Longest Non Stop Combat Mission of WWII
Here is a link to an article in the AirForce Magazine about the longest combat mission of WWII. Flown by my father Lt. Thomas A. Bell in his B-29 Double Trouble in June 1945.
I have seen his medal and the paperwork and even an article mom cut out of the Sacramento Bee before she knew it was dad that flew the mission. I have never seen any mention of it in any B-29 books though.
http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2010/April%202010/0410mission.aspx
It takes a while to load, be patient
Scott
I have a photograph I scanned after borrowing it from a (vet) neighbor - since passed. The linked article you provided mentioned toward the end that the last mission was over the Missouri at surrender. This is a photo of that event. I'm quite sure there were any number of aircraft in the skies at that time, but who knows...it could have been taken from "Double Trouble".
Since this reply section does not allow for the addition of pics (and I don't wish to take up "Headline" space to post it), I have put it in the "Groups" forum under "Aviation - Propeller Era".
That's really cool, thanks for posting it. Dad said that after the fly over they were released to do whatever they wanted, so he was buzzing the beaches at 50 feet. Some little Japanese man dove off his bike when he turned around and saw the B-29 coming towrds him. Dad had his crew WAX the airplane every month and they routinely had more fuel that the rest of the planes when they got back.