The B-29 that Fought without a Tail

After losing its tail, an Injured B-29 Superfortress bomber continues to battle on till the very end.
An incredible story of Gallantry and Chivalry

NOTE : The Footage and Thumbnail of this video is the best closest representation to what happened. It is not the actual footage.

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Background information on the B-29 Superfortress

Boeing submitted the proposal for the B-29 long-range heavy bomber to the Army in 1940, before the United States entered World War II.

One of the most technologically advanced airplanes of World War II, the B-29 had many new features, including guns that could be fired by remote control. Two crew areas, fore and aft, were pressurized and connected by a long tube over the bomb bays, allowing crew members to crawl between them. The tail gunner had a separate pressurized area that could only be entered or left at altitudes that did not require pressurization.

The B-29 was also the world’s heaviest production plane because of increases in range, bomb load and defensive requirements.

The B-29 used the high-speed Boeing 117 airfoil, and its larger Fowler flaps added to the wing area as they increased lift. Modifications led to the B-29D, upgraded to the B-50, and the RB-29 photoreconnaissance aircraft. The Soviet-built copy of the B-29 was called the Tupolev Tu-4.

The earliest B-29s were built before testing was finished, so the Army established modification centers where last-minute changes could be made without slowing expanding assembly lines.

Boeing built a total of 2,766 B-29s at plants in Wichita, Kan., (previously the Stearman Aircraft Co., merged with Boeing in 1934) and in Renton, Wash. The Bell Aircraft Co. built 668 of the giant bombers in Georgia, and the Glenn L. Martin Co. built 536 in Nebraska. Production ended in 1946.

B-29s were primarily used in the Pacific theater during World War II. As many as 1,000 Superfortresses at a time bombed Tokyo, destroying large parts of the city. Finally, on Aug. 6, 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later a second B-29, Bockscar, dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Shortly thereafter, Japan surrendered.

After the war, B-29s were adapted for several functions, including in-flight refueling, antisubmarine patrol, weather reconnaissance and rescue duty. The B-29 saw military service again in Korea between 1950 and 1953, battling new adversaries: jet fighters and electronic weapons. The last B-29 in squadron use retired from service in September 1960.

[paulx]

My father never talked about war, except for one event. He was the mechanic on an LCT (Landing Craft Tank) attacking Okinawa. A young Japanese Kamikaze pilot decided to put his plane down in the water, rather than attacking a ship and dying for the Emperor. My father's superior ordered him to shoot the pilot with his rifle. Dad refused, and instead picked the pilot up. I know he felt proud that he did not kill that man in the middle of all that fighting, but he did not later meet with him as in the above story (probably didn't have the pilot's name).

[jeffrobarge]

Almost as incredible as this story itself is that any of these men survived the war and were then later in life to meet in person. Thanks for telling this amazing story...

[texasted]

Two men who met on the battlefield, men who experienced great horrors!! in that moment found mutual respect, now many years later become friends! What an amazing story, thank you for this!!

[tracysturgill]

B-29 had 1 20mm tailgun on earlier models, that was removed on later ones, due to problems with it tracking properly. All the rest were M-2 .50 cal Browing machine guns. I volunteered at Boing Museum of Flight in Seattle and spent many hours working on "T-Square 54" (tail insignia). The best part was meeting veterans who served in WW II, and a real "Rosie the Riveter". A great plane, and even greater hero's. It was an honor !

[cassiecraft]

Some acts of kindness, and love are so deep I can’t find the words to say. I believe that it is even greater that they would fight each other in war, and decades later sit at the same table and eat in peace together. TOO COOL!!! Thank You Flak Alley!

[rstash]

I joined the Air Force in 1960. My first duty station was at Yokota AFB working as a mechanic on KB-50s air refuelers which were B-29s with added refueling drogues and two J-47 jet engines to try to keep up with the jet fighters. On my first day, my Sgt. told me to get in a jeep and go to a hangar somewhere on the huge airbase to fix an aircraft. I was lost. Eventually, after driving everywhere, I found the hangar and managed to figure out how to get in. I never worked on an actual aircraft before, just the engines. When I entered the hangar there was a B-29. It was a massive silver monster. It took my breath away. I had no idea how to get to the engines, but I knew what the job required. I figured out the cowlings, fixed the aircraft, then spent time in the cockpit and gun positions alone in that hangar. It was like the dreams I had as a kid during and after the war. An amazing experience. This plane had seen action in the Pacific. The B-29 was fragile and the engines failed often, but it held together until they were decommissioned in 1965, a year after I was also "decommissioned". A hell of an aircraft for its time and a hell of a memory for me.

[frankquevedo]

During the 2nd World War. Even with all its horrors the very few moments of gallantry, forgiveness, & kindness, far out shined!

[mrsamshouse]

The plane shown at 0.02 "P9" and 0.28 "P9" dropping bombs was my Uncle Lens plane. The name of the plane was "Confederate Soldier" on one side and "City of Youngstown" on the other named after his hometown. Uncle Len (Leonard P Round) was the right gunner. Flew 22 missions. R.I.P.

[RichardMikesell]

Thank you very much for posting this great story. My mother was a young teenager in Japan during WWII. She met my father, who was from Spanish Fork, Utah, while he was stationed in Kobe with the occupation forces. They married, returned to Twin Falls, Idaho and raised 3 beautiful girls and one boy. She and her husband, Jim, live in Eagle, Idaho.

I hope you won't mind me pasting a post that I wrote earlier on my Facebook page on the last anniversary of Japan's surrender:

Japan Surrenders, and My Mother, Keiko

I have studied WWII most of my adult life. I think I understand it pretty well. But, my mother lived it.

Keiko Naemura was born in Kobe, Japan and experienced the war as a 13, 14, 15 and 16 year old girl. She watched the B29s flying over her city, dropping incendiary bombs that ignited city-wide conflagrations. She witnessed the thousands of people who died, many from suffocation as walls of fire surrounded them and stole the very oxygen they desperately gasped for.

She remembers running from the city to her home in the nearby hills during bombing raids and recognizing friends lying dead in the street. She remembers seeing the black, body-shaped cinders after the fire bombings, and people on the beach being strafed by fighter planes. As a little girl, the beach had always been her favorite place; but now it was a very dangerous place to be.

She remembers starving and her older sister, Satoko, handing her a small ball of rice to eat, then both of them handing their rice balls to their 5 year old brother, Kenji, so he would not starve.

She remembers bombs landing only a few hundred feet from her home. A few years ago I had the opportunity to walk around their home in Kobe with my uncle Kenji. He suddenly stopped, pointed to different nearby spots, and said, “A bomb landed there... and there... and there.” Although damaged, their home remained intact.

She told me about the day she walked several miles to visit her aunt with plans to spend the night with her. She was shocked to discover that her aunt’s house had burned to the ground, and her aunt was nowhere in sight. She could only imagine that her aunt had been killed just as thousands of others had been. After walking back home, she was filled with relief to realize that somewhere she had unknowingly crossed paths with her aunt, who had walked back to her home in Kobe.

She remembers hearing the emperor’s radio broadcast telling the citizens of Japan that they must now surrender. She was angry. Despite all of their deprivation and loss, she was united with other Japanese citizens to fend off the American soldiers using kitchen knives and bamboo spears.

She remembers when the American forces were landing on the Japanese islands. She was terrified as she and other civilians had been told that the American soldiers were savages and would torture and massacre them all. She went with the other women and children who were told to hide in the nearby hills for safety.

Then she told me about when they heard that the Americans had landed and had brought many tons of food and were feeding them, medical supplies and were treating their wounded and sick, and helping them rebuild their destroyed homes. Of the American soldiers, she softly, almost reverently said, "They were so kind to us."

Growing up, we now and then asked our mom about her experiences during WWII. She has shared a few things, but would soon turn silent as her mind sank into dark and painful memories that she had tried to keep away for many years. She would then quickly change the subject and become irritable if we tried to press her beyond that point.

Keiko is almost 91 (2020). Her memories are still clear, and she is now opening up more and more about what she experienced during the war. She is a wonderful woman and a good mother, grandmother and great grandmother. We love her dearly and hope we have inherited some of the deep strength and commitment that she has always displayed.

[geigertec]

As a child I lived next door to George Caron who was a very nice old man I always enjoyed playing with. He died in 1995 when I was still too young to understand anything about war. I later learned he was the tail gunner on a very famous airplane called the Enola Gay and that his mission had dropped the Atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. I remember he once showed me a very old camera that he said he had taken a picture of 'the bomb' with. I didn't really understand becasue I was just 6 years old but later I learned it was the camera he used to take the picture of the Little Boy mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. As the tail gunner he had the only vantage point to take pictures. There were several cameras fixed to the Enola Gay but they all failed that day and the US government ended up using just the photo from the George's camera. The next day over a million copies of that photo were made and were airdropped over Japan as propaganda.

[ronaldharris]

Pure warriors each and every one of the rover boys Express crew.a salute and heartfelt thank you

[TheStrodude]

I met "Hap" Halloran at a VMF-214 squadron reunion in the early 1990s in SoCal. He was present because he was a POW with Greg Boyington (deceased at the time of this reunion) in Japan. He was a very nice man and it was an honor to spend time speaking with him.

[mikemars]

My dad was out in the Far East during WW2. He survived luckily and told some stories but never opened up much. It's really hard to imagine what things were really like. Most of those who fought are nearly all gone and our generation who heard their accounts first hand will soon be gone. I heard so many fascinating stories from those at home who were too young to fight but lived through it all. I can only imagine it to be like living in a movie. Maybe in just 30/40 years time we'll be gone too and as todays generation are so removed I think with our passing WW2 will be properly consigned to the history books.

[trevorcorkery]

I remember Hap Halloran well from my days at CF. He was retired but still had an office at the Menlo Park office in a corner near where my cube was. He was promoting his book "Hap's War" about his ordeal from his office and I'd see him out at the Redwood City Airport form time to time. I was in my early 20s but I'd sneak away from my desk and go and listen to him tell me stories. I told him about my grandfather as a ball-turret gunner on the B-17s in the 8th Airforce in Europe. He had nothing but great comments about the ball turret guys and their bravery. He was a good dude. It was cool getting to meet him at the very tail end of his career while mine was just starting. He died a few years later, but I always remember him.

[MrDavewane]

A truly moving story of heroism, respect and kindness.

[Willy]

I remember my Dad, who served in the Pacific during WW II, saying that when he died he knew that he didn't want to go to Hell, because he had already been there and didn't want to go back.

[FozzyZ]

Being a forces brat, I truly enjoy your stories and knowledge!!! You and
I are a breed that most people woulnt understand, so happy that you keep our heritage alive. 😁👍

[j.dunlop]

My uncle Elvin was a tail Gunner. His PTSD was pretty horrible, at times. It was the worse of all assignments, in WW2, suicide mission.

[winston]

"There is a beast... deep inside of you. It will not die, It will fight back!"
In all seriousness, tons of respect to all those who served, and went through pain nobody should witness.

[jamesjohnston]

What a great heart warming story. That these men would become great friends many years after the war goes to show what a truly class generation of men they were.