499th Bomb Group (VH), 878th Bomb Squadron

AIRCRAFT COMMANDER

AIRCRAFT SERIAL NUMBER

HIBBARD

42-24674

Since this page went up 15 September 2020, additional information concerning the Hibbard Crew has become available.

This can be found at Sgt John W Meagher's page for the
Parrish - Hibbard Crew

POW MEDAL
no photo available

Back Row
John and Cloe Meagher ( Alice grandparents ), Mrs Henrietta Marek
Bottom Row
Mr Joseph Marek, Alice Edwards, Mrs Mildred Spacal

Sgt Otto John Marek grew up in Chicago and his parents' home was about five miles from
the Stevens Hotel where the Radio School was located.

There is not a lot of information about Sgt Marek online but you will find tributes to him
at the 499th Bomb Group Virtual Cemetery and Honor States.

Case History 111 concerns the Tokyo Military Prison Fire and will provide you
with considerably more information than is used here.

Based upon his list of stations in the below document from his
Individual Deceased Personnel File, he would have enlisted in
the US Army in September 1943.

He never was at Smoky Hills AAF at Salina Kansas and most likely
was not assigned to the 499th Bomb Group until his arrival
on Saipan at the beginning of January 1945.
Some of these details can be found in the Hibbard Crew section.

The B-29 that he was flying in was hit by a phosphorous bomb
dropped from above during the 7 April 1945 mission
to the Musashino Aircraft Plant.

Eight of the crew died in the crash while Sgt Marek and three other men
were able to parachute out of the B-29.
All four were captured and taken to Tokyo Kempei Tai Headquarters.
Two were transferred to the POW camp at Omori and two to the Tokyo Military Prison.

Details of the mission are in XXI Bomber Command Mission 58

His remains were recovered in February 1946 but he
was not formally identified until either March or April 1949.

The section Recovery and Identification has some details
of this process while his journey home can be found in Coming Home

The section Yokohama Trial T078 would not be possible
without the work of Michael Krehl.

He scanned original trial documents at the Maryland National Archives
and a small portion of the ~2000 pages are used
in this tribute to Sgt Otto John Marek.

One of his photos is below Sgt Marek's Station List

My thanks go out to:

Jim Bowman : XXI Bomber Command Mission # 58 Report
Roy Wall: Individual Deceased Personnel File and Morning Reports
Michael Krehl : Yokohama Trial Documents and Photos
Scott Muselin

POW Research Network Japan

STATION LIST

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PHOTO OF ONE OF THE GRAVES WITHIN THE TOKYO MILITARY PRISON

source: Michael Krehl
original source: National Archives Maryland

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