WWII US Air Force Bomber Reports, Japan, 1945 [WWII Pacific Theater]

Very Good. Set of 34 typed bomber mission reports from WWII. Reports are dated from January 14th - July 24th, 1945. 32pp. Leaves measure 8 ½" x 13"; content on recto only. A few instances of marginalia from author. Includes missions 2 thru 35; missing mission 1. Reports include mission number and name, date, aircraft name, crew, target, and mission results. Missions 2 and 19 have squad formation diagrams. Overall very good. Moderate creasing and minor chipping to one leaf, others have light creasing or are in fine condition.These mission reports were written by an officer of the B-29 "Texas Doll." The "Texas Doll" was part of the 497th Bombardment Group and Twentieth Air Force during WWII. The 497th flew the Boeing B-29 Superfortress and were engaged in very heavy bombardment operations against Japan. They flew from 1943 to 1946, and were stationed at Isley Airfield, Saipan, Mariana Islands, from September 1944 to November 1945. The mission reports also includes other aircraft including "Peace on Earth," "Empire Express" and "Thumper", flown by the crew when "Texas Doll" was in for repairs. The "Texas Doll" crew targeted locations such as Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe, Ota, Tokyo, Nagoya, Sasebo, Kumumoto, Kochi, Asakai, Ishinamya, Oita, Hitachi, Kuoamo, Kawasaki, Kure and others. Bombing missions were frequent and targeted Japanese arsenals, engine yards, fueling stations, aircraft plants, agricultural and industrial centers, and naval bases. Members of the crew are mentioned frequently in the reports. Mission details are enthralling. Some of note include mentions of the Battle of Iwo Jima: Mission 7 dated to February 19th, 1945 reads "The Marines landed at Iwo Jima today" and Mission 14, March 27th, 1945 mentions it again, "We assembled at Iwo. It seemed impossible that so many men had been killed on such a small island only a few weeks ago…" Mission 13, March 25, 1945 mentions nose art: "This is supposed to be our last trip in the Doll with her picture still on the side. That is orders from some damn fool brass hat. All the pictures are supposed to come off. Every one hates to see that happen. This was our tenth trip in the Texas Doll." An example of a report reads: "Mission #9 'on the deck', March 10, 1945, Texas Doll/Crew: Just nine men. Gray and Grote stayed home on the flip of a coin. We carried no ammo on this night raid/Target: Tokyo Industrial Area-We carried 40 M-18 incendiaries - 350#. 34 were released, six hung up/Mission Results: It was honey. Bisanz wished he had a fiddle along…Tokyo was hidden by a huge column of black smoke, so that we thought fires to the north might be the target. Julin and LaPlante did a good job on radar and we got the target right on the money. We were lucky - we went through the whole run without searchlights or flak near us…Bisanz looked down and saw medium sized factory burning fiercely…15 square miles of Tokyo were burned out." These first person mission reports provide insight to the experience as a bomber pilot in WWII. .