Delmar Stevens

B-29 Pilot

Artwork and Research By;

Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette

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Signed and numbered by the Artist and autographed by Captain Stevens.

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This is my painting of "Battlin' Beauty". Painting size is 2x4 feet.

I met Delmar Stevens at a small air show in Keystone Heights, Florida in February 2009. I told him that I had not worked with a B-29 pilot and asked if he was interested. He said yes.

This is a great photo of Stevens bomber artwork.

This is Stevens and his crew with their B-29, "Superstitious Aloysious". This was his second B-29 he flew over Japan.

Airplane Commander, Delmar Stevens

Delmar Stevens was born in 1920 in Michigan. He graduated form Michigan State University. Before Stevens graduated from college, the United States entered the WWII. Stevens enlisted in the Army Air Corp. After basic training and earning his wings, Delmar was sent to Hobbs, New Mexico for training in the B-17. After completing his training in the B-17 Stevens was one of eleven pilots selected to join the first B-29 group. At this time the B-29 was the most state of art bomber in the war. Not only was the bomber larger than the rest, it was equipped with the latest equipment and technology available at the time.

It was 1943 when Delmar arrived at Pratt Air Field in Kansas which was the home of the 40th Bomb Group. He was assigned to the 25th Squadron which only had one B-29 at the time. His first flight was in that B-29 however during take off one of the engines blew a cylinder and they had to circle the airfield and land. His second flight came later once the squadron received their full complement of bombers. On his second flight his crew was selected to fly to Washington DC and back loaded with the heaviest load the B-29 had ever flown with before. The B-29 had two bombays. Each bombay was loaded with two 600 gallon auxiliary tanks. This added an additional 2400 gallons plus full wing tanks which gave the pilots and crew the felling of how the plane would perform when weighted down in combat. Stevens, flying as co-pilot said that the take off was uneventful and the bomber handled perfectly.

However, by the time they reached Wichita, Kansas, the bombers number four engine lost oil pressure at 6,000 feet. They tried to feather the prop but it would not work. Colonel Wilkinson, the pilot started to turn back to Pratt when the flight engineer informed the pilots that number three engine was now loosing oil pressure. They were able to feather the number three prop as they turned back for the airbase which was about 30 miles away. To this point the pilot had only four hours of flying time in the B-29. Delmar had only flown the pattern around the airbase one time in the Superfortress. "Not much experience between us, Stevens told me as they were flying the new bomber which was over loaded with gasoline. Wilkinson and Stevens agreed that they should jettison the auxiliary fuel tanks. So somewhere over Kansas, four tanks containing 2,400 gallons of gasoline was dropped. At 6 lbs per gallon, this would reduce the landing weight by 14,400 lbs.

As they were heading back to Pratt, Wilkinson and Stevens were going over procedures for landing. The bomber was all electrical operated by six generators. Three of the generators were on the dead engines which made them inoperative. They worried if the remaining generators were able to operate the landing gear and the flaps at the same time. Wilkinson had Stevens lower the landing gear first and hold off on the flaps. This was a wise decision because they were running the risk of either the landing gear or the flaps but not both would work. As a consequence the flaps did not fully lower as the wheels hit the runway. Since the landing speed was faster than normal, both pilot and co-pilot stood on the brakes as they ran off the end of the runway into a snow bank. The right tire had blown and was on fire yet everyone was safe.

Other flights followed until the group was ready for combat. They were then transferred to India. Stevens started his combat tour flying co-pilot with the Squadron Commander. In fact during his first six missions he flew co-pilot with the first three Squadron Commanders flying two missions with each Commander. Col. Wilkinson, Col. Luna, and Col. Kingsberry. All Commanders were experienced pilots with Wilkinson flying combat in B-17's early in the war. Luna was a veteran pilot with American Airlines and Kingsberry had flown with Western Airlines. Stevens told me that all three were different types of personalities but they were all excellent pilots.

Once in India, in order to carry out the first mission against the Japanese mainland; the Group had to fly their bombs and gasoline over the Hymalia Mountains to their forward bases in China. Later C-47’s and other cargo aircraft would take up the burden after the bomb group settled in. Stevens flew two missions over Manchuria hitting steel mills and other related military industrial targets. Two of Stevens's missions were over Formosa hitting ammunition depots. He was also on the first B-29 raid over Japan.

Replacement crews were already filtering into the squadrons. They were replacing crews that had been lost in combat or accidents.  Seriously injured personal were sent back to the States. Some crew members were sent back to train new crews. New pilots were first sent on missions as co-pilots with an experienced pilot and crew before they got their own bomber. The crew the co-pilot had trained with in the States will join him as soon as he qualifies for his own Superfortress. The pilot and crew were trained together but the pilot had to gain experience first and then he would be assigned a bomber manned by his crew.

Unfortunately one of the new pilots was shot down on a mission over Rangoon, Burma so his crew was assigned to Stevens who was still a co-pilot and was at this point only a Second Lieutenant. He received a rapid promotion to First Lieutenant yet he had the dubious distinction of being the lowest ranked Airplane Commander of the 40th Bomb Group even though it was a very brief period of time.

Stevens said that he was fortunate because the crew he inherited were well trained and worked together as a team. Together they flew thirty missions all over South East Asia with many missions over Japan. Stevens said that during his many missions he had a lot of close calls but none where he was injured and the bomber badly mauled. I asked him if his close calls were with enemy aircraft, anti-aircraft fire, or aircraft malfunctions. He said some of each.

I asked him to describe one aerial combat encounter. The Japanese figured out that attacking the rear of the B-29 was suicidal so they would attack head on. During one mission as Stevens was concentrating on his bomb run over the Japanese Naval base, Kure, when a twin engine fighter attacked his bomber head on. With both aircraft racing towards each other the rate of closure was quick. At first Stevens was sure that the Japanese was going to forfeit his life and collide with his B-29. With Stevens sitting in the front row seat he admitted he was anxious when at the last moment the twin engine fighter swerved sharply to the left and tore off the wing of a B-29 next to him sending the bomber and crew down. The Japanese twin-engine fighter did damage the right aileron of Stevens bomber but not enough to hinder the flying capabilities of the bomber.

On two missions after attacking Japan he had to land at Iwo Jima. One time Stevens did not have enough gasoline to get back to his base on Tinian. The other landing was to pick up a crew that had their B-29 shot up over the target and could not return. On one return trip he had to fly in bad weather all the way. The Navigator had to navigate using dead reckoning only. Before they broke out of the weather the flight engineer informed Stevens that we had about 45 minutes of gas left. Stevens informed the crew to stand by with their parachutes for a possible bail out. Ten minutes later Stevens got a break in the weather and spotted lights ahead. The lights were from his base on Tinian. With little gas left Stevens radioed in and requested a straight in landing. Stevens landed safely but upon checking the gas tanks there was only enough gas left to wet the end of a stick. If Stevens had to fly any further it would have been too far.

Mid-air collisions were common during large bombing missions. Stevens recounted two episodes for me that were way to close for comfort. On one mission over Japanese held Saigon, Stevens and the formation of B-29’s found themselves flying into inclement weather. They decided to approach the target in single file one at a time. As Stevens was leaving the target another B-29 drifted right across his bombers path slightly above him. Stevens said that the other bomber was close enough to reach out and touch. Weather it was a few feet or a few meters Stevens was lucky to have avoided a mid-air collision.

During another mission the group had to fly into heavy anti-aircraft fire in a twelve plane formation. After the lead bomber dropped his bombs he would usually bank away in a slow shallow turn for all the other bombers to be able to follow while in formation. However the lead bomber unexpectedly banked away too sharply banking up on his wing, flying right through the entire group narrowly missing every bomber. Surely the miss-hap was a miscalculation on behalf of the bomber pilot. Yet acts like these would bring down quite a few Superfortresses during a mission.

The first raid on Japan since the Doolittle raid was on Yawata. Stevens was on that raid as well as a raid on Nagasaki before the city was hit with the second atomic bomb. On one mission over Kobe, Japan the group was on a fire-bombing mission with Stevens flying one of the last bombers in the group. As they approached the burning city a thermal heat blast hit their bomber causing the bomber to drop unexpectedly at least five-thousand feet. The thermal also caused the airspeed indicator to register a severe drop in airspeed which made Stevens feel that for the first he had lost control of the bomber.

After flying over the burning city Stevens had his crew check the bomber over inside and out as best they could to see if the aircraft suffered any damage from the extreme wind-sheer. They found no popped rivets or buckling in the wings or fuselage proving that the B-29 was truly a sturdy aircraft.

Stevens flew a total of thirty-six missions. The first twenty missions were flown out of their airbase in India. These missions lasted thirteen to fifteen hours in the air. Once his group was stationed at Tinian most all their air-time was over water.

Stevens’s last mission was on July 4, 1945. As Stevens flew his last missions out of Tinian, the B-29 group that was commanded by Paul Tibbets was arriving for their up-coming historic flight. Stevens said that there were plenty of rumors running around about the secret mission Tibbets squadron was up-to, yet no one really knew until the first atomic bombs were dropped.

When his tour ended his commanding officer asked if he wanted to stay and serve on his staff but Stevens had a baby daughter that he had not seen yet so he requested leave back to the States. Once the war was over Stevens elected to be discharged from the Army Air Force but stayed in the reserves. Later when the Korean War started the Air Force was calling back B-29 pilots to service. Fortunately Stevens had also received an opportunity to leave the reserves. He completed the proper paper-work which relieved him form flying what would be dangerous missions against North Korean targets.

During his service Stevens earned the Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross with 4 Battle Stars and the Presidential Unit Citation.

This is Delmar autographing the painting of the "Battlin Beauty".

Here is Delmar and the Artist.

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On July 5, 2010 I got a call from Delmar's family. They wanted to let me know that He had passed away the day before.

On July 4, 2010 I spent all day and into the night typing on my first book. I found the experience the most patriotic thing I had ever done. I spent hours and hours reading and writing about the bravest men that ever fought for our country under the most unusual conditions. Delmar served the United States of America with cool-headed assuredness that all American bomber pilot are known for.

This was the day I first met Delmar at a local air show in Keystone Heights, Florida.

Delmar always took his Superfortress and crew to the target and back many times. But he left us on July the Fourth, Two-Thousand and Ten.

Interesting B-29 facts;

In the May 2010 issue of Aviation magazine, they had an article about a B-29 pilot named, First Lieutenant O. Dann DeWitt. Dann as you can imagine experienced all the same hardships that all the other B-29 Groups faced when they were sent to bomb Japan. It was a great article but what caught my eye was some incredible statistics. Lt. DeWitt mentioned that his Group, the 504th lost 26 B-29's to combat and four to operational failures. He continued with a staggering series of numbers that I need to check. He claims that "nearly" 500 B-29's were lost by all groups in the Pacific. This represents the loss of 5,000 airmen. Fewer than 200 of the 5,000 airmen survived.

That is incredible. This fairly much says that if your B-29 was shot down, you could pretty much kiss it all good-bye. However, each man held his own conviction that "it wouldn't happen to him." How stout the heart can be when the need arises.

I would like to add that I do not doubt the statistics but I do want to see this referenced in another book. The consequences are astounding. I was wondering why the Japanese did not make a better account of themselves, and apparently they did. The Japanese did a great job of defending their island as best they could. The Japanese were simply overwhelmed by our numbers as were the Germans. But the size of the Superfortress was overwhelming to the Japanese fighter pilots. Huge beautiful silver super-bombers. A Luftwaffe pilot in a small Messerschmitt 109 would have though that the B-29 was insurmountable as well.

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All research, writings and artwork are by Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette.

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Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette

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Posted March 22, 2009

Counter Added on July 22, 2011