My father was a navigator on the C-46 'Tokyo Trolley' and told stories about being the first of his aircraft type into Tokyo and spending the night sleeping under the plane.
I created a website;
413th Fighter Group, 413th Fighter Group (SE) Home devoted to my Dad's fighter group (he was a supply officer). Related to the Tokyo Trolley, he wrote the following in a letter to my Mother;
"We slept under the plane Wednesday night, [September] the 27th [1945], just to make sure that we'd be taken
on the plane when it took off. Weren't sure that the pilot wouldn't claim that the ship was
overloaded. Knew that if he knew we'd slept under it he'd be under a certain compulsion
to take us. Johnny and I slept, I should say. Bill slept in his own sack. Since nothing
much had taken place by 0650….the pilot hadn't shown up, we felt free to go down to
breakfast, returning at about 0710. Much to our consternation, the both engines were
turning over and the back door was closed. While it's SOP (standard operating
procedure) for them to close the back door, we were still dismayed. Stationed Johnny at
the front of the plane in plain view of the pilot and I stayed back, out of the prop wash,
and knocked on the door once so that the crew member would know that we were there.
Finally, the warming up of the engines was accomplished and the door opened and we
climbed up the ladder which was dropped."