Whirlwind - Barrett Tillman [25]
The 58th Wing put up sixty-eight Superfortresses (one crashed on takeoff), confirming Wolfe’s skepticism to Arnold. Furthermore, targeting was complicated by the fact that from Chengtu even the B-29 could barely reach Kyushu, and there existed only limited intelligence on Japanese facilities. Flying at night helped avoid detection but also complicated navigation and bombing. Consequently, the Superforts went after one of the known industrial plants, the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata, identifiable near Shimonoseki Strait separating Kyushu from Honshu.
Tactics were necessarily simple at that early date. The Boeings flew individually, forming a lengthy bomber stream similar to RAF procedure over Europe. Taking another page from the British book, Wolfe dispatched two pathfinders from each group, timed to arrive about five minutes ahead of the main force and mark the target with incendiaries.
Only forty-seven bombers reached the primary target, and they straggled overhead for nearly two hours in an altitude band extending from merely 8,000 feet up to 21,000, depending on pilot preference. Penetrating the night sky over northern Kyushu, they released 221 tons of bombs, inflicting marginal damage on Yawata. Nine B-29s, unable to reach Japan, attacked other authorized targets.
Weather proved a far greater problem than the Japanese. The challenge was immense: trying to bomb visually at night, through a five-tenths cloud deck above a blacked-out target. Only fifteen bombardiers felt confident enough to toggle their 500-pounders visually, the others relying upon radar. The results were beyond disappointing: one bomb struck the steelworks.
Deprived of daylight, the defenders were forced to rely upon their scanty night fighter organization. The Japanese Army Air Force’s 4th Sentai, or regiment, put up six flights of four twin-engine Nick fighters, with no option but to rely upon the regiment’s partly trained aircrews.
Among the interceptors was First Lieutenant Isamu Kashiide, an ace from the 1939 Manchurian clash with the Soviets. Glimpsing a silvery streamlined shape in the glare of searchlights, he gaped at the sight. “I was scared! It was known that the B-29 was a huge plane, but when I saw my opponent it was much larger than I had ever expected. There was no question that when compared with the B-17, the B-29 was indeed the ‘Superfortress’!”
Few Nicks got close enough to shoot at the bombers, and just one pilot scored. Warrant Officer Sadamitsu Kimura found a B-29 coned in a searchlight pattern and throttled his twin-engine fighter to near collision range. His target was Limber Dugan of the 468th Group, four months out of the factory at Omaha.
Peering through his gunsight, Kimura squinted at the glare reflecting off the bomber’s aluminum skin. Apparently the crew thought that the fighter was going to ram, as Captain Dushan D. Ivanovic pulled up abruptly. Kimura pressed the triggers, slamming 20mm and 37mm shells into the huge airframe. He pulled away, glimpsing a piece tumbling from the tail as his victim spun into the darkness below. Then he went hunting for more.
In two hours the 4th Sentai claimed seven kills, three by the intrepid Kimura. In truth, Limber Dugan was the only loss to fighters, with no survivors. However, five other B-29s were lost in accidents and six more sustained flak damage. Another bomber with engine problems landed at Neihsiang Airdrome well northeast of Chengtu and vulnerable to attack. The Japanese, vigilant to an opportunity, bombed and strafed the sitting duck to destruction.
In all, fifty-seven American fliers and a war correspondent were listed killed or missing.
The first homeland mission had demonstrated the problems inherent to XX Bomber Command. Hitting Yawata used up the fuel stockpiled at the Chengtu fields, forcing a delay of further