I was cruising the Critical Past YouTube channel recently because it is chock full of amazing footage from the last 100 years of American history, particularly WWII. The video I found that really stuck with me is below. The film shows the crew of a B-29 bomber going over their badly shot up and damaged airplane after returning from a bombing mission over Japan. When you see how torn up this aircraft is and then think that these boys were able to wrestle the wounded giant home under the most stressful of conditions, it is no wonder that those men who came home all craved speed and excitement. When the engine was shot out, the wing was damaged, and anti-aircraft projectiles ripped through the fuselage of the plane, these guys were living on pure adrenaline and perhaps building a hot rod and speeding across the salt flats or dry lakes helped them recapture that feeling on a far more controlled basis.
This plane literally caught hell and still managed to stay together long enough to get its crew home safely. We have no idea if any of the crewman were injured of killed on the mission but the fact that the plane got back means that they all had a fighting chance. The B-29 is certainly a plane that will live forever in the lore of American military aviation and for good reason. This video is further proof of their toughness.
Here’s how the description of the video reads on YouTube –
B-29 bombers of the United States Army Air Force at Isley Field base in Saipan, Mariana Islands, during World War II. Crew members examining a B-29 bomber after its return from a bombing mission over Nagoya in Japan. Crew members climb scaffolds to reach to the engine. The damaged engine of the bomber. Crew members examine damage caused to one of the wings. A man looks at a hole made by bullet strike in the fuselage of the plane. Location: Saipan Northern Mariana Islands. Date: January 14, 1945.
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My uncle, a WW2, Korean, and 2-tour Vietnam veteran, said the B-29 was his favorite aircraft of all the one’s he flew. We helped arrange for him to fly “FiFi” some years ago. In WW2, he was originally supposed to fly the P-61 Black Widow, but got bumped to B-25’s, then B-29’s in Korea, and B-47’s and B-52’s in SAC, but in Vietnam he flew C-123 Providers and Carabou’s. He has thousands upon thousands of hours in ’52’s, and has the highest number of combat flight missions on Air Force record at 697 combat flight missions! William I McCowen. There’s some YouTube videos of him in recent years