A letter for the Lost: Lt. Richard M. Smith account of crash

At the time of the downing of the Pistol Pakin Mamma on September 11, 1944, Lt. Richard M. Smith was able to bail out from the burning plane.  Approximately 45 minutes later, while floating in the waters off Marcus Island, he was taken prisoner by the Japanese.  I can't honestly say if my great-uncles widow or any of my family ever received a copy of this letter but I'm sure that Lt. Smith certainly mourned the loss of his crew mates, "his brothers".  This letter was graciously provided to me by the Brabender family.  Below is his [Smith] account of the tragedy to the best of his knowledge. 

Written to Rene Brabender's mother on November 6, 1945:

Dear Mrs. Brabender:

["I feel the loss of all my friends on the crew as much as though they were my brothers.  I wish I could offer you some hope and encouragement.  All I can give is my very deepest sympathy."]

Sincerely yours,

Richard M. Smith
2nd Lt., A. C.

"As nearly as I can remember, the following is an accurate account of what happened on the morning of September 11, 1944:

We arrived over Marcus Island at 1035 on the 11th of September and since there was no shipping there, we decided to drop our bombs on the island installations.

Almost at the time of bombs-away, we received practically a direct hit from anti-aircraft fire and started burning immediately.  The worst fire was below and forward of the flight deck.

Sgt. Brodziak, our engineer, left his turret position at once and we tried to put the blaze out with the extinguisher from the flight deck but the thing did not work and by that time we were just a mass of flames in the forward part of the plane.  I had torn off my flak suit, ear-phones and oxygen mask to get to the fire so I do not know if any "bail-out" instructions were given or not.

While I was getting my chute on, both Lt. Dempster and Sgt. Brodziak left the flight deck and I never saw either of them again.  Lt. Chambers, who was flying his first mission as co-pilot never left his seat.  I am certain he was killed instantly.

I ran down the catwalk and stepped out of the left-rear bomb-bay door which was still open.  Just a few seconds later, our bomb-bay gas tank exploded and the plane nosed over and dove straight into the water.  I watched it all the way down and not another man got out.  The whole thing was over from beginning to end in less than two minutes time.

I was in the water about 45 minutes when a landing barge came out from Marcus Island searching for survivors.  I tried to avoid them but they saw me and took me aboard.  They searched the area for an hour or so but no one else was about in the water.  At the island the Japanese told me three had bailed out, but one's parachute did not open and the third man drowned.

I had seen one other chute floating down below and behind mine, but I could not get near him.

I was held on Marcus for a week and then a plane was sent form Japan for me to take me to[Yokohoma (assumed due to blurred print)].  From there I was sent to a prison camp named Ofuna, about 20 miles southwest of the city.  There I was questioned and imprisoned until July 25th of this year (1945).  A group of us were then transferred to Omori prison camp where we were held until liberated on August 29th by Navy and Marine personnel.

The preceding paragraphs are absolutely all I know to tell anyone of what happened and I am absolutely sure I am the only survivor of "Pistol-Pakin Mamma"."