Elmer Glenn Hahn : Captain from Idaho, World War II Casualty (honorstates.org)

1Lt. Elmer Glenn Hahn

APC Pilot: O-478847 Elmer G. Hahn Capt CA 27-1-1945 B-29 #42-63423 A-SQ-28

Capt Elmer Glenn Hahn (1919-1945) - Find a Grave Memorial

MACR 11620

On 27 January 1945, he flew as the Airplane Command Pilot aboard a Boeing B-29-15-BA (Bell Atlanta) Super Fortress nicknamed “Were Wolf” tail code A-Square-28 (serial #42-63423).

A-SQ-28 was one of 74 aircraft launched in a multi-group formation to bombard the Nakajima aircraft plant and Musashino aircraft engine factory near Tokyo, Japan. After a flight of approximately six hours and some 1,200 nautical miles, his aircraft reached their check-point above Mount Fuji on the main island of Honshu, and began their bomb-run northeast towards the Tokyo area.

While on the bomb-run, enemy fighter opposition was described as unparalleled in intensity, with 984 passes against the formation. His B-29 aircraft was attacked by an Imperial Japanese Navy twin-engine Nakajima J1N1-S Gekko fighter aircraft (given the Allied reporting name of "Irving"). The ‘Were Wolfe’ was hit in the bomb bay, causing it to explode and break into two pieces. It crashed in the Fujinomiya City area.

Capt. Hahn, Lt. Redinger, and Lt. Edman were captured and subsequently held as POWs in a wooden-tile roofed jail at Shibuya, in the western suburb of Tokyo. They were among 61 other B-29 POWs who died during a large-scale B-29 aircraft fire-bombing raid, which occurred during the night of 25-26 May 1945.

NOTE: When General LeMay took command of XXI Bomber Command, he changed the tactics from high-altitude fragmentation bombing to low-altitude incendiary bombings. During the night of 25-26 May 1945, a total of 464 B-29 bombers took off for a continuation of Operation MEETINGHOUSE to fire-bomb Tokyo.

Elmer G Hahn