Witnessing history from 800 feet

A B-29 like Al White flew. (Public domain)

(Note: On Memorial Day we rightly honor our men and women who died while serving our country in past wars. At this time it is interesting to think about those men from the McCook Army Air Base who served during World War II. Today, we revisit a story that first appeared in the Gazette in 2003. Al passed away in 2009)

Over the life of the McCook Army Airbase, from 1942-1945, its mission changed. From December 1942 until April 1943 it was a satellite of the Kearney (NE) Airbase. From April 1943 until June 1944 it was designated as a Heavy Bombardment Training Base, using B-17s and B-24s as training planes. After June 1944 it was designated as a Very Heavy Bombardment Training Base, using B-29s. In those days its mission was to train one Bombardment group, consisting of 64 eleven- man crews, every four months. Beginning in June 1944 military airmen from bases all over the country came together at the McCook Army Airbase to make up the core personnel of a new unit, the 9th Bomber Group, under the overall command of Col. Donald Eisenhart, (from Culbertson, NE). These men were specifically trained for the new B-29s. Many of the crew officers came from war zones in Europe, the Mediterranean, and Sicily, or cadet programs. Crew-members came from specialized training centers throughout the country. Over the next year some 2900 men, of the 9th BG, would pass through McCook.

In August 1944 Al White, now of McCook, was a member of one of those crews.

Al White family.

Al was born and raised in New Hampshire, and fully expected to spend his life in New England. Like so many of the men who arrived at the McCook Airbase, Al was less than impressed with being "in the middle of nowhere," and was pleased that his assignment in McCook would last only four months. Note: Al and Dottie Stewart, a local girl, were married in November of 1944, and have made their home in McCook (in the middle of nowhere) for all these years.

Even after June 1944 a good deal of the training at the McCook base was in B-17s and B-24s. But whereas these two aircraft types had been the workhorses in Europe where targets were close, when the air-war turned to the Pacific these planes did not have the range to attack Japan from China or from the Pacific islands, which were in friendly hands, and it remained for the B-29s to be built, and crews trained, before Japan could be seriously threatened.

Al's training in McCook was very interesting. When they were training with the older B-17s their practice missions rarely extended farther than Ogallala, where they practiced bombing runs on rafts anchored in Lake McConaughy, but with the B-29s their practice missions extended as far as to both coasts, to the border of Canada and throughout the Caribbean Sea.

In November '44 Al's crew picked up a new B-29 in McCook, and left for the South Pacific. They got as far as Reno, NV when they were forced to land when the distributor on #3 engine malfunctioned. (When it was suggested that it was fortunate that the engine had gone out while they were in the United States rather than over the Pacific, Al indicated that it was not that big a deal. "The B-29 could easily fly to Hawaii with only 2 of the 4 engines operating!") Though the officers sampled a bit of the nightlife in Reno while awaiting the new distributor, three crewmen were on constant guard of the plane while it was on the ground. The new Norden Bomb-sight, with which the plane had been equipped in McCook, was so important, so secret, that even crewmen from other military planes were prevented from approaching their B-29.

Leaving Reno, Al's B-29 flew to the South Pacific, via San Francisco. Airmen are noted for being unconventional. It was so on Al's plane. The crew suggested that they do something a little different, so the pilot obliged by leaving the U. S. by flying under the Golden Gate Bridge.

By the last half of 1944 the US Army and Marine Corps, under the command of General MacArthur, were having a great deal of success in wresting the islands of the South Pacific from the control of the Japanese. By August Tinian, in the Mariana Group had come under American control. Though Tinian is situated some 1500 miles south of Tokyo it was within the range of the B-29s, and it became a favorite launching site for attacks on the Japan. It was to Tinian that the 9th Bomb. Group, with its 1st, 5th, and (Al White's) 99th Squadrons, set up headquarters.

The U.S. Seabees (the Navy Construction Engineers) immediately began rebuilding the Japanese airfield on the northern end of the island, and began construction on a second airfield on the southern end of the island. Initially the airfields were surfaced with crushed coral, which made up the island of Tinian. The coral surface held up very well, but it was dusty, and at times the planes behind the lead plane could scarcely see through the haze on takeoff. The runways on both airfields were eventually hard surfaced and proved to be very effective landing fields.

From February '45 until August '45 Al and the crew of their B-29 (christened "Daring Donna") participated in some 27 missions against the enemy. At first these missions were bombing runs against Japanese installations at Truk and Iwo-Jima, but soon, beginning in March they launched raids on Japan itself, from daylight bombing raids on the main islands of Japan, to the night-time incendiary raids on Tokyo and other Japanese cities. These incendiary raids were particularly devastating because in 1945 Japan, so much paper and bamboo were used in the construction of Japanese cities that fires quickly spread to wide areas. Because the B-29s flew high and fast most of these missions were carried off with a minimum of damage to the plane, but not all. On two occasions, on April 7th, against a Nagoya aircraft plant, and June 22nd, against a Yokkaichi oil refinery, gunfire from antiaircraft on the ground, and from fighter planes in the air was extremely heavy and the Daring Donna sustained considerable damage. For these two missions the crew was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

The 9th Bombardment Group had other little rewards for the crews when they returned from a mission. Each man was welcomed back with a shot of whiskey. While this little ritual was popular with the men, as the war wound down someone suggested that the spirits should be saved, for a real celebration when the war was declared over. To achieve this goal, GI canteens were brought out and over some weeks quite a cache of whiskey was hoarded for the big party. This almost resulted in a real disaster.

On August 6, 1945 the entire complexion of the war changed. On that date Col. Paul Tibbets and his crew of the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Though a few more bombing missions were flown in the next week, the atomic bombs effectively ended the war. On August 15th Emperor Hirohito made it official by broadcasting his unconditional surrender.

When news came that the war was finally over Tinian celebrated (along with the rest of the free world). There was a great show of fireworks, though these fireworks consisted of shooting off rifles, pistols, and every other type of weapon available. And the canteens of hoarded liquor were brought out and a giant party took place. It was only later that it was learned that the liquor had reacted with the metal in the canteens, producing a type of poison that left a large number of the men severely ill.

The effects of the alcohol poisoning were still apparent two weeks later when General MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito met on the Battleship Missouri to sign the papers officially ending the war. To commemorate that event hundreds of aircraft, including the B-29s of the 9th BG, conducted a massive flyover, a "Display of Power" the likes of which the world had never seen before. Al White remembers that all the General officers on Tinian, and other officers and men who ordinarily did not fly were on hand that day when the planes assembled for takeoff. Everyone wanted to witness the historic event that was taking place aboard the Missouri. And, to think they might have missed that once in a lifetime event because of some poisoned whiskey.

Source: 9th Bombardment Group (VH) History, A B-29 Super Fortress Unit in World War II