This is the other half of the story told by Asa Edwards about our mission on Yokohama, 29 May 1945. I'll start from the time we reached the target.

Leo turned the plane over to the bombardier for the bomb run. We were hit by flak seconds after we heard "Bombs Away." It tore an 18" - 20" hole in our right wing and knocked out our No. 4 engine. Leo feathered the prop as we watched gas, oil and parts of the wing fly by. Luckily, we did not catch fire. Leo got control of the plane and we headed home.

We then started to loose attitude to about 4,000 - 5,000 feet before leveling off. Soon after, we began to drop once more. The pilots ordered everything out that we didn't need and to watch for any Navy Rescue Subs in case we had to ditch.

You never saw a bunch of men move so fast. I don't remember what we tossed but I guess it was anything loose or we pulled out. Finally we leveled off. It was touch and go for the next few hours. We knew that we could never make back to Guam so we prepared to ditch.

The pilots worked like hell to keep "8-Ball" flying and after hours of sweating, nail biting and prayers, Iwo came in sight. We had a little hard and bumpy landing but we were down. When we finally stopped and got out, we counted 156 or 186 (forgot which) holes besides the big one in the wing.

A day later, they sent a plane to pick us up and take home. We were assigned another plane, the 8-Ball II. This one took us another 18 missions without a scratch for a total of 27 missions.

Submitted by Carmine "Campy" Camperlino
CFC Gunner, Crew 8