CFC Ring Gunner: 39558670Leon Vail Mecham Sgt CA 13-3-1945 B-29 #42-24754 V-SQ-30

SGT Leon Vail Mecham (1924-1945) - Find a Grave Memorial

39558670World War II Honoree (wwiimemorial.com)

B-29-45-BW (Boeing Wichita) Superfortress serial #42-24754, tail code V-Square-30, assigned to the 878th Bomber Squadron, 499th Bombardment Group (VH), 73rd Bomb Wing, XXI Bomber Command, 20th Air Force, stationed at Isely Field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands, Pacific Theatre of Operations.

MACR 13017

(XXI BC Mission 42) During the night of 13-14 March 1945, shortly after 2400 hours local, 274 of 301 XXI Bomber Command B-29 Superforts dispatched attack Osaka with incendiary bombs at altitudes between 5,000ft and 9,600ft. Because of 8/10 cloud cover over the target area, bombing is by RADAR. An area of 8.1 square miles in the heart of the city is burned-out. V-SQ-30 is one of two B-29 bombers lost.

NOTE: When General LeMay took command of XXI Bomber Command, he changed the tactics from high-altitude fragmentation bombing to low-altitude incendiary bombings. During the night of 9-10 March 1945, a total of 334 B-29 bombers took off for Operation MEETINGHOUSE to fire-bomb Tokyo. Fifteen square miles of the Tokyo urban area are burned out; an estimated 83,793 Japanese are killed and 40,918 wounded.

World War II Honoree (wwiimemorial.com)

Leon V Mecham