who were scattered around the floating aircraft and radioed for help, giving the coordinates before we had to leave.

We had to land at Iwo Jima to refuel before heading back to Guam.