Stephen Harding - Last to Die

LAST TO DIE

Copyright 2015 by Stephen Harding

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Da Capo Press, 44 Farnsworth Street, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02210.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Harding, Stephen, 1952

Last to die: a defeated empire, a forgotten mission, and the last American killed in World War II / Stephen Harding.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-306-82339-8 (e-book : alk. paper) 1. Marchione, Anthony James, 19251945. 2. United States. Army Air Forces. Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, 20thBiography. 3. United States. Army Air ForcesAerial gunnersBiography. 4. World War, 19391945Aerial operations, American. 5. World War, 19391945Reconnaissance operations, American. 6. World War, 19391945CampaignsJapanTokyo. 7. Pottstown (Pa.)Biography. I. Title.

D790.264.H373 2015

940.54'252135dc23

2015003486

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As always, for Mari, with love

CONTENTS

Maps by Steve Walkowiak

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

Leonardo da Vinci

JUST BEFORE SEVEN OCLOCK on the morning of August 18, 1945, a huge, four-engined aircraft moved slowly onto the end of a 7,000-foot-long runway at Yontan airfield on the southwestern coast of the island of Okinawa. Though the machines long, cylindrical fuselage, tall tail, and high, narrow wings gave her a certain elegance of line, on the ground she was ponderous. Loaded with fuel and men, she rocked heavily on squat tricycle landing gear as she turned her nose into the wind, then shuddered to a halt as her crew made the last preparations for takeoff.

The aircraft, a B-32 Dominator heavy bomber of the U.S. Army Air Forces 386th Bombardment Squadron, was one of four scheduled to depart that morning on what everyone in the unit hoped would be a routine photo-reconnaissance mission over Tokyo. At that point in World War II routine should have been a givenJapan had accepted the Allies terms for unconditional surrender four days earlier and President Harry S. Truman had ordered the suspension of all offensive operations against Japan on August 15. Yet four B-32s flying a photo-recon mission over Tokyo two days later had been attacked and damaged by Japanese fighters whose pilots had apparently not heard of the ceasefire ordered by Japans Emperor Hirohito or, more ominously, had chosen to ignore it. At the early morning briefing for the August 18 mission the Dominator crewmen had been told to assume theyd be flying into what might still be very hostile territory.

With final checks completed, the pilot of the lead B-32twenty-four-year-old First Lieutenant James L. Kleinreleased the aircrafts brakes and smoothly advanced the throttles. The low growl of four idling Wright R-3350 radial engines quickly swelled to a gut-rumbling howl, and the Dominatorthe racy nose art painted on the sides of her forward fuselage identified her as Hobo Queen IIrapidly picked up speed as she surged down the runway. When the bomber hit 130 mph abreast of the 4,500-foot marker Klein gently lifted the nose; the aircraft was instantly transformed from a lumbering, earth-bound behemoth into something far more graceful. Her gear coming up and flaps retracting, Hobo Queen II roared over the coral pit at the end of the airstrip and began a climbing 180-degree turn.

With the runway clear, the pilot of the second Dominator, twenty-seven-year-old First Lieutenant John R. Anderson, moved his bomber from the taxiway into takeoff position. The aircraft shook as Anderson did a last engine run-up and the acrid smell of burning high-octane aviation gasoline wafted through the fuselage. Seconds later, her huge paddle-bladed propellers clawing the already-humid air, the B-32 began the sprint down Yontans runway.

As Andersons Dominator picked up speed, four young men sat huddled on a low, cot-like settee fixed to the port side of the fuselage in the bombers rear cabin. Two of the men were gunners; once the Dominator was airborne theyd take their places, one in the tail turret and the other in the rearmost of the B-32s two top turrets. The other two mentwenty-nine-year-old Staff Sergeant Joseph Lacharite and twenty-year-old Sergeant Anthony Marchionewere not members of the bombers crew. They were assigned to the Yontan-based 20th Reconnaissance Squadron, Lacherite as an aerial photographer and Marchione as a gunner/photographers assistant. At their feet rested a heavy canvas bag containing the K-22 camera they would use to record the images that were the ultimate purpose of the days mission.

That mission was to photograph several Japanese military airfields sited to the east and northeast of the sprawling Tokyo metropolitan area. The reason was twofold: first, to verify that Japanese aircraft were being kept on the ground in compliance with the ceasefire terms; and second, to determine whether the fields were in good enough condition to handle the heavily laden Allied transports that would help bring in the first occupation troops. On paper the mission seemed straightforward: the four B-32s were to cross the assigned recon area at 20,000 feet and two miles apart, following parallel flight lines that ran directly east and west. When they finished mowing the lawn, they would begin the return leg to Okinawa. The 1,900-mile round triproughly equivalent to a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle and backwould take eight to ten hours if all went well.

As soon as his B-32 was airborne and in her own climbing turn, Anderson headed toward Kleins Dominator, clearly visible ahead, the already bright morning sun glinting off the lead bombers un-camouflaged aluminum skin. The two other aircraft soon joined up, and in loose echelon formation the four B-32s began a gradual climb toward their cruising altitude and pointed their noses toward Tokyo.