https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120581790/robert-johnson-fitzgerald

APC Pilot: O-403887Robert Johnson Fitzgerald Maj PA 17-3-1945 #42-24849 Z-SQ-8

Class of 1934 Peabody High School in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Graduate of the University of Pittsburgh.

June 1940: Aviation Cadet assigned to Lincoln Airplane and Flying School, Nebraska.

Maxwell Field, Alabama.

Turner Field near Albany, Georgia.

Flight Instructor on B-17 aircraft prior to his entry as an Airplane Commander on the new Boeing B-29 Superfortress aircraft.

7 July 1942: promotion to the rank of Major.

7 Oct 1944: Fitzgerald aircrew assigned Z-Square-8 as one of the original aircrews of the 881st Bomb Squadron at Walker Field near Victoria, Kansas.

17 Oct 1944: Flew Z-SQ-8 to Kearney Field, Nebraska for out-processing staging prior to deployment to the Pacific Theatre of Operations.

4 Nov 1944: Departed Kearney AAF for Mather Field near Sacramento, California via Albuquerque, New Mexico.

10 Nov 1944: Arrived Isely Field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands (after stop-overs in Hawaii and Kwajalein).

MACR 13079

During the night of 16-17 March 1945, he flew as the airplane commander in the left pilot seat aboard Boeing B-29-50-BW (Boeing Wichita) Superfortress serial #42-24849 nicknamed "Mission to Albuquerque" tail code Z-square-8, assigned to the 881st Bomber Squadron, 500th Bombardment Group (VH), 73rd Bomb Wing, XXI Bomber Command, 20th Air Force stationed at Isely Field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands, Pacific Theatre of Operations.

Z-SQ-8 WAS ONE OF 307 B-29 AIRCRAFT DISPATCHED FROM THE XXI BOMBER COMMAND TO BOMBARD THE URBAN AREA OF KOBE, JAPAN.

KIA WHEN Z-SQ-8 WAS UNINTENTIONALLY RAMMED BY Captain Junichi Ogata FLYING A KAWASAKI Ki-61 Hien "Tony" FIGHTER OVER THE TARGET AREA ABOUT TWO MILES NORTH OF KOBE.

B29-#42-24849 | Missing-Air-Crew-Research-Japan-Network (macrj.net)

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.

Robert J. Fitzgerald