Kamikaze pilots from the Japanese Special Attack Units were developed to counter U.S. Navy, including destroying kamikaze airfields. Some missions the crew completed supported the U.S. Seventeen square miles was burned right out of the middle of Tokyo.” “The fire was so intense you could see it for mile after mile. “The first raid on Tokyo was something you never want to see again,” recalled Hayes. In the end, firebombing left a fifth of Tokyo destroyed. Hayes said he could see the light from the fires for hundreds of miles. The crew’s mission to Tokyo was the first mission executed at the low altitude of 6,000-7,000 feet. Low-altitude night fire raids entailed firebombing major cities in Japan. “Our 35 missions consisted of 14 precision daylight, 11 low-altitude night fire raids and 10 night mining missions in Japanese and Korean waters,” said Hayes. He was the bombardier on a B-29 with an 11-person crew including aircraft commander/pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, navigator, gunners, an engineer, and radio and radar specialists. Hayes was assigned to the 20th Air Force, Army Air Corps, 504th Bombardment Group in the 421st Bombardment Squadron.
The B-29 was a heavy bomber used by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. The photo was in possession of Ralph Richard Hayes, former 20th Air Force, Army Air Corps, 421st Bombardment Squadron bombardier, who served during World War II in Japan. Several B-29 Superfortresses fly over Nagoya, Japan, during World War II. His squadron left on Christmas Eve of 1944 to Hawaii, then Saipan, an island in the Northern Mariana Islands and south of Japan. Traveling from two schools in Texas, one in Florida and one in Nebraska, then 1st Lt Hayes taught other aviators as a bombardier instructor and received additional training in radar school before leaving to employ his skills in combat.
“My brother was already there, and we decided I might as well enlist because we were going to get drafted anyway. “The war started and I hitchhiked from California to Albuquerque,” said Hayes. Army Air Forces following the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1941, 21-year-old Ralph Richard Hayes joined the U.S. His history changed the world’s history and he was the last one in his crew who could share the story. But in this man there lived a story, one of his service during World War II as a bombardier in Japan. Organs failing, the World War II veteran spent the rest of his days in hospice surrounded by his family.
Current photos of the man feature an individual who is much older time had changed his face and had taken its toll on his health. Several B-29 Superfortresses fly near Mount Fuji in Japan during World War II. Black and white photos portray a strong, smiling young man preparing for war, a beautiful snow-covered Mount Fuji with B-29 Superfortresses flying by and aerial photos exhibiting the remains of war-torn Hiroshima.