The severely wounded crew limped their flak crippled B-29 700 miles on two engines and lost steering control to the safety of Iwo Jima, which the Marines had taken months earlier. Unable to land, the crew bailed over the island. Co-pilot Harry George's fiancé made her wedding dress from the parachute that saved his life. Read the harrowing story
From the start of our training at Grand Island, Nebraska to our shake-down missions from Tinian, all operations were aimed at high altitude, precision bombing. Our B-29’s were designed for the same thing. Starting with the 58th Wing’s first raid on the Japanese homeland from China and continuing with the huge effort from the Marianas Islands, the high-altitude bombing strategy was a failure.
At Kempi Tai I was reunited with most of my crew and placed in an 8x11 ½ foot cell which held sixteen captives. That was the last time I saw daylight until after the atomic bomb was dropped.
[This article is an excerpt from Sgt. Creek’s military memoirs Short Stories of World War II.] It tells the story of a B-29 that caught fire due to being hit by flak. Half the crew bailed out thinking the plane was going down. They were caught by the Japanese and spent months at Kempei Tai HQ Prison as described in the B-29 POW page.
Regarding Khaki vs. Blue: During WWII, the Air Force was still part of the Army (USAAF). The Air Force did not become an independent branch until 1947. However, khaki was not the only color worn by the Army. Enlisted men wore khaki, while officers wore olive drab jackets and khaki pants ("pinks and greens").
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