My father was BAR rifleman with the 1st Marine Division during the invasion of Okinawa. Once the island and the airfield was secured, he told me of the day that he saw the first B-29 land there. He said he just stood there in awe at that sheer size of that airplane. He had never seen anything like it before in his life.
Through the years, he often express gratitude for the B-29 as he and his fellow marines knew that gearing up for the invasion of Japan was not far off. The B-29s dropping the nukes spared thousands of our servicemen’s lives, probably including my father’s at the time. He would often talk about that day he saw the first one right up until a few days before he passed away. The plane left a life-long impression on that man.
Thanks for the story about your father in WW2 admiring the B-29s.
My father was in charge of production of the brake assemblies for the B-29’s landing gear in a family owned machine shop in NJ.
In 1943-44, this was critical war work, to get the B-29s in production ASAP.
In 1945, there was nothing as modern as a B-29 SuperFortress.
A sight to behold.