The following is an excerpt from our War Diary:

Mission Summary:

Twelve B-24s were assigned to this mission; eleven on strike over the target, and one as a navigation plane to lead the formation of P-47 fighter escorts to and from the target. One plane was forced to turn back due to malfunction of the turbo-supercharger sixty miles south east of the target. The remaining ten planes were over the the target at 1131, dropping 60x500 lb. bombs from 18,000 to 19,000 feet with 90% hits in target. One plane was forced to salvo bombs but hit on land near the target area. No damage to enemy installations was observed. The formation was intercepted by six to eight ZEKES directly over the target, twenty phosphorous bombs were dropped, none exploding close enough to cause any damage. These fighters immediately began shooting passes concentrating on the 392nd formation. About ten passes were made all very aggressively pressed some as close as 100 yards. One fighter made a head on attack from 2 o’clock high, all forward firing guns concentrated on this plane which was obviously hit badly when within 200 yards of the formation. This plane instead of breaking off the pass continued and careened to the right and down, out of control, and rammed the B-24 #557, “Miss Fit”, piloted by Lt. Barnsley. The entire tail was sheared off just aft of the camera hatch and fell free of the rest of the plane. The fighter disintegrated in the collision. Our B-24 fell out of control and went into a flat spin. It took two and a half minutes to hit the water according to the recorded narrative of an aerial observer, Lt. Witmer, who was giving a word description of the attack on the new wire recorder, an instrument developed by the Air Force for a voice record of a mission and being carried for the first time on this mission. The B-24 exploded when it hit the water. A Jap destroyer or DE? in the vicinity made a dash for the wreckage, and if anyone survived, they were probably taken prisoner, although this does not seem probable. The balance of the formation continued under attack for another ten or fifteen minutes longer. Another fighter was shot down by Sgt. McIntyre, nose gunner on A/P #838 - Flown by Lt. Smisson. The P-47 escort was sighted at about 0245Z, about fifteen minutes after leaving the target. Most of the enemy interceptors were gone or leaving; however a flight of P-47s shot down one T/B NICK in sight of our formation. Of the twenty P-47s, only eight were able to get into position to attack. The Attempt at best was only partially successful, but may tend to keep the ZEKES a little more worried about our bomber formations in the future.

Saddened by the loss of Lt. Barnsley and his crew, and confused by many orders and change of orders made necessary by the tense situation in the Philippines , and the ensuing naval engagement in the waters surrounding Leyte and the Samar Islands, the last ten days of the month seemed almost an anti-climax to those long minutes over Iwo Jima on the 21st.

……………….

2nd Lt. Robert L. Barnsley