Mission #3   14 May 45   Nagoya

I found out just before briefing that I was going to go on this raid. I took the place of a navigator on another crew who had been hurt in a landing on Iwo Jima.

Briefing was held at 2230K May 13th. The target was to be the city of Nagoya. Nagoya is the third largest city in the Japanese Empire and one of the greatest industrial areas in the Empire. The Mitsubishi Aircraft factory here is probably the largest aircraft factory in the world. This was to be an incendiary raid on the city itself and, if successful, would not only cripple Jap industry but would be quite a terror raid. Also it was the largest raid of the war on the Jap mainland. Between five hundred and six hundred B-29s were to take part. Every wing on the Mariannas were to send out all available aircraft.

We took off from Guam at 1555Z, May 13th. On a true heading of 340 we flew up to Minami-Iwo, the turning point at 6000 feet. We passed over Minami at 1923^1/2Z but, as it was a DR position and we were unable to pick up Minami on the scope I flew up to Iwo Jima before turning. On that first leg I used DR, Loran, and celestial. We turned at Iwo at 1930Z on a heading of 348 and headed for Smith Island (31-23N 140-03E). Loran was poor and because of a high overcast I was unable to use celestial so had to do straight DR into Smith. However, I had Sofugan Rock and Tori-Shima as pilotage pin points and came in 0-0 on Smith Island at 2142^1/2Z. I had understood Smith was going to be a small island but was still surprised at the size. It was merely a small rock about the size of our Quonset but jutting out of the ocean.

We formed the group at Smith Island. Our ship was K-58 and we were to be No. 8 ship in the third squadron. Our group was to be the last group in our wing over the target but there were to be other Wings behind us.

Left Smith Island in group formation at 2221Z. We were still flying at 7000 feet and departed on a true heading of 305. The formation did a climb on course about one hour off the Jap coast (33-25N 136-00E), at 2345Z at 19,000 feet, our bombing altitude.

From the re-assembly point we flew due North to the turning point, which was the sourth end of a large lake West of Nagoya. Close to the city of Kyoto. Here we turned up to the Initial Point (35-11N 136-06E). This was a little inlet. Then we departed the IP at 0010Z May 14th and at 0016Z, May 14th Bombs were away. We dropped 22 - 500 lb. Incendiary clusters.

Nagoya was quite a sight when we reached there. We were forced to bomb by radar because of the clouds of smoke over the target. We were at 19,000 feet and the smoke came up to about 15,000. The city was completely obscured except for the outskirts. I couldn't help thinking of the people we were killing and I wish it weren't necessary to indiscriminately bomb cities as we did on that raid. It really was an awful fire. I figure about 3,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the city that day.

The anti-aircraft fire was meager and inaccurate due to the smoke but the elements that hit the target before ours probably had to contend with more flak. Apparently the flak was entirely radar controlled.

Saw a few fighters but not nearly so many as we were expecting. One two-engine fighter with square wing tips, probably an Irving, came in fairly close but did no damage. Saw no white phosphorous bombs.

We expected a lot of flak on the mission. In briefing they said there would be 90 heavy AA guns within range on the sun from the target to the IP and 130 guns while we were over the target. So we were pleasantly surprised at the lack of A.A.

Flew east for a short time. Then we turned South-east and finally left the Jap coast at Hamamatsu (34-38N 137-48E) at 0028Z. We then descended to 15,000 feet and took up a heading of 168 for Iwo Jima.

Flew into Iwo using straight DR with sun lines. When we got there the AC thought it was necessary to land for gas. I advised him not to as I'm certain we had plenty of gas. However, we landed at Iwo at 0348Z and cut engines at 0416.

As luck would have it Iwo closed in shortly after we landed. As usual a lot was happening there. Within an hour after our landing three crews bailed out over the island, and right after we landed a B-29 crashed into the embankment at the end of the run-way.

The morning after our landing a hurricane hit Iwo. That was a tough preposition. It rained incessantly all day and tents were blowing down. The center beam in our tent broke and down it came so we spent some time out in the rain with blankets wrapped around us. We all got pretty wet and plenty sick of 'K' Rations.

We landed at Iwo at about two o'clock Monday afternoon and didn't get off until eleven Friday morning. And that was plenty of time to spend there. Ran into Jack Davenport and the rest of Carl Lowe's crew. They bailed out over Iwo. Also saw Saume's crew, Capt. Netherton, and Harvey, a fellow who lived at the Clark Hotel. And Thursday afternoon Bud Whalen, Bob Good and crew landed so we had an old Pyote bridge game. Also Thursday five men on Major Vick's crew bailed out and the radar man was lost. Spent some time at Iwo just looking over the battle scars of the island. It sure must have been a rough battle.

The flight back to Guam was rather uneventful. We flew ship O-29 which had just had a new tail. A Saipan tail. The Loran set didn't work so I came down using sun lines and drift readings. Took off at Iwo at 0052Z May 18th. Reached the turning point west of Pagan Island at 0257 and landed at Guam at 0444.

Flying time: 16:18
Miles flown about 3000 N.M.
Flight crew: AC- Fisher, P- Hutchings, N- Turnock, B- Tomberg, K- Mintkenbaugh; E- Morgan, RO- Christman, CFC- Gauthier, LG- Munas, RG- Parrish, TG- Flick.