James Oglethorpe
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- Joined: 04/10/2007
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New 6BG 1945 Book "Field of Spears"
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05/24/2007 02:50:50 AM
Greetings all, A new book has just been released featuring a 6th BG crew, which is highly recommendable. Below is an expanded version of a review I have posted on Amazon: In his book, "Field of Spears" (http://www.paulowniapress.co.uk/books/Field_of_Spears.html), Prof. Greg Hadley has thoroughly researched the story of one particular B-29 crew, "the Jordan crew", of the 6th BG, whose lives were irretrievably changed when they were shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Japan on the night of 19/20 July 1945. The story of these men runs as a single thread through the complex tapestry of the USAAF bombing campaign against Japan. The experiences of these individuals are set against an informative historical treatment of the campaign itself and the lives of the people it affected. While focussing on the one crew, "Field of Spears" also manages to portray the broader experience of living in those remarkable times, both for those who flew, and those on the ground below.
After setting the historical scene, the book describes how the Jordan crew, hailing from typically diverse backgrounds, were welded together into a fighting unit. They flew their first combat mission from the island of Tinian in early February 1945. Subsequently they participated in the campaign of high-level B-29 precision raids against industrial targets. These raids were frequently made very difficult by strong winds and obscured targets, and desperate attacks from Japanese day-fighters. In May 1945, the Jordan crew helped enact General LeMay's dramatic change of tactics to low-level fire raids on urban areas by night. They watched from above as each of the major Japanese cities blazed, one after another.
As the Jordan crew's battle-experience increased, the reader gains a worrying impression of the toll that this relentless campaigning imposed on their individual performances and cohesion as a crew. The dangers of flying the Air Force's most technically ambitious aircraft (and probably the world's most expensive industrial product up to that time) in the hostile skies above Japan, are brought home very well.
The Jordan crew were finally shot down during a mission to lay mines in the waters off the Japanese west coast. (This was part of the extensive USAAF coastal mining campaign, which made an enormous but largely unheralded contribution to crippling the Japanese war economy. The book has many interesting details about this campaign.)
The loss of their B-29 probably hinged on one seemingly trivial decision made as they climbed away from their minelaying run that night. After deviating from the official mission flight plan (possibly to steer a faster "direct" route towards home), they were hit over the city of Niigata by a crack Japanese anti-aircraft unit, recently transferred there from Tokyo after that city had been virtually destroyed. The Jordan crew were the only B-29 crew to be shot down over Niigata during the war, as the city was never subjected to any large-scale bombing raids. - Ironically, Niigata had been "quarantined" to remain in a pristine condition as one of the US's potential A-bomb targets! However, the A-Bombs were dropped elsewhere, and Niigata became one of the few large Japanese cities to survive the war without being razed. Greg Hadley has done an amazing job of investigating the capture of the Jordan crew. In particular, his persistent detective work has uncovered the true story behind the murder of two of the parachuted crew-members by Japanese local-defence militias (the "Field of Spears" of the book's title). These crimes were covered-up at the end of the war, when the local villagers hurriedly constructed an impressive grave for the "crash victims". The US grave-recovery team never had reason to believe that there had been an atrocity. (Tragically, it also appears that at least one of the Jordan crew decided to go down with their ship, rather then bale out and take their chances as prisoners of the Japanese.) The amazing photographic coverage of events on the ground is one of the strengths of the book. One poignant time-lapse photo really brings home the tragedy of war. It shows the blazing bomber descending rapidly across the night sky while Japanese children wearing "anti-fire" hoods look on in fascination. Hadley has even located photos of the actual capture of the surviving crewmembers. Other startling photos illustrate the high degree of regimentation and propaganda-incitement of the civilians; very reminiscent of modern-day North Korea. These civilian militias were waiting on the ground in a state of fear and anger as the "parachutists" drifted down from above. (Paradoxically, some of the Jordan crew had their lives saved through the intervention of regular Imperial Japanese Army soldiers calming down the frenzied civilians.)
Thereafter, once transferred into the hands of the feared Japanese military police, the men suffered continuously harsh treatment - intended as retribution for the enormous damage which was being inflicted by the B-29s all over Japan. The captured bomber crews were classified by the vengeful Japanese essentially as war criminals. They received even worse treatment than the pitiful conditions applying to other POWs of the Japanese Empire at that time. The reader can only be appalled at their plight, as described many years later by the still-affected surviving crewmembers. The atomic "secret" provides another fascinating aspect of this book. The crewmen had been clearly briefed that, in the event of capture, they should not attempt to "hold back" information from the Japanese. - It was well understood that silence could easily prove fatal. Under these circumstances, the USAAF probably considered that alarming the enemy with true tales of overwhelming American technical superiority was the best course. However, the Jordan crew knew something special. They had been based on Tinian and their B-29 had been kept right beside the bays for the 509th Composite Group - the Atomic bombers! The men in the Jordan crew had heard members of this elite unit talking about "winning the war with one plane"... As Hadley explains, the Japanese were keen for information on the atomic threat... It is unlikely that the Jordan crew could have "honestly" related any more than a few general details about the Bomb to their interrogators, but Hadley brings the story to a climax by presenting several intriguing facts about Japanese fore-knowledge of these epochal weapons. Then suddenly, the war was over, and the B-29s began dropping POW relief supplies instead of bombs. The eventual liberation of the POWs ended the nightmare of their captivity, but it is clear that nothing could make the memories go away in the decades that followed.
However, Hadley's thorough exposition of the tale does offer later generations the chance to understand the fierce emotions, stresses and terrors of those times, and to gain a new appreciation of those who survived. Review by James Oglethorpe 3 Squadron RAAF Association
Sydney Australia
<message edited by James Oglethorpe on 05/24/2007 03:23:39 AM >
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