LBG Aerial Gunner: 33766072Elmer Raymond Kerschner, Jr. SSgt PA

CPL Elmer R Kerschner Jr. (1925-1945) - Find A Grave Memorial

LBG: 33766072Elmer R Kerschner, Jr. SSgt PA 7-4-1945 B-29 #42-24600 Z-SQ-47

Left Blister Gunner, Boeing B-29 Superfortress, serial #42-24600, tail code Z-Square-47, nicknamed "Adam's Eve" 883rd Bomber Squadron, 500th Bombardment Group (VH), 73rd Bomb Wing, XXI Bomber Command, 20th Air Force, USAAF at Isely Field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands; Pacific Theatre of Operations.

Excerpt from: The 500th Bomb Group Day By Day – Part 3 - Victory

The King crew (#345A) was a replacement crew with at least six missions to their credit. On 7 April 1945, they were flying "Adam's Eve" on a daylight precision strike on Target #357, the Nakajima Aircraft Engine Plant in Musashino near Tokyo.

A little before bombs away, the King crew in Z-SQ-47 was hit, it was thought by flak. Two gunners in the Clinkscales crew on Z-53, SSgt Donald Chambers in the left blister and TSgt Elmo Glockner in the tail, both saw Z-47 suddenly roll over on her back and head downward in a spin, with all engines apparently still running. Sgt Joe Bischof, tail gunner on Z-49, thought that she might have taken a direct hit on the flight deck. No smoke or flame was observed, and distressingly no parachutes. The gunners had to quickly turn their attention back to the enemy fighters, which continued to swarm, but radio operator SSgt Kenneth Agee in Z-42 was able to look down thru the open bomb bay doors in his plane and follow Z-47 all the way down to the ground, where she exploded upon contact.

After the war, it was discovered from Japanese records that Z-SQ-47 had been the victim of a ramming, by a 'Tony' single-engine Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien, flown by 2/Lt Takashi Kawano of the 244th Sentai. Z-47's sudden roll-over and vertical dive are indicative of catastrophic damage such as might result from a ramming. The B-29 crashed in Kugayama near a primary school, destroying two houses and killing one person on the ground. None of the crew survived, nor did the suicide pilot, 2/Lt Kawano.