FORECAST: DISASTER — 27 P-51s COLLIDE IN BAD WEATHER

WE LOST 27 P-51 MUSTANGS AND WERE ORDERED TO SHOOT DOWN ONE OF OUR OWN B-29S

 In May 1945, our bomber crew was selected to fly from Tinian to Iwo Jima where, with 9 other B-29s, we would act as navigational escorts for a maximum P-51 fighter assault on the Japanese mainland. The mission was not a happy one, nor am I proud to have been a part of it. We lost 27 P-51 Mustangs and were ordered to shoot down one of our own B-29s.

Until the U.S. Marines captured the Japanese airbase on Iwo Jima, mainland Japan had remained out of range of our fighter planes. On March 16, after the invasion of Iwo and 4 weeks of bitter fighting, this 8 square mile, pork chop-shaped island was secured and ultimately became a base for the 7th Fighter Command. Located midway between the Mariana Islands and the Japanese Empire, it would also save the lives of many B-29 crews who could not make it all the way back to the Marianas.

Iwo Jima was no stranger to our crew. We had made an emergency landing there 3 months earlier on March 9th after sustaining heavy battle damage from a fire raid on Tokyo. At that time the runway was still under hostile fire, and tracers laced back and forth during our landing roll-out toward the east end of the runway. We were forced to brake heavily and quickly do a 180 back to the secure western end.

We had been the second B-29 to land on Iwo Jima. Lt. Raymond Malo, also from the 9th BG, had made history a few days before on March 5th as the first B-29 to touch down on the unfinished extension of the Japanese fighter strip at the base of Mount Suribachi. Malo had reported even more intense ground fire than we experienced just 4 days later. Sadly, Lt. Malo and his crew were lost the following month during the April 15th devastating and costliest-to-date mission on Kawasaki [6BG Mission 25] when the 20th Bomber Command lost 13 aircraft and crews, 4 from our own 9th BG.

See First B-29 Landing on Iwo Jima 

NINE B-29S WERE TO PROVIDE NAVIGATIONAL ESCORT FOR 150 P-51 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTANGS [FROM IWO TO JAPAN]

 On May 31, our B-29 crew flew to Iwo Jima to participate as navigational escort for the P-51s on the June 1st maximum fighter assault on the Japanese mainland. It was essential for B-29s to provide navigation for the P-51s over vast areas of water where no landmarks, onboard radar or radio aids were available to them. Normally fighters provided bombers protection from enemy fighters, as in the European Theater of Operations. The B-29 and P-51 crew members were summoned to a joint bomber and fighter operational mission briefing. Nine B-29s were to provide navigational escort for 150 P-51 North American Mustangs. The tenth B-29 was designated as a weather ship to launch and proceed 10 minutes ahead of the main force and report back to the formation the weather conditions encountered en route.

The briefing seemed very casual, not at all like the professionally conducted briefings we were accustomed to back at 9th Group Headquarters on Tinian. The bomber crews consisting of aircraft commanders, pilots, bombardiers and navigators were seated together in one section, while the P-51 group, squadron and flight leaders and pilots filled the rest of the briefing room. The B-29 aircraft commanders were asked who their senior officer was. No one knew. All of the bomber pilots were from different groups and had arrived on Iwo without position assignment, plan or en route “flimsy.” A senior-looking major stood up and volunteered that he was senior officer, so he was designated bomber lead. The next senior bomber pilot was asked to stand. Another younger-looking major stood up, so he became deputy lead. Although we had flown lead crew on Tinian, I had no idea where I stood in this unorthodox pecking order selection process, and so I ended up last and was assigned number 9 in the formation.

TWO FRONTAL SYSTEMS LAY ACROSS OUR FLIGHT PATH BETWEEN IWO JIMA AND THE EMPIRE – A SERIOUS PROBLEM FOR THE FIGHTER PILOTS

The target briefer gave the fighter pilots their ground targets by squadron. Then the weather briefer pointed out that not one but two frontal systems lay across our flight path between Iwo Jima and the Empire. One would be encountered about halfway and the other just off the coast of Japan. He felt the weather systems were not severe and should cause no problems. That did not seem to bother anyone in the briefing room except me. I could not believe that two weather fronts disposed in that manner would not be accompanied by considerable heavy cloud formation which could be a serious problem for the fighter pilots. I had been trained as a fighter pilot while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force before Pearl Harbor and knew that the fighter pilots of WWII were very poor instrument pilots for several reasons. They were given little instrument flying training. Also, their A-1 gunsight was an obstruction to vision and did not permit a rapid transition of eyes from cockpit instruments to the outside environment and back again.

There was no mention of fighter weather penetration procedures at the briefing. The B-29 crews were trained in weather penetration procedures to open up a formation by fanning out left and right until the weather conditions improved, then regrouping. Also, there was no emergency or contingency briefing. There were no “what ifs?”

The B-29s were to take off and, at 10,000’ altitude, circle left-hand over Kito Iwo, an outcropping of rocks just north of Iwo Jima, while the P-51s joined up. We were required to maintain an airspeed of 230 mph, some 45 to 50 miles mph faster than our maximum range cruise speed of 185-190 mph, so the “little friends” or “chickens” could stay with us without loading up their engines at low power settings.

The weather ship was 10 minutes ahead en route as we departed on course. Three of the 9 B-29s aborted prior to or during takeoff. Another 3 aborted, one by one, during the circling form-up or shortly after rolling out and setting course north to the Empire. One of the 3 remaining B-29s assumed the lead (I am not sure whether this was the senior major, or someone else) while we as lowest ranking crew moved from very last to become deputy lead, taking up a position on the lead’s right wing. The third B-29 moved to a position on his left. One hundred and fifty P-51s, all going in the same direction in a line abreast, were spread out to the left in elements as far as the eye could see. A spectacular and awesome sight!

WE WERE HEADED FOR A CLOUD TRAP

 About one hour into the mission, I could see an overcast forming above us and soon wispy clouds started to form an undercast well below us. A long look ahead at what had been the horizon became a wedge formed by the overcast lowering and the undercast rising up to meet it. We were headed for a cloud trap. I broke radio silence and asked lead what his intentions were regarding the weather. He replied that the weather aircraft had reported that he had been able to pick his way through at 10,000’. I responded that no doubt a B-29 could singularly circumnavigate such weather, but there was no possibility of picking our way through valleys of clouds with this size formation. He told me to maintain radio silence (radiotelephone procedure for SHUT-UP!) At that moment the P-51 Red Leader interjected, “Yeah! What ARE you going to do?”

IMMEDIATELY 25 OR 30 P-51S MOVED IN SO CLOSE TO ME THEY BLOCKED THE OTHER B-29S FROM VIEW

Within minutes, before anything could be done, we were popping in and out of stratified clouds. Immediately 25 or 30 P-51s moved in so close to me they blocked the other B-29s from view. I moved out away from the lead as pandemonium broke out. There were P-51s everywhere, on top of each wing, under each wing, some so close I could see the pilot’s face.

“GET THE HELL OFF MY WING OR I’LL SHOOT YOU DOWN. MAYDAY! MAYDAY!”

All hell broke loose! The radio became one steady stream of unintelligible static as all P-51 pilots tried to talk at once. Intermittently, some words filtered through. “Get the hell off my wing or I’ll shoot you down. Mayday! Mayday!” Fighters dived down in front of us, some zoomed up looking for clear weather and a way out of this mess. Not knowing whether my radio transmissions were getting through, I kept repeating over and over, “I am climbing slowly and slowly turning 180^o, climbing slowly and slowly turning 180^o. Headed back to Iwo.”

I SAW SEVERAL P-51S HIT THE WATER, OUT OF CONTROL

We broke out into the clear. The radio was hopelessly jammed, so we used hand signals to the fighters still with us to indicate the heading back to Iwo. P-51s continued to dive out of the weather as I circled in the clear, picking up more and more aircraft and pointing the way home. I saw several P-51s hit the water, out of control. I could only radio back to Iwo the latitude and longitude position of the melee so that surface vessels, submarines or Dumbo aircraft could move into the area and search for survivors. It was a very unhappy sight!

We spent several hours circling and leading stray P-51s on course back to Iwo. When no more aircraft showed up, we headed south. We flew at 10,000’ crisscrossing back and forth on an east-west track, and were able to intercept and change the course of several fighters who would have inevitably flown past Iwo without seeing it and ditched in the open sea. We flew 11 hours that day, until it became obvious no P-51 could still have enough fuel to remain aloft. We landed back on Iwo Jima well after dark.

THE MAJORITY OF THE PILOTS RETURNED TO IWO JIMA. HOWEVER, TWENTY-SEVEN AIRPLANES COLLIDED AND PLUNGED INTO THE OCEAN WHILE ATTEMPTING TO PENETRATE THE FRONT. ONLY THREE DOWNED PILOTS, SUBSEQUENTLY LOCATED BY SEARCH UNITS, WERE PLUCKED FROM THE OCEAN AND RESCUED.
– Lawrence Stewart, B-29 Flight Engineer, 6BG, Tinian 1945.
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The next day, our crew was sent north again to search for possible survivors in the water. As we returned to Iwo on our south track, the tower contacted us with an emergency message, “Could we shoot down the B-29 circling the island?” Of course we could, but my god, why? We were informed that just minutes before, with severe casualties on board, its crew had set up the autopilot and bailed out over the airfield.

THE AC HAD BEEN KILLED AND THE PILOT WAS SO SEVERELY WOUNDED THAT HE COULD NOT LAND THE AIRPLANE

We later learned that the AC had been killed and the pilot was so severely wounded that he could not land the airplane. As luck would have it, the aircraft had been put into a left bank to circle the airfield giving the crew an opportunity to jump. During the first pass over the field, all of the crew except the flight engineer, pilot and dead AC, parachuted to safety. As it circled back around the second time, the wounded pilot and engineer dropped the AC’s body out after pulling his parachute ripcord, and then jumped out themselves.

THE CREWLESS B-29 CONTINUED TO CIRCLE OVER IWO. WE WERE ORDERED TO SHOOT IT DOWN

 As the abandoned and crewless B-29 continued to circle over Iwo, concern mounted that it would run out of fuel and crash onto the airfield causing even more casualties. We were ordered to shoot it down before it could pass over the airfield again. I positioned our aircraft to the right, a short distance behind and above, in the event that it blew up as we fired upon it. All guns were brought to bear as we slowly closed to machine gun range. Bombardier Bob Gates readied his K-20 combat-issued camera and, as he snapped picture after picture of the stricken aircraft, we started to fire.

Suddenly, an emergency call from the tower directed us to “break it off!, break it off!” A P-61 was on its way to perform the unhappy but necessary duty. I was pleased to see that the P-61 had to make 5 passes, scissoring from 3 o’clock through 6 to 9 and back again with tracer strikes sparkling on the wing and fuselage, before the stricken B-29 slowly increased its bank to the left and, with its #1 engine on fire and smoking, plunged into the sea less than 5000’ from shore. Bob Gates continued to document the sad event with his K-20 camera. Just as the B-29 sank below the waves, we discovered that in his excitement Bob had forgotten to remove the lens cover.

In retrospect, I am almost glad that Gates had failed to remove the lens cover for I would not care to have the death of that gallant and faithful B-29 documented. As for the terrible loss of 27 P-51 pilots and their aircraft, there should have been at least an inquiry into the grossly inadequate operational planning for this ill-fated mission. To my knowledge, no inquiry was ever held.