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SMSgt James E. Franklin
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Bong, Richard Ira, Maj.
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Contact Info
Home Town Superior
Last Address North Hollywood, CA
Date of Passing Aug 06, 1945
Location of Interment Poplar Cemetery - Poplar, Douglas Co., Wisconsin
Wall/Plot Coordinates Plat I, Block 8, Lot 10, Grave 2
World War II Medal of Honor Recipient. He received the award from General Douglas MacArthur in December 8, 1944, for his actions as a major in the 49th Fighter Group of the US Army Air Corps. He was one of the most decorated American fighter pilots and the country's top flying ace in the war, credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft. His father was a Swedish immigrant and he grew up on a farm. After high school, he attended Superior State Teachers College (now the University of Wisconsin-Superior) and enrolled in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, and also took private flying lessons.
In May 1941, he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant the following year. Following several stateside assignments, he was assigned to the 9th Fighter Squadron at Darwin, Australia flying P-40 Warhawk aircraft. He was then temporarily reassigned to fly missions and gain combat experience with the 39th Fighter Squadron, 35th Fighter group based in Port Moresby, New Guinea, and was credited with shooting down two Japanese aircraft during the Battle of Buna-Gona. Following his promotion to the rank of 1st lieutenant, on July 26, 1943, he shot down four Japanese aircraft and was soon promoted to the rank of captain. On January 26, 1944, he shot down his 26th and 27th Japanese aircraft, which surpassed the American record of 26 set by Eddie Rickenbacker during World War I, and was promoted to the rank of major.
After returning to the US to promote a bond drive, he returned to New Guinea in September 1944. By the following December, he had increased his enemy aircraft kills to 40 while participating in the Philippine Campaign.
In January 1945, he returned to the US and soon became a test pilot for P-80 Shooting Star jet fighters at Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank, California. On August 6, 1945, while preparing for a test flight, his aircraft crashed on takeoff due to either pilot error or engine malfunction, and he died at the age of 24.
In addition to the Medal of Honor, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star (with one oak leaf cluster), the Distinguished Flying Cross (with six oak leaf clusters), the Air Medal (with two silver stars and two Bronze oak leaf clusters), the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asian-Pacific Campaign Medal (with one Silver star), the World War II Victory Medal, and the Philippine Liberation Medal (with one bronze star).
In 1986, he was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame and has several commemorative monuments named in his honor around the world.
His Medal of Honor citation reads: "For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty in the Southwest Pacific area from October 10, to November 15, 1944. However, assigned to duty as a gunnery instructor and neither required nor expected to perform combat duty, Maj. Bong voluntarily and at his own urgent request, engaged in repeated combat missions, including unusually hazardous sorties over Balikpapan, Borneo, and in the Leyte area of the Philippines. His aggressiveness and daring resulted in his shooting down eight enemy airplanes during this period.
General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 90, December 8, 1944
Action Date: October 10 - November 15, 1944
Service: Army Air Forces
Rank: Major
Regiment: 49th Fighter Group, V Fighter Command
Division: 5th Air Force.
"Major Richard Bong is still the US Army Air Forces/US Air Forces Ace of Aces with 40 Japanese aircraft to his credit. He shot down most of these aircraft flying a Lockheed P-38 Lightning in the South Pacific.
WWII - Pacific Theater of Operations/Air Offensive Campaign Japan (1942-45)
From Month/Year
April / 1942
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Description (Air Offensive Campaign Japan 17 April 1942 to 2 September 1945) The United States strategic bombing of Japan took place between 1942 and 1945. In the last seven months of the campaign, a change to firebombing resulted in great destruction of 67 Japanese cities, as many as 500,000 Japanese deaths and some 5 million more made homeless. Emperor Hirohito's viewing of the destroyed areas of Tokyo in March 1945 is said to have been the beginning of his personal involvement in the peace process, culminating in Japan's surrender five months later.
The first U.S. raid on the Japanese main island was the Doolittle Raid of 18 April 1942, when sixteen B-25 Mitchells were launched from the USS Hornet (CV-8) to attack targets including Yokohama and Tokyo and then fly on to airfields in China. The raids were military pinpricks but a significant propaganda victory. Because they were launched prematurely, none of the aircraft had enough fuel to reach their designated landing sites, and so either crashed or ditched (except for one aircraft, which landed in the Soviet Union, where the crew was interned). Two crews were captured by the Japanese.
The key development for the bombing of Japan was the B-29 Superfortress, which had an operational range of 1,500 miles (2,400 km); almost 90% of the bombs (147,000 tons) dropped on the home islands of Japan were delivered by this bomber. The first raid by B-29s on Japan was on 15 June 1944, from China. The B-29s took off from Chengdu, over 1,500 miles away. This raid was also not particularly effective: only forty-seven of the sixty-eight bombers hit the target area; four aborted with mechanical problems, four crashed, six jettisoned their bombs because of mechanical difficulties, and others bombed secondary targets or targets of opportunity. Only one B–29 was lost to enemy aircraft. The first raid from east of Japan was on 24 November 1944, when 88 aircraft bombed Tokyo. The bombs were dropped from around 30,000 feet (10,000 m) and it is estimated that only around 10% hit their targets.
Raids of Japan from mainland China, called Operation Matterhorn, were carried out by the Twentieth Air Force under XX Bomber Command. Initially the commanding officer of the Twentieth Air Force was Hap Arnold, and later Curtis LeMay. Bombing from Japan from China was never a satisfactory arrangement because not only were the Chinese airbases difficult to supply—materiel being sent by air from India over "the Hump"—but the B-29s operating from them could only reach Japan if they traded some of their bomb load for extra fuel in tanks in the bomb-bays. When Admiral Chester Nimitz's island-hopping campaign captured Pacific islands close enough to Japan to be within the B-29's range, the Twentieth Air Force was assigned to XXI Bomber Command, which organized a much more effective bombing campaign of the Japanese home islands. Based in the Marianas (Guam and Tinian in particular), the B-29s were able to carry their full bomb loads and were supplied by cargo ships and tankers.
Conventional bombs from B-29s destroyed over 40% of the urban area in Japan's six greatest industrial cities
Unlike all other forces in theater, the USAAF Bomber Commands did not report to the commanders of the theaters but directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In July 1945, they were placed under the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, which was commanded by General Carl Spaatz.
As in Europe, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) tried daylight precision bombing. However, it proved to be impossible due to the weather around Japan, "during the best month for bombing in Japan, visual bombing was possible for [just] seven days. The worst had only one good day." Further, bombs dropped from a great height were tossed about by high winds.
General LeMay, commander of XXI Bomber Command, instead switched to mass firebombing night attacks from altitudes of around 7,000 feet (2,100 m) on the major conurbations. "He looked up the size of the large Japanese cities in the World Almanac and picked his targets accordingly." Priority targets were Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. Despite limited early success, particularly against Nagoya, LeMay was determined to use such bombing tactics against the vulnerable Japanese cities. Attacks on strategic targets also continued in lower-level daylight raids.
The first successful firebombing raid was on Kobe on 3 February 1945, and following its relative success the USAAF continued the tactic. Nearly half of the principal factories of the city were damaged, and production was reduced by more than half at one of the port's two shipyards.
Much of the armor and defensive weaponry of the bombers was removed to allow increased bomb loads; Japanese air defense in terms of night-fighters and anti-aircraft guns was so feeble it was hardly a risk. The first raid of this type on Tokyo was on the night of 23–24 February when 174 B-29s destroyed around one square mile (3 km²) of the city. Following on that success, as Operation Meetinghouse, 334 B-29s raided on the night of 9–10 March, dropping around 1,700 tons of bombs. Around 16 square miles (41 km²) of the city was destroyed and over 100,000 people are estimated to have died in the fire storm. The destruction and damage was at its worst in the city sections east of the Imperial Palace. It was the most destructive conventional raid, and the deadliest single bombing raid of any kind in terms of lives lost, in all of military aviation history. The city was made primarily of wood and paper, and Japanese firefighting methods were not up to the challenge. The fires burned out of control, boiling canal water and causing entire blocks of buildings to spontaneously combust from the heat. The effects of the Tokyo firebombing proved the fears expressed by Admiral Yamamoto in 1939: "Japanese cities, being made of wood and paper, would burn very easily. The Army talks big, but if war came and there were large-scale air raids, there's no telling what would happen."[179]
In the following two weeks, there were almost 1,600 further sorties against the four cities, destroying 31 square miles (80 km²) in total at a cost of 22 aircraft. By June, over forty percent of the urban area of Japan's largest six cities (Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, Yokohama, and Kawasaki) was devastated. LeMay's fleet of nearly 600 bombers destroyed tens of smaller cities and manufacturing centres in the following weeks and months.
Leaflets were dropped over cities before they were bombed, warning the inhabitants and urging them to escape the city. Though many, even within the Air Force, viewed this as a form of psychological warfare, a significant element in the decision to produce and drop them was the desire to assuage American anxieties about the extent of the destruction created by this new war tactic. Warning leaflets were also dropped on cities not in fact targeted, to create uncertainty and absenteeism.
