506th FG Gazette
Mission notes, people, and progress—dispatches worth keeping.
LOCAL NEWS
IWO JIMA
Carl Molesworth "Very Long Range P-51 Mustang Units of the Pacific War"
07 Jun 1945 Mission #174 report
VLR Mission No 16 (FC Mission #174) 7 June 1945 - Force: 138 P-51s of 15th, 21st and 506th Groups - Mission: VLR Fighter Escort of XXI BomCom maximum effort against Osaka - Claims against enemy: 1 Nick and 1 S/E destroyed and 1 Dinah damaged in the air.
During the one hour and 15 minutes over the target there was slight enemy air opposition. Flak was heavy, meager and inaccurate continuously pointed around the target area at 16,000 to 20,000 feet with black and white bursts being seen. One P-51 was lost operationally 19 miles north of base on the route out. The pilot was picked up by an ASR destroyer and returned to base.
NARRATIVE: The mission encountered a front 150 miles south of the DP, it was, however, fairly weak, and was crossed at 20,000 feet. The weather remained poor into the target area, which was blanketed by 9/10 low clouds. No Japanese fighters were encountered, though several bogies were called out but disappeared immediately into the cloud deck below. At the end of 30 minutes of patrolling over the stream of B-29s, the squadron turned toward the RP. Capt. Marcott, Blue Leader, in the act of scaring two bogies to cover, switched tanks and forgot his boost pump; his fuel lines air-locked, and by the time his engine was again running, he had lost the squadron. After flying in the general direction of the RP with a lone fighter from the 15th Group, he finally tacked onto the wing of a homing Dreamboat and returned to Iwo. Except for a thick layer of weather 170 miles north of base, which forced the squadron below 500 feet, the remainder of the trip was uneventful.
Detailed information on the defenses and dispersal areas at Itami was also presented. The plan of attack called for a repetition of the flak buster and deck strafing tactics followed at Kasumigaura in late May. Takeoff with 59 A/C — of whom 7 returned early — was accomplished at 0842 (19). Arriving at the departure point at 1200 the Group provided area protection for the bomber stream for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. A lone Jap SE A/C. blissfully unaware of the presence of our P-51's some 4000' above him was observed at 16000' Just S of the Target apparently directing AA fire on the bombers. A mad scramble for the Nip's scalp ensued between Lt Col Brown's flight and Lt Zagorsky's flight of the 462nd Squadron. Assorted passes were made by all 8 A/C with the result that the Jap, after several pathetic attempts at evasive action, disappeared in flames into the clouds. Results for all three groups were uniformly meager. In addition to the SE destroyed by the 506th, a Nick was destroyed and a Dinah damaged by the other outfits. (20) Flak over the Empire gave the pilots very little trouble. Miscellaneous bursts of heavy AA encountered at the DP, about 5 miles SE of the Ip, in the target area, and at the RP were described as meager and inaccurate. Results of the 2800 tons of incendiary and HE bombs dropped by the escorted B-29's included 3.4 square miles of the city of Osaka newly devastated. (21) While the Osaka escort was underway on the 7th, notification was received of a strafing mission on Meiji, Toyohashi, and Yamamatsu A/Fs. Two abortive weather missions and an untold number of postponements were incurred in connection with these targets during the remainder of the month. The first of the Meiji weather hops became airborne with 60 A/C at 0945 on the morning of the 8th (22).
WORLD NEWS June 1945
- 5: The Allies agree to divide Germany into four areas of control (American, British, French and Soviet). : The U.S. fleet under William Halsey, Jr., suffers widespread damage from a huge Pacific typhoon.
- 10: Australian troops land in Brunei.
- 11: Schiermonnikoog, a Dutch island, is the last part of Europe freed by Allied troops.
- 13: The Australians capture Brunei. : Japanese Admiral Ota Minoru, along with thousands of his surrounded Naval brigade, commits ritual suicide for failing to defend Okinawa, Japan.[1]
- 15: Osaka, Japan, is heavily bombed.
June 1945
