Richard Phillip Lawless - Nightstalkers: The Wright Project and the 868th Bomb Squadron in World War II

Published in the United States of America and Great Britain in 2023 by

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Copyright 2023 Richard Phillip Lawless

Hardback Edition: ISBN 978-1-63624-205-7

Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-63624-206-4

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Front cover: 868th Squadron B-24J Lady June II leads strike against Batavia, Dutch East Indies by Shigeo Koike whose work can be found at http://www.shigeokoike.com.

A few minutes after 2200 on the night of 7 August 1945, an all-black U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) B-24 Liberator bomber brought its four engines to maximum power, released its brakes and rumbled down the runway of Yontan Airfield on the recently captured island of Okinawa. The aircraft that broke its bonds with earth and lifted into the night sky was a very special airplane with a special crew undertaking a unique mission. Aboard were 11 young Americans under the command of Lieutenant Edward Mills Jr., and Lady Luck II was headed north toward Korea, then part of the Empire of Japan, to search for and confront Japanese forces. The United States and its allies had been at war with Japan since December 1941 and although this struggle was nearing its end, that end was still in doubt, and the fight still had to be taken to the enemy.

The day before, on 6 August, another U.S. warplane, the Enola Gay, had made a similar journey to Japan from Tinian Island and dropped an atomic weapon on the city of Hiroshima. The President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, had decided to do so to hasten the surrender of Japan, hoping to avoid the invasion of those Home Islands, an invasion that portended the deaths of hundreds of thousands on both sides.

Yet as the B-24 began its hunt that dark night, the Mills crew had no illusions that the end of the war might be at hand. Rather they, like all others similarly committed to seeing the conflict through to its end, assumed the war in the Pacific would last months longer, if not a year or more. All assumed that the final struggle would involve multiple invasions of the Japanese Home Islands and witness intense fighting like that so recently experienced in the capture of Okinawa. Forever unknown to the crew of this plane, the Japanese decision to surrender was only eight days away. But Lieutenant Mills and his crew would have their rendezvous with destiny that very night. And with that rendezvous, a multi-decade journey into the history of two nationsthe United States of America and the Republic of Koreawould begin.

As the Mills crew reached its assigned search and attack area off the southern coast of Japanese-occupied Korea, their focus was on their missionhunting and sinking Japanese shipping moving between Japan and Korea. A second special B-24 from the same unitthe 868th Bomb Squadron of the Thirteenth Air Forceflew a similar mission profile that night, also alone on its stealthy search for enemy shipping. A bit past one in the morning, the Millss aircraft radar identified targets off the island of Namhae, near a major Japanese base at Ysu, and locked on to a ship to press home its attack. The enemy harbor came alive with searchlights and anti-aircraft guns that reached out to find and destroy the intruder as Mills banked and descended to attack altitude. His radar operator and bombardier armed the bombs tucked into the planes belly and turned the delivery of those weapons over to their on-board computer. Bomb bay doors opened and prepared to deliver a lethal spread of ordnance on the enemy shipping below.

This was the 868ths first mission to this part of the Japanese empire and the fiftieth mission for this well-worn 868th Snooper bomber; its veteran crew had only seconds to live. The Mills crew simply disappeared, at least to the men of the 868th Squadron who were waiting for their return to base on Okinawa.

The squadron B-24 which flew a similar mission profile that evening, captained by Ed Millss close friend Lieutenant Bob Ellingson, had radioed the Mills crew to wish his squadron mates good hunting and best luck just after midnight. An hour later, in the early morning, Ellingson waited at the pre-arranged meeting spot over the Sea of Japan, circling as long as his fuel allowed. He then turned back toward Okinawa to recover at Yontan Airfield at first light. In the war against Japan, the 868th had lost its last plane and crew in combat. The squadron would head home within weeks as the war ended, and America demobilized much of its military in its rush to embrace peace. The men of the 868th would not learn the fate of the 11 men of the Mills crew for 30 long years. But that same night, others would know their fate and embrace that crew to build their own history around them.