The Last Mission: Proof Positive
180 Fighters Join In Pounding; Fleet Still Hovering Off Shore
By the Associated Press. GUAM, Aug. 15 (Wednesday)
More than 500 Super Fort and 180 fighter planes smashed heavily in dreaded fire
demolition and strafing attacks against Japanese war industries yesterday and early today.
About 6,000 tons of bombs were dropped on six military targets in the last 24
hours, Strategic Air Force headquarters announced. This made that period one of the
busiest days in the history of the 20th Air Force.
The B-29s hurled their might against the enemy hard on the heels of devastating
attacks by carrier aircraft of Admiral William P. Halsey's 3d Fleet and attached British
warships, still hovering off the Japanese coast.
Not Far From Palace
More than 725 B-29s from the Marianas and 186 fighters based on Iwo Jima
participated in the Super Fort smash.
Targets for the assault included war industries at Isezaki and Kumagaya, only an
hour's automobile ride from the Emperor's palace, and an oil refinery at Akita.
Kumagaya was one of the cities on the Super Fort's death list.
Other targets were the Marifu railroad yards on the Tokyo main line, the giant
Osaka army arsenal and the naval arsenal at Tokuyama.
Fighters strafed transport and communications in Nagoya.
Longest Nonstop Mission
Flying the longest nonstop mission from the Marianas on record more, than 150
B-29s bombed Akita refinery on Northern Honshu in the darkness early today.
A couple of hours earlier an even larger Super Fort fleet set fire to Isezaki 55
miles northwest of Tokyo, and Kumagaya, 43 miles north of the capital city.
None of these three targets had been hit previously.
The nighttime assaults were a round-the-clock extension of the attacks which
opened against the Marifu railway yards on Southern Honshu shortly after noon Tuesday.
During Tuesday afternoon the Hikari and Osaka arsenals were bombed.
The night and day raids constituted the first maximum effort of the 20th Air Force
since August 1, when 824 Super Forts carried out the biggest assault on record.
No Stops at Iwo
Bombing the refinery near Akita was the longest mission ever undertaken from
Guam without a stop-over at Iwo for fuel. Today's attacks were by Guam-based Super
Forts.
The 315th Wing, noted for its achievement in night precision bombing, hit Akita
with more than 140 planes from an altitude upward of 10,000 feet.
The refinery area, 2,000 square feet, adjoins one of Japan's largest oil fields and
even has some wells on its grounds. The refinery handles 37 percent of that area's oil
output and is the No. 1 remaining oil target in 14 missions against petroleum centers.
Fire Rage in Aircraft Cities
Fire bombs dropped by the 314th wing set flames raging ln Isezaki, population
40,000, and Kumagaya, a city of 50,000. The Nakajima aircraft industry has taken over
both cities for the manufacture of aircraft parts which feed into six larger factories.
The Tuesday-Wednesdav raids were under way when the Tokyo radio broadcast
that the Japanese would accept the Potsdam Declaration.
The Japanese also knew that the world's mightiest naval force the United States
3d Fleet with a British carrier task force-- was idling close off the home shores after
pressing home air strikes on the Tokyo area Monday.
The enemy had attempted to reach the fleet with a belated air attack, Admiral
Chester W. Nimitz reported, but 21 of the attacking planes were shot down and none got
near the ships.
Meanwhile the American and. British carrier airmen knocked out 117 parked
Japanese planes and struck ground installations a stout blow, despite bad, rainy weather
on Monday.
On Sunday night, American cruisers and destroyers shelled Japan's Kurile Island.
So far as has been disclosed, the fleet was not in action anywhere yesterday.
Spaatz's Planes Out Again
After a four-day layoff while the Japanese were making surrender overtures, Gen.
Carl A. Spaatz sent his strategic Air Forces out on heavy onslaughts which his
headquarters said began at noon and still were under way four hours later.
At 3:58 p.m. (Guam time), the Navy radio here flashed a pickup of the Domei
agency's Tokyo broad- cast saying Japan's acceptance of the Potsdam ultimatum was
forthcoming.
By that time Strategic Air Force headquarters already had disclosed that at least
430 Super Fortresses from the Marianas and 176 fighter planes from Iwo had participated
in attacks on Southern Honshu. Wing after wing of Super Fortresses were described as
making a maximum effort.
So eager were the airmen to get in their last few licks at the Japanese that the total
number of planes participating kept increasing right up to takeoff times as repairs on
more and more planes were rushed to completion.
Yesterday's attacks began with a strike against the Marifu railway yards on
Honshu shortly after noon. These yards are only 14 miles southwest of Hiroshima, which
was 60 percent destroyed by the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan.
Railway Shops Blasted
As the reports came trickling in, these targets were added to the list: Railway
shops near Iwakuna just south of Hiroshima; shipping off Kure naval base; the great
Hikari naval arsenal near Tokuyama and the Osaka army arsenal, Japan's largest. In
addition, harbor mining continued.
The bombing at altitudes from 15,000 to 20,000 feet in clear weather was
described as having considerable effect by pilots who made preliminary reports by radio
while still over the targets.
No fighter opposition had been reported, and antiaircraft fire was meager.
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