Aus dem Tagebuch von Captain Stanley H. Samuelson der US Army Air Force. Samuelson hatte seit 1941 50 Einsätze in Europa als Pilot von Kampfbombern hinter sich - zweimal mehr, als man normalerweise brauchte, um aus dem aktiven Dienst auszuscheiden - und meldete sich dann wieder, um im Pazifik als Pilot einer B-29 Stratofortress gegen die Japaner zu kämpfen.

Um den 15. Februar 1945 herum schrieb er:

The raid in which we went on, February 10, 1945, was in many ways a success, however, we suffered our greatest loss. Twelve Superforts failed to return out of both Wings that took part in the mission. Good old T. K. McGuire went down. He was flying in our formation and we saw him peal off and head for home just before we hit the target. A fighter got a lucky hit for one engine was smoking. Someone reported seeing three fighters on his tail but thought he had the ship under control. That was the last we ever saw or heard from them. So far our own squadron has lost four crews, or rather three and one-half crews, for half of Bricker's crew was picked up out of the Pacific.

It is so very hard living under these circumstances. It's humanly impossible to get used to seeing your buddies go down all the time so most of us try to ignore the fact.

Every day I get to hate this stinking rotten war more. The thought of a beautiful $600,000.00 silver bomber piling up on the runway is cast off with the snap of a finger so long as everyone comes out alive. It's funny in a way-we don't pray that everyone comes out OK - all we ask is that they come out alive.

Samuelson starb am 19. Februar 1945, als seine Maschine über Tokio abgeschossen wurde. Am 14. August 1945 kapitulierte Japan.