Sgt William Henry Osborne was flying with the Lt Kenneth Dustin Crew
when their B-29 was lost on 2 April 1945.
Sgt Osborne was not an original member of the crew and there are
no records available to me to learn when he did join the Dustin Crew.
Their mission during the night of 1-2 April 1945 was
Target 357, the Musashino Aircraft Plant, in Tokyo.
Nine men were on this mission and 8 of them died in the crash.
The sole survivor was Sgt Osborne.
There is not one single statement within his Individual Deceased
Personnel File ( IDPF )
stating the precise cause of his death.
You will encounter the term " Died of Wounds " in some of
these pages.
The full and complete details of his execution are in the section
titled Yokohama Trials.
He was badly burned and was intentionally injected with potassium
cyanide on 18 April 1945.
Sgt William Henry Osborne was born on 17 December 1913 in Newton,
Massachusetts,
and it seems that he spent much of his life there.
Below is a page from the Massachusetts Birth Index 1911-1915 and
his name is the last of the Osbornes.
He graduated from Newton High School in 1933 and his enlistment record
from December 1942 states occupation as Firefighter.
Sometime between his enlistment and 1943 he married his wife Florence.
His list of stations is primarily based on dental records.
He was at the following locations:
January 1943 Devens Massachusetts
February 1943 Scott Field
September 1943 Boca Raton AAF, Florida
June 1944 Boca Raton AAF
17 July 1944 Pratt AAF, Kansas
19 July 1944 Smoky Hills AAF, Kansas
His training was for Radar Operator.
The 499th Bomb Group shipped out of
Smoky Hills AAF ( SHAAF ), Salina, Kansas, in October 1944.
Sgt Osborne was not listed with any of the crews of the Flight Echelon.
These are the men who flew their B-29 from Kansas to Saipan.
The Lt Kenneth Dustin crew departed SHAAF with the Air Echelon.
They travelled by rail from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Hamilton Field,
Novato, California.
Their journey continued to by C-54 to Saipan via Oahu, Johnston Island,
and Kwajalein.
Sgt Osborne was also in the Air Echelon but it appears that he was
not with a particular crew.
Both the Lt Dustin crew and Sgt Osborne departed SHAAF on 13 October
1944.
The Dustin Crew arrived on Saipan 31 October 1944 and Sgt Osborne
on 1 November 1944.
There is a significant lack of information concerning details of Sgt
Osborne while on Saipan.
The Dustin Crew page
has a few details and dates concerning his crew .
Sgt Osborne's name does not appear until 2 April 1945 in the Missing
Air Crew Report.
I have no information concerning when he joined the Dustin crew nor
when he flew his missions.
Below the Index to Births you will find one page from
the 1933 Newtonian, the Newton High School Yearbook.
This is follwed by his Registration Card and Enlistment Record.
Thanks to:
Roy Wall
Jim Bowman
Al Schutte
Scott Muselin
POW Research Network Japan
National Archives St Louis, Missouri, and College Park, Maryland
Phillips University Marburg
