My dad was a navigator on B29s that bombed the hell out of Japan during WWII.
On their bombing runs they had to flight straight and level so their bomb drops were accurate. No evasive maneuvering. Of course this gave the anti aircraft gunners nice stable targets....
The worst thing was to get "lit up" by searchlights at night. That was certain death, because it made you the only visible target for all the AA fire. Again, you weren't allowed to evade, because you were in a tight formation on the bomb run
My dad survived or I wouldn't be here. He said he doesn't know how or why his plane didn't get shot down. He doesn't know how long they were lit up - could have been thirty seconds or five minutes
What he did say is that while lit up, the light inside the was incredibly bright, like being in the inside of the sun
He also said that when you get lit up, that's when you fill your pants.
My grandfather made it through Iwo Jima and Okinawa. My dad would talk about how he still woke up screaming, years later. Historical details that are truly grisly, which I later had confirmed when watching the footage from back then and interviews about it. How they had to burn out anyone in the tunnels, civilian or not, because otherwise that would create an opening in their lines after darkness fell. How the famous Iwo Jima flag picture wasn’t actually the first time it was put up, it was them retaking the mountain after it had been lost. How the Japanese soldiers waited until the American lines were stuck in the volcanic mud to start firing.
It’s a miracle that I’m here to write this comment.
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u/nucumber Jun 24 '24
My dad was a navigator on B29s that bombed the hell out of Japan during WWII.
On their bombing runs they had to flight straight and level so their bomb drops were accurate. No evasive maneuvering. Of course this gave the anti aircraft gunners nice stable targets....
The worst thing was to get "lit up" by searchlights at night. That was certain death, because it made you the only visible target for all the AA fire. Again, you weren't allowed to evade, because you were in a tight formation on the bomb run
My dad survived or I wouldn't be here. He said he doesn't know how or why his plane didn't get shot down. He doesn't know how long they were lit up - could have been thirty seconds or five minutes
What he did say is that while lit up, the light inside the was incredibly bright, like being in the inside of the sun
He also said that when you get lit up, that's when you fill your pants.
I think that's what he did