Manuscript pages and photos
The following pages were taken from
the manuscript,
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Written by: Pages 43 through 47 On the tenth of August, Domei News agency announced Japans willingness to accept the Potsdam Ultimatum. The announcement, though unofficial, set off peace demonstrations throughout the Pacific that almost reached war intensity as red distress flares streaked across the sky from every corner of Guam, and forty-five pistol and fifty caliber machine gun bullets rent the sky. On the island of Okinawa, the heaviest barrage of the war was sent skyward as celebrators manned their anti-aircraft guns for forty minutes. When the smoke and flak had cleared, six men were dead as the result of over indulgence in celebration. For the next three days, the Third Fleet was again pulled away from. Tokyo awaiting an official announcement and B-29 raids were suspended. After two days, due to repeated aerial attacks on U.S. ships, the fleet went into the attack again with renewed fury. Meanwhile the B-29s were still held back and the fellows sat around with their ears glued to the radios trying to catch the first announcement of the peace we all felt sure had to come. Some of the more fortunate ones who had any whiskey left continued the celebration for the entire time, while others lost a lot of valuable sleep by sitting in the communications quonsett until the wee hours of the morning waiting for the announcement from San Francisco. On the eleventh we all awoke with a big head and moved from our palatial tents down in Mud Hollow to the new barracks or top of a coral hill a mile away. We really hated to leave our friends, the rats, that always came out at night to keep us company Some of the fellows had really become attached to them in more than a friendly way. The tension of sweating out the peace was far greater than flying missions. When no word was received from Japan by Tuesday, the fourteenth of August, a mission was scheduled, which was the Nippon Oil Refinery at Tsuchizaki, on the northern tip of Honshu and just five hundred miles from Vladivostok, Russia. The distance was thirty-seven hundred and fifty statute miles and was to be the longest mission flown to date, carrying one hundred and fifty pound fragmentation bombs which could have started a fire in any target let alone an oil refinery. We took off at seventeen hundred hours after a thorough plane inspection by all the crewmembers. As we reached the end of the runway the heavily laden B-29 dropped quite a few feet below the island until we picked up speed. We finally got under way and everything went smoothly all the way to Iwo. The engines purred like kitten, however, the drone of the engines was putting myself and Charlie to sleep. Charlie and I took turns trying to stay awake. After Iwo, there was no fighter protection and luckily we had no interception as we proceeded through a partially overcast sky. Thank God in this part of the world there was seldom a very clear night. We all had our own thoughts about this mission, which we had hoped would be our last. Peace was to close to becoming a reality at this moment and we all prayed that it would come to be. It was hard to realize that the B-29 had only been in combat for two years from the day it was designed by Boeing. To us the "29" was one of the most beautiful airplanes ever built. It had slender wings supported by a sleek fuselage. It was the first pressurized plane of the war. However if we only now had our original central firepower of the turrets we would all have felt better. The turrets and the machine guns were taken off to gain speed and height. However, the 20mm cannon in the tail had to suffice for the time being. After what seemed like an eternity, we saw the coast of Japan. We had not as yet encountered any enemy planes, although searchlights had begun to pierce the sky through the partial overcast. There were supposed to be a lot of other planes involved in this mission to bring the total up to eight hundred plains. In thirty minutes we had flown across the island of Honshu and were over the Sea of Japan. From here we turned north to the I.P. for another twenty minutes. From I.P. to the target was a distance of seventy-eight miles, and as we neared the target the orange plumes of bomb bursts from preceeding planes could be seen. Five minutes from the target a huge black cloud of flame and smoke began to build up from the burning oil below. The falme and smoke reached to thirteen thousand feet) and as we were only at ten thousand four hundred, we had to go through the light part of it in order for Stan to hit the target. As Cogut said, When the Japs did quit, there wouldn't be enough fuel left in the country for us to ride a motorcycle around their islands." Our bombs went away at seventeen minutes after one and Bob reported good hits in the center of the flames. Only one small inaccurate automatic weapon was noticed sending up flak over the target, and I guess our raid that far north was a complete surprise to the Japs. We were over Jap territory and their waters for an hour and a half and it was a relief to leave it behind. With Dan watching over his gas like a miser over gold, we hit Iwo with enough fuel to get us back to Guam, and after sixteen hours and forty-five minutes from the time we took off,' Guam was in sight. After seeing that friendly land, the first in. so long, we had an idea of how Columbus felt back in 1492 when he sighted America. Five minutes after landing at nine o'clock, we heard of President Trumans announcement of the end of World War II, and as tired as the fellows were, they danced and jumped around slapping each other on the back. Ours was the last raid of the war, and though we hadn't fought too long, it was certainly welcome news. Some of the fellows on these islands in the Pacific, it meant the end of three years of hell and to the Chinese, it meant the end of nine bitter long years of fighting and suffering. To every nation the world over, it meant a resumption of peaceful ways of life. The sun, symbol of Imperial ruthless Japanese conquest, was at last gone from the lands it had invaded and exploited, and a new flag of freedom and democracy as taking its place. --- |
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| Two pages taken from the manuscript written by Stan Nightingale, Radar Officer "For the Luvva Mike" |
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A mission Summary and the Damage report for all 15 missions flown by this group. Target: This target was attacked on mission #15, the last mission flown by this wing. Flown on the night of 14-15 August 1945 with bombs released only a few hours before the announcement by President Truman that the Japanese had accepted the United States surrender terms. This mission was the longest nonstop combat flight ever made, a distance of 3,740 statue miles from the base at Guam to the target on the northern coast of Honshu Island and return. Postponed for several days by the peace negotiations, the mission took off, led by the Wing Commander, at 1637 hours on l4 August. 143 aircraft were airborne and 134 dropped 953.9 tons of 100 and 250 pound GP bombs on the primary target. Results of Photo-interpretation of damage brought now familiar words: "Almost completely destroyed or damaged" Photographs disclosed that no portion of the target was untouched. The three refining units were a tangled mass of wreckage, the main power plant still standing but seriously hit, More than 66 per cent of the tank capacity was des-troyed. Lesser installations including the workers barracks were destroyed. Page 2 Summary of Damage
**Total damage after final strike --- |
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