B29 Superfortress. First flight 9/21/42

Great book by a B29 pilot; 'Bringing the Thunder'. His first mission was the first night fire bombing of Tokyo. Even talked about being chased by UFOs on one mission.
 
My neighbor and close friend directly across the road was a flight engineer on a B29 in Korea.

He flew his missions without incident aside from one engine fire, returned home, married his high school sweetheart, raised 5 great kids and sent them all to college while working as a laborer in a local factory.

He also has owned an 8N since the mid 1950s, and became a collector of vintage Fords after retirement.

His wife passed about three years ago and he has been in a home since. I visit him occasionally.

Great guy. I will miss him.

Dean
 
my neighbor we lost 3 years back was a gunner on a B29. Had a 50 Caliber bullet on his mantle. I never knew if it had powder in it or not. He said there were no atheist when they did bombing runs over Vienna.
 
My wife's grandfather, N.D. Showalter, was the project engineer on the B29, for Boeing. He was employed at Boeing from 1925 to 1969. Boeing had 500 employees when he started and over 10,000 when he retired. Lots of interesting stories and photographs about his time at Boeing.
 
Robert Morgan who piloted the Memphis Belle-the first B-17 to complete 25 missions in Europe- later went to the Pacific and flew 29 missions in B-29's. I guess he couldn't get enough.
 
I don't believe there were any B29's over Vienna. They were deployed to the Pacific on Saipan, Guam and Tinian. Originally they tried bombing Japan from China. It didn't go well as it was hard to get enough fuel ect. over the hump. A good read is the book "A Torch to the Enemy" about fire bombing Japanese cities.
 

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