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Published on 08/07/1995 All articles from this issue

494th B-24 Bomb GROUP

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By Bob Davies

My 14th Mission

Our target was Clark airfield near Manilla on the island of Luzon in the Phillipines. This was one of the three most heavily defended Japanese targets. Our intelligence reported as high as 300 90mm anti-aircraft guns--equal to Tokyo or the Yawata steel works. Our crew was to be the flight leader but our pilot was in our tent hospital and our plane was in maintenance.

So we were to use the squadron commanders plane (the Playmate) and Lt. Stover from staff as pilot. This was the only time in our 40 missions that we did not fly in our own plane, the "Shack Bunny," but in two other missions Lt. Stover flew in place of our pilot Bill Ison. The round trip distance to the target with our normal bomb load was beyond our range; therefore, we were scheduled to refuel at Tacloban an advanced fighter plane base in the Phillipines.

This airstrip was used by fighter planes after the invasion forces had secured a beach-head on the island of Leyte in the Phillipines. This type of foreward area air strip is composed of interlocking steel plates laid down over mud or sand.

We were awakened at 2 a.m. January 4, 1944 - maybe we were awakened - it is difficult to even to go to sleep if you know that you have to get up at 2 a.m., and tent living offers no sound isolation.

After a quick breakfast of dehydrated eggs and coffee we went to briefing at 2:45 a.m. The briefing consisted of target and enemy opposition analysis, flight, navigation, bombing plan and meteorology forecast.

*****We flew in loose formation for four hours after a 4:15 take-off. Most of the crew could take a nap except for me the navigator. We then assenbled into a tight formation at the rendezvous point to concentrate our firepower against enemy fighter planes. It was my task to direct the plane to a predetermined point near the target and then turn on a course to the target.

The bombardier had studied terrain maps and aerial photographs so he could then take over the course of the plane. By this time the enemy knew what our target was and the fighters came swooping in. I was standing in the bomb bay with my heavy flak armored suit on to make sure the doors were open and no bombs hung up on the racks. I was the only crew member available during the bomb run for this task.

All six of our twin 50 caliber machine guns were blazing away at the fighter planes until they drifted away as we neared the target. The enemy fighters had to evade the the heavey flack thrown up at us. The flack was all around us - it made a terrible noise and pieces of shrapenal were bouncing against the plane.

Then a louder explosion occurred when a large shrapenal fragment tore into the side of the plane 4 feet from where I was standing directly under the co-pilot. It was lucky that we had dropped our bombs because the other planes were to release their bombs after seeing our bombs drop.

During this chaotic period, our nose gunner, Claud Rauch, came crawling out of his nose gun turrett towards the bomb bay. He was covered all over with a red liquid which I at first thought was blood but he had crawled past the hole in the side where the shrapenal had broken the hydraulic lines and he was covered with the red hydraulic fluid. Another shrapenal fragment had knocked out our number 3 engine but flying on three engines was not a major problem because we could reach Tacloban in two and a half hours.

The major problem was, could we obtain permission to land a 24 ton aircraft without brakes at a landing speed of 120 mph? If we crashed and tied up this strip, many bombers and fighters would run out of fuel and be lost. Our crew discussed parachuting out over Tacloban or ditching in the bay alongside the airstrip. Our pilot could not communicate with the control tower so he gambled on landing.

The gunners tied parachutes to each of the two side waist guns and one to the tail gun. They popped the chutes as the plane touched down, but the shrouds were not designed for this much force and tore away immediately. Our pilot kept the plane on the narrow runway 500 feet past the end until we crashed into a huge heavy piece of construction equipment.

I was standing between the pilot and co-pilot and could see the equipment operator as he saw us continuing past the end of the runway - I can still see him running into the nearby jungle. There were no injuries - just a few bruises and scratches. We ran 141 feet from the plane, fast , because we had seen gas tanks explode after other crash landings.

We soon had a crowd around the plane as soon as it was safe - including our group commander. He thought that it might have been pilot error and expected an explanation but as soon as he touched the cool brake housings on the wheels, he realized that the plane had lost all hydraulic power for braking. He could also see the large hole in the side of the plane.

A big surprise awaited us when we observed the right wing tip of the plane that was flyin off of our right wing - two feet of the tip had broken off. One of the attacking fighters had been trying to ram our right wingman or possibly our plane since we were leading the formation and disrupting our bomb release would have been disastruous.

Bob Davies is a Los Altos resident.