B-29 bomber, number Z-28 Hog Wild on August 29, 1945. Part II Flight Analysis
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator from original post.
General situation in the war with Japan and in Korea by August 29, 1945
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| The Soviet Union's war with Japan and the Korean operation. The cities of Heungnam and Pyongyang were occupied on August 24, 1945. Troops followed the landing party along the coast without not going much further inland. |
From the morning of August 9, feverish government meetings began in Tokyo. At 11:30 a.m. the atomic bombing of Nagasaki was reported. Early in the morning of August 10, the Japanese Foreign Ministry sent telegrams to the Allies agreeing to surrender, but asking them to retain the status of emperor. On August 11, a radiogram was sent to Japanese troops ordering them to surrender. The last mass attack on Japan with B-29 bombers took place on August 14, 1945 - totally 828 bombers were flown (almost all the then available B-29s). Japan, through Emperor Hirohito, announced its surrender on August 15, 1945. On August 15, 1945 there was a relative lull in the sky over Japan, and on August 28 the delivery of supplies to prisoner-of-war camps began. On September 2, 1945, Japan signed the Act of Surrender.
On August 11, Soviet troops entered Korea from the Chinese side and advanced very quickly, while the day before, on August 10, the Americans had decided to create an occupation zone in Korea from the south to the 38th parallel. That is, the task was to prevent Soviet troops from advancing too far into Korea.
From August 16 to 30, 1945, Stalin and Harry Truman were in correspondence about the postwar partition of Japan. In addition to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island. Sakhalin, Stalin, in a letter of August 16, 1945, demanded part of Hokkaido Island. It was a modest request of Stalin, given that originally negotiated a much larger chunk of Japan proper for the USSR. Apparently Stalin acted on the basis of the principle: demand more to get what you want: the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. They managed to reach an agreement with Truman by August 30, 1945: the Kuril Islands and the whole of Sakhalin Island were transferred to the Soviet Union.
Synopsis. Stalin negotiated with Roosevelt and Churchill at Yalta. After the sudden and incomprehensible death of President Roosevelt, the United States had a new president since April 12, 1945. Harry Truman became the new president. Given the changed circumstances and the fact that Harry Truman had an anti-USSR attitude, Stalin's knight's move
on Hokkaido was justified and in the interest of the USSR.
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| The island of Hokkaido faces both the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan. Next to it are the Russian islands of Kunashir and Shikotan and the Habomai group of islands. |
Preparing for the surrender of Japan
"August 29, 1945.
Reporting:
1. On 29.8.45 single Liberator planes and two C-47s with American crews landed at Mukden (north) airfield. There were 59 Americans in these planes. Interrogation of the crews established that one arrived ostensibly to transfer prisoners of war, the others - to visit [the] chief of the Mukden garrison.
2. At 18.30 on 29.8.45, five Flying Fortress planes in the area of the Mukden airfield and the factory airfield, having dropped cargo on parachutes, left without making a landing. The cargo they picked up included: cigarettes, cookies, chocolate, boots, etc. The crews addressed to the chief of the Mukden garrison with the planes were detained. I ask for your instructions."
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| ...landed single Liberator aircraft and two C-47s. |
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator (Consolidated, name of manufacturer) was a heavy four-engine bomber. Douglas C-47 Skytrain (Douglas, name of manufacturer) was the largest twin-engine bomber of those years.
It turns out that two high-ranking generals, Wainwright (USA) and Percival (England), were sitting in the prisoner-of-war camp at Mukden; there were many other Allied generals and even a vice-marshal. They both surrendered to the Japanese. Together with Wainwright, MacArthur himself was nearly taken prisoner by the Japanese in May 1942, but he was taken out on a torpedo boat. They flew in for them. Then the two of them attended the Japanese surrender ceremony on August 02, 1945.
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| On the left, General Douglas MacArthur; on the right, Lieutenant General Derevyanko K.N., both signing the surrender of Japan on the battleship "Missouri" on August 02, 1945. |
Synopsis. During Derevyanko's signing of the Japanese surrender act, Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland of MacArthur Headquarters emerged from behind his honorary escort to watch Derevyanko sign the document. He did this only twice during the surrender ceremony: with Derevyanko and during the signing by the Japanese. All the hoopla from MacArthur HQ about landing the Z-28 was done by the hands of Richard C. Sutherland. It didn't get much further than the Japanese surrender. Immediately after the surrender, September 4, 1945, a request signed by Sutherland (page 197) was sent through the Military Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to Alexei Innokentyevich Antonov, Chief of General Staff of the USSR.
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| Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland (November 27, 1893 – June 25, 1966) |
Tasks of B-29 bombers to drop cargo on Japanese prisoner-of-war camps (POW camps).
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| Boeing B-29, 1:300 model. |
Japanese prisoner-of-war camps were numerous and located throughout the area of Japan's acquired territories and in Japan itself.
General data on deliveries to prisoner of war camps. Source.
Cargoes for the POW camps were delivered by B-29 bombers from August 28 to September 14, 1945. Most of the cargo was dropped on August 28-29 - the 500th BG alone covered 24 POW camps. See the cargoes dropped by the 500th BG.
A total of five Bomber Wings participated in cargo deliveries: the 58th, 73rd, 313rd, 314th, and 315th. There were 1,066 sorties, with an average cargo weight of about five tons (for the 73rd BW). As for the 73rd BW, which included the 500th BG, it accounted for 52.4% of all cargo delivered. See source.
Not all sorties were successful - out of 1,066 sorties 166 were unsuccessful (did not drop cargo) and 8 aircraft were lost.
Tasks of the 500th BG to drop cargo on prisoner of war camps in Korea.
In Korea, Japanese POW camps were located in Inchon, Seoul (Keidze), and Hamhung. Hamhung is the second largest city in North Korea.
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| Map of POW camps in Korea in 1945 with names. Note that the city of Hamheung is located almost on the 40th parallel, while the division of Korea occurred on the 38th parallel. |
- On the map Chosen Branch NO1 - Hamhun, Hq Chosen Camp - Seoul and Chosen NO1 - Incheon.
- On the map Chosen Branch NO1 - Hamhun, Hq Chosen Camp - Seoul and Chosen NO1 - Incheon.
In the document "The 500th BG Day by Day - Part 3 - Victory," the following camp designations are given in Korea: Chosen #1 Branch Camp - Hamhung, Hq Chosen - Seoul, and Chosen #1 - Inchon. By "Chosen" is meant "Korea." According to the map (see photo below), Chosen #1 Branch Camp is a prison camp in Hamhung. There were 354 prisoners of war held there. To be precise, the POW camp was located between the towns of Hamhung and the port city of Hungnom (Jp. Kanko and Konan) and was also called Konan New Divisional Camp on maps.
By the way, the name of the alphabet in North Korea is Chosŏn'gŭl, which is very similar to Chosen.
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| Konan prisoner-of-war camp in Korea in 1945 between the towns of Hamhung (Jap. Kanko) and Hungnom (Jap. Konan). |
August 24, 1945. Kanko (now Hamhung) and Heijo (now Pyongyang) were liberated by Soviet troops.
On August 28th, 1945, the 500th BG dispatched 30 planes which were supposed to transport goods to prisoner-of-war camps; only one of them was to go to Korea which was occupied by the Soviet forces. In other words - it was supposed to be the first flight to Camp Konan, but it was aborted.
Why was the first flight to Hamhung
aborted on August 28, 1945?
The clue can be found in the document "Report on Russian Occupation of North Korea, KANKO and KONAN camps 1945-09-28", (See Dwight Rider's).
This is the report of an Australian, Sergeant Leonard E. Barsdell, who was on a tour of that area as a war correspondent from September 15 to 22. He writes: "Beginning on August 29, when the Russians knocked the Japanese out of the prisoner-of-war camp at Konan..." In other words, the POW camp may not have been completely free of the Japanese on August 28, although officially the Russians occupied nearby Kanko as early as August 24. By the way, he makes the analysis of the state of people's minds and writes that locals dream about running away to the American occupation zone. And he writes about Koreans and Japanese. That is, there were many Japanese civilians left there.
August 29, 1945. Sixteen planes were sent from the 500th BG and nine of them to Korea, but only one to Camp Konan near Hamhung. A Z-28 Hog Wild was assigned to this flight. According to American researcher Dwight R. Ryder, there were two other planes of the 500th Bombardment Group over Konan that day that flew before the Z-28. They didn't. On that day, the flight schedule of the 500th BG for Korea was as follows: three B-29s(Z-56,Z-14 and Z-32) flew to Hq Chosen Camp - Seoul, five B-29s(Z-33,Z-6,Z-48,Z-3 and Z-7) flew to Chosen Camp #1 - Inchon and one B-29(Z-28) flew to Chosen #1 Branch Camp - Hamhung (aka Camp Konan). The question arises: were there any other planes, except Z-28, on that day, August 29th 1945 over Hamhung, which was occupied by Soviet troops?
Were there any other planes besides the Z-28 on that day, August 29, 1945, over Hamhung, occupied by the Soviets?
Once again, note that the Z-28 flight of August 29, 1945 was assigned to replace the Z-11 flight of August 28. And flight Z-11 was only one flight to Hamhung out of 30 assigned that day. Since the Z-11 flight was aborted, the Z-28 flew to Hamhung instead. That is, one plane was replaced by one.
We read: "Normally one plane was to carry supplies sufficient for 200 men every three, seven or ten days"[after the first time]. There were 354 men in the POW camp at Hamhung, but an estimated 156 men were thought to be there. Therefore, one plane for the first time should have been sufficient. Two planes were dispatched on September 09, 1945 - when the number of POWs in the camp was clarified.
Consider the report of the Headquarters of the Pacific Fleet, Document No. 225.
Report from the Chief of Staff of the Pacific Fleet [Vice Admiral Alexander Sergeevich Frolov] to Chief of Staff of the General Command of Soviet Forces in the Far East [Colonel General Semyon Pavlovich Ivanov] "On the circumstances of the landing of an American bomber at the Kanko airfield".
"31 August 1945 21.45* I report the circumstances of the landing on 30.8 s. American B-29 aircraft landed by fighters of the 14th [Fighter] air regiment 12th Assault Aviation Division
at Kanko airfield.
[With] the appearance [in the] area of the airfield without notification of the B-29 aircraft our fighters were raised. The fighters took all warning measures, our planes attached themselves to it and led it to the airfield with the landing gear out.
The B-29 made a circle and tried to leave. Repeated bursts of fire were fired at the nose of the plane, the B-29 continued to move away, then Lieutenant Feofanov opened fire on the engine and lit it up. The crew of B-29 consisted of [13] people, 6 jumped out with parachutes and landed on the water, 5 of them were picked up unharmed, the 6th is being searched for. The rest of the crew landed [with] the plane unharmed.
[According to] the B-29 commander's report, the aircraft had the task of dropping food and uniforms for the American prisoner-of-war camp freed by the Red] Army [near] Konan town; these drops were made repeatedly; no notification was made by the Americans. On the eve of this incident the Japanese massacred Koreans [in] the Konan area. According to] the city mayor, several Japanese suicide diversionary groups were disbanded (before surrender) in the hills [with the task] of continuing their subversive activities.
[Under] these conditions, the appearance of the B-29, dropping something [into] the hills, without warning and identification marks, was certainly unclear, and the identity of the aircraft aroused the suspicion of the 12th Assault Aviation Division commander Bartashov.
The commander of the B-29 showed during the interrogation that he saw and understood all the signals, but did not land, because he thought that he would not be shot down by a small number of fighters and that the landing site seemed small to him, and he had no complaints about the actions of our pilots.
The Americans surrendered to the commandant of the city of Konan.
The Americans still do not know that the airfield is occupied by our units. The cargo dropped by the Americans on 29[28] and 30[29] [August] was not received by the prisoners, it was dropped inaccurately, picked up by the Japanese and Koreans, [from the landed plane the cargo was handed over to its destination, of which they received a receipt."
Here the date of the event, the Hog Wild landing, is shifted one day forward to August 30. Therefore, the entry "August 29th and 30th" in the message should be shifted one day backward: "The Americans dropped cargo on August 28th and 29th...".
The phrase: "...these drops were made more than once," is obviously taken from the words of the B-29 crew commander and refers to the date of August 28. However, crew chief Queen is lying, the Z-11 flight of August 28th was aborted and the U.S. Air Force did not drop any supplies for POW camps before August 28th.
The expression (with the correct dates) : "No prisoners received the cargo dropped by the Americans on 28 and 29 [August]," translated from bureaucratic language into Russian, means that Vice-Admiral Frolov A.S. is not responsible for anything that falls from the sky. In other words, there were no cargoes from the sky.
The diary notes of the 500th Bomb Group show that Quinn's crew, living in a POW camp (354 people), was having trouble with food by September 7. How is this possible when the B-29s were "dropped repeatedly"; given another five tons of cargo from their plane and help from the Soviets? In response to Queen's crew complaining about the lack of food, they were sent two aircrafts(Z-21 and Z-11 by Dwight R. Ryder, see below)
with food on September 9, 1945. Notice September 9 is exactly 10 days after August 29. All as ordered: to drop cargoes on the POW camps every 3, 7 and 10 days [after the first time]. So the first time the cargo was dropped on the 29th and no cargo was dropped after 3 and 7 days (otherwise Queen's crew would not have gone hungry). Therefore, the cargo from Hog Wild, the Z-28 from August 29th, and the cargo from the two planes from September 9th are all the cargoes that the POW camp at Kanko received during the entire time Queen's crew was in the POW camp from August 29th to September 14th.
From all this we conclude that the plane Z-28 Hog Wild, flew on that day August 29, 1945 completely alone.
What the "repeated drops" of cargo from the American side looked like.
Here's what Terry Rainey, the son of an ordinary hero, writes in his short essay "Ordinary Hero: The World War II United States Army Air Forces Story of Lieutenant Robert S. Rainey", the son of an ordinary hero, Terry R. Rainey, the same Rainey who was on the Z-28 on that memorable flight (an interesting coincidence - the day before was August 28th and the Z-28 plane).
1. About the benefits of dropping supplies (the americans did the math):
"[Dwight] Rider went on to report “fully 1 of every 2 initial delivery (sic) of supplies killed at least one POW and most often at least two civilians outside the camp.” It is estimated 30-50% of the humanitarian supplies were not able to be used by their intended recipients due to
parachutes that malfunctioned (U.S. Army Historical Division, 1978)."
2. Memories.
"In a letter dated August 31, 1945, which was printed in The Herald newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, Konan Camp POW Richard Heatherill writes, “‘Two days ago B29’s found us and literally bombed us with supplies – food, clothing and luxuries (soap, razors, etc.) We are clean now for the first time in 31/2 years.’” He went on to say, “‘A very pretty sight to see colored silk parachutes coming from a plane – and containing food, too’” (p. ??)."
British POW Ken Marshall recalls that same humanitarian hit on the hospital on August 29th and added in his July, 21, 1994 letter to Dad “...I remember one (Korean) observing that the Yanks had thoughtfully dropped a crate of aspirins in case anybody had a headache as a result of the thing coming through the roof.”
Marshall (personal communication, July 21, 1994) also relates another mishap in which “a pair of forty-four gallon oil drums welded together and containing apricot jam had demolished a Korean house.” When he and others arrived on the scene, “Incredibly, not one of the family had been hurt but we found them all sitting in the debris and each one covered from head to foot in apricot jam.”
What is valuable in these memoirs is how the airdrops of relief supplies look like and what it leads to. As for the date of August 29, 1945 and the city of Kanko, they are listed together only once and are cited from a newspaper article, which is not reliable(see page not specified). The second incident of August 29 refers to a hospital and does not say where it was(on August 29, nine B-29 flew to Korea with supplies to prisoners of war).
Dwight R. Rider - Hog Wild Flight Researcher
Consider Dwight R. Rider's extensive 370-page study of July 27, 2012, "Hog Wild-one B-29 over Korea and the conspiracy that never was". He then released a book in 2013
"Hog Wild-1945: The True Story of How the Soviets Stole and Reverse-Engineered the American B-29 Bomber" by Dwight R. Rider 2013. You can buy it now on Amazon for $10.
Dwight R. Ryder writes on page 293: "The Soviets knew from the leaflet drop of 26 August that bombers delivering supplies would be in the area on the 29th of August." Which planes dropped the leaflets does not write and does not cite documents. The U.S. Air Force began airdropping aid to POWs from B-29s on August 28. There is something Dwight Rider is not telling us here.
On page 291, Rider provides an interesting map, "Probable Routes... of Z-33, Z-6 and Hog Wild into and out of the area of Konan, 29 August 1945...." "Probable" means that Dwight Rider cannot access the exact flight data for these planes and is speculating on how they might have flown.
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| Map of the alleged flight of the Z-28 bomber (solid line) on August 29, 1945. The dotted line shows the flights of two other planes, which actually flew the other way on that day. But their lines show how the Z-28 flight was supposed to behave. |
What is valuable to us here is that there is nothing in the U.S. archives about the August 29, 1945 delivery to the POW camp in Hamhung. So where did Dwight Ryder get those two extra planes from?
Conclusion: Apart from the Z-28, no other aircraft of the 500th BG or any other bomber group flew into Hamhung on August 29, 1945.
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| Flying B-29, Z-6. One of the five who flew POW supplies to Inchon instead of Hamhung on August 29, 1945. |
Notable explanations for why the Z-28 landed in Hamhung
Nuclear research of the Japanese.
There were reports that the Japanese tested a nuclear bomb near Heungnam on August 12, 1945. David Snell, a member of the 24th Investigative Division who worked in Korea, wrote about this. However, he refers to an unknown Japanese officer. All of this is an unproven fabrication, most likely needed by the Americans to justify their nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Capture of the B-29 aircraft for copying.
As for the fact that the Soviet military wanted to seize the B-29 in order to copy it. By the time all this happened, the Soviets already had three wrecked B-29s in their possession. Why was it necessary to get another broken B-29? Unless you wanted to see a newer B-29. In addition, the USSR and the USA were allies by that time and as a result the Soviet army got only a carcass of Z-28, B-29. The Americans removed the rest of the equipment and took away on a transport plane. True, the Soviet specialists got the technical documentation from the Boeing B-29 Z-28, which is also quite a lot. Else the K-20 camera was also copied by Soviet engineers. And we even know for sure, that it came to the Soviet specialists from Boeing B-29, Z-28.
One could recognize the excellent work of the Soviet special services, which operated on Saipan and planned in advance to intercept the B-29 and Z-28. But the picture is not complete.
About photo and radio intelligence.
Here is what Rainey Jr writes:"The Center for Cryptologic History (n.d.) maintains that “intercept operators often ‘hitchhiked’ on (B-29s) performing other missions” (para. 8)..." And on the Z-28 bomber there were just three extraneous passengers. Further he writes:"the three observers aboard the Hog Wild were only curious aircraft specialists not intelligence operatives."
Rainey here contradicts himself. The one who unexpectedly volunteered to "just fly" is Lieutenant Lucius Weeks. The two passengers are most likely two intelligence officers: Squadron flight engineer Captain Robert Campbell and Squadron engineering officer Senior Lieutenant John Grant.
Robert Campbell later photographed the atomic explosion at Bikini Atoll in the summer of 1946.
Let's look again at the map in Dwight R. Ryder's work - it shows how flight Z-28 Hog Wild (dotted lines of flights Z-33 and Z-6) was supposed to fly and how it circled suspiciously to the left of Hamhung and Hungnam towns.
Recall also that the six men landed in the water with the suspicious passenger Captain Robert Campbell, who later made a career in photo-intelligence. Why would only six of them have to land when the other seven landed with the plane? Something similar to the work of US intelligence agencies is clearly visible from the American side.
Confusion with the airdrop or what tasks General MacArthur solved
The Soviet troops entered Hamhung on August 24. First they parachuted, so they occupied the airfield in Hamhung right away. By August 29 they had completely liberated Hamhung and Hungnam.
The Americans on that day, August 29, 1945, as we know, sent 9 planes with aid for the prisoner of war camps.
Then events developed as follows.
0. On the morning of August 29, Soviet fighters landed an American Boeing B-29 at their airfield in Hamhung.
1. On the evening of August 29, five American B-29 planes dropped aid to prisoners of war in Mukden. At the same time, as if by the way, but on the orders of General MacArthur, two planes flew to Mukden to pick up Generals Wainwright (USA) and Percival (England) from the "naive" Soviet officers. MacArthur needed them, the generals, to wipe the nose of the Japanese at the ceremony of signing the act of surrender. General MacArthur himself miraculously escaped capture by the Japanese and really wanted to show his power to the Japanese.
These five planes with cargo for about 1000 people on a combat mission initially flew to Inchon, where there were only 156 people - for one plane with a cargo of aid to prisoners of war.
However, somehow mysteriously, right in the air, they changed their target and flew to drop cargo on Mukden, where 1200 people were languishing at the time of liberation. A very correct and timely decision by General MacArthur!
2. It was estimated that there were 354 people in the camp in Inchon (barely enough for two planes), but in reality there were 156 people there - for one plane. It can be assumed that two of the three planes that were flying to Seoul arrived in Inchon. And here some confusion with the camp in Hamhung is striking.
It was estimated that there were 156 people in the camp in Hamhung - for one relief plane, but in reality there were 354 people - for two planes. One scheduled plane arrived, which was intercepted.
3. It turns out that only one plane flew to Seoul! But there were only 170 prisoners of war there! And this was the American occupation zone.
What we see: in the deliberately created confusion, only one B-29 Hog Wild flew to the camp near Hamhung in the Soviet occupation zone! And this plane was the only plane that day that flew strictly according to the original combat mission and no confusion touched it. In addition, having arrived at its destination, our Hog Wild did not fly to drop cargo over a prisoner of war camp, but circled and circled over the military airfield in Kanko, where Soviet fighters were based. Circling until it was landed at that very airfield!
From all that has been said, it follows that the confusion that day, with such a harmless activity as dropping cargo over prisoner of war camps, was in General MacArthur's hands, to cover his ass: first he created the supposed confusion, then with a wise hand fixed everything, and at the same time resolved his own affairs: he took two generals. The fact that at the same time some plane was left unattended and was intercepted by Soviet fighters - how can you keep track of everything?
Conclusion on the reasons for the landing of Z-28 in Hamhung on August 29, 1945
Thus, there can be only one conclusion - we are dealing with a commercial transaction: General MacArthur paid the Soviet Union with the B-29 Hog Wild to take Generals Wainwright and Percival from the prisoner of war camp in Mukden. As the immortal classics say: "Money in the morning - chairs in the evening!"
The intercepted plane, almost intact, and most importantly, complete technical documentation for it, allowed the Soviet Union to subsequently copy and produce it.
Used materials:
The 500th Bomb Group Day By Day – Part 3 - Victory
"Сверхкрепость" в Советском Союзе ("Superfortress" in the Soviet Union);
Records of Lieutenant Robert S. Rainey's son - Z-28 crew member;
Basis for the book "Hog Wild-1945: The True Story of How the Soviets Stole and Reverse-Engineered the American B-29 Bomber by Dwight R. Rider 2013" , 370 pgs, - the book can be bought on Amazon;
JAPANESE MYSTERY OF THE KURIL ISLANDS, about atomic weapons;
Actions of American strategic bombers against Japan;
The last flight of the "Wild Beast", 09/16/2013 22:37, good article;
Russian archive: Great Patriotic. T. 18(7-2). Soviet-Japanese war of 1945. Documents 220-223, 225
General data on the delivery of goods to POW camps;
Cargoes for POW camps dropped by the 500th BG;
Konan New Divisional Camp;
"Report on Russian Occupation of Northern Korea, KANKO and KONAN camps 1945-09-28 1945-09-28";
Kruglov Mikhail Mikhailovich .
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