Mission #5   1 June 45   Osaka

Tokyo, Nagoya, and Yokohama had received their fire bombs and, so as not to let the Japs think we were playing favorites this mission was an incendiary raid on Osaka. Osaka is the second largest Japanese city with a population of 3^1/2 million. It also has much of Japan's war industry.

Originally scheduled to leave Guam May 30th we were held up by weather. We took off in ship K-60 at 1650Z May 31st. The first part of the flight to Minami, the assembly area was uneventful. The stars were out and Loran was working well. At Minami, where we arrived at 2026Z, we formed into group formation. We flew in No. 5 spot in the first squadron. At 2040Z we departed from Minami in formation but an hour out of Minami we ran into a severe cold front where it became necessary to break up the formation.

For four hundred miles we flew through the front at 8,000 feet. Only occassionally did we see any of the other ships. Two B-29s in another group actually collided. Snyder, our right blister gunner reported the resulting explosion but at first we thought they were flares.

When we came out of the front we climbed up to altitude and reached the Reassembly point (33-45N 135-10E) at 0010Z flying at 21,000 ft. There we again assembled into squadron formation and left the departure point at 0029Z. We did not fly over the turning point as briefed but arrived at the IP (34-13N 134-43E) at 0035^1/2. We took up a heading for the target. Went in on a Tit of 046 and due to a tail wind had a strong ground speed. Bombs were away at 0044Z. We dropped 110-100 lb. incendiary bombs and one 500-lb fragmentation cluster for anti-personell. Quite a load. Started in by radar but the target was clear so we bombed visually. As observed by our scanner the bombing results were excellent. Very close to the MPI.

There was more flak over Osaka then we have had on any previous raid. However, as they were only firing at us when we were right over the target, it wasn't too long in duration. The flak was very accurate. One burst in particular seemed very close. I was looking out the window and it burst right out in front of engine No. 1. Some of the planes were hit. One AC in our group, Beluendo, was killed and another ship was hit right in the bomb bays. We also hit some flak over the IP but it wasn't a very intense concentration.

The fighters at Osaka were pretty aggressive compared to those met on the previous raids. We saw Tonys, Tojos, and Irvings (twin-engine). One Tony came right through the formation. He didn't miss our left wing by too much. It's hard to understand how he made it through with all those ships firing at him. We were supposed to have an escort of P-51s over the target but didn't see any. Some of the groups which came in later saw them and the radio said that we sent up 150 of them from Iwo.

Jack Blythe, the bombardier, shot down a Tony on this mission. It came in at 12 o'clock right at our nose. Jack fired two short bursts and when the fighter came in closer he leaned on the trigger. As it passed our right blister it went into a dive and the scanners reported flames coming out of the engine. So that's one to our credit.

After leaving the target we encountered more flak. The fighters stuck with us for about ten minutes and then left to attack the other formations. We left the mainland at 33-55N 136-11E at 0100E. Flew through the same cold front. Before we hit the front there were a lot of planes near us but for about three hours after we left the front we didn't see another ship. We figured we were ahead of the rest and that proved correct as we were the third ship to land.

Came back by the usual route. Had to use practically straight DR getting to Iwo. I did get a noon day fix on the sun using the sub-stellar point. It turned out to be very good. Loran appeared to be jammed but I'm not certain whether it was enemy interference or the weather. We hit Iwo Jima at 0353 still at 20,000 and maintained altitude until the turning point West of Pagan. We began a slow let-down there at 0600Z and arrived over Guam at 0720 and landed immediately. We landed with about 1200 gallons of gas.

Flying time: 14:35
Flight crew: AC- Johnson, P- Knuth, N- Turnock, B-Blythe, K- Kokenge, E- Watts, RO- Vincent, CFC- Helton, LG- Sparks, RG- Snyder, TG- Sparling.