The 500th Bomb Group Day By Day – Part 2 - Combat 1 Nov 44 Early this morning a single B-29 took off from Isley Field on a very important mission. She would be the first B- 29 to fly over Tokyo. The plane, ironically named “Tokyo Rose”, was an F-13 photographic reconnaissance variant, and her mission was to take aerial photographs of the Tokyo area. The weather was clear over the Japanese capital today and “Tokyo Rose”, loitering unmolested at 32,000 feet, was able to collect about 700 valuable photographs which were used by the XXI Bomber Command as the basis for mission planning. The build-up of American B-29's on Saipan had not gone unnoticed by the Japanese. They were well aware that their homeland was now within bombing range. They had already begun organizing so-called Special Duty Attack Units of long-range bombers, mostly Betty's at first, with the specific mission of attacking the B-29 units in the Marianas. These units were based in Japan and did not have the range to reach Saipan directly, but as long as Iwo Jima remained in Japanese hands, they could stage thru there. The Special Duty Attack Units had not yet completed their organization and training as of this date, but today's reconnaissance flight over Tokyo goaded the Japanese command into immediate retaliation. The 2nd Independent Air Unit based at Hamamatsu and the 4th Independent Air Unit based at Shimoshizu were ordered to strike Saipan. The 2nd IAU sent nine “heavy bombers” and the 4th dispatched four “headquarters reconnaissance planes”, all to stage thru Iwo Jima. The specific models of planes are unknown. What the Japanese called a heavy bomber was a twin-engine plane roughly equivalent to a U.S. medium bomber. These could have been Mitsubishi Ki-67 Peggy's. American accounts of the attacks against the Marianas air fields refer only to G4M Betty bombers, but Betty's were flown only by the Japanese Navy. It would be easy to mistake a Peggy for a Betty. Whatever type they were, these Japanese Army planes were to attack Saipan in conjunction with Navy aircraft from Iwo Jima, but as usual, coordination between the Japanese Army and Navy was poor and they probably attacked separately. In less than a month and a half on Saipan, starting from nothing more than a muddy cane field, the Ground Echelon of the 500th Bomb Group had done an amazing job in preparing the working and living areas for the incoming Air Echelon. All the air crews had to do when they got to the island was move into their quonsets. Meanwhile, the ground personnel who had put up all the buildings would continue living for their entire time on Saipan in tents. Of course, they were greatly improved tents. They already had the very welcome addition of wooden floors, and more improvements would follow. The experience of 2/Lt John Grant, 882nd Squadron Assistant Engineering Officer, was probably typical, as he wrote in a letter to his sister: "... [W]e obtained some extra wood from some Quonset Huts we have built and one of the fellows in my department, a former carpenter, offered to construct [for] me a small table and a smaller chest of drawers. The latter is a godsend and the table, with the addition of a couple of small boxes, has become a nice little desk, on which I am now writing. I got a box, put a top on it and upholstered the lid to make it more comfortable on the fanny.... [Grant also slept on a mattress which he had stolen off the Alcoa Polaris.] ... [W]ith the improvements made and a few luxuries improvised from elbow grease and stolen lumber, etc. we are fairly comfortable and quite well situated. Later our tents will all be built up with 2 x 4s and we will really be set." West of the International Date Line, Z-1, Goldsworthy crew, and Z-4, Oswald crew, both of the 881st Squadron, landed this afternoon at Kwajalein. If all went well, they would reach Saipan tomorrow. Maj Robert Goldsworthy took pride in his flying abilities, and especially his landings. He had made a near perfect one coming in to Mather a few days ago, and another good one in Hawaii. But Goldsworthy also believed in keeping the skills of his crew up to date, so today he had his copilot, Bob Sollock, fly the leg from Hawaii to Kwajalein. Unfortunately, Sollock always seemed to have some difficulty with landings, and today was no different. He bounced coming in, which elicited a disparaging snort and comment from Col King. Goldsworthy, always protective of his crew, didn't like that. East of the IDL, back in Hawaii, three more planes of the 500th Bomb Group took off from John Rodgers Field bound for Kwajalein. These were Z-7, Sullivan crew, of the 881st, and Z-48, Black crew, and Z-49, Feathers 1 | P a g e The 500th Bomb Group Day By Day – Part 2 - Combat crew, of the 883rd. These planes would cross the IDL and arrive at Kwajalein on 2 Nov. Back at Mather Field in California, the Luman crew (#109) in Z-5, 42--24643, 881st, were preparing to make their flight to Hawaii tonight or in the morning, and while they were busy with that, four more B-29's of the 500th Group flew in from Kearney today. The new arrivals were Z-9, 42-24689, Hatch crew (#118), 881st; Z-10, 42- 65219, Thompson crew (#117), 881st; Z-21, 42-24652, Pierce crew (#223), 882nd, and Z-25, 42-24686, Van Trigt crew (#230), 882nd. And back in Atlanta, the Hurlbutt crew (#222) of the 882nd was still waiting for their plane, Z-22, 42-63429, to be repaired at the Bell factory. But there was a clear sign that the enforced vacation in Atlanta was coming to an end. Today navigator Ken Fine wrote his fiancee, "They went out to test fly the plane this afternoon so if it checks out OK we will take it and go to Kearney, NB tomorrow or we might possibly go tonight." Fine hoped they waited until daylight; he did not like flying at night. Looking back on his sojourn in Atlanta, Fine wrote, "I really have had one of the grandest times here of all my time in the Army. For over two weeks now I haven't done one lick of work." He had become quite fond of the city and contemplated coming back some day. Looking ahead to Kearney, he expected that after the crew's long absence, "they will work our heads off and the first thing we know we will be leaving there. ... I wouldn't be surprised if I was on the other side of the world in a couple of weeks or so." Fine wasn't far off. Z-22 and the Hurlbutt crew would reach Saipan on 21 Nov. 2 Nov 44 At 0130 on this date nine bombers from Japan, having staged through Iwo Jima, managed to find their way thru bad weather to bomb Saipan. Fortunately for the Americans, these planes carried only small fragmentation bombs which only slightly damaged the Isley runway. Several of the raiders were shot down by antiaircraft fire and night fighters. Japanese records confirm that five bombers were lost. One of the bombers shot down by a P-61 night fighter crashed into an engineer unit area, killing four men and seriously injuring six. Maps found in the wreckage confirmed to the Americans that the planes had staged thru Iwo. American sources consistently identify these bombers as Betty's, but these were Japanese Army planes and so were more likely Peggy's, or possibly Helen's or Sally's. This time the men of the 500th were only spectators to the fireworks, but some were impressed enough to start work on previously neglected air raid shelters. This was not an easy task, as in most places there was only a foot or two of topsoil overlying nearly impenetrable coral. Most shelters were therefore shallow and had to have walls built up with sandbags. Typically, planks were then placed across the top, and more sandbags were placed on top of those. This morning on Kwajalein Maj Robert Goldsworthy suggested to Group Commander Col Richard King that he should fly the last leg to his command on Saipan. It was a reasonable proposal, but Goldsworthy had an ulterior motive. He still resented King's disparagement of copilot Bob Sollock's landing yesterday and secretly hoped that King would make a bad landing coming in to Saipan. The unsuspecting King took the bait and climbed into the left seat, while Goldsworthy took the right. They started down the runway, and soon Goldsworthy began to regret his suggestion. King was steering using the brakes, which cut into their speed significantly. The runway at Kwajalein wasn't a long one to begin with, and as the seconds ticked off Goldsworthy could see they were rapidly running out of runway, with only the ocean beyond. Finally, he could stand it no longer and reached out and pushed the throttles all the way forward. “[King] turned to me like he wanted to tell me to keep my hand off the controls, but even he could see it was going to be a close thing. We got in the air at the end of the runway, but just barely.” The rest of the flight to Saipan was routine, and King disappointed Goldsworthy by making a good landing.