And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Saturday, October 10, 2020
B-29 Superfortress “Umbriago III - Dat’s My Boy" of the 73rd Bomber Wing, 499th Bomber Group, ditched 90 miles NW of Saipan after bombing the Mitsubishi aircraft factory at Nagoya.
When I was a little boy in the Second Grade at Ashiya Air Force Base in Japan, the school was next to the runway, and I watched B-29s taking off to fly to Korea.
Many years later, as a civilian patrolman for the Department of Defense Police at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, I was able to explore the empty hulk of an abandoned B-29 sitting in the desert, one of the three that trained at Wendover Air Force Base to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.
I wonder how long it took to sink?
ReplyDeleteAmerican made? It may be still afloat to this day!
DeletePhoto taken by US Navy PBY-5A Catalina that rescued the survivors.
ReplyDeleteThe aircraft remained afloat all night and was sunk the next day by naval fire.
Downed December 1944, before Iwo was taken.
ReplyDeleteOne of the greatest airplanes, ever.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a little boy in the Second Grade at Ashiya Air Force Base in Japan, the school was next to the runway, and I watched B-29s taking off to fly to Korea.
ReplyDeleteMany years later, as a civilian patrolman for the Department of Defense Police at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, I was able to explore the empty hulk of an abandoned B-29 sitting in the desert, one of the three that trained at Wendover Air Force Base to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.
Fuel starvation. All crew were rescued.
ReplyDelete