Lt. Tom Rebel is pictured at his parents’ Chicago home during World War II. Photo provided
Tom Rebel of Burnt Store Isles, south of Punta Gorda, Fla. said, “I wanted to be a bomber pilot. I wanted to fly the biggest thing they had.” He ended up piloting a four-engine B-29 “Superfortress,” the largest bomber mass-produced in the United States during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Guice Johnson graduated from the Aviation Cadet Program during World War II. He was a bombardier flying raids over Japan in a B-29 “Superfortress.” Photo provided
1st. Lt. Guice Johnson was the bombardier on the 12-man crew of the first B-29 to land on Tinian Island during the closing months of World War II.
In fact, when Capt. Walter Schroder put down the wheels, the Seabees were still working to build the runway. Read the rest of this entry »
Bob Althoff of River Haven Mobile Home Park, south of Punta Gorda, Fla. holds on to “Duke V,” his 109-pound pet Doberman. The octogenarian piloted a B-29 “Superfortress” bomber on 35 missions over Japan during the closing months of World War II. Sun photo by Don Moore
Old “Iron Pants” decreed that the B-29 bombers would fly firebomb raids over Tokyo at 7,000 feet after taking command of the 20th Air Force. The “Superfortress” crews had been flying raids at 25,000 feet, Bob Althoff, pilot of one of the bombers, recalled decades later. Read the rest of this entry »
The “Suella J” was 1st Lt. Smith’s B-29 “Super Fortress” he flew over the Soviet Union while spying on the Russians shortly after World War II. Photo provided
“Ferrets flights” are what they were called. They were aptly named because the super-secret missions in modified B-29 bombers immediately after World War II were made to ferret out information about the Soviet Union’s most sensitive military sites. Read the rest of this entry »
The crew of the badly damaged B-29, “The Spirit of F.D.R.” stands on the tale beside the nearly disintegrated rudder of the huge four-engine bomber. Jim Hussmann of Venice, Fla. is squatting in the foreground. Photo provided
By Jim Hussmann
Special to the Sun
After graduating from the Air Corps’ Navigation School in San Marcos, Texas in December 1944, Jim Hussmann of Plantation Golf and Country Club south of Venice, Fla. was ordered to report to Alamogordo, N.M., where he and 10 other airmen specialists were to begin training as B-29 bomber combat crew. Read the rest of this entry »
1st Lt. Bob Watcher, the navigator on this all black B-29 called "Old Upper Cut," flew from a base in Guam. He was on the last B-29 mission in WWII, flown on Aug. 14, 1945, the day the Japanese surrendered. Photo provided
1st Lt. Bob Wachter of Port Charlotte, Fla. was the navigator on a B-29 bomber called “Old Upper Cut” that flew on the last “Super Fortress” mission of World War II. When his squadron left Guam on Aug. 14, 1945, he didn’t know they would fly not only the last, but the longest bomber raid of the Second World War. Read the rest of this entry »
This is the crew of “This Above All”; a B-24 “Liberator” bomber Dave McKalip of Port Charlotte, Fla. flew on in World War II as part of the 8th Air Force in England. He made 30 combat missions. McKalip is standing in the back row at far right. Photo provided
David McKalip flew 30 combat missions as a radio operator on a B-24 “Liberator” bomber during World War II. The mission that made the biggest impression on him 65 years later was the flight that leveled Dresden, Germany. Read the rest of this entry »
Capt. George Hardy, standing second from the left, was co-pilot of a B-29 flying out of Kadina Air Base in Okinawa, Japan during the Korean War. They were part of the 28th Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group. This was his first assignment following racial integration in the United States Air Force. Photo provided
EDITOR’S NOTE: Second of a two-part story.
When the Korean War broke out in June 1950 George Hardy’s World War II service was long behind him. He flew a P-51 “Mustang” in the 99th Fighter Squadron as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black fighter group, during the Second World War. Read the rest of this entry »
This was 2nd Lt. George Hardy's graduating class at Tuskegee Army Air Field Sept. 9, 1944 standing in front of a P-39 "Aircobra" fighter. He is kneeling in the front row at the far left. Photo provided
EDITOR’S NOTE: First of a two-part story.
George Hardy of Sarasota, Fla. was a Tuskegee Airman. The retired lieutenant colonel began his military career as a member of the all-black 99th Fighter Squadron, flying 21 combat missions over Germany during the final two months before V-E Day in World War II in a P-51 “Mustang” fighter plane. Read the rest of this entry »
George Gallagher of Englewood, Fla.. front right, is pictured with three of his buddies enjoying themselves in Honolulu during World War II. He served aboard a couple of submarines in the Pacific as machinist-mate. Photo provided
George Gallagher of Englewood, Fla. was serving aboard the USS Trutta, a Tench-Class submarine, as a motor machinist-mate 2nd/class when they picked up a downed P-51 Mustang fighter pilot who was shot down and adrift almost a week in a yellow life raft in the East China Sea. Read the rest of this entry »
2nd Lt. Ken Stetson of Englewood, Fla. is pictured when he graduated from flight school and received his wings during WW II. He flew a B-29 bomber on 30 combat missions over Japan. Photo provided
1st Lt. Ken Stetson, was at the controls of a B-29 “Superfortress” the crew named “Tanaka Termite” when it was attacked by Japanese fighter planes while flying in formation over Mount Fuji on their first of 30 combat missions to Japan. Read the rest of this entry »
Marines put up the second American flag atop Mount Suribachi and take down the first flag on Feb. 23, 1945 during the Battle of Iwo Jima near the end of World War II. Photo provided by Dick Honyak
Dick Honyak walked into the Charlotte Sun newspaper office in Englewood, Fla. six years ago and dropped a big, thick, loose leaf notebook full of 8 by 10 black and white photographs on my desk. The historic photos were of the Marines taking Iwo Jima from the Japanese at the close of World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
The propeller on the inboard engine of their plane spun off while on a bombing run over Japan. It hit the outboard engine and knocked it out, too. The Superfortress had to fly the 700 miles back to Iwo Jima on two engines.
It was March 9, 1945. Sgt. Bob Wallace was a radioman aboard “Pride of the Yankees,” a B-29 Superfortress flying lead bomber on the first firebomb raid over Tokyo during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
