"Nihongun Rokakuki" #1 - B-29s, Manchuria - video

Following our series on "captured Japanese aircraft", we will continue with the opposite topic, "Nihongun Rokakuki" (aircraft captured by the Japanese Armed Forces). Since our knowledge of non-Japanese aircraft is limited, we would like to invite "audience participation" to make these posts even more interesting and accurate.

First up is a clip from the NHK collection featuring downed Boeing B-29 Superfortresses during the December 7, 1945, raid against Mukden (present-day Shenyang), Manchuria (present-day northeast China). There are some conflicting reports regarding the success of the raid, and unfortunately, some, I would say,  "embarrassing " details about the unintended side effects of the raid that are not often mentioned. Let's take a look.

From here we read:

"After another training mission to Bangkok on 27 November, XX Bomber Command returned to its aircraft campaign in an attack against the Manchuria Airplane Manufacturing Company at Mukden on 7 December. This was a medium-sized plant, apparently engaged in the assembly of advanced trainers, which the Twentieth Air Force had made a priority target for December and January, but of less importance than Omura, Watanabe, and Tachiarai. A mission against Omura had been set for 3 December, but when the B-29's came up to Chengtu, they found the weather cold there and, according to reports, it was worse at Omura. Day after day, as aircrews and staff waited in impatient discomfort, weather reports brought further postponement. Since his Superforts were spread out at Chengtu like sitting ducks for enemy hecklers and since he got no encouragement from his weathermen, LeMay on 6 December requested permission to try Mukden; Washington's consent came only a few hours before takeoff time on the 7th.

"Field orders had already been cut, and 108 aircraft got off on schedule and without incident. With less difficulty on the way out than in the Omura missions, ninety-one bombers reached the Mukden area to find ceiling and visibility unlimited--that is, outside the planes, for intense cold had frosted the windows to the great handicap of pilots, bombardiers, and gunners. Ten planes in one formation bombed early in the run-in, hitting a rail yard nine miles short of the target. Eighty planes attacked more accurately, scattering 262 tons of bombs in the target area to cause some damage in the factory complex and more in the adjacent arsenal. Nine planes bombed in other areas.

"Japanese defenders again were aggressive, making in all 247 individual attacks on the Superforts. Three collisions were reported: one, unintentional, destroyed the Japanese fighter but merely bent a propeller on the B-29; another, unintentional, destroyed both planes; and in one a damaged fighter took down a Superfort in what looked like a deliberate ramming. Air-to-air bombing, a frequent Japanese tactic, scored a limited success when a phosphorus bomb hit on a B-29 wing and rode piggyback all the way home, burning but without doing serious harm."

warhistory.org mentions a few interesting details:

"B-29s first struck Manchuria three years to the day of Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor. Their anniversary raid was not coincidental but deliberately timed to encourage the more than 1,600 American prisoners of war incarcerated near Mukden. The mission’s tactical objective was destruction of the city’s aircraft factories.

"Of the original 108 Superforts that set out with the XX Bomber Command, no less than 17 were forced to drop out, due to unforeseen problems caused by extremely low temperatures. Inside and outside surfaces of canopies iced over, and the big warplanes struggled, not always successfully, to gain altitude in the thin air. "These worsening conditions forced another 10 B-29s to haphazardly jettison their payloads over a railroad yard long before reaching Mukden, utterly missing this secondary target, before banking away for home base. 

"When the remaining 80 Superfortresses arrived over the city, flight crews found it entirely obscured by a heavy smokescreen. Undeterred, they unloosed their combined 800 tons of bombs, which fell mostly within residential districts, killing about 1,000 civilians, injuring several thousand more. The primary targeted aircraft factories escaped unscathed."

While the raid "was meant as a morale-booster for more than 1600 Allied prisoners of war incarcerated there." and that "For them, the raid would bring hope that the war could soon be over", less-frequently mentioned is the fact that "Tragically, two bombs struck a prisoner of war facility housed within the military installations at Mukden, claiming the lives of 19 detainees and injuring more than 30."

Also, while warhistory.org mentions above that "The primary targeted aircraft factories escaped unscathed." 

"The archives of one of the participating USAAF units, the 25th Bomb Squadron (BS), reveal that... Of the 27 aircraft the 25th BS sent to Mukden, a total of 23 bombed the primary target in two formations; the first 12-aircraft formation released its bomb load from around 6,700 metres (22,000 feet). The strike photos showed the effectiveness of the bombing and also disclosed the beginnings of a smokescreen started by the defending forces; by the time the remaining 11 aircraft of the 25th BS arrived over Mukden approximately 20 minutes later, the targets and the airfield had been completely obscured. Reconnaissance photos taken several days later revealed that the southern edge of the target area had sustained extensive damage, as had a line of hangars on the adjacent airfield." 

This source mentions the B-29s that were casualties in the mission:

42-63363 40th Bomb Group

42-65262 444th Bomb Group

42-6262 444th Bomb Group ?????????

42-6299 462nd Bomb Group, Humpin Honey, was rammed

42-6359 462nd Bomb Group was MIA,

42-65213 462nd Bomb Group "Carlalani" A/C Maj. White, non-combat loss due to heavy icing and plane broke apart.]

42-6389 468th Bomb Group "Party Girl"

42-6390 468th Bomb Group "Gallopin Goose"

42-63395 468th Bomb Group crashed at A-7 returning from Mukden

T-10 might have had a different A/C: William S. Doxey, Capt.

T-29 has a different S/N: 42-24181

42-24745 A-26

42-24693 V-27

Leave a message if you think this list is incorrect or incomplete.

It also mentions:

"The 40th Group got off 26 planes, of which 23 attacked the primary target. Ten planes, however, dropped early on the Suhuton RR Yards. One plane bombed Darien, the secondary target, one bombed Chenghsien, the last resort target, and one Hsuchang, a target of opportunity. One plane of the 40th, 42-63363, was lost on the mission. The 444th sent off 27 planes, of which twenty bombed the primary target and one dropped early Suhuton RR Yards. One plane dropped on Chenghsien  and one on a target of opportunity, Tsingtao[!!!].

"One plane, 42-65262, was MIA and four were early returns The 462nd Group got 23 planes airborne, off which 21 bombed the primary target. Two planes were lost, 42-6299 was rammed and 42-6359 was MIA, and two returned early. The 468th Group was the largest contributor of airplanes, launching 31. Twenty-six bombed the primary, two bombed Darien, one Chenghsien and one bombed Kaishu, Korea, a target of opportunity. One airplane returned early. The 468th reported no losses."

"Chenghsien", Tsingtao, Dalian and Haeju are all locations VERY distant from Mukden but perhaps they indicate the return flight path of the US bombers and the fact that these B-29s failed to release their bombs over Muden and dropped them wherever they could...or something like that. 

Let's see some stills.

This B-29 has been identified as "42-6262" "Round Trip Ticket" of the 444th BG.

The camels are said to indicate that "Round Trip Ticket" had flown supply missions over the Himalayas.

That is a part of the emblem of the 678th Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy), a cobra head over a spade symbol (here). "Round Trip Ticket" s/n 42-6262 was assigned to the 678th Bomb Squadron, which belonged to the 444th Bomb Group. So the insignia could belong to Round Trip Ticket.

Can you identify the B-29s seen in this still? 

Ed Bailey suggested:

assuming it's also one of the B-29s shot down on the 7 Dec 1944 Mukden raid can only be 42-2699 according to Joe Baugher's serial number list: "[42-]6299 Delivered to USAAF 11Jan44. Assigned to 462nd Bomb Group, Walker AAF, KS

Departed Walker AAF, KS for CBI 10Apr44; arrived Piardoba, India 19Apr44.Assigned to 770th Bomb Squadron, 462nd Bomb Group, Piardoba, India. Named ‘Humpin Honey’

Named ‘Princess Patsy’. (462nd BG) rammed by Ki-44 (Tojo) over Mukden, Manchuria Dec 7, 1944. MACR 10125."

Thank you, Ed.

Last but not least, did you notice the Kawasaki Ki-45 "Toryu" making a quick pass?

Against the US B-29s that raided Mukden, the IJAAF had committed four fighter units: the 104th Sentai lost two pilots flying Nakajima Ki-44 "Shoki" fighters; the 25th and the 81st Dokuritsu Chutai one Kawasaki Ki-45 "Toryu" and one Mitsubishi Ki-46 (Dinah), respectively; one 4th Rensei Hikotai Nakajima Ki-43 "Hayabusa" pilot sustained injuries.

Check here for more on the 104 Sentai.