Sgt J.D. DUCKWORTH 482nd BS 505TH BG

[flyingshottsman]

Doing to family research and have come across a family member who was on a B-29 crew that went down on 25 May 1945 on Tokyo Raid.
Sgt. John Daniel DUCKWORTH
482nd Bombardment Sq./505th Bomb Group

Can anyone tell me how I can find details on the aircraft and the crew for this mission?

flyingshottsman

 

[Alex .]

I did a quick google

Throughout the onslaught, Japanese air defenses remained largely ineffective. U.S. B–29s could operate freely at lower altitudes because anti-aircraft fire was feeble at night and the enemy lacked a first-rate night fighter. Even so, enemy fighters downed twenty-six Superfortresses during the last fire raid on Tokyo the night of May 25/26, 1945, the highest single-day loss of B–29s in the war. A few days later, 454 B–29s struck Yokohama, this time escorted by more than one hundred P–51s from the VII Fighter Command on Iwo Jima. By the summer of 1945, LeMay was so confident his bombers could get through the Japanese fighter and anti-aircraft defenses that he began warning enemy cities that might be attacked through leaflet drops and radio broadcasts. Of course, he did not immediately strike every city warned, but the tactic did prove psychologically damaging and saved some lives.

I am sure someone else would be able to assist in finding additional information about your relative. Good luck with your search

 

[vikingBerserker]

The first place I go to is Welcome to Aviation Archaeology but I cannot find an B-29s being lost on that day.

 

[Shinpachi]

DUCKWORTH, John P.
ID 33792096 Sergent
Central Gunner of B-29 (Serial 42-63508 Nickname: Peachy)
482 Bombardment/505th BG/313 BW/20 AF
Downed by Japanese fighter in Nagareyama City, Chiba Prefecture
on May 25, 1945
All 11 crew KIA
No other Mr Duckworth on the day.


Air Raid Records in Japan
B29-#42-63508

 

[fubar57]

Nice one Shinpachi.

 

[Shinpachi]

Thanks Geo.

A witness says the plane flew from the direction of Tokyo with the smoking engine toward the north east and turned with radius of a few kilometers slowly before crash. Intact remain was only one. All remains were recovered by US Army in the postwar.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Well done Shinpachi!