| WWII
Diary of 1st Lt Leonard A. Kuther, Bombardier, P-43
4
April '45
Departed Mather Field Cal. 0300 – 4 April ’45
– Opened sealed orders on route to Honolulu as to
our destination. As was sort of expected by our crew we
were headed for North Field in Guam. We arrived at John
Rogers Fld Honolulu at approximately 1600 some date Flying
time 11 hrs 50 min.
While our B-29 was being checked by ground crews there
we looked around Waikiki Beach, The Naval Station &
Hickham Fld on 5 April ’45.
6
April ‘45
Departed Honolulu 0730 for Kawjalien (sic) Island. After
13 hrs 19 minutes we arrived on the tiny island, after crossing
the International Date Line. Facilities were very poor on
Kawjalien (sic) it was running when we arrived and continued
intermittently until we departed.
9 April ‘45
Departed Kawjalien (sic) for Guam 0900. After hitting a
lot of bad weather we arrived on Guam at 1530. Flying time
was 7 hrs 11 minutes.
Because
of engine trouble at Mather Fld we were about the last
crew of our sqdn to arrive on Guam. Some had already flown
their first mission when we arrived.
To
delay us more on our first mission our crew chief had
blown an engine stand into the tail surface of our plane
while checking the eingine.
While
waiting for our plane to be fixed I had a chance to look
up some old buddies in the 29th. Saw Mantak and Kuzdrahl
& had dinner with them and also learned another that
another buddy of ours from Mt. Home, Telio (sic) had been
missing in action from their squadron for a couple of
weeks.
Went
swimming at the beach that afternoon and ran into Mauk
(fellow Bomarbian from Mildland Texas)
Took
in a show at the Wing area that nite 11 April - 1800 Saw
Jackie Cooper, Dennis Day – Claude Thornhill etc in
person.
12 April ‘45
Airplane finally fixed we flew a 2 hr test flight and calibration
mission
19 April
‘45
Flew a practice mission on the Island of Rota about 30 miles
from Guam. There were a few Japs on this island and they
had some small arms fire. Our Group used the airfield on
this island practice bombing missions.
21
April ‘45
Our airplane “The Lancer” and crew #43 were
set for our first mission on the Empire of Japan. The 62nd
Sqdn took off about midnight to hit an airfield at Kushira.
This mission was lead by Capt. Paquette and crew with Bob
Morton lead Bombardier. Results looked very good. Lots of
flak and “The Lancer” got 13 flak holes in the
fuselage.
Flying time: 15 hrs. |
