The 330th Bomb Group

From the 73BG/500BW/801BS

Aircraft SN: 42-24849 A/C MAJ Bob Fitzgeraldand P 2LT Bob Copeland

Mar 16/17 1945 Kobe firebomb raid.

This letter was written by Mr. Bill Spokane's Uncle Bob Copeland to his Mother, Norma, in March of 1945.

"Dear Mom, The thing about combat that is beginning to impress me most is the appreciation I now have for the finer things of life. The love one has for their friends, the love and need for a woman and the things one wants to do for that dream girl when this thing is all over. A woman somewhere seems to be the the driving force behind all men in combat. You're so scared that even at 400 miles an hour doesn't seem fast enough. The bomb run is only four or five minutes long, but it seems like hours. The bomb bay doors are only open for one or two minutes, but that seems like an eternity because that's when we're most vulnerable. Each burst of flak jeers at you and says "I'll get you yet" and any second you expect a burst to do just that. All of a sudden the flak quits and as you start to breathe a sigh of relief, someone says " fighters at 10 o'clock, coming in. You begin to relax now because here's something to do, something you can shoot back at. They're coming in all over, 9,3, 10, 12 and 2 O'clock, the tail gunner is even calling out some from the rear. Some of these Japs are really sharp today! During all this the bombs have gone away, the doors are closed and we're high tailing it for home and a nice juicy steak, maybe. You aren't even thinking of that though because that damned upper turret is playing a raucous death song for the devil that just went between us and our wing-man. Here comes another one in at 12 O'clock level, the Jap puts his TONY up on it's side and he keeps getting bigger and bigger, his four guns are winking at us, you think he is going to ram us? Somehow, he doesn't and we continue to beat our way out of what seems like an abyss. Maybe, It's more like a wild horrible nightmare from which it is impossible to awaken, but> nevertheless, we do make it once more. We are smiling, shaking hands with each other and recounting the events of the past few minutes as though they were just part of a dream. As we approached the target in the center of Tokyo the searchlights suddenly come on and light up the whole sky. For a while they weaved around like the tentacles of an octopus, but suddenly one of them flashed by then came around again and on the third try hit us squarely and stayed on us. The rest attracted like flies to a piece of candy swung on us and they all followed us through the bomb run. It was impossible to see out in any direction except up. And there the stars were shining their encouragement and I offered a prayer to God at that very moment. It must have been answered because flak was exploding so close that it was rocking the ship and we could hear it, but only one hole was in the ship. The Bombardier says "Bombs away" and we begin as violent evasive action as possible. During this, one fighter has made his pass and missed. Soon the flak ceases and the lights go off in ones and twos and again we are alone with only God and the stars for company. I looked out the same upper window and offered a prayer of thanks for our deliverance from that which would have liked to have crushed us. We've survived six missions now and they seem to be getting easier, at least mentally. The raid over Akashi was easy. I'll never forget how beautiful the trip could have been had we not been under the strain of battle. In the clear, cold rarefied air at 28,000 feet and in the brilliant sunlight things take on a different aspect. You're so much closer to God up there and it's easy to call on him for his help and that's what I did. He must have answered my prayers. Japan rose out of the sea as a dark brown blotch but soon evolved into familiar shapes and a beauty which I hadn't noticed before. Nagoya Bay was on our right and it's color of azure blue, and the contrasting pine colored mountains on it's west shore was a scene of immense tranquility. Those pine covered mountains brought back memories of a country which will always be dear to me. (Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington). Off in the distance was Mount Fujiyama and it's snow covered cone protruding over the Cumulus, was a sight of rare beauty. Beauty soon took a back seat and war with all it's threats gripped us. The door to the BLACK CORRIDOR had again been shut and we were again traversing it's floor and wondering if we would see the other end. Over Osaka the flak started coming up and soon fighters were reported. It turned out to be one of our easiest trips over the target.. When we left the coast at the DOOR again seemed to open wide and again the sun was shining. Again I offered my thanks to the Lord who had brought us safely through these six missions.

I'm not afraid to fly in combat but on each mission I become more and more aware of the insipid foolishness of war. I don't want to kill anyone. I want to be free to live my life in peace, doing the things I like to do most. My whole life is flying, everything I have ever done has been pointed toward that thing alone and without it I think I would be as empty as seashell found on the beach. It hurts very deeply to have that which is paramount to me connected with fear, pain and even death. I Had visions of a small amount of success in burning out Tokyo, but, couldn't under any circumstance have imagined the amount of damage we did achieve. Dante's Inferno would have taken on proportions comparable to a bonfire. As we approached the coat line we began to see a faint glow in the direction of the city and a good many small fires out on Chosi Point, started by ships unable to reach Tokyo. As we turned in towards our target it vanished behind an enormous cloud of smoke. Searchlights were weaving around but they didn't pick us up and we soon entered the smoke which spread for many miles East of Tokyo. We could smell burning wood and the heat waves rocked us as though we were in a storm. We broke out and found ourselves flying in a corridor formed by two pillars of smoke, the end of which could have been the "Gates Of Hell," because there at our feet lay Tokyo, by now a sea of flames. It was a horribly wonderful sight and one I'll never forget. Fires were everywhere and the destruction wrought this night could have been nothing less than catastrophe."

This was the end of the letter. Not the end for his family.

It was not finished so he hadn't mailed it. It was found in his belongings when they were sent home. His aircraft was rammed by an enemy fighter on their next mission and all were lost. The letter was published in the Lewiston ,Idaho newspaper shortly after the war. Bob Copeland and all his veteran compatriots will never be forgotten.

K-16: 1LT Vivian E. Lock(A/C)

"Tokyo Bay Fly Over of Sept. 2, 1945 We took -off from North Field Guam at 3:30 AM, Sept. 2, 1945. Our aircraft K-16 was the same aircraft that we had flown on all but two of our twenty-six missions. We took -off from the two parallel runways. After the first B-29 took -off the second B-29 followed 30 seconds later from the other runway. Then 30 seconds later back to the first runway and so on until all were airborne. We maintained the 30 second interval all the way to the assembly area which was to be the coast of Japan. We were assigned different altitudes for vertical separation. This was the same procedure that was used on most daylight strikes.

The flight to Japan was uneventful until we reached the assembly area off the coast of Japan, where we went into an overcast. The only other B-29 I could see was the one that was to be on my left in the flyover formation. Visibility was very poor. I tucked in on his right wing as close as I dared and told the crew to watch for other aircraft. My thoughts were that this was a very dangerous place to be with 800 plus B-29's (We had been briefed) in the same area. My leader made a gentle descending turn to the left and I followed. What a relief when we broke out of the clouds at 2,000 or 3,000 feet above the ground just north-east of Tokyo.

I took our aircraft down to 500 feet above Tokyo. At first I saw no other aircraft. I had only a few brief glimpse of Tokyo because I was concentrating on flying our B-29 at 500 feet above the ground and watching for other aircraft at 500ft. I remember thinking that as I was looking at the bombed out ruins of Tokyo, that I was looking at the worlds largest junk yard. We made several circles over the city including flying around the Emperors Palace. By this time things were changing, we weren't the only B-29 flying low over the city. It was getting overcrowded with B-29's doing the same thing we had been doing, sight-seeing. I said to the crew 'Let's get out of here and give me a heading for home'. One of the sightseers that was on board with us said. "I'm pretty good at navel identification let's go out in the bay and have a look at the Missouri". We were on an easterly heading leaving the city and heading out to Tokyo Bay. Our sightseer identified a battle ship that was directly in front of us as the Missouri. I started to descend. My intentions were to go no lower than 300 feet. Just as we were almost upon the battleship the sightseers shouted, "that's the Tennessee the Missouri is 90 degrees to our right".

Well, instead of climbing back to a higher altitude I went into a right descending turn. Now we were on a southerly course heading for the Missouri, descending and picking up speed. I don't remember what our speed was but it was the fastest I had ever flown a B-29 As we passed the Missouri she was 100ft or less off our left wing tip and our altitude was between her deck and the top of her mast. I was concentrating on flying the aircraft and thuns, only caught a glimpse of the Missouri. The only thing I saw was the ship and very many white sailor uniforms. But mostly I was looking at the water just a short ways below us, I was thinking to myself, "Oh! my G*D what have I done and what are they going to do to me, when we land." As we passed the ship I pulled up and rocked the wings, continued climbing and turned to the heading for our return to flight to Guam. We never saw any formation's of B-29s large or small.

On the return flight, on the leg between Japan and Iwo Jima our RO picked up the Armed Forces Radio Network playing a rebroadcast of the peace signing. The narrator was describing the surrender ceremonies on the Missouri. He said, "We can hear the B-29's up there but we can't see them because they are above the clouds." Then he said, "Oh! Here comes their leader to salute us". You could hear the roar of a B-29 in the background. WAS IT US? I would like to think so, but I don't know. The rest of the flight back to Guam was uneventful. We never talked about the buzz job and nothing ever happened to us.

Over forty years later at a reunion of the 330BG in Wichita, KS Mary Collins (deceased) the wife of our Navigator COL David Collins (then 1LT and now deceased) brought an article from the Windfield, La. news paper. The article was a copy of a letter that David Collins had sent to his mother describing our activities on Sept. 2, 1945. (attachment 3) This was the first I knew that anyone had written home about our buzz job. Had I known I'm sure I would have been upset. Mary gave a copy of the article to all our crew members and she posted one on the reunion bulletin board for everyone to see. On the last day of the reunion I asked LTCOL Virgil Kinnaird (deceased), who was my Sq CO on 2 Sept.'45, 'what he would have done to me if he had known that I had buzzed the Missouri?' He said, " what ever possessed you do something like that. I'm surprised that MacArthur didn't have the MP's waiting for you. I would have had no choice, I would have had to court martial you." So, I walked over to COL E.D. Reynolds (deceased) who was the 330BG commander and also COL Kinnaird's boss, and asked him the same question that I had asked LTCOL Kinnaird. I got a surprising answer. "God Bless you I would have given you a medal. I'm glad somebody showed those damn Army and Navy guys that the Air Force was in the war."

Let us give a standing ovation to Mr. Vivian E. Lock. Thank you Sir!

K-8/14: TSGT Robert Neu (CFC)

Leroy G. Peters. "Was wounded by friendly fire. We had left the target area and were headed home after a night raid. When we thought we were well beyond the range of any fighters our A/C turned on the running lights and as he did so, I saw some stars disappear -- blocked out by a B-29 directly above us. I called on the intercom to douse the lights and take the plane down to avoid a collision and simultaneously saw the blue flashes from the other plane's guns. I believe it came from the lower aft turret so it must have been the right gunner who did the shooting. Our plane was hit by several 50 cal. bullets, all in the tail section. Peters was hit in the right thigh, buttocks, mid waist and lower leg. The projectile came through the armor plating and so it was like iron filings that went into him. I knew we were hit and could hear someone making clicking noises on the intercom, but Pete did not answer when I called him. I called the RO (Jack Hardison) who was the first -aid man on the crew and told him to come through the tunnel right away and go to the tail. We had depressurized ( I don't know if it was because of the holes made by the guns or if the flight engineer did it automatically). Hardison met me at the tail compartment where I was trying to lift the seat to enter, but Peters was still sitting on it. We finally got in and dragged him into the radar room where Hardison tried to stop the bleeding and gave him plasma to prevent shock. We went straight to Iwo Jima and got Peters to the hospital. His residual damage was permanent groin pain and his right ankle had to be fused. After I got back to the states, I called him and he was very bitter. About 13 or 14 years ago he hung himself. His wife told me that he had been in constant pain since he was wounded and remained bitter. There was an inquiry about the shooting, but that is another whole story." They were able to identify what plane was responsible in the 39th BG as it was the only one that had fired its guns. The inquiry went back and forth with finger pointing, but in the end the gunner responsible did lose his stripes and flying status for the duration of the War. "We did not go to Muroc, but we replaced the original crew of K-14 who returned to the States for some special training. We had been flying K-8, but it was not a good plane so we took over K-14 which was much better. My A/C throughout was always CAP Thompson Hiles of Rome, Ga. He still lives there. Andy Kosty was a CFC gunner, like me, but he filled in as our TG when Peters was hurt. I believe he only flew 3 missions with us."

K-28: MAJ Howard McClellan (A/C)

In response to the take-off from Guam when we encountered what may have been a big swarm of bees or some other type of bug. It was the only time we took-off to the SSW over the trees instead of to the NNE with a 500+ foot cliff at the end of the runway. Because of a light wind from the south we were directred to the southern take-off over at least 1/2 mile of dense jungle. Take-offs are critical and when you must go on instruments immediately after wheels up it requires concentration on your flight instruments: air speed, altitude and heading. When the entire forward canopy blacked out we were on instruments. The problem was the complete loss of the air speed indicator because the insects or bees entered the pitot tube and blocked the pressure reading, hence no indicated airspeed. We continued a very gradual climb and compass heading and when we realised we were over water we breathed a sigh of relief. I could see no reason to abort the mission so we flew on to Japan, dropped our bombs and returned to Guam. As I remember the air speed indicater gave a reading fluxuating between 5 to 15 mph. for the duration of the flight. Even after pentrating many rain clouds , no air speed, but by the time we arrived at Guam we had some forward visibility, enought to line up with the runway and land. I even put the pitot tube heater on (used for icing) to see if I could burn the bugs out. All it did was to mess up much of the tubbing all of which had to be replaced to restore the instrument to an operating system. The take-off was an exciting few moments to say the least!

K-66: T/SGT Kenneth Bender (CFC)

Click on the links to see pages from T/SGT Ken Bender's personal Mission Log. Thank you, Mr. Bender for sharing so much with all of us!

MISSION	Date 1945	Assignment	Plane Flown
1	1-May	Air fields on Kyushu	811 (3rdPhotoReconSquadron)
2	11-May	Kobe,Osaka & Nagoya	?
3	3-Jun	Kobe at 33,000 ft.	K-42
4	7-Jun	Honshu at 20,000 ft	K-42
5	13-Jun	Coast of Korea - Air fields on Island of Saishu	K-42
6	16-Jun	Coast of Korea - Air fields on Island of Saishu	K-42
7	22-Jun	Inland Sea of Japan - Coast of Korea	K-66
8	26-Jun	Coast of Korea & Island of Saishu	K-66
9	2-Jul	Flight plan up to Korea	K-42
10	5-Jul	Flight plan "K" (King) to Saishu	K-42
11	9-Jul	Flight Plan "F" over Shikoku	K-42
12	14-Jul	Flight plan "F"	K-42
13	18-Jul	Flight plan "B"	K-42
14	21-Jul	Flight Plan "F" to Kobe, Osaka and Nagoya	K-42
15	25-Jul	Flight plan "M" up to Korea and crossed Honshu island at Kure Harbor	K-42
16	29-Jul	Flight plan "F" over Kobe, Osaka and Nagoya	K-42
17	5-Aug	Flew flight plan "J" (Jig) over Tokyo and Yokohama	K-66
18	10-Aug	Flight plan "M" (Mike) up to Korea. We were chosen to take the photographs of NAGASAKI AFTER THE 2ND ATOMIC BOMB WAS DROPPED.	K-66
19	14-Aug	This was our last mission before the Japs accepted our final surrender offer	K-66
20	17-Aug	Recon Mission to gather weather data for use in case of some unexpected turn of events.	K-66
21	31-Aug	Mercy mission flying food up to our prisoners of war on the Japanese Mainland.	K-65
22	2-Sep	Show of Force	K-66

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