Memorial Day Special: To Nagasaki With Pappy - One Year Before the Bomb (Part 1)

'Before we could reach the Yellow Sea we had to fly across all of China east of the Himalayas with much of this space occupied at critical points by Japanese anti-aircraft guns and fighter aircraft.'

This is Part 1 of my father’s account of a B-29 bombing mission over Nagasaki that he took part in as the flight engineer during WWII.

By Robert W. Earl (1920 - 2015)

We climbed into the trucks to ride to the briefing room at 10:30 in the morning of August 10, 1944. The day was sunny and clear enough to see the Himalayas of western China rising 18,000 feet about 70 miles to the west. On the way to briefing, Kit, our navigator, and I argued whether they were real mountains or clouds. When we arrived at briefing many of the other B-29 flight crews were already entering the main room.

Kieth “Blackie” Blackburn, flight engineer on another B-29; Tucker, the bombardier; Kit the navigator; “Pappy,” the pilot; E.J. Rush, Radio; Brennan, Radar; Bob Earl, flight engineer; Air Base Ground Crew Chief; Jack, co-pilot; Tews, Tail gunner; Mazzola, side gunner; Brzoska, side gunner; Krewson, top gunner. In Szechwen, China, Aug. 8, 1944.

Pushing through the crowd inside the room, we looked for the benches…