Mission #32 was flown the night of 16-17 March 1945.
Target : Kobe.
There is a cross over between the information in these pages
and that in the
Fitzgerald Crew
Z-8, Serial Number 42-24849, was flown by Major Robert J Fitzgerald.
The B-29s were not in formation and dropped their bombs individually
at an altitude of approximately 6,000 feet.
As such, there were no B-29s close by
to determine the location where Z-8 crashed.
The complete 73rd Bomb Wing Mission Report contains 175 pages.
Four pages from this Report are in Page 2
Bombing Data and Maps are in Page 3
My thanks to Jim Bowman for the time he spent scanning
these pages at the College Park, Maryland
National Archives
The B-29s in the 73rd Bomb Wing were identifed by one of four letters:
A SQUARE : 497TH BOMB GROUP
T SQUARE : 498TH BOMB GROUP
V SQUARE : 499TH BOMB GROUP
Z SQUARE : 500TH BOMB GROUP
Each Bomb Group had its own BLACKBOARD that was updated in
real time throughout the mission.
The blackboard for the 500th Bomb Group
is below.
At the bottom are two maps showing the location of
the crash site.
