2009-07-31

American soldier's dog tag unearthed in Miyazaki


According to today's Miyazaki Nichi-nichi Shimbun, an American soldier's dog tag together with 30 bullets of 20-mm machine gun and 4 incendiary bombs were unearthed from a construction site in the Hyuga city, Miyazaki prefecture, on July 3. They are likely to be remains of B29 crashed at the site 64 years ago. According to the report, the name carved on the surface of the stainless-steel dog tag reads "JULIAN W STEELE".

UPDATE
According to this page in Japanese, all of the crews including Mr. Steele stayed alive after the crash, sent to Tokyo, where they were detained in a camp. All of them could return to the US after the war.

UPDATE 2
You can see a picture of the crews here.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

From:http://www.powresearch.jp/en/pdf_e/pilot/seibu.pdf

Mar. 28, 1945, B-29 (#42-24916, nicknamed Peace Maker, 313BW, 6BG) was afire,and crashed before Fudoji temple in Shote, Tomishima-cho, Higashi-Usuki-gun
(present Hyuga-shi), Miyazaki-ken.
Note Mission No.47 (Target; Kanmon Strait. 102 B-29s sortied from 313BW and 3 were lost)

All 11 crewmembers 1/Lt. William C. GROUNDS (A/C), 2/Lt. Olin W. WILLIAMS, 2/Lt. William J. C. LASILE, 2/Lt. Jack HOBBIE, Sgt. Maj. Neal R. COOPER, S/Sgt. Arvid A. McPHERSON, Sgt. Harold P. PETERSON, Sgt. Mayner B. HANKS, Sgt. Julian W. STEELE, Sgt. Clarence L. PRESSGROVE and Sgt. Warren R. THOMPSON bailed out, and 7 were captured on the same day, 2 on Mar. 29, and 2 on Mar. 30 in Hyuga-shi and Kadokawa-cho. They were sent to Seibu A/D HQ and transferred to General Defense HQ in Tokyo on April 4, whence they returned to the
US after the war.

Note: In Update 2, Crew picture, Sgt Steele is listed as Left Gunner on the crew. 20MM mentioned in original post is associated with the tail gun position on a B-29, not the position Steele would have occupied. Original post also mentions find of incendiary bombs, although the aircraft Sgt Steele flew on this particular mission was "...taking radarscope pictures in preparation for an upcoming mining mission to the Shimonoseki Strait," according to information on the Peace Maker, found via a link at Update 2.