Kansan was aboard B-29 for last mission of World War II

Marvin Martin remembers exactly what he was doing the moment it was announced 71 years ago that Japan had surrendered.

He was on board a B-29 flying back from the last mission of the war.

Martin wrote in his journal on Aug. 14-15, 1945: “Tonight is the nite. We go on the longest bombing range ever conceived by man. Nearly 4,000 miles non stop carrying 52 250# bombs and only 6785 gals of gas.”

Now 90, Martin thinks he is one of a handful of surviving B-29 crew members still living in Kansas.

A retired lawyer, he speaks often about his wartime experiences to the public. He will do so again Saturday at Eastminster Presbyterian Church, 1958 N. Webb Road.

After the war, Martin attended the University of Kansas and graduated from the KU Law School in 1951. He practiced law in Wichita for more than four decades.

He said the war changed a generation, including him.

“We slept in unison, marched in unison, ate in unison, showered in unison, wore uniform clothing, and learned to follow orders,” he wrote in an account for his grandchildren. “Neatness and personal hygiene were not merely suggested but demanded.

“One lesson for me to understand was that I needed to learn to follow before I was equipped to lead my family or others. I needed to know what it was like to take orders before I issued them to others.”

War comes

Martin, a 1943 graduate of East High School, was 20 when the war ended.

The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 – when Martin was 16. He knew he wanted to be a pilot.

Martin joined the Army Air Corps at age 18. Test scores indicated he should be a navigator.

That was his role in 1945 when he became part of the last mission, which included approximately 130 planes.

Secret mission

Martin flew with the 411th Bomb Squadron out of Guam, which was part of the 315th Bomb Wing of the 20th Air Force. The planes were equipped with secret radar equipment that was used in conjunction with navigation and bombing.

The final raid’s mission was to bomb the Nippon Oil Company Refinery at Akita, Japan.

“Planes left every minute,” Martin wrote in his diary. “Sometimes we would watch as one took off, dropped out of sight to gain speed, and after several anxious moments, come back into view miles out at sea. If the pilot misjudged, they went over the cliff and crashed.”

Although the U.S. had already dropped two atomic bombs on Japan a few days earlier – Aug. 6 on Hiroshima and Aug. 9 on Nagasaki – some Japanese troops were still hoping to continue the war.

“What we didn’t know – at least I didn’t know – was that on the ground, some of the Japanese were trying to stage a coup to keep the war going on,” Martin said. “What happened is that they had surrounded (Japanese Emperor) Hirohito’s palace. When we flew over Tokyo, the Japanese feared another atomic bomb, so they were in blackout. The coup was interrupted by our mission.”

The B-29s were painted black on their undersides. The planes were stripped down with only tail guns on board.

Just getting the planes in the air proved problematic, Martin said.

“Trying to get off the ground with a full bomb load and maximum fuel for a 3,000- to 4,000-mile flight was a challenge,” Martin said. “Our runway ended abruptly with a several hundred-foot cliff that dropped down to the ocean. There was a ‘point of no return’ on the runway where the pilot must either cut the engines and abort the mission or totally commit to the flight.”

‘What a party’

On the return flight of several hundred miles to Guam, the B-29 crews learned the war was over.

“We really ‘sweat it out,’ too,” Martin wrote in his diary. “1, 2 & 3 were all backfiring and we didn’t know if our gas would last or not.”

His reference to “1, 2 & 3” was the B-29 engines.

The 316th Bomb Wing would later receive a Presidential Unit Citation for its work in the bombing of Japan.

The citation reads: “This mission of 3,740 statute miles was flown non-stop without bomb bay tanks. Despite the great distance, this group carried a bomb load which had previously been considered large for missions of shorter range. Braving the dangers of a long overwater flight without the protection of friendly fighters, the aircrews attacked the target and left it a smoking ruin.”

At the end of his final combat flight, Martin wrote in his diary: “When we arrived (back at Guam) they told us there would be a party – AND WHAT A PARTY! Never has there been such a party. Ha-ha.”

This story was originally published August 8, 2016 at 9:53 AM with the headline "Kansan was aboard B-29 for last mission of World War II."