Mission:
5 June 1945; JAPAN:
Place of Departure: Tinian Island Course 337-321.
Target or intended destination: Kobe, Japan
Type of Mission Bombing (combat) /Mission 188)
Four hundred seventy-three XXI BC B-29's attack Kobe with 3077
tons of incendiary bombs; eight attack other targets. The attack
burns off over 4 square miles and damages over half of the city.
B-29's claim 86 Japanese fighters. Eleven B-29's are lost. Aircraft
lost include:
B-29-70-BW; AAF Serial No. 44-69965 462nd BG - MACR 14605 -
Hull Crew
Manufactured by Boeing Aircraft, Wichita, Kansas. Delivered
to the USAAF on 22 Mar 45. Sent to Topeka, Kansas via the Birmingham
Modification Center Al, and assigned to the XXI Bomber Command,
Twentieth Air Force, Pacific Theater of Operations, on 16 May
1945. ...assigned to the 770th Bombardment Squadron, 462nd Bombardment
Group at the time of loss.
Pilot: Captain Carl T. "Shorty" Hull, MIA (Norfolk,
Virginia)
FltEngr: F/O Charley Blackburn, MIA (Pratt, Kansas)
Tail Gunner: S/Sgt. James Clemens, MIA (Childress, Texas)
Radio: T/Sgt. Thomas O. Drew, MIA (Pratt, Kansas)
(Original Crew Member of Jody Smith Dad's Crew)
Co-Pilot: 1st Lt. Cletus W. Moser, POW, Executed (Ligonier,
Indiana)
Bombardier:1st Lt. Oliver M.Stewart, POW, Executed (Sand Springs,
Oklahoma)
Navigator: 1st Lt. Benton Van Horn, Jr., POW*, Executed. (Des
Moines, Iowa)
V/Radar Opr.: S/Sgt. Arthur H. Weinbauer, POW*, Executed.(Wheaton,
Illinois)
Left Blister Gunner: S/Sgt. John N. Zinn, POW*, Executed. (Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania)
CFC Gunner: T/Sgt. David Fredrick McNeley, POW*, Executed. (Des
Moines, Iowa) (Neysa Picklum's Brother) Neysa is North High,
class of 1946
Right Blister Gunner: Hershell Barrett, POW*. (Long Beach, California)
- * Van Horn, Weinbauer, Zinn, Barrett and McNeley, were captured
after being found floating in their rafts.
- Those executed were identified from bodies.
- Hull, Drew, Blackburn and Clements were never found.
Was the Tail Gunner's name S/Sgt. James H. Glenens of Childress,
Texas? KIA
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