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The 500th Bomb Group Day By Day – Part 3 - Victory1 Mar 45From the 500th Bomb Group Operations Journal:"1 March 45. In preparation for a major strike, a Wing Training mission was flown this morning; FO-54. ThisGroup dispatched 2 combat squadrons of 9 planes each. Each aircraft will drop 2 x 500# GP bombs on Rotafrom 11,000 ft. Major Parsons [500th Group Ops Officer] participated."This mission was primarily for the new replacement crews which had arrived recently, including the Althoff crewof the 881st and the Haas crew of the 882nd, but some veteran crews such as the Fitzgerald crew of the 881st,participated. The purpose was to provide practice in navigation, formation flying and bombing. Details of thismission were not found in official records, but based on comments in individual diaries, the planes took offaround 0720 and first flew individually to Truk Atoll, about 800 miles southeast of Saipan. There the B-29'sassembled into formation, then returned to the Marianas in formation and bombed Rota Island.By all accounts, everything went well. Copilot Don Weber of the Haas crew turned 22 today and his birthdaypresent was to get to fly for 6 hours and 40 minutes on this practice mission. The crew flew Z-35, “PacificQueen”, and had no problems. They practiced squadron, group and wing formations before finally dropping theirbombs on the unused runway on still Japanese-occupied Rota.The formation got back to Saipan at about 1400. After cleaning up and getting some chow, there wasn't muchtime for the crews to rest because there was an 1800 briefing for a real mission tomorrow. At that briefing theylearned that their target was going to be the Nakajima Aircraft Engine Factory, Target 357, in Musashinonorthwest of Tokyo. The 73rd Wing and the 500th Group had been to this target several times before and it wasa tough one.From the 881st Bomb Squadron War Diary:"1 MarchCapt. Joseph J. McConnell, Squadron Surgeon, was put on temporary duty to the 148th General Hospital toassist in the medical and surgical care of casualties from Iwo Jima." [The invasion of Iwo Jima began on 19Feb. Casualties were very heavy among the Marines (and Navy support personnel). This operation wasunderstandably of great interest to the B-29 crews in the Marianas. - JEB]From the 883rd Bomb Squadron War Diary:"1 March: About half of the crews were flying a practice mission so the quiz on target study given the day beforewas reviewed. Started spreading dirt and filling holes around the [S-2] office [area]. Painted the front displaywall. Briefing at 1830."The Clinkscales crew of the 883rd flew a search mission today in Z-53, “The Ancient Mariner”, for a missing B-29crew from another Group. They were in the air for almost 14 hours but apparently did not find them. Rightgunner Dick Wing from San Jose, California, wrote in his diary later that the downed crew was found and pickedup by a destroyer.2 Mar 45From the 881st Bomb Squadron War Diary:"2 March1 Page

The 500th Bomb Group Day By Day – Part 3 - Victory1st Lt. James M. Pearson's crew left for rest camp on Oahu. Sgt. Richard M. Landsman left for 90 dayrecreational D.S. [detached service] in the United States." [The Pearson crew was the one that brought a badlyshot up Z-11 back from Tokyo on the night of 19 Feb and crash landed into a 497th plane off the runway. - JEB]From the 883rd Bomb Squadron War Diary:"2 March: Mission cancelled. No ground school today. Completed oiling of the floors and changed thedisplays. Combat officers beat the Staff officers 5 to 4 in twelve innings."The mission to Musashino had been postponed due to bad weather. Copilot Don Weber of the Haas crewrecorded in his diary that it rained hard during the night. The postponement gave the crews a double benefit.First, they got to sleep late instead of getting up at 0430. Second, they got to eat the excellent breakfastnormally prepared on mission days – fresh eggs with real butter. To Weber, they “tasted mighty good.”With some time to catch up on things, the Haas and Gillert crews of the 882nd Squadron went up to basefinance to collect their per diem, apparently their travel pay from Herington, Kansas, to Saipan. Weber got 34.25 for the per diem and 101 for his regular pay, plus 150 which was sent home. Weber noted that as a2/Lt on foreign service and with flight pay he now earned 268.50 a month. The extra money was welcome.This afternoon the Haas (882nd), Althoff (881st) and Fitzgerald (881st) crews learned that they and other crewswould be participating in another training mission to Rota tomorrow. Apparently the bad weather betweenSaipan and Japan was expected to continue for another day.Don Weber had still received no mail from home and it was beginning to bother him.3 Mar 45From the 500th Bomb Group Operations Journal:"3 March Group training mission consisting of 21 A/C paid a visit to Rota this morning. A couple of bombs weredropped and the ships were back in the hardstands by 1200."Both the Althoff crew of the 881st Squadron and the Haas crew of the 882nd participated in this training mission,as well as the veteran Fitzgerald crew of the 881st. Copilot Don Weber of the Haas crew got up about 0600,donned his flight suit and went to breakfast. Briefing for the mission was at 0700, take-off about 0830. Bombload was a small number of incendiaries to be deposited on the already heavily pockmarked runway on RotaIsland between Saipan and Guam. But first the group practiced assembly and formation flying by meeting atAnatahan Island north of Saipan and then flying together to a point west of Rota, then turning east and hitting theisland. The whole exercise lasted only a little over two hours.Weber was happy because after AC Otto Haas took the plane up to 12,000 feet and leveled off, he let Weber flyher the rest of the way, in #4 position of #3 element of the lead squadron. It was always good to fly the plane.From the 883rd Bomb Squadron War Diary:"3 March: Office partition painted. Officer Call at 1315 hours. General O'Donnel [sic] addressed the officers andendeavored to explain the rotation plan, censorship, promotion policy. Practice mission flown. Briefing at 2330hours for Mission 28."2/Lt Don Weber of the 882nd was among the officers in O'Donnell's audience. It was his first opportunity to seethe commanding general.S/Sgt Jack Heffner of the 881st Squadron had become an orphan of sorts. He had originally been radaroperator on the McNamer crew, and that was fine, until McNamer was reassigned to Wing and the crew broken2 Page

The 500th Bomb Group Day By Day – Part 3 - Victoryup on 9 Feb. That meant Heffner had to find a new home. He thought he'd found one with the Ray Taylor crewflying as left gunner, which he was willing to do in order to get his quota of missions in, but the command wouldnot reclassify him because trained radar operators were too valuable. So Heffner tried a new home as radaroperator on the Pearson crew and flew a couple of missions with them, including the nearly fatal one of 19 Feb.But it looked like that was not going to become a permanent arrangement either. Yesterday the Pearson crewleft for Hawaii for a well deserved rest leave. but Heffner was not on the orders. That's strange because it wasas a direct result of the 19 Feb incident that the crew had been given the rest leave. But Heffner had somehowbeen overlooked. Well, as I'm sure Jack Heffner would agree, life isn't fair. Anyway, here he was again all byhimself. Then today Heffner was put on DS (Detached Service) to Wing as a radar instructor. That's the way itgoes in the Army. The 500th had obviously been tasked to supply a body with the requisite qualifications andHeffner was available.At 1630 today the crews got the news that the mission to Musashino that had been postponed twice already wason for tonight. Actually, it would be a daylight mission for tomorrow but take-off would be tonight, so as to put thebombers over the target early in the day. Consequently, the mission briefing would be at the unusual time of2330, which meant the crews would have to get up at about 2230. This would the first combat mission as a crewfor the Althoff crew of the 881st, the Haas crew of the 882nd, and other new replacement crews. They had timeto catch a little sleep if they could, but first the gunners had to go up to the line and check their guns.4 Mar 45On this date the 73rd Bomb Wing flew another high-altitude, precision strike against Target 357, the NakajimaAircraft Engine Plant in Musashino near Tokyo. However, there would be a tactical change this time in the hopeof fooling the enemy. The B-29's would take off at night, so as to arrive over the target much earlier than before.Because of the night take-off, there would be no attempt to form up by squadrons or groups. Each plane was tofly individually to the Wing Assembly Point about 100 miles off the coast of Japan. By that time it would bedaylight and the planes would assemble there into formations and proceed to Japan. If an aircraft was unable tofind its own squadron or group formation, it was to join any formation. Planes unable to locate any friendlyplanes were to proceed to Japan individually and bomb the last resort target, the coastal city of Hamamatsu.The 500th Bomb Group contributed 24 planes to this mission, plus two planes to act as Super Dumbos (commsand rescue aircraft) for the entire Wing. The 24 attack planes were nominally divided into two combatsquadrons. Leading the Group and the second squadron was to be Col John B. Montgomery, XXI BomberCommand Chief of Staff, flying with Maj Robert Fitzgerald and crew in Z-8, "Mission to Albuquerque". Leadingthe first squadron would be Lt Col William McDowell, flying with Capt Vance Black and crew in Z-48.The participating planes and crews were:First squadronZ-48, Black/McDowellZ-47, "Adam's Eve", AdamsZ-54, GreggZ-53, "The Ancient Mariner", HolmesZ-50, "Fancy Detail", BradenZ-45, "Mustn't Touch", CheneyZ-52, "20th Century Sweetheart", IrbyZ-51, "Tail Wind", SchmidtZ-32, "Fever from the South", ParsonsZ-26, LimppZ-33, "Slick Dick", HanftZ-22, "Georgia Ann", SasserSecond squadronZ-8, "Mission to Albuquerque", Fitzgerald3 Page