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the 330th Bomb Group© The 330th BG now has a Blog site where you can post any questions or comments as they relate to this remarkable group of men or their amazing B-29 Superfortress: 330th Blog While you are navigating through this site, please assist us if you recoginize what some of these gentleman did in the 330th. If you come across a name and can identifythem to a Crew or MOS please email us: the330thbg(@)gmail.com If a face jumps out at you and jars a memory or two, we would like to hear about that as well. Finally, let us know of any disprepancies or innacuracies you may come across. This is your history, our history. We have discovered fictional accounts stating that the 330th BG's aircraft and men were directly involved with the 509th's BW dropping of atomic weapons over Japan during WWII. Please disregard these as complete fiction as the 330th BG played no direct role in this historic task. Crew 817 of K-28 "City of Omaha" did participate on a photo reconnaissance mission on 6/7 August 1945 but that was the extent of the 330th BG's involvement in this historic event. This is our final chance to get it down right. We need your help! Click for the 330th Personnel Roster and here for our B-29 Aircraft SN'S Any old orders or photos laying around? I would love copies! Or to borrow the originals and professionally scan them. Then return them to you promptly. They may be taking up space in your attic or basement but to us, they are PURE GOLD. So before you toss them, or worse, auction them off on the web. Please let the 330th take a look at them. You would be amazed at what information lay hidden in an old G.O. or S.O. So please email me for assistance. The photos hold even more information. With today's scanning technology, we can identify personnel in a crew photo by zooming in and pulling them off of these men's shirts. It is a lot of fun! So anything you have, we would love to look through and add that information to this site. Your Site! Please keep up the influx of new materials; orders, photos and stories, so we can continue this journey into our past to save it for our future. As you know, the Association is no more. This website will live on as long as I have the ability to maintain it. in the beginning COL Elbert D. "Fish" Reynolds (below) went to Hays KS and Dalhart, TX in early 1944 and began to hand select "the greatest collection of men ever assembled" As of April of that year, they became known as the 330th Bombardment Group and designated a B-29 (Very Heavy) outfit. From this point on begins your tale. |
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the 330th dedication TO THE SHIPS Born of hope and steel |
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And Death's
Sting...
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New Symbol
of Might -
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Majestic in
Flight -
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OF THEE WE
SING!
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TO THE
GROUP
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Humbly-We
start Your Story -
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May it be
Lasting - Full of Glory
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Each chapter
a Link -
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In a Victory
Chain:
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Forging a
Mission -
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Which will
Not be in Vain!
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TO THE
LEADERS
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Stripes or
Bars, Eagles or Stars -
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We Know
Your're Back 'O' the Men.
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Thru Thick
and Thin -
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Count Us In!
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For You'll
bring Us back again.
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The 330th BG (VH) consisting of the 457th, 458th, 459th Bomb Squadron's plus the 26th Photo Lab was activated in April 1944 at Walker AAF, in Kansas. A mere two months later its cadres split. Part of the group remaining "on line" at Walker and part setting up manning HQ at Dalhart, Texas. After a rapid filling up of both echelons, they were again reunited at Walker in August of 1944. The newly assigned Air Crews joined them in late September and early October. There followed a brief period of intensive flight training coupled with a 24 hour-a-day maintenance schedule outdoors in the bitter winter of early 1945. Then with hard-learned "know how" and well seasoned for arctic operation, the 330th's Ground Echelon departed Kansas on 7 JAN 45 for 10 days at the Fort Lawton Staging Area in Seattle, WA. Then on 17 JAN 45 they mustered at 1805 on the docks for a 30 day cruise on the ATS Howell Lykes in route to Guam. They arrived in the Port of Guam on 18 FEB 1945 at 1000. The 502nd Engineering Squadron of the 89th Air Service Group (ASG) of the 314th BW had 'pre-carved' an opening in the jungle so our boys would know where to begin building the home of the 330th. While this group was continuing to hack at the dense trees,, uncrating thousands of bombs, trudging through feet of mud, setting up mess halls and shops, the Air Crews continued to commute between Walker and Batista Field in Cuba to finish combat training. They then picked up their new Boeing B-29 Superfortress' and headed west. WAY WEST! First to California, then Hawaii, Kwajalein and finally Guam. The first 330th aircraft set down at North Field, Guam on 25 March 1945. Even before the last squadron arrived, the 330th was already a veteran of combat. The 330th first flew against the Empire on 12 April 1945. Its forty-seventh and final bombing strike was in the air at the hour the Japanese Capitulation was announced on 15 August 1945. The result was a Bomb Group with the lowest overall abort rate on the ground, and the highest over-the-target rate of ANY Bomb Group in the entire 20th Air Force. The 330th BG flew 1,320 combat sorties, 18,978 combat hours and had dropped 7,039 tons of high explosives and incendiary bombs into the heart of the enemy's industry. Not much by today's standards of combat, but at that time these numbers were unmatched. This is their story The 330th's Bombardment Squadrons: |
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457th
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CO: LTCOL Lindsey H. Vereen
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458th
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CO: MAJ Elmer E. Ambrose
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459th
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CO: LTCOL
Robert W. Ryder
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My
Website Dedication
This site is dedicated to my father, LTCOL Raymond B. Smisek . He was the Aircraft Commander (A/C) of the 330th's K-29 (SN 44-69800), "City of San Francisco" He, along with the rest of these brave young men, was an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so that countless others would have the freedom to accomplish theirs. When I was growing up, he never spoke much of his time during the war. When asked about those times, I could see a sullenness come over his face, then he would most often ask me another question just to change the subject. In those rare exchanges when he would answer, he made it very clear that he desired no recognition for what he had done. He desired no contact with his fellow comrades, felt no honor for the devastation he had helped cause, and amazingly to me, felt no affection whatsoever for the incredible aircraft which had brought he and his crew back safely from so many missions over so many horrible places. Raymond B. Smisek died in early fall of 1990 from cancer and perhaps, of unhealed internal war scars. Cancers of the soul and spirit, much more damaging than those of the body. Today we have little appreciation and less perceived need for men such as these. In our past, such men, boys really, have risen. They've arisen from the farmlands, the mountains, the sprawling suburbs and packed cities. From the ghettos and the universities, to step forward and serve. Until that time comes, when such boy warriors will no longer be called upon to protect us from international greed and prejudices, both force of circumstance, and their own conviction and courage, will bring them forward yet again. As, unfortunately, has happened recently. I think back to men and machine and I am eternally grateful. You all should be as well. Here's to you Dad!
Raymond B. Smisek (1920-1990) He always explained to us that he never considered himself a hero, but he certainly served among them. Sadly, the 'real' heroes, never made it home. "We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free." President Ronald Reagan, Omaha Beach, June 6, 1984 |
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330th Bomb Group Heroes |
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457th Bomb Squadron |
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458th Bomb Squadron |
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459th Bomb Squadron |
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KIA
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MIA
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330th POW's |
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Survived
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Murdered*
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*Died in the Tokyo prison fire. During the May 23rd
fire raid (in which the 330th
took part), the prison caught fire. The Japanese guards let
the Japanese prisoners escape, shot several American prisoners
who tried to escape and refused to unlock the cells in which
Carle, Turner and the others from K-43 were held. They
subsequently died in the flames. The Japanese guards
responsible were later convicted in the War Crimes Trials and
put to death.
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330th Killed in Training |
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24 October 1944 | 30 December 1944 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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These young men lost their lives prior to ever shipping out for North Field, Guam. Information courtesy of Donald Murray (LG) K-32 "Do
not save your loving speeches 330th TAPS We carry forward the memory of all 330th Veterans Day is done ... Gone the sun ... From the lakes ... From the hills ... From the sky ... All is well ... Safely rest ... God is nigh ... Fading light ... Dims the sight ... And a star ... Gems the sky ... Gleaming bright ... From afar ... Drawing nigh ... Falls the night ... Thanks and praise ... For our days ... Neath the sun ... Neath the stars,.. Neath the sky ... As we go ... This we know ... God is nigh ..
"We left as boys and came back as men. Lets hope no one has to do it again. We took a plane brand spanking new, started as strangers and came back a crew. We were young and slim, our backs were straight. Our eyes now dim, we know our fate. We had to go, a job to do. Our friends all went, we had to too. Now years have passed and soon we'll rest. The whole world knows we did our best. Above the clouds our spirits will soar. When life is over, its through the next door. We'll join up again on another plane, take off for the heavens, a crew again" anonymous "Enjoy every sandwich!" W.Z SILENT SLEEP by Lloyd Klar (dec.) Veteran, 341BG 22BS. Her great roaring engines are long silent, Her guns are pitted with rust. Shiny Aluminum, now dim and faded, Turrets are covered with dust. She sits and waits for her crewmen, Those young men from another day. Fifty long years have passed and gone, Since they all went away. Where have all those young men gone, Those boys she knew so well? They took her there and brought her back, What stories they can tell. Some are buried in foreign lands, War records tell the place. "Killed In Action" the official words, Or just "KIA" to save space. Others went down in a fiery crash, Just where, no one can tell; Over the Pacific Ocean or Marianas cliffs-- no markers where they fell. Others came home, the war was over, We dissipated like the dew. Then separately we all went our ways, back to lives we once knew. But in every airman's inner thoughts, quiet moments as day ends, We hear again those engines roar and voices of our friends. Now we're aging and almost grey; Again friends are starting to fall. They're going now into that long last sleep That comes one day to us all. So here's to our fellow comrades, Those still here, or passed away, We'll remember you as you once were in a distant place and day. As we stand here now in silence, we'll think of you and smile. Get ready for that final briefing; We'll join you in a while. |
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*To return to this front page, you can always click on this graphic below: This site was last updated 11/26/2023 |