Anderson-Peterson Family Birthdays Issue 10 ● September 2013

Carl Robert Gustafson 5 September

Grandpa Glenn’s brother-in-law, Bob Gustafson, was born 5 September 1922, and was the only child of Harry and Viola Gustafson. Harry and Viola were very close church friends of Fritz and Mabel (Glenn’s parents) and lived at 112 South Sixth Avenue, one block west of old Bethlehem Lutheran church. Harry was a clerk for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad and Viola worked at Elgin Watch Company. After Bob graduated from St. Charles High School in 1940 (with Glenn’s cousin, Wilda), one year as a “salesman or sales agent,” and one year of college, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 25 August 1942 in Chicago.

Bob trained as a bombardier at San Angelo, Texas, Army Airfield. It was the most advanced of the bombardier schools because they trained cadets on the new Norden Bomb Sight, a military secret because it was new technology. It was in San Angelo on 18 September 1943 that Bob married Glenn’s sister June. Sister Ethel Anderson and cousin Wilda Anderson were attendants. Bob’s Air Corps friend, Bill Duggin, was best man. After graduating and receiving his 2nd lieutenant commission and his bombardier wings on 23 October, Bob’s first assignment was instructor at San Angelo. Bob was later assigned to the 20th Air Force, which was created to fly the new B-29 Superfortress “very heavy, long- range” bombers. Bob’s unit, the Twentieth Air Force XXI Bomber Command, 313th Bombardment Wing, 505th Bombardment Group, 484th Bomb Squadron, initially trained with B-17 Flying Fortress bombers at Dalhart (Texas) Army Airfield. From 1 April to 6 November 1944, Bob’s unit trained with the new B-29s at Harvard (Nebraska) Army Airfield. While training there, Bob was one of 118 officers. He was assigned as bombardier in Crew 84-02 that included ten other crew members: pilot, co-pilot, navigator, flight engineer, radar, radio, fire control, right gunner, left gunner, and tail gunner. Their first B-29 was serial number 42- 63482, the “Hope-Full Devil,” named after Bob Hope.

On 6 November, they received long-awaited orders to relocate to North Field, Tinian Island, Mariana Islands, in the central Pacific. Ground crews traveled by train to Ft. Lawton, Washington, and loaded the Victory Ship, USS Sea Star. After re-supplying at Pearl Harbor and Midway Islands, they arrived at Tinian on 24 December. Meanwhile, the air crews completed overseas processing at Kearney, Nebraska, and flew their B-29 to Tinian via Hamilton Field, San Francisco. The B-29s arrived at Tinian on 24 December 1944. Just before midnight on Christmas Eve, they survived their first attack by Japanese bombers.

Behind Bob and June are best man Bill Duggan, attendants Wilda and Ethel Anderson, and Chaplain Williams. 18 September 1943 After training and performing sea rescues in January, their first mission was bombing the port, railroad station, and factories at Kobe, Japan, on 4 February. On 10 February 1945, their second mission was bombing the Nakajima Aircraft Factory at Ota, Japan. During that mission, the Bombay doors on Bob’s B-29 would not close, endangering the plane and entire crew because too much drag would increase fuel consumption, leaving insufficient fuel to return to Tinian. The pilot of another B-29, William H. MacIntyre, wrote,

Over the sea, Lt. Carl R. Gustavson, bombardier, and T/Sgt. Robert J. Aspinall, flight engineer, entered the bomb-bay after all emergency systems had been tried for two hours. Altitude was 15,000 feet, air temperature was zero degrees. By an ingenious use of the bomb-bay hoist cables, they succeeded finally in closing the doors. Their method was subsequently used to instruct all crews in the use of hoists as an added (Back) Ethel, Skippy, Fridolph, Fritz, Bob, Mabel emergency procedure. (Front) Doris, Helen, June. 617 Geneva Road. 1941

Bob’s plane landed safely at Tinian air base. Because of their success, they were awarded Distinguished Unit Citations from Air Corps Major General Curtis E. Lemay, who directed strategic air operations against the Japanese home islands.

Missions on 15 February were directed at the Mitsubishi aircraft engine factory at Nagoya, Japan; on 18 and 24 February at the port of Tokyo; 4 and 10 March at the Musashina aircraft engine factory at Tokyo; 12 March at the port of Nagoya; 14 March at the port of Osaka; 17 March at the shipyards at Kobe; 19 March at the port of Nagoya; 24 March at the Mitsubishi aircraft engine factory at Nagoya; 27 and 30 March dropped aerial mines in the Shiomonoseki Straits; 3 April dropped aerial mines in the Inland Sea area near Kure and the Nakajima aircraft engine plant at Koizumi; 7 April at the Mitsubishi aircraft engine factory at Nagoya; 8 April at the East Airfield at Kanoya; 9 April dropped additional aerial mines in the Shiomonoseki Straits; 12 April at the Hodagaya Chemical Plant at Koriyama; 14 April at the arsenal area of Tokyo; 15 April at Kawasaki; 17 and 21 April at Kokubu Airfield on Southern Kyushu; 21 April at Kushira Airfield and Kanoya Airfield on Kyushu; 24 April at the Hitachi Aircraft Company west of Tokyo; 26 April at Nittagahara Airfield on Southern Kyushu; 27 April at Kokubu Airfield; 29 April at the Army air arsenal at Tachikawa and the propeller plant at Hamamatsu; 4 May dropped additional aerial mines in the Shiomonoseki Straits and the Kobe-Osaka area; 6 May dropped aerial mines in the Tokuyama area, Kobe-Osaka area, and Tare in the Nagoya. On the 10 March mission to bomb factories at Tokyo (Operation Meetinghouse), Bob’s B-29 ditched in the ocean on their return to Tinian, but he and all other crew members were rescued 20 miles north of Pagan Island by the seaplane tender USS Bering Strait. You can see the official US military video of Bob’s plane ditching in the Pacific Ocean and his rescue on YouTube. Bob is identifiable (dark, wavy hair; “ears”) in the video at 3:37, 3:45, 3:50, 4:09, Bob, leaning far right, disembarking at Saipan on 16 5:32, 11:27, and 11:59: March 1945, after ditching his B-29 in the Pacific Ocean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cme9JcdSepA

On 7 May, Bob’s replacement plane (serial number 44-69887) was one of 41 B-29s assigned to bomb the airfields at Oita, on Kyushu Island. Their formation made a second pass at the target and was “jumped by approximately 60 fighters.” Bob’s plane was rammed by two kamikaze planes and went down over the target. On 13 June, Bob’s wife, June, received a letter from Lt. Bernard Kenny, a friend of Bob’s and a radar operator in another B-29. Lt. Kenny witnessed the crash and said that an enemy fighter plane first made a direct hit into Bob’s B-29. Bob's plane was in the center of the formation and was hit first on one of the engines but was able to hold the formation until it was hit a second time. Then fighters came up on the tail and a fire started after the plane was hit, burning off one of the wings before it went into a spin. Only one member of the crew was seen to bail out. A crash report posted on-line (in Japanese) stated that the pilot of the [first?] Japanese fighter was Mitsuo Hori (sergeant major of 343 Naval Air Squadron) and the surviving crew member was MSgt. Robert J. Aspinall (flight engineer). Aspinall was held as a prisoner of war until 20 June, when he and seven other POWs were beheaded in the Fukuoka High girls’ school yard in retaliation for another B-29 bombing attack earlier that day. See http://www10.ocn.ne.jp/~kuushuu/B29-44-69887.html.

On 6 June, June received a telegram that Bob was missing in action since May 7. June and cousin Wilda visited Bob’s parents (Harry and Viola) on that same day, but could not muster the courage to tell them the news. On 13 June, June received a letter from Lt. Kenny (described above). June and her mother, Mabel, visited Harry and Viola to tell them about the letter. On 14 June, the St. Charles Chronicle reported Bob killed in action and summarized Lt. Kenny’s letter. Grandma Mabel (Glenn’s mother) wrote in her 1945 diary that “June had a telegram telling that Bob is missing in action since May 7. How hard it is to hear such news. May God in His wisdom return him to us if so be His will!” (June 6). On Sunday, 17 June, she wrote, “Went to services. Rev. E[kstrom] reported Bob as having made the supreme sacrifice…Harry and Viola, Bertha, LeRoy and Alice, Violet and Christine, Hazel and Mr. Wilson [Grandma Violet’s sister and father] were here for dinner. Harry and Viola stayed for supper and spent the evening also. A year ago today, Bob was home [on furlough].” On 6 October, she wrote, “Received [get-well] flowers from Harry and Viola. Bob’s footlocker came today.”

The bodies of six of Bob’s fellow crew members were repatriated after World War II and interred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery (St. Louis) on 10 September 1949. Unfortunately, Bob was not one of them. However, on 1 June 1949, June applied for a bronze marker to be placed in Union Cemetery in St. Charles, with the Gustafson family plot. This is the same cemetery where Grandpa Glenn and his family are buried.