Evening star., 1945-01-08
MISSING
By VERN HAUGLAND,

HEADQUARTERS 21st BOMBER
COMMAND, Guam, Jan. 8 (Via
Navy Radio Super Fortress crews
who have been hammering Tokyo.
Nagoya and other Japanese cities
believe the Saipan-to-Japan sky
trail is the worlds No. / navigation
run involving the most difficult
bombing problems.
Two veterans of B-29 flights from
the Saipan base to Honshu, main
island of Japan on which Tokyo Is
situated, described their unprece-
dented problems in an interview.
They are Capt. Ernest BARLEY,
Lincoln, Nebr., who usually flies in
daylight raids, and 1t. Fillmore
Avdevich, Norwich, Conn, who has
participated In numerous one or
two plane night strikes.
The two have been assigned to
school work at Guam, teaching
newly arrived bombardiers and nav
igators new techniques Of excep-
tionally long-range overwater navi-
cation and extreme high-altitude
bombing.
Problems Outlined.
Each has a dual rating as navi-
gator and bombardier. Their ex-
periences offer contrasts in the Diff
f1culties of daylight visual and night
time instrument attacks.
Bombing Japan from Saipan in
wolves really only one particular
navigational problem, but the one is
tremendous-the determination Of
the wind" Capt. BARLEY said.
"On flight to Honshu the navi-
gator runs the show until the plane
reaches Japan, contending all the
way with problems Of high altitude
like no others in the world.
"At landfall (sight of land) the
bombardier takes over and he then
has the worlds most difficult prob
lem-how to hit the target more
than 5 miles below. often an invisi-
BILE target-traveling sometimes at
ground speeds of 500 or 800 miles an
hour. This speed Is almost i'm
possible for layman to compre-
hend.
THE navigator takes over again
on leaving Japan. The flight in
wolves all possible conditions Of
weather, altitude and winds. II a
man can navigate on this run he can
fly anywhere in the world"
Winds Are Terrific.
1t. Avdevich said on the first few
missions I'VE couldn't believe we
were actually bucking such high
winds.
''The winds were bad enough In
the daytime-155 to 100 knots-but
at night they reach velocities up to
230 knots, which is 265 miles an
hour.
"Our disbelief Of and inexperience
with these high winds was one of
the major factors in the unsatis-
factory results obtained in our first
few night missions"
From navagational standpoint,
the most difficult raid I've ever
been on was the second Tokyo mis-
sion last November n, Capt. BARLEY
said.
"A couple of hundred miles from
Japan we encountered a complete
mdercast and from then on for two
and one-half to three hours we
didn't see a thing. Yet in that
time we found our way in, bombed
Tokyo so accurately that the Japa-
nese radio complained bitterly, and
then made our way out to clear
weather again.
Often Get OF Course.
'Tf you can't even see waves to
read your drift-off, its just damn
difilcult to put a plane In. The fact
that we were able to do just that
is, marvellous and a real tribute to
science.
cts not unusual, however, for US
to hit Japan 10 or 80 miles OF
course, simply because Of the high
wind, with which few Of us are ex-
perienced, and from flying over
1,500 miles Of open sea-"
The Super Forts after taking OF
from their Marianas bases fiy Low
for couple OF hours then begin the
long fuel-consuming climb.
Just over 10000 feet there Is q
rapid increase in wind velocity. Capt.
BARLEY and 1t. Adevich said, and
another at $4,000 feet which ap-
proaches 90 knots
Near 10000 feet the old plane
begins to get mushy and wobbles
like fluttering duck" Capt. Bart
ley said. Temperatures outside
drop to about 30\ degrees below
zero. Fahrenheit, and those planes
that are rreSs11rfzAd hAvA tYhlIhlA