The First Mission from Saipan in newly identified historic film "Waddy's Wagon" - 10 Oct. 1944

Thought you all might like this.


[video=youtube;OxwnorwqKgQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxwnorwqKgQ[/video]

 

You can't imagine the feelings that were going thro those guy's, I just cannot praise them enough...you all gave it your best, that's what you did, we can only say, goodbye..R.I.P.

 

Great film.

A side note, DAUNTLESS DOTTY, which taxied by at about the 2:45 mark was piloted on this 28 October mission by Robert Morgan - of MEMPHIS BELLE fame - who was now the squadron commander of the 869th Squadron. DAUNTLESS DOTTY was the lead ship of the first B-29 raid over Tokyo on 24 November 44, again with Morgan piloting and BG "Rosie" O'Donnell as mission commander.

 

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery2/v/wwii1017.jpg.html

Other photos Here, here and here. Videos of A Square 5, "Waddy's Wagon"
here{/url].

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery2/v/wwii1017.jpg.html

Other photos Here, here and here. Videos of A Square 5, "Waddy's Wagon"
here{/url].

For those who don't know, Walter "Waddy" Young, the commander of Waddy's Wagon, was an All-American football player for the Oklahoma Sooners and played in the 1938 Orange Bowl. He went on to play in the NFL for the Brooklyn Dodgers before joining the Army Air Corp in 1941. In 1939, he played in the very first televised NFL game, against the Philadelphia Eagles, October 22, 1939. The Dodgers won the game 23-14. Young flew a full tour over Europe in B-24's before volunteering for B-29's.

My great-uncle was S/Sgt Lawrence Lee, the CFC gunner. In the caricature, he's the one at the top, scanning with his eyes shaded with his hand, looking as if saluting. In the first photo of this thread, he's the one without a shirt leaning on the front of the turret at the top of the plane. He had been a high school English teacher on the Crow Indian Reservation in Lame Deer Montana, where he also coached basketball. He was originally from Max North Dakota, where his mother lived until her death at 98-ish, in the late 1970's.

The 869th Bomb Squadron of the 497th Bomb Wing of the 20th Air Force was the "All-Star" squadron, as it was commanded by Robert K. Morgan, of "Memphis Belle" fame. I just looked through my copy of the voluminous correspondence that my mother had regarding Waddy's Wagon, and I was really impressed with a note that Lt. Col. Morgan wrote to the widow of Paul Garrison, the navigator of Waddy's Wagon; on January 18th, 1945. Nine days after they disappeared, Morgan wrote a letter to the families of the crews. I have a copy of his letter to Nancy Garrison. Morgan informed her that he "...took two ships and began the search as soon as we could get ready. We searched for 20 hours without any results." He expressed hopes that they would still be found, and that the navy was also looking. Although he clearly gets Waddy's Wagon and Miss Behavin' mixed up in the narrative of how this happened, he clearly took the time to send letters to all members of both crews. I'm pretty sure he was just a little busy at that point of the war, being unit commander. Robert K. Morgan was a hero through and through, and could have stayed home after his first tour of duty over Europe in B-17's. After his war bonds tour, he was given the choice of any job he wanted in the Army Air Corp. He could have chosen to be a celebrity with a safe desk job, but chose combat over Japan instead. That is what Young did too. I don't know the history of the rest of the aircrews of the 869th, but most early B-29 crews had done the same. Morgan got to hand-pick his squadon, and chose the best of the best.

The 869th led the very first 20th Air Force mission over Japan from the Marianas, and Morgan's "Dauntless Dotty" was the lead plane. On the return, Waddy Young and his crew dumped everything of weight aboard just to fly lighter and faster, in order to be the first plane back from this raid. As expected, the first plane back was the focus of media attention, as Waddy's Wagon got back quite a bit ahead of Morgan. There's "rumor" (in quotes to protect the innocent!) that Morgan was roaming the flight line with a .45 in hand looking for Young. Those we've been in contact with tend to discount this, but admit he probably wasn't very happy. Morgan was a publicity hound, and so was Young. One can't tell too much from the record, but it appears as though this was more than just a friendly rivalry between the two. I'm guessing they both had just a little bit of an ego?

Waddy's Wagon went down on 1/9/45 after bombing Target 957, the Nakajima engine factory at Musashino, near Tokyo. Co-Pilot Jack Vetters did not fly that day. He had been shot in the foot during a Japanese strafing run on Saipan just a bit earlier. He recovered and went on to command the Misti Christi, finishing his tour of duty and returning home. He died just a few years ago. Clinton Fay, the crew chief; is still alive as of 2011, to the best of my knowledge.

Waddy's Wagon and the 869th was flying in formation over Tokyo on when they came under attack from kamikaze fighters intending to ram. The plane to their immediate right, Lt Crowell's "Miss Behavin'", was rammed and had it's number 3 engine ripped off. The two Japanese Tony fighters were flown with the 244th Sentai, 2nd Lt Mitsuyki Tange, who died, and was clipped by 2nd Lt. Shoichi Takayama, who survived. (provided via email to my mother by Henry Sakaida of Temple City CA in September 2000).

If you read the WWII Time Life Volume, "Bombers over Japan"; you will find a photo, taken from the ground on 1/9/45, of the ramming of "Miss Behavin". You will see the number 3 engine plummeting to the ground in one direction, Mitsuyuki Tange's Tony going in another direction, and the B-29's continuing on. The squadron headed back to Saipan, but at one point, it was clear that Miss Behavin wasn't going to make it. This was before Okinawa and Iwo Jima had been captured, so they had no emergency bases to land on. Young's radio operator, George Avon, sent notice to the rest of the formation that they were going to ride shepherd over Crowell's Miss Behavin' as it ditched, to radio in the position for possible rescue. This was frequently done to assist the picketed subs and destroyers that were stationed every 10-20 miles apart along the flight path help find downed crews. It's a lot easier to see a B-29 flying in a huge circle than to spot heads floating in the water. Some reports indicate that Young's radio operator sent out "we are ok", and then shortly thereafter, that Young was ditching too.

Jack Vetters told my mother he had sat in the mission room and listened to the radio transmissions that day, having been left behind due to the foot injury. He said he never heard "we are ok", but he did hear the garbled transmissions, including indications that Young was also going to ditch, just after Young's radio operator, George Avon, indicated they were going to ride shepherd over the other plane and circle above it after it had ditched.

The word of the loss of this crew hit my great grandfather very hard. My great grandparents burned all of Lawrence's possessions when they received the footlocker, and they feared he had been captured by the Japanese. All that was ever told was that they were MIA after a mission over Japan. They undoubtedly received the same letter from Morgan that Garrison's widow did, and it gives one the impression that they ditched close to the Japanese coastline. My grandmother, Lawrence's sister, never really was very interested in the whole thing; I think it just hurt too much. Her birthday is the same day they went down, January 9th. Lawrence was one of (I think) 14 kids, and none of those who survived to adulthood (12, I think) really ever wanted to know; largely because of the memories of fear during the war that he'd been captured and tortured. The viciousness of the Japanese was no joke.

Even into the late 70's, nobody in our family knew what had happened; my great-grandfather was long gone and my great-grandmother was in her late 90's and didn't want to discuss it. It wasn't until the early 80's that my mother began writing the AF Historians and began piecing together what had happened; and was put in touch with Jack Vetters. We had never received the posthumously awarded air medal and purple heart, and my mother was given those by the Air Force. Given that my great-grandfather burned everything, we're glad they hadn't sent the medals. My mother now has them framed in a case along with copies of the missing aircrew reports, and a photo of Lawrence in his uniform. All of his brothers and sisters are gone now. His last surviving brother died about a year ago; Martin Lee was a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge and did not talk about the war. My mother tracked Jack down years ago and became friends with him. We now are in contact with his son, Steve Vetters. Several other crew member's families have gotten in touch over the years also. Most of them never knew what happened to the plane and crew either.

These raids were just as frightening for the Japanese civilians too. 15 years ago, I was engaged to a Japanese woman from Chiba, a suburb of Tokyo. Her father was a young boy during the war, and he said he remembered the bombing raids and being terrified. He remembered the incredible devastation of the firebombing raids a few months later, and the starvation due to the submarine campaign. He said that as a boy, he remembered how shiny the planes seemed during the daylight raids, but how afraid his parents were due to the incredible inaccuracy of the bombing due to the jet stream blowing bombs far off target.

There are two missing aircrew reports. I've held them both in my hands, but it's been many years, and I'm going strictly off memory here. One indicated that there was no radio transmission, but that the rear crew door was found in the water the next day and a couple bodies were found with it. The other indicates that there were garbled radio transmissions after both planes descended into the clouds, after Avon indicated they were going to follow the other crew down, but that no bodies or aircraft parts were found. Jack told my mother, in a letter that I've read, that he flew in a B-17 Dumbo search plane the next day, and that no plane parts were ever found, and no bodies were recovered. He would have known, as this was his crew; they bunked together. Jack indicated that he always suspected that the two planes collided in the clouds while descending.

I haven't researched this fully, but I know that B-29 gunnery crews were trained at the Lowry Army Air Corp Base in Denver Colorado. I happen to live within walking distance of the former base, which is now a housing development. The old hangars are still there and house Wings Over The Rockies" air museum, which is a GREAT museum. Some of the housing units are still standing, and I'll take photos someday and post them.

At one point, we had obtained color photos of the plane taken while parked in it's hardstand on Saipan, sometime in December 1945. I do not know where my copies are. They came from someone related to other crew members. I would have to ask my mother to recall and see if she has copies anywhere. Seeing the plane in color is really surreal, after having had it in b&w all my life, in history books everywhere. This plane is also featured in the Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian. I don't know for certain if Jack or Clint have ever seen that, but I think they have. I know my parents met Clint at the 497th reunion in Virginia a few years ago and I'd be surprised if Clint didn't go then.

If you really think about it, this is probably one of the most highly documented crews, and incident of the air war during WWII. Think about all the missions where people just disappeared, and to find all this video, photos, and the documents afterwards is really astounding.

There is a recently posted video on youtube of this crew. The guy who made the video, Mark Maloy, sent this link to my mother.

http://www.pratttown.com/2011/01/first-mis...ct-28-1944.html

To see it on youtube, click here. It's available in 720 HD

http://www.youtube.com/v/OxwnorwqKgQ?fs=1&hl=en_US

It was taken in October 1944 on their first "milk run" bombing mission. It was taken from inside Waddy's Wagon. My great-uncle Lawrence Lee, the CFC gunner, is featured in several shots in this video.

The video features music from "The Pacific". Hugh Ambrose wrote that book, and worked with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks to create the HBO video series, "The Pacific". Hugh and I went to grad school in History together at the University of Montana, where we were the only ones studying American Foreign Policy in our Master's program. Before this video was posted, I had just emailed Hugh on Friday to get autographed copies of the book for my parents and family.

I once had a chance to tour FIFI in the early 90's when it was in Billings Montana, where I was teaching High School. I went up late in the day and was walking around taking photos when the pilot drove up and offered me a private tour after hearing my great uncle's story. I'm 6'4" 215, and this is a spacious plane, but still is tight quarters. I've been in B-17's, B-24's, and sat in the cockpits of a P-51, P-47, PT-17, F4U, F6F, and P-80, DeHavilland Comet, and several others before. However, it's still a really small space for someone my size. I sat in the CFC's barber stool, and could not fit at all. I couldn't even think about getting into the tail gunner's position. My great uncle was a foot shorter than I am, as Lawrence's side of the family is all Norwegian "midgets". Every time I see a WWII Aircrew uniform, I'm struck by how small these guys were.

I'd like to thank Steve Birdsall, as I know he actually reads some of these forums on WWII, and on B-29's. He was one of the first people my mother contacted all those years ago. Steve's B-29 book is excellent, and I read it many many times as a kid. I checked out his book at the local library because my elementary school library in rural NE Montana had a very limited selection and I'd read all 3 of the WWII airplane books over and over by the end of 3rd grade. Mom had always wondered about the hushed references to her uncle, and I had gotten the James Jones book "WWII-Evolution of a Soldier" from my grandmother; who didn't know a photo of her brother's plane was in that book. That is easily the best book I have ever read on WWII.

 

wonderful, thanks for sharing. That really gives a person a true idea of just how long a "run up" those big buggers needed to take off with a full load. Usually in a film of them taking off, the thing is edited down so you don't get the sense of how much time it takes to get that much weight off the ground with piston engines and no RATO or JATO help.

Thanks again.

 

Great film to watch, thanks for posting!

its the theme song to HBO's "The Pacific"

 

Thanks for this follow up on the video I made. I'm anxious to talk to you mjmikelson. Some quick back ground. I have been researching my Uncle Bob Maloy who was a bombardier on A Square 9 "Sky Scrapper" (there were 3 of them ) from the 869th. I found this video in 4 sections on "Critical Past" last summer not realizing what it was. It was labeled only as being shot at Saipan on Oct. 28, 1944 and was a mission to sub pens at Truk. It wasn't until Christmas that I looked at it again and realized what it really was! I'm still in the learning process and wish I'd known about these forums earlier. Bear with me folks, I'm trying to catch up! Anyway, you can buy the lousy low res stuff I used here or the HD but that's nearly $500.00. Critical Past, as best I can surmise, digitizes these videos that are in The National Archives. These 4 films were labeled incompletely...or... were labeled right for the time but not recognized for the significance of Walter Young and this being the first combat mission from Saipan. I have had the most incredible experinces from all the simple Window Movie Maker stuff I have posted. I made those videos for Bob's wife and kids in New York State and my siblings also back east. I'm in San Francisco. My other videos are on YouTube under MrInfoguy. The name comes from being a library manager for a big architecture firm and I'm called that sometimes. I'm hoping to buy the high res version of this film. In what I have on my home computer it appears that the left gunner in one shot is playing a trumpet...seriously! You can see a horn he's blowing. Was he calling a charge?
Thanks for the nice words. I'm remaking this soon. There are a couple errors to correct and I want to include all the names like Lawrence Lee in this! Mark Maloy

 

Hi Mark, you sent the link to my mom! At least that's what her email said--from the Pratt field group? Anyway, use my id here and add gmail to it. I don't post it here because there are scanbots that just scan pages on the net to scour email addresses and I don't want tons of spam.

Michael

ps--you could pull in more with the Atheyfamily stuff too. If you want some free video editing software, use Ubuntu Linux, specifically the Ubuntu Studio edition. You can install it inside your windows pc. It's another operating system, and is good. If you need help, let me know--but it's good stuff, and wholly free.

 

Have her forward you my e mail address.
You know this already, but she's an amazing lady. In our quick e mails I knew I'd found someone who could really be a help and her abilities are very obvious. The details you all have offered and the incredible years of attention shown to Lawrence's story being really known inspires me. My beloved Uncle didn't talk about any of his experinces in any detail. I've been flying blind for 8 months, but families like your's are leading me to get it right. Check out "The Pilot and the Bombardier" on my YouTube site. That was done a couple months in to this wild ride that started with me photoshopping an old blurry photo of my Uncles plane last Memorial Day and discovering its name was "Sky Scrapper III" Why III? I found out!
Mark

 

InfoGuy,

Thanks so much for the film. My cousin John Ellis ( or Frank Jr as we knew him) was the major reason I joined and spent 20 years in the AF. As about his last living relative I inherited all his letters and such from the war. The movie adds to and brings him more to life for me.. BTW the crew was featured in Nat Geographic in April of 45 IIRC.

Thanks again,


Michael Keith, MSgt USAF (Ret)