https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32036239/merritt-eugene-bolner

Deployed to the Central Pacific Theatre of Operations and was assigned to 20th Air Force, XXI Bomber Command, 73rd Bomb Wing, 499th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), 878th Bomber Squadron stationed at Isely Field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands.

Tail Gunner: 35882933Merritt E Bolner Sgt KY 13-3-1945 B-29 #42-24754 V-SQ-30

Sgt Merritt Eugene “Gene” Bolner (1925-1945) - Find a Grave Memorial

KIA: on 13 March 1945, he flew as an Aerial Gunner in the tail section aboard a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, (serial #42-24754) tail code V-Square-30.

MACR 13017

(XXI BC Mission 42) During the night of 13-14 March 1945, shortly after 2400 hours local, 274 of 301 XXI Bomber Command B-29 Superforts dispatched attack Osaka with incendiary bombs at altitudes between 5,000ft and 9,600ft. Because of 8/10 cloud cover over the target area, bombing is by RADAR. An area of 8.1 square miles in the heart of the city is burned-out. V-SQ-30 is one of two B-29 bombers lost.

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 9-10 March 1945, a total of 334 B-29 bombers took off for Operation MEETINGHOUSE to fire-bomb Tokyo. Fifteen square miles of the Tokyo urban area are burned out; an estimated 83,793 Japanese are killed and 40,918 wounded.