These are photos sent to me over the years that did not have enough information to make an entire page. They are all collected here in this series of "scrapbook" pages.

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I have attached a photograph of my father's B29 taken on Saipan during WW2. A photo of the crew is shown below. My father, Captain Carl F. Breth, was the Flight Engineer on this plane which flew over 25 missions to Japan. He was a member of the 73rd Bomb Wing, 497th Bomb Group. This group has an "A" on the tail.

Best Regards
Carl F. Breth II
Cleveland, Ohio

 

 

Wheel N Deal #42-24604 73rd Bomb Wing 497th Bomb Group
Saipan 1944

Back Row: Donald Phillips, T/Sgt.- Crew Chief, Charles W. Boal, Cpl.- Tail Gunner, Harold Bossley, Sgt.- Gunner, Nick Samela, Sgt CFC, George Quattlander, Sgt - Radio Operator, Edward Tuenge- Sgt. Radar Operator

Front Row: L.H. Breininger, 2nd. Lt - Co-Pilot, Roy E. Meeker, 1st Lt. - Navigator, Paul Beard, Capt. - Pilot, Carl F. Breth, 1st Lt. -Flight Engineer, William E. Wild, 2nd. Lt - Bombardier, Ival L. Witsman, 2nd. Lt. - Passenger

Here is a photo of my Dad and his crew. He was stationed at Hobbs, New Mexico right before he left for Tinian. My Dad is 5th from the left in the back row.I don't have any first hand info on the rest of the crew, but Jack Nichols said that the airplane armorer assigned to this plane was Kenneth D.Meek and one time Crew Chief was Ronald J. Martelly. Harry George said that the Aircraft Commander was John C. Jaekels - Thanks, John McFee

When Otis was shot down my oldest brother was four days short of being 2 years old, my other brother was 6 months old, and my mother was about 6 weeks pregnant with me. She passed away December 2, 1994 but she never really got over that "what if he was still alive" concern.

Like most war widows, she remarried (a really wonderful guy that took all three of us kids and raised us like we were his own) and we kids didn't want to possibly upset our "Dad" by inquiring too much about our father. And, of course, as we grew older and married we came to realize Dad would have helped us find out all we wanted to know if we had only asked him....but by then we were all so taken up with our own families that none of us followed up on it after we were told the records had been destroyed. My youngest son (who is a police officer in Richmond, VA) has taken up the task. - Denese Judd

 

B-17F

My interest in the B-29 comes from my many years of flying in light aircraft with the late Captain Glenn William Dye. When he landed his B-17F, 42-30089, "Sunny", at New Philadelphia, Ohio in 1943, Glenn was on his way to Thorpe Abbotts, England to join the 351st Squadron of the 100th Bomb Group as the Group entered combat in the E.T.O.. After finishing his tour in the E.T.O., Glenn was stationed at Smokey Hill A.A.F.B., Salina Kansas, where he took part in the program that is sometimes referred to as the "Battle of Kansas". At Salina, a lot of B-29s were extensively flown and many modifications were made to them in order to get the airplane ready for operational service. Glenn flew the B-29 there as a test pilot and also as a flight instructor. He also was a crash investigator. He was involved in the training of the 509th Composite Group and he was at Battista Field in Cuba with them, but he did not go overseas with them. His remark on this was: "We knew we were training for something big, but we didn't know what it was!" Glenn was flying a training mission in a B-29 out of Salina when word came over the radio that Japan had surrendered.

I was lucky enough to get to fly to Salina a few times with Glenn in the 1960s and 1970s. He would always have something to say about the B-29 when we were in the area. And whatever it was, it was always interesting.

Also, when Glenn was at Smokey Hill, he held the position of "Acting Colonel". Hap Arnold froze promotion for non-combat personnel and Glenn finished his B-17 tour in the E.T.O. as Captain. The only way he could command the people he needed to was for the Army Air Force to give him "Acting" rank! The "Acting" rank dissolved for Glenn when the B-29 testing, modification and initial crew training was finished and I suppose when he left the 509th training area. He was discharged as Captain.

The book, "CENTURY BOMBERS, The Story of the Bloody Hundreth", by Richard Le Strange, assisted by James R. Brown, Published by the 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum, Thorpe Abbotts, Diss, Norfolk, England...Printed by M.F. Barnwell, Penfold Works, Aylsham, Norfolk, England..ISBN 0 9515159 OX contains a crew photograph of the boys that landed at New Philly, their ground crew chief and Olen Turner. The airplane in the picture is not the one they had in New Philly. The B-17F, 42-30089, "Sunny", that Glenn landed at New Philly, blew up in a field near Beaumont Le Roger, France on 3 September 1943 after being landed wheels up by Pilot Richard King and Co-Pilot, George Brykalski. Glenn was "stood down" that day and his buddy, Lt. King, borrowed the airplane to fly his mission. The airplane received a direct hit in the bomb bay from a German Flak 88 and King tried to get her down, but she blew up right after he landed.

I want to pass this along. Glenn used to say: "A pilot could like a B-17 and fly it without much trouble, but you had to RESPECT a B-29."

Many thanks to Geoff Buchanan for sharing this story with us. We hope to hear more from Geoff in the future.

 

 

313th Bomb Wing - 9th Bomb Group - 5th Bomb Squad

Back Row(L-R) Vincent J. Rauen-RO, James G. Goodloe- Bombardier, Louis F. McMenamy-Navigator, William J. Martin-Radar, Sydney P. Craig Jr.-Pilot, Charles A. Glock-A/C.
Front Row(L-R): James E. Taggart-R Gunner, Elden L. Ice-T.Gunner, James G. Schaffer-L. Gunner, Harry R. Jones-CFC, John R. Lezovich-F.E.

Photo sent in by John Lezovich's nephew, Joe.

My brother, Robert (Bob) Richey sent home a picture of the Hi-Stepper to my mother some years ago. He was a top rear gunner. Bob never talked about his experience, but my other brother said that after one bombing mission, the pilot was killed and the co-pilot was injured. They crashed landed in China. You can't see it on the attached photo (see above), but a name below the front top gunner was N. Bell, and above the Hi-Stepper figure is the name G. Morene. The serial # 44-65275 - 20th AF - 58th Bomb Wing - 468th Bomb Group (Triangle-L) - 794th Bomb Squadron. - Sent in by David Richey

The attached photo was made of me at North Field flight line the day after the atomic bomb drop. I went down to the flight line to essentially look at the bombay for curiosity. There was no security. To my surprise, another pilot and myself investigated the Enola Gay at will. - Bill Wishner

 

 

Standing left to right: S/Sgt Agoglia., (Right Blister Gunner) 2nd Lt. J. Iliff (Pilot) J. Epton, (Flight Surgeon) Major J. Dendy, (Air Plane Commander), and General Davies.

Kneeling left to right: S/Sgt. G. Bernstein, (Radar Operator) M/Sgt. H. Vitte ( Flight Engineer ) S/Sgt. J. Czemerda, (Radio Operator) 2nd Lt. D. Solokow, (Navigator) S/Sgt. J. Bertucci, (Lt. Blister Gunner), S/Sgt. B. Allen, (Tail Gunner) 1st Lt. P. Pollock, (Bombardier) Missing from photo T/Sgt. T. Boswell, (Central Fire Control).

This B29 is one of three B29's that were the first to land on Tinian's North Field. The aircraft were picked up in Nebraska; this was their departure point. The stops along the way were California, Hawaii, Kwajalein, Gaum, Saipan, and then Tinian. However the three B29's had to wait on Saipan until the airstrip was finished on Tinian, (a few days).

As the first planes to land on Tinian, the 67th SEA BEES adopted my father's airplane, M/Sgt. Harold N. Vitte who was the Flt. Engineer of INDIAN MAID. As you can see in the picture, when the SEA BEE's installed the nose art they included their insignia along side the plane's name.

This photograph was taken on March 18, 1945. Brig. General James H. Davies, 313 Wing Commanding Officer, greeted and congratulated the aircrew of the B29 known as the INDIAN MAID (serial number 42-24809), upon returning from a successful firebombing raid on Nagoya, Japan. This plane was part of the 482nd Bomb Squadron - 505th Bomb Group - 313th Bomb Wing - 20th Air Force.

My father flew 35 missions against the Empire in two aircraft; both named the INDIAN MAID. The first plane received heavy damage over Japan and was grounded.

MISSION DATA
Target: Nagoya, Japan
Wings assigned: 73rd, 313th, & 314th Wings.
Bomb Type: Incendiary Bombs
Altitude: 6,500 feet
Length of Mission: 14 hours
Planes over target: 290
Planes lost over target: 1
Bombs dropped 1,863 tons
Armament Twin: .50 caliber tail guns only 100 rounds each

My father is still alive and lives in Freeport, Ohio. He attends all the reunions and is looking forward to the next one in San Diego, Ca. - Jim Vitte

 

 

Ted Rush's Air Crew M-52

"The City of Cincinnati"
314th Bomb Wing, 19th Bomb Group, 93rd. Squadron

Standing from left: First LT. Patrick E Simons - Radar, Master SGT. Burton P Hill - R. Gunner *, First LT. Gordon Skinner - Navigator *, First LT. Lester G Hapgood - Bombardier (D), Staff SGT. Robert Soenksen - Radio Operator(D), First LT. James Harris Jr. - Co-pilot
Sitting from left: First LT. Theodore Rush - Pilot, A/C *, Master SGT. Ralmond J Smiltneck - Engineer *, Staff SGT. Murt Vonleer - Tailgunner * , SGT. James Harvan L. - Gunner *, Tech. SGT. Howard W Whiting - CFC Gunner (D)

Photograph and information sent in by Howard Whiting's son, David. * stands for David has talked with the person and D stands for deceased.

 

Here's some of the same crew 55 years later (minus the female)

L to R standing; James Harris, Ted Rush, Gordon Skinner, R.J. Smiltneek, James Harvan, David Whiting (son of Howard Whiting), Murt VonLeer
Kneeling; Burt Hill, Mary Ellen Ponzio (Daughter of Ernie Hamilton, tailgunner, injured 6/5 Kobe

Photo and info sent in by David Whiting