by
1st Lt Harry H George, B-29 Co-Pilot
6th Bomb Group, Tinian 1945
Editor’s Note: The title of this article has been expanded from the author’s original For The B-29s to include his entire quote to more fully describe the subject. Images have been added to compliment the author’s writing.
B-29 Crew 3902
The searchlights locked in on us….Then the flak hit and the plane started to rock. The engineer behind me said, “I’m losing number one.” Then he said, “Now I’m losing number three.” Then the interphone went dead. No conversation at all. I used the emergency interphone and asked for a crew report. We had four men in the rear waist compartment. I waited probably ten seconds. Not a sound. Then all of a sudden the tail gunner reported he was okay. But no word from the waist compartment. So I took off my flak suit and went back there to see what happened.
We had dropped our bombs but were still on the edge of Tokyo with the flames, the burning. The navigator was beating out fires in the forward gun turret.
I got to the tunnel – there was thirty-five feet of narrow tunnel – and I went in with my parachute on. That made it tough for me to get through, and I started to think, “If we go down and I’m caught in this tunnel….”
OUR LEFT GUNNER WAS BADLY WOUNDED. HIS JAW HAD BEEN SHOT AWAY BY FLAK. HE HAD LOST THE WHOLE CALF ON ONE LEG.
When I got through and stuck my head out at the other end it was an awful sight. Our left gunner was badly wounded. His jaw had been shot away by flak. He had lost the whole calf on one leg. The other gunner had a flak wound in his leg. The radar man, God bless him, was giving first aid. We had a top gunner there who also had a couple of small flak wounds. Meanwhile, we were being followed by a Baka Bomb, but he dropped off…
B-29 tunnel
THE CONTROL COMMAND AT IWO JIMA SAID OUR BEST BET WAS TO DITCH THE AIRPLANE NEAR THE BEACH AND WE SAID, “NO WE WILL NOT DITCH BECAUSE OUR GUNNER WILL NOT SURVIVE A DITCHING.”
As I started to help these guys we started back to Iwo Jima, which we had captured from the Japanese a couple of months before. That was three good hours away. We went through weather. We only had two engines. The bomb bay doors were hanging open. Couldn’t get ‘em closed. Finally got back to Iwo. The place was covered with fog. We couldn’t get back to Tinian, another three and a half hours, so we just said we’d circle and wait. The control command at Iwo Jima said our best bet was to ditch the airplane near the beach and we said, “No we will not ditch because our gunner will not survive a ditching.” We had given him three pints of plasma and morphine. He thought he was going to die.
Then the engineer said, “We’re about to run out of gas.” So we had to try to land. It was light by this time, about nine o’clock in the morning. They directed us around the top of Mount Suribachi and down through the clouds. We got down to about fifty feet and didn’t see the runway. All we saw was the cemetery and we didn’t want to go there, so we pulled up around again trying to line up again over the island, which was only seven miles long…
On the third pass around, the engines started cutting out. We were about out of gas. We just had enough to pull to 1200 feet and we rang a bell for the crew to bail out. The bombardier had gone back and they were going to dump the badly wounded gunner, Dick Neel, out the back with his ripcord tied to a rope that was tied to the plane. But even though his jaw was gone, he was able to say he would get tangled up. He said, “I’ll pull it.” And so he bailed out and pulled his own ripcord. He landed about 500 yards from a MASH [Mobile Army Surgical Hospital] unit and they saved him.
The rest of us – all ten of us – bailed out and landed on the island, except the commander, Gus, who went into the water. A Navy host went out to find him in the heavy fog, and they found him because he was blowing that police whistle that’s attached to the Mae West.
I landed in a big fox hole, a bomb shell hole. Then this big Marine comes sliding down in that volcanic dust, dust that’s sand only it’s black and a little more gravelly, and he says, “Are you all right?” And I said, “Boy am I glad to see you Marines!”
Iwo Jima Airstrip 1945
Editor’s Note: After U.S. Marines took Iwo Jima in March 1945, some 2400 B-29s made emergency landings on or near the island, saving almost 27,000 American airmen, including Harry George and his crew. The Battle of Iwo Jima was the Marines’ bloodiest battle with more than 26,000 casualties. Nearly 6800 Marines died in that battle, many buried in the cemetery Harry George’s crippled plane flew over. A very grateful Harry George explained:
“The Marines did it for the B-29s”
Addendum by James George, son of Harry George:
THE B29 WAS SO BADLY DAMAGED THAT THE AIRFRAME HAD TWISTED TO A POINT THAT GUS COULD ONLY GET IT TO TURN LEFT AND NOT RIGHT.
AS HE EXITED THE TUNNEL HE WAS CONFRONTED WITH MANGLED BODIES AND HOLES IN THE FUSELAGE BIG ENOUGH TO WALK THROUGH.
After dropping their bombs over Tokyo, their aircraft was being riddled with flak and perused by fighters as Gus Clay (AC) was fighting to regain control. The B29 was so badly damaged that the airframe had twisted to a point that Gus could only get it to turn left and not right. They had already lost two engines and were losing altitude. The flight controls at the right seat where Dad was sitting went limp (control cables cut) and they had lost the interphone system connecting them to the rest of the crew. Without any flight controls working at his seat to help Gus, Dad went racing back to assess the damage as they hadn’t heard any contact from the rest of the crew. With the flak exploding around them, Dad dove into the tunnel crawling on his belly from the cockup – over the bomb bay area – to the mid gunner’s section. As he exited the tunnel he was confronted with mangled bodies and holes in the fuselage big enough to walk through. It was then he noticed that halfway through the tunnel he had snagged his parachute pack on a jagged piece of metal that was just caused by flak damage. The sharp hot metal protrusion had cut through his parachute’s protective backpack’s upper right corner and snagged the main chute pulling most of it out of the pack. Racing to help provide first aid to the severely wounded gunners, Dad just grabbed the white chute material and stuffed it hand over hand back into the backpack via the hole cut in the top.
Dad rendered what first aid that was possible, giving morphine and plasma to the gunners and raced back through the tunnel to report the damage to Gus who was struggling alone in the cockpit to keep airborne.
LEAKING FUEL, HYDRAULICS OUT, BOMB BAY DOORS STILL HANGING OPEN, HALF THE GEAR HAD FALLEN DOWN, TWO ENGINES OUT (#1 AND #3), NO INTERPHONE OR ELECTRONICS OF ANY KIND, FIGHTING TO STAY LEVEL AT 4000 FEET WITH AN AIRCRAFT THAT WOULD NOT TURN RIGHT – THEY HAD A 5 FIVE-HOUR FLIGHT JUST TO MAKE THE EMERGENCY ALTERNATE LANDING BASE AT IWO JIMA – ALL WITH NAVIGATING SOLELY ON THEIR ONE REMAINING MAGNETIC COMPASS.
Overhead Iwo Jima Island they made two passes over where they believed the runway was – as it was totally fogged in. They only saw the top of the control tower on the second attempt. Pulling up and going around for the third attempt they lost the #4 engine and the one remaining #2 started cutting out – out of fuel. Gus turned the aircraft for a ditching just off the beach so as not to crash into the airfield and called for all to bail out. The wounded gunners’ chute handles were pulled for them as they were pushed out of the aircraft. Dad verified that all but he and Gus had left the aircraft and Gus signaled for him to go! Dad reported later that he never had time to worry if his chute would still work or not but, in any case, it was all he had as there were no spares. Gus rode the airplane to the ditching as with the airframe so badly twisted and him having to hold full right control pressures just to keep the plane flying straight, he couldn’t leave his seat without the plane making a violent turn to the left and spinning in. He would never have been able to get out of the plane, so he rode it in. Gus survived the ditching and was picked up by a navy boat after floating in the fog for some time blowing his whistle. After only a couple of swings in his chute, Dad hit the beach in a fox hole almost landing on top of a marine. They gave him, with his parachute balled up in his lap, a jeep ride to headquarters on the airfield.
As to your portraying the measure of the “men” who were sent into battle to protect the freedom we now enjoy – my dad’s final words on [a] chance [Armed Forces Radio] recording sums it up:
When asked by the reporter: “Did you lose any of your personal gear when you bailed out?” Yes, I lost my combat hat.” The reported responded: “Well Lt., you can always get a new combat hat.” And Dad said: “And we will get a new plane to!”
After all that just happened to him (as per his article) – he was ready to climb back into the cockpit and go back for more!! That was the quality of the men – many giving the ultimate sacrifice – that secured our freedom.
Dad got a ride back to his home base of Tinian Island on the next B29 out. All 11 men from Dad’s crew survived.
Parachute wedding dress
Harry George was so thankful to be alive that he saved his parachute. He packaged up and gave the chute material to a friend in a crew that was cycling back to the US to pick up and return with a new B29.
“I put it in a cardboard box. I said, ‘Hey, take this back to the States and mail it to my fiancée.’ When I arrived home in November, after the war was over in August, she had it made into her wedding gown. And I was married in November, and I still have the nylon wedding gown that was made up at that time.”
1st Lt. H. Harry George
Bio: Harry George was a 6th Bomb Group B-29 co-pilot operating from Tinian Island during the Pacific War. Following the war, he co-founded the 6th Bomb Group Association and later became the Historian of the 509th WWII Nuclear Bomb Group. He was sought and appeared in several post-war documentaries, including: American Experience, Victory in the Pacific, People and Events and on PBS – “Harry George and the Strategic Importance of Iwo Jima.”
