From: Gernot Hassenpflug

on November 3rd, again on November 7th, and for a thrid time
on November 26th, the training squadron (Type 97 bombers) of the IJAAF
(not the IJNAF) heavy bomber wing at Hamamatsu raided Saipan's B-29
airfields at night and at low level.
In the first attack the 9
aircraft lost 5 of their number after hitting the target, causes
unknown (navigation error probable, but maybe shot down), the
following raids were carried out by the remaining aircraft without
loss. 1200km to Iwo Jima for stopover, then another 1200km from around
8pm to Saipan, descending to low level (10-15m) for the attack and
dropping 'Ta' type bombs (75 bomblets in a large bombcasing) plus
machine gun fire, back to Iwo Jima, refuel and back to Hamamatsu in
the space of one night/two days.

The first raid hit Isely and Kobler Fields. US source (see below) credits one
downed by P-61 and two by AAA. The second raid lost 3 to AAA.
The third raid also involved daylight Japanese attacks involving fighters from
the 252 Kokutai on Iwo Jima and was in retaliation for the first B-29 raid on
Japan out of Saipan on the 24th.
No B-29s, which had begun arriving on Saipan in Oct., were damaged by the
raids.
Later raids continuing to the beginning of 1945 involved not the old Sallys but
Peggys which dropped chaff to mess up radar intercepts.
Source: Craven and Cate AAF in WW2, v.5. (USIA library in Tokyo may have a
copy)

The article I read is written by Mr. Chuu-ichi Jou-no, who was
navigator in one of the bombers and took part in all three raids. To
put it mildly, the training for extreme-low-level long-distance
over-water night-time missions was pretty rough, the missions
themselves scary and they were glad to get home in one piece after
three of these. He writes that one everyone's mind was the issue of
fuel: missing Saipan even by a short margin meant there was no chance
of making it back to Iwo Jima.

I hope you post your translation or excerpts from it. It sounds very
interesting. The daringness of Japanese long-range air operations is always
impressive. They had capabilities (if only in a limited way) that no one else
save the US seems to have had.


Chris Mark