Mission No. 37 was flown the night of 1-2 April 1945.
The target was Number 357, the Musashino Aircraft Plant.
This target was bombed a dozen times beginning in November 1944
with minimal disruption to production.
( Comments by Lt Col Crocker Snow concerning this are in Page 3 )
Below this commentary is the 500th Bomb Group Mission Blackboard.
This was updated in real time by the
73rd Bomb Wing Mission Control Center.
Aircraft are listed in order of Takeoff ( TO).
At the right side column the status of Z Square 11 ( Z-11 ) is Missing.
This B-29 was flown by Lt Edward Law and was hit by flak
over the target.
Ten of the crew bailed out but Lt Law remained with the B-29.
Additional details can be found in the
Sgt
Ray Hopper
section
Below the Blackboard is a Google Map
showing the location of the crash site at Machida ( lower left corner
).
Following the map are two pages
with 500th Bomb Group Bombing Data.
This mission was flown at night and
the B-29s were in single file rather than formation.
Each B-29 released its bombs individually over the target.
The Time of Release is in 4th column from left
and the bombing altitude was from 6000- 6900 feet.
The length of the bomb run from Initial Point ( IP )
to the target was between 4-8 minutes.
