As mentioned in the text of “Nightstalkers”, the aircrews and aircraft of the 868th arrived in Okinawa in early August 1945, and set themselves up for what all assumed would be a long stay. The squadron was one of the first heavy bomber units of the XIII Bomber Command of the Far East Air Forces to be moved forward to Yontan Airfield on Okinawa and was expected to begin its night search and destroy missions into the Sea of Japan, Korea and the China Coast immediately upon arrival. The dark-of-night task at hand was to interdict, that is, search and destroy, all Japanese shipping moving between the surrounding land areas and the home islands of Japan. The going-in assumption among the officers and men of the unit was that the first of two Allied invasions of those home islands would occur three months hence, in early November. The direct assault and occupation of those home islands was slated to begin with Operation Olympic, a massive amphibious landing and ground-pounding slugfest for the control of the island of Kyushu.
Some of the 868th advance party had arrived on the island in late July as squadron aircraft were still flying missions from Morotai against French Indo-China and the southern sea lanes. Several photographs were provided by the men 868th to the author.
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Photos 1, 2, 3 and 4
Okinawa, invaded in April 1945, had only been fully secured a few weeks before the arrival of the 868th and the Army and Navy of Imperial Japan was still attempting to disrupt the Allied buildup there. On the night of 24-25 May 1945 an attack was mounted by a unit of special airborne attack troops who were carried on a one-way suicide mission by a group of Mitsubishi Ki-21 (“Sally”) bombers. While four of the bombers which survived to circle the airfield were shot down by the Allied defenders and did no damage, a fifth belly-landed on Yontan Airfield and disgorged a dozen bomb-rigged attackers. Sweeping across the mass of parked U.S. aircraft, the Japanese commandos destroyed or damaged almost three dozen aircraft. The airfield was restored for operations by the next morning.
Photo 1 shows the remains of the Sally bomber as it came to rest on the airfield and photo 2 captures one of the victims of the attack, a four-engine aircraft that was still burning at daylight. Photo 3 is a close up of the two tired U.S soldiers, sitting on the nose wheel, catching a break a few feet from the still-burning U.S. airplane.
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Photo 5
captures the night sky of Okinawa as U.S. forces celebrate the news, with confirmation now at hand, the Japan had accepted the Allied terms of surrender on 15 August 1945. Every anti-aircraft battery on the island shot all they had on hand into the night sky, joined by infantrymen and airmen shooting tracers into the dark to celebrate. It was V-J Day and they were headed home.
Photo 5 (USAAF photos)
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Photos 6 and 7
shows the arrival of two G4M-1 “Betty” bombers on Okinawa on 19 August 1945, dispatched from Japan with a senior Japanese delegation that was to discuss the details of the Japan’s surrender. As arranged, the two Betty’s landed at Ie Shima airfield on Okinawa and the Japanese team was transferred to a waiting U.S. Army Air Force C-54 for onward movement to Manila where General MacArthur’s staff awaiting them. After completing the negotiations, the Japanese returned to Okinawa to re-board their two waiting Betty’s to continue to Tokyo. Interestingly, on that return flight, one of the two Betty’s was forced to ditch south of Tokyo, possibly because the U.S. airmen on Okinawa misjudged the fuel required by the aircraft. But the passengers and crew survived to make it back to Tokyo and the formal surrender ceremony came off on schedule on 3 September in Tokyo Bay.
Photos 6 and 7 (USAAF Photos and Pacific Wrecks data)
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Photos 8 and 9
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Photo 10
Depicts another post-surrender tragedy at Yontan Airfield, namely the loss of a USAAF B-32 “Dominator” heavy bomber which crashed on take-off from Yontan Airfield on 28 August 1945. The aircraft was slated to fly to Japan to confirm that the terms of the Japanese surrender were being obeyed. It carried a full crew plus two special observers, a total of twelve men, all of whom were killed in crash. The aircraft lost power in its number three engine on take-off and in attempting to abort the aircraft lost altitude and crashed and exploded in a gravel pit at the end of the runway. This was B-32 Dominator (serial number) 42-108544 of the 386th Bomb Squadron, 312th Bomb Group of the Fifth Air Force.
Photo 10 The B-32 Dominator was a proposed successor to Consolidated Aircraft’s B-24 and had been put forward as a delayed-arrival would-be competitor to the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. This B-32 squadron was the only unit to deploy this aircraft into combat when it arrived on Okinawa in June 1945, and this crash appears to have been the only operational loss of the type. (868th Squadron photo and Pacific Wrecks data.)
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Photos 11 and 12
Capture two of the 868th Squadron’s B-24M aircraft at rest on Yontan Airfield, prepared to launch at dusk into the night to fly LAB search missions to the north over the Japanese home islands.
Photos 11 and 12
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Photo 13
Profiles 868th Squadron Lieutenant Scott Smitherman with his adopted B-24M “Carolina Carol”, in which he and his crew would fly one of the last missions of the Pacific War Aug13th, 1945.
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Photo 14
Provides a view of the 868th Squadron’s engineering section with a captured Japanese “Oka” human-guided suicide rocket bomb, here serving as the unit’s “gate guard” feature. Nicknamed “Baka Bomb” by U.S. soldiers and airmen, several these aircraft-dropped weapons, discovered in bunkers, once disarmed, found good work as gate guards for units on Okinawa.
Photo 14 (868th Squadron photo)
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