Tokyo (December 19, 1944)

We took off at 7:00 pm tonight to bomb Tokyo. We hit Tokyo at 2:00 am and started fires in the shape of a “T”. Their search lights caught us just for a little time: anyway, long enough to scare us half to death.

— Joe Caner Swann

The official records only show a mission to Nagoya as described below, though my father records a Tokyo mission in his journal (above) and Mr. Lind records it in his records (see mission list below).

This mission's objective was the Mitsubishi Aircraft Plant in Nagoya (Target #194). Eighty-nine aircraft participated. They bombed the target between 2:00 and 3:45 pm from altitudes between 28,000 and 32,000 feet. The target was 5/10 obscured by cloud cover.

Sixty-three aircraft bombed the primary target damaging or destroying some 921,670 square feet of area. An additional 2,500,000 square feet of residential area was destroyed with moderate damage to neighboring shipyards and other industries. Ten aircraft dropped bombs as a last resort or on targets of opportunity. The average bomb load was 5,000 lbs.

Antiaircraft fire was "meager" and somewhat inaccurate. Fighter opposition consisted of 188 unaggressive attacks.

Two aircraft did not return (reasons unknown). A third aircraft ditched at sea, and a fourth crashed on return to Saipan. The average fuel reserve was about 700 gal.

Additional Resources

  • Read the complete journal kept by the Star Duster's right gunner, Joe Caner Swann.
  • Resume of 20th Air Force Missions, (see book information on the books resources page).
  • Mission resumes are also available on the Twentieth Air Force Association web site. This site is built with frames. To view the mission resumes click the "Missions" link in the top menu on the site's home page. This is mission 13.

Mission List

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License